City of the macabre

Sure, every city has its sordid past, but Sacramento seems to be a magnet for the strange and macabre. Desperate Visions Productions founder Jason Rudy captures several true, bizarre tales in his latest double feature, Mondo Sacramento and Mondo Sacramento 2, both of which are told via highly campy reenactments in a pseudo-documentary style. The films are available as a set for $20. There are nine stories total, including one about Richard Chase, the so-called “Vampire of Sacramento” for the way he drank his victims' blood, and the tale of Charlene and Gerald Gallego, a serial-killer couple who kidnapped teens and kept them as sex slaves before killing them. Each vignette is chock-full of weird details and filmed in a salacious, B-movie style. www.desperatevisions.com.