2023 Year End Review – Part 1: The Highlights

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The Rebane Exhibit Report

As I reported a few days ago, on Saturday the 22nd, myself, along with Aaron Christensen, Dave Kosanke, and Gavin Schmitt, made the trip up to Merrill, Wisconsin for the Bill Rebane’s Hollywood Midwest: A Retrospective on Wisconsin’s First Feature Film Studio, an exhibit being held at the Merrill Historical Society, put on by Brandon Johnson. Because it opened at 9am and we wanted to be there right when it opened, it meant that I had to leave at 3am, drive into Chicago to pick up Aaron, then head north to pick up Dave, and then meet Gavin at the Museum as close to 9am as we could. We got there at 8:55am. Pretty good planning if I do say so myself!

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A Pilgrimage to Merrill WI, and then Insanity

This weekend, a few friends and I will be making a trip up to Merrill, Wisconsin, which is about a 5–6 hour drive for us. Why, may you ask? Because the Merrill Historical Society there is having a special Bill Rebane exhibit, which Mr. Rebane himself will be attending, possibly along with some other cast and crew from his films.

Bill Rebane, to those that don’t know, is probably most known for his film The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), but he had made quite a few other titles, such as The Alpha Incident, The Demons of Ludlow, Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake, and Blood Harvest, which even starred Tiny Tim. One of the things that set Rebane apart from most directors is that he made most of these films without leaving Wisconsin. In fact, in the town of Gleason, he created his own little film studio, called The Shooting Ranch, where he could film, edit, looping, everything else needed to make a film start to finish. Sure, some of his budgets were pretty low, but that doesn’t mean they are not entertaining.

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Bill Rebane Exhibit

There’s a lot of independent filmmakers out there, even ones that worked for decades, continuingly cranking out feature after feature. But there’s a selected few that went past that and actually created their own functioning movie studio way outside of Hollywood. There were people like Larry Buchanan in Texas or Earl Owensby in North Carolina. Then was Bill Rebane, who created the Shooting Ranch in Gleason, Wisconsin, which was a complete movie studio, from a post-production, recording studios, to even having lodging for the actors to stay, not to mention its own restaurant. This was Rebane’s way of keeping production costs down for his movies, if he could keep all the expenses low by providing them all within the studio. Smart man.

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Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection!

If you would have told me 20 years ago, that filmmakers of the likes of Al Adamson, Andy Milligan, or William Grefé, were going to be getting a special box set of their films, I’d think you’re just plain nuts. But not only do those exist, we now have one coming on Wisconsin’s own Bill Rebane. Probably best known for his epic The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), he was one of these independent filmmakers that stayed away from Hollywood, making his own little version in Gleason, Wisconsin, producing films for over a 20-years. And now, thanks to Arrow Video, you’ll have the chance to witness 6 of these titles on Blu-ray in all new restorations in the Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection!

Now I will say that I have seen most of the films in this collection and while some are fun and entertaining in a low budget sort of way, one of them is barely watchable. In fact, back in the VHS days, I ended up watching it twice, under two different titles before I realized it. That film would be Invasion from Inner Earth, also released under the title simply as They. But you know what? I’ve already pre-ordered my set anyway! Because that is what we do as film fans. It is simply a way to look a little deeper and closer at someone’s work, maybe seeing it a different way. Not to mention there is so much bonus material in this collection that for me, it is simply a must have. Continue reading