Q&A on T&A with the Screenwriters of The Last Exorcism and The Virginity Hit
by Mike McPadden

Writing partners and independent filmmakers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland may seem as unlikely a team as has ever scored mainstream Hollywood success but, remarkably, audiences are enjoying two of their high-profile films on a big screen near you—right this minute!

The team’s relentlessly unnerving, Eli Roth-produced The Last Exorcism (2010) opened in first place at the box office recently and this weekend brings The Virginity Hit (2010), a one-of-a-kind teen sex comedy produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

What makes the Botko-Gurland conquest of the suburban Cineplex so surprising, however, is the dark, dangerous and even deranged milieus from which both emerged.

Botko scandalized film festivals worldwide throughout the late 1990s with his “dessert-umentary” series.

Bearing straight-ahead titles such as Fruitcake, Baked Alaska, Cheesecake, and Graham Cracker Cream Pie, each film depicts Botko unspeakably defiling various confections and then serving them to his despised family members.

Gurland founded the New York Underground Film Festival, produced the Al Goldstein/Screw magazine documentary Screwed (1996), and, along with Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover), created Frathouse (1998), an up-close look at savage hazing rituals for HBO that never aired due to legal concerns (Gurland is proud that the movie is available now only through outlaw resources).

Together, Botko and Gurland made the barbarically vicious short comedies Julie, Broken Condom and (Mr. Skin's favorite) Gramaglia, before writing and directing the terrifically uncomfortable feature Mail Order Wife (2004).

Botko and Gurland talked to Mr. Skin about sex, nudity, horror, comedy and what happens next.

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MR. SKIN: What was the first movie nude scene you remember seeing?

HUCK BOTKO: Some movie on HBO when I was in second grade. No idea what it was but there was full frontal and I remember overhearing another kid at school the next day who had seen the same movie telling everyone how you could see this woman's bush - but he would just call it her "front" because the crude adjectives hadn't entered our vocabulary yet.

ANDREW GURLAND: My dad likes to get to movies early and watch whatever else is playing at the theater until his movie starts.

When I was six, we walked into a scene that featured a guy with a ’70s mustache wearing jeans and no shirt painting a den with his girlfriend who was also wearing jeans with no shirt.

It freaked me out but is still an erotic image I hold on to. I also remember the Belushi peeping tom scene from Animal House as one of my first.

Click "MORE" to read the full Skinterview.

By Mike McPadden

Here at Skin Central, seasons come and go like so many DVDs across our desks--and, subsequently, Kleenexes in our wastebaskets.

Narrowing the releases of the last 12 months to just 25 "favorites", in fact, proved a challenge. But we're up to handling hard parts in these jobs--I mean, handling hard jobs in these parts.

Our only ground rule was that the film in question on a given DVD did not have a theatrical release in 2006. Our tribute to the finest skin-chievements on the big screen--as well as the boob tube--is coming up in the weeks ahead, and no measly charge of "lewd behavior in public" is going to keep us from weighing in on this in full.

Without further ado, then, here are our picks, in alphabetical order, for our 25 Favorite DVDs for nudity and sex--a.k.a. "the good parts"--that were released in 2006.