Riverside Drive-In Super Monster-Rama September 20 and 21

People of my generation (cue sad lullaby music) often reminisce about our childhood days of going to the Drive-In theaters with our families. Happily, most of us are aware that those delightful outdoor movie palaces still exist in the 21st century even if we often have to travel a fair distance for the experience. One of the occasional topics of conversation among my friends is the dream of a personally selected group of beloved drive-in classics to be a triple feature in the here & now. Of course, none of us own a theater or have been able to talk any of the local theater owners into doing such a thing. But, it would appear that in Pennsylvania there does exist someone capable of pulling off this amazing idea! For the past several years I've taken note of this event in Riverside, PA and wished I lived closer. Much closer! And this year I really wish I lived closer. Check out this press release for the event -

  

The 13th Annual Drive-In Super Monster-Rama will take place at the Riverside Drive In on Friday, September 20 and Saturday, September 21! It's a weekend of classic Spanish horror from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, including 35mm prints and the NEW 4K restoration of THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE, courtesy of Synapse Films. Friday night's titles are: FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR, COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE, VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY and THE DRACULA SAGA. Saturday's titles are THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE (aka DON'T OPEN THE WINDOW, LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE), NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS, THE CRAVING (aka NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF and GRAVEYARD OF HORROR.

  

Now - leaving aside the fact that putting GRAVEYARD OF HORROR at the end of the night means that everyone will be asleep in their cars before the final credits roll, this is one incredible lineup! In fact, it is dangerously close to one of my dream lineups for a fantasy weekend of classic Spanish Horror on the big screen. Three Paul Naschy films with bonus Klimovsky horror and one Blind Dead movie plus the best European zombie film of all time! What a lineup - minus GRAVEYARD OF HORROR of course, but that's obvious! I'm not sure how the folks that organize this yearly weekend of joy were able to pull together such a fantastic set of great movies from the Golden Age of Spanish Horror but they are to be praised. What a weekend! If you live anywhere in the area I recommend going. And if you want to experience these amazing movies on the big screen makes your travel plans now. Who knows when such an opportunity will present itself again? Just be careful with the drive-in food - too much will make you drowsy. Don't want to miss the show! 

SHOW LINK 

Reclining Theater Seats - Not The Best Idea Ever!

For a long time now I've been curious about a certain type of Theater that had yet to come to Nashville. You know the kind - they have large, plush reclining seats. I read about this advanced level of theatrical comfort and knew that eventually we'd get something like it, if we were lucky. Sounded like a dream come true! Maybe they would deliver beer to me during the preview trailers as well.

Well, without me realizing it, those types of theaters had finally sprung up in my town but I only wish I'd known about it beforehand.

My girlfriend and I were going to see the Pacific Rim sequel (which, by the way, turned out to be much better than it had any right to be). Because of a previous appointment we ended up going to a theater that's usually a little out of our way and not one that we attend frequently. While buying our tickets we were confronted with the fact that we had to choose our seats. We'd been confused because a couple right in front of us trying to purchase tickets to another movie had left without going inside. We quickly discerned why. For the screening of the movie we wanted  to see there were only two seats still available that were actually right next to each other. All other seats in the theater were singles meaning that we were the last couple in attendance that could sit together. If we had been unable to get seats right next to each other my anger would have been off the charts and I doubt we would have gone to see the film. Even without that barring our rare chance to go to the movies I was still peeved that things could be so poorly managed as to turn away customers in such a stupid way. After buying our tickets and realizing just how irritating I expected this experience was going to be we proceeded into the cinema and learned very quickly that it was only the first problem we would encounter.

One of the larger problems with going out to see movies is that you have to do so in a room with a bunch of strangers. Ordinarily this isn't a big deal but on occasion you end up accidentally seated near idiots. In general I'll inform overly talkative folks that they are not in their living rooms and no one else cares about what they have to say. That approach works fine with most simpleminded dimwits but not always. In such cases you have to get up and move away from the brain-dead word vomiting dolt. You see where this is going, don't you?  

Yes - Problem number two with this new type of theater seating is that if you end up seated next to babbling morons you cannot simply get up and move to another seat. You have bought one particular seat and one particular seat only. In most cases - as in ours - there are no other seats to move to. You are screwed! You're going to sit next to that chattering dullard or whining child or clueless cretin for the entire film. Period. So, I had to endure sitting next to a dunce who had to give me and all around her an intermittent recap of the action onscreen. So my enjoyment of the film was sporadically disrupted by such trenchant exclamations as "Oh! Look at that! He slid in there!" or "He ain't going in there!" or "He's the bad guy!!"  There is not a room in Hell hot enough for this level of transgression.

Needless to say, I spent the entire running time of the film trying to suppress my desire to strangle this moronic chair barnacle. That I am not in jail currently speaks volumes about my strength of will. Or my fear of prison.

To sum up - I'm not sure I'm going to enjoy the move toward fewer but more comfortable seats in theaters. The downsides are many more than I had anticipated and the intelligence level of movie going crowds show no sign of improving. I'll have to be much more choosy in the future and, although I'm sad to say it, there are places I will no longer patronize. I have to be able to move far enough away from the idiots to enjoy the film. Time to go back to the Drive-In! 

A Public Service Announcement from The Muppets!

What a cool find! This is the 1996 Sesame Street policy trailer made for Sony/Loews movie theaters. Down here in Tennessee we never get such amazing PSAs in our theaters. 

Live NaschyCast at Black Raven Emporium!

In a strange but wonderful turn of events (and I do mean Events) your humble Podcasters are going to be conducting a public Naschy related gig! The proprietors of Nashville's coolest lounge and hippest theater - Logue's Black Raven Emporium - have asked Troy and I to host two nights of screenings in their Cult Fiction Underground film series. Friday January 25th we will introduce HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB to a stunned Southern crowd and on Saturday the 26th we will do the honors for NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF. We couldn't be more excited to be bringing these two Spanish Horror classics to unsuspecting Nashville film fans and we hope to sell the place out. We plan to present a little information about the movies each night and maybe even take questions after the screenings to encourage the curious to explore this corner of Euro-Trash a bit more.

If you live in the Middle Tennessee area or can get to Nashville on one of these nights we'd be glad to have you join us for either film. Black Raven serves beer so we promise it will be interesting to be hanging out with the hosts of the NaschyCast while admiring one of Paul Naschy's best movies. A good time should be had by all! 

What I Watched In June

I spent a lot of time this past month reading books and comics so fewer movies got watched. It helps that TV is in the summer doldrums and the movies being offered in cinemas are less than appealing - for the most part. SPLICE is a nice, nasty bit of science fiction/horror that audiences are ignoring to go see another Shrek film or a TV remake or yet another video game made celluloid. Pearls before swine, I suppose. Not that SPLICE is an easy film for a mass audience to like. It works hard to unnerve people with a fairly misogynistic angle to the story and a willingness to press hardwired Puritanical buttons some don’t seem to realize are still lurking in their psyches. I’ve been enjoying watching women try to figure out why they are responding so negatively – when they can manage to examine the ideas the movie tosses around, anyway. It dovetailed strangely with my $1.50 theater viewing of Atom Egoyan’s strong film CHLOE but I won’t ruin anything more about that fine drama. And Roman Polanski’s absorbing Hitchcockian thriller THE GHOST WRITER proved that the art of classic, slow-build suspense filmmaking is not dead.

On the comic book front I’ve started working my way through the excellent Robert Kirkman scripted 'The Walking Dead'. I’ve had the first four volumes in trade paperback sitting on the shelf for a couple of years and the news that AMC is in production on a 6 episode first television season made me finally start reading them. I have to say the series is just as good as I’d heard and I’m loving every zombie packed, depressing page. I’m up to volume 9 and if the library will hurry up I’ll read the next two books next week. Also, currently I’m scratching an itch to read some older (groovy age) science fiction by checking out author Edmund Cooper's work. A cheap copy of one of his 60s era paperbacks landed in my lap and I’m enjoying the hell out it.

Oh! And I checked MIGHTY JOE YOUNG off my ‘ashamed to have never seen’ list. Good movie!

WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (1974)- 7 (Solid Italian crime film)
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 (1988) – 4 (sad sequel)
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5 (1989) – 3 (geez!)
THE LAST CHASE (1981) – 4 (sloppy and silly but it was fun as a nostalgia piece)
THE GHOST WRITER (2010)- 8 (excellent old fashioned thriller- Polanski’s last?)
CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962)- 7 (rewatch)
SPLICE (2009)- 8 (great sci-fi thriller/Frankenstein variant)
DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLFMAN (1972) – 7 (rewatch)
FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE (1991)- 2 (and I thought Part 2 was bad!)
NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD (2008)- 9 (rewatch)
APOCALYPTO (2006)- 8 (Gibson understands action)
SNAPSHOT (1979)- 5 (not bad/not good Aussie ‘thriller’)
BLASTFIGHTER (1984)- 7 (backwoods action film by Baby Bava)
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)- 7
PASTEL DE SANGRE (1971)- 6 (arty, low budget horror anthology from Spain)
HOSTEL PART 2 (2007)- 3 (Eli Roth cannot make a good film)
DEATH PROOF (2007)- 7 (QT’s weakest but I still get a kick out it)
CHLOE (2009)- 8 (sexual drama with a strong cast)
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (2009) – 6 (the missing bits hamper Gilliam’s fantasy but what’s there is good)
THE HIT (1984) – 7 (British gangsters played by great actors)
KING OF KONG ISLAND (1968)- 4 (terrible but fun jungle girl/mad scientist adventure story)
NEXT OF KIN (1982)- 7 (very good Australian mystery thriller)
BLOOD AND ROSES (1960)- 7 (rewatch)
IRON MAN 2 (2010) – 7 (rewatch) (took a buddy)
DINNER WITH A VAMPIRE (1988)- 3 (terrible Lamberto but there are things to enjoy)
FUTURAMA: BEAST WITH A BILLION BACKS (2008) – 7
HAWK OF CASTILE (1965)- 4 (silly, sloppy Spanish swashbuckler)

Newspaper ads from days of old.....

In this sad summer of crappy films I'd kill for a time machine trip to either of these.

Horror movie marathons

(click to embiggen)
Back in the 1990s (feeling old now) each October I and a group of friends used to trek up to Columbus, Ohio to attend a 24 hour horror movie marathon. First held in the Drexal North Theater then moved to various places it was a long but fun trip that always made for great stories afterward. And the movies we got to see were great too! How else was I to see THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES, THE TINGLER, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE EXORCIST, Jose Larraz's VAMPYRES, SCARS OF DRACULA or a host of other great movies on the big screen? Those were great days but we stopped going around 2000 when it just started to become too hard to get everyone's schedules in order. It appears that they have continued doing the show and I would have loved to go this year. *sigh* Sadly it was the weekend I was in Florida......and I had no idea until today! Maybe next year. Maybe.

LINK

The $1.50 theater!

Nashville has a second run movie theater for the first time in almost 10 years and I couldn't be happier. Back in the 1990s the Nashville metro area had at least 3 or 4 and the chance to catch up with a movie for pocket change was always very welcome. There were a couple of lost Saturdays when I and a buddy would see two or three movies in a row stopping only when hunger or butt pain forced us. Now we have one again so I've been visiting it regularly even actually paying for my ticket with quarters at one point. I've caught THE WRESTLER (every bit as good as you've heard), FANBOYS (good but not great) and CORALINE (excellent). I may slip off and see THE INTERNATIONAL later this week. I think I can afford it! And maybe some popcorn, too.