I'll be wrapping up my own coverage of the festival this week, but till all that typing gets done, here's Quint's report...
Ahoy, constant readers. Quint here, this time with a tale of a cinephile on a voyage chasing the great white shark called coolness. You all have been reading Harry's constant updates on QTIII I'm sure. I figured I'd write up my experiences on the final night of the festival, the all-night horror (slasher) marathon.
Besides Father Geek and The Big Man himself, I am the only one that I know of that has been to every single film at every single Tarantino Film Fest since the first one three years ago. Even counting Quentin himself who missed a kiddie matinee or two in the previous fests. I hold the honor proudly. Nothing but good has come out of it. I mean, I met Harry at the first QT Fest. I met another good friend of mine, whom you all know as Tom Joad, at the second. Plus I was exposed to films I never ever would have seen, like Horror House with Frankie Avalon, and some that will go down in my book of all time cool flicks (like The Dion Brothers and Pretty Maids All In A Row).
Of course hanging out with Quentin is a plus, too, but when I say that, I don't mean it in the sense of "Oh, look at the famous person" or "Boy, I can't wait to tell the boys who I got to talk to." It is well known that Quentin has a lot of energy and is a huge film encyclopedia, but people almost downplay how infecting that enthusiasm is. I have never met anybody who could get me as pumped up for a film as Quentin. He's one of us, a true cinephile in every sense of the word. I mean, when I was talking to him about Abby and other uncommon exploitation films it was like I was talking to a skinny Harry on speed. It wasn't until after the conversation that I thought to myself, "I was just talking with a guy that has an Oscar on his shelf and a film in AFI's top 100." At the time of the conversation, I was just talking with Quentin, the movie geek. If you factor out all the media hype (good and bad), and all the Hollywood glitz that comes with his name, from the equation, you get this cool movie geek that gets excited over Fulci gore flicks and Jack Hill films. You know, one of us.
Now to the horror night. I woke up at 11:30 am to catch the kiddie matinee of the day, Frankenstein Conquers the World. Now, this film wasn't my cup of tea, but I've never been a big fan of the Japanese Monster Movies. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's because I never saw one during my childhood. I don't know. I don't think the movie was bad, but it just didn't work for me.
After the matinee ended, I headed to the Austin Collector's Expo to scope out the movie posters and lobby cards. I found a cool Blacula one-sheet, but it was a little out of my price range. I found a table that had a big stack of folded posters for a dollar apiece. Out of the whole stack I found one that I wanted, a Venom movie poster. I ended up leaving the expo with the Venom poster and four lobby cards (1 Boeing, Boeing, 1 Horror House and 2 Mother, Jugs and Speed). Then back to the resident palace of coolness, The Alamo Drafthouse. I was ready to once again test my endurance. Here were Quentin's words before the first films:
"If anybody is thinking about leaving because you can't hang with it and everything, my mom's here and she's gonna be here until the end. So, whatever side of the line you want to be on is up to you, all right."
The first film set before me was Black Christmas (AKA Silent Night, Evil Night). The awesome poster portraying a female victim with a plastic bag over her head had been out in the Alamo's lobby for a few days. I was pumped to see this flick. It stars Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin and John Saxon. It's a sorority house slasher film that made the phone scary long before Scream did and it was also one of the first horror films to really use the killer's POV to it's maximum potential. It's a really cool flick with an awesome ending. If you're a big fan of the slasher genre go check it out if you can find it at your local video store. Look for it's awesome tagline: "If this film doesn't make your skin crawl, it's on too tight."
The next flick up was Eyes of A Stranger starring Jennifer Jason Leigh in her screen debut as a deaf, dumb and blind girl. This is a pretty cool flick. The scene where the killer is fucking around with Jennifer Jason Leigh as she's making a sandwich is both hilarious and creepy. I've seen this one at both Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, so it's out there.
I just about freaked when I heard that Quentin was gonna show the next film: Torso. Harry has a reel of 16mm horror/sci-fi trailers that he shows at roughly every third backyard party. Torso is one of the best on there. torso! Torso!! TORSO!!! That was the hook of the trailer and the chant of our group as the days to the showing of the film dwindled down. I liked the film, but I don't believe it lived up to the trailer. The film plays more like a mystery than a gore film. There's nothing wrong with that except that it was hyped as a gore film and that's what I was hoping for. don't get me wrong, there was enough T & A and nasty killings to satisfy me, but I guess I just wanted more. Here's what Quentin had to say before the movie:
"For the fist half of it you're going to think, 'What the fuck did he bring this piece of shit here for?' Now I'm really a big fan of Italian horror films. You got to apologize for some parts of them, all right. Having said that, I'm a big fan of them. The first part of Torso sucks. It's like "Oh, My God!" Once a plot thing happens, you'll know it when it happens, once it happens it kind of becomes a different movie. Then all of a sudden you're really watching a really different movie. Not only are you watching a different movie, but all of a sudden what seemed to be so amateurish and thrown together like it was edited with gardening sheers. All of a sudden it's really well done, all of a sudden it is really suspenseful, all of a sudden the camera is really cool places and stuff. After it being really silly the first half, all of a sudden it's really scary and the killer is really scary. You just gotta put up with the first half and you'll be rewarded in the second half."
Next was The Prowler, the goriest flick of the Fest. I had been hearing Tom Joad talk about this film since the first day of QTIII. "This movie has one of the coolest exploding heads I've ever seen!" And it does. I love this movie. It has some of the best R-rated gore out there. I believe Savini had a hand in it, so to speak. Pardon the pun. Here's what Quentin had to say about Prowler:
"This is what people have said: "Hey, Quentin. I'm really liking the festival so far. Lotta suspense, good this, good that, but not gory enough man! Where's the gore? Well, we got the gore in The Prowler. If you've been waiting for some gore, you goin' get it. In fact you're gonna get more than you bargained for."
Hell Night, starring noneother than Linda "Lick Me!" Blair was next on the list. For those that don't know, Hell Night is about a sorority breaking in their pledges by making them spend a night in the local haunted house, which is rigged with various speakers and other devices designed to scare the hell out of the pledges. Little do both the sorority leaders and the pledges know that the house really is haunted. This movie was a surprise to me. I really, really dug it. The acting is horrible, the story is cliched out the ass, the dialogue is awful, but that just makes it all the better. It's extremely cheesy, but extremely entertaining. The effects were surprisingly good. I love the decapitation early on in the film.
Last, but not least is Blood-Spattered Bride. Here's what Quentin had to say before the film:
"The film is based on a very classic short story called Camilla, an old, classic ghost story. If you know the ghost story, then you'll know what to expect. If you don't, then you'll just find it out when it happens. Give the movie about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, it should be rocking your world."
Now, I didn't know the legend of Camilla, so I had no earthly idea of what I was about to witness. I figured out it was an Italian film immediately due to both the dubbing and the naked girls with the hairy armpits. Being that it was the tale-end of the of the all night marathon (around 5:30 am) and my reality was starting to curl up around the edges, I don't think my opinion of the film is the same had I seen it wide-eyed and bushy tailed. I can definitely say it's really weird with lost of nudity and sporadic moments of gore. The most disturbing moment for me was when the asshole husband is hunting and finds a fox in a steel bear trap. He then pulls out his shotgun and shoots it two times in the head. This was all real and that's why it was more disturbing to me than the coffin dripping with red paint... uh I mean blood towards the end of the flick.
That was the all night slasher marathon, which, being the horror buff that I am, was the night I was looking forward to the most. Quentin didn't disappoint. He hasn't yet.
-Q
AICNQuint@aol.com
