Filmed at the exact moment when carnival sideshows collided with the psychedelic revolution, The Exotic Ones is a time machine back to the weird and wild underbelly of New Orleans circa 1968. Made shortly before its director, Ron Ormond, found God in a fiery plane crash, this monster movie wrapped in a burlesque showcase features such unforgettable oddities as Cajun mobsters, giant novelty harmonicas, a fire-eating stripper, and a monstrous “Swamp Thang” that beats a man to death with his own arm! Also known as The Monster and the Stripper, it’s a sleazy hunk of late-’60s regional horror that blends Russ Meyer with Herschell Gordon Lewis down in the swamps of Louisiana. 

Plays in a double feature with Please Don’t Touch Me! (1963), a kitschy example of true old-school exploitation that puts a lab coat on its prurient interests and calls them educational. A young housewife suffering from “frigidity” visits a psychiatrist, who uncovers a trauma deep in her past and cures her using the twin powers of hypnotism and condescension.

'King of the Crazy Biographers' Jimmy McDonough (author of definitive works on Andy Milligan, Al Green, Russ Meyer, Neil Young and Tammy Wynette) will appear in person for essential context on the Ormond family and their Nashville-based exploitation empire. McDonough will also be selling his new biography of the Ormonds, The Exotic Ones, at a discounted price. 

Both The Exotic Ones and Please Don't Touch Me! will be screened from new 2k scans presented by Nicolas Winding Refn/byNWR. Restorations by Cinema Preservation Alliance/Peter Conheim.

Content note: Please Don’t Touch Me! contains scenes of sexual assault.