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Dusk Til Dawn All Night Horrorthon! CABIN FEVER + Bava + Frank the Bunny = Sick Fun!
Hey folks, Harry here... The All Night Horror Marathon at the old abandoned Insane Asylum outside of Austin kicked fucking ass, if I do say so myself. First off, there were TONS of people there nearly half in costumes. GREAT COSTUMES and Sucky Costumes (mine was your wet dream, me with pink hair, glitter and long white trash fingernails with diamond studs to match you baby!). There was massive alcohol consumption, the smell of ganja was in the air. Reports of Sex upon graves and atop water towers and in sleeping bags were heard. There were corpses! The movies were eclectic bizarre strange and fun. DR TAR will never be forgotten, nor Professor Feather. That hot naked German chick ruled in Bava's flick! Damn that movie ruled! And watching CABIN FEVER with a U.S. Audience just kicked ass! Here ya go with a report... By the way if you were the person that came up with ticket number 99 at the end, give me a call
Harry,
To my fellow dusk til dawners, I was Jason (the only Jason, I was surprised: I saw 3 Michael Myers, 3 'Scream Guys,' one AMAZING Donnie Darko Rabbit (gets my prize for best costume, how'd you make that mask?), and of course a dozen 'prisoners' or escaped mental patients (appropriate given the location)). To all who didn't attend, what a mistake! Me and a buddy drove in from Houston, thinking that was a notable distance from Austin. Getting to know people throughout the night, we met 3 guys from Nebraska and overheard someone else had flown in from Seattle. Can anyone beat that? I'm sure Harry will throw up a detailed post, but here's a blow by blow in case you couldn't make it. I'm sure I left out a ton.
The location: perfect. After almost missing the turn off of MLK you snake through overgrown, rutted cement roads, past boarded-up, decrepit, a lake with floating corpse, to the parking area.) They sent us walking through two buildings (we got there right at dawn, so it was appropriately dark) to get a better look at our location. Stinky rather than scary, but I heard a couple of people say they were a little freaked out. Then we walked to the screening area. I have never been to a Rolling Roadshow production before so I had no idea what to expect. I figured they'd rope a large sheet to the side of a building for a screen. No. Erected was an inflatable foundation (think a huge Moonwalk) that housed a gigantic movie screen. The projector is housed in a trailer. I'd never seen a 'real' movie projector up close so that was a treat. Also set up was a portable concession area with burgers, dogs, popcorn, (horrible) coffee, keg beer and soft drinks (breakfast tacos were busted out !
at 3 am or so). First class operation. Man, I want to move to Austin. Houston just doesn't have anything like this.
7:40 PM: Tim, owner of Alamo Drafthouse and Rolling Roadshow, comes out to say that the surprise movie will 'Kick your asses!' House of 1000 Corpses, we're all thinking. We'll see.
8 PM: The first trailers unreel. Trailers preceeded all of the films. I forgot the order. The first one was 'Stunt Rock' which was not horror, but Tim wanted to show it to get the fun started. Technical Difficulties. The film froze and melted at one point (never seen that in person). I'll throw out the titles of all the trailers I remember now: Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street 5, Halloween, Phantasm, The Shining, Alone in the Dak, Army of Darkness, The Boogens, Schizo (or 'Schizo-o-o-o-o'), The Stuff (Killer Yogurt?), Monster Squad ('The Wolfman's got nards!'), and many others. Memory's foggy. Little help? 'Session 9' starts- No review here, but the film was appropriate to the setting. Creeped out a girl near us. 8:05 PM the first of many weed scentings hits me in the face. People were there to have fun!
10:00 PM the first reel (The projector didn't have the capability to show films in one go--reels had to be swapped out, so each film was broken in half for a few minutes as they changed reels, which was fine since it created a pee, grab a drink, walk-around-to-stay-awake break) of 'Dr. Tarr and the Dungeon of Death' starts. I'm sure you haven't seen this movie. No real review here (I'm sure someone else will provide), but it was a 'So bad it's good' experience.
10:01 PM: the audience is very confused.
10:11 PM: after a long, monologue by the 'head of the asylum' someone in the audience screams out, "What the fuck are you talking about?' Laughs insue and the audience deteriorates into a laughing, hooting mess. The rest of the movie was more crazy nonsense that kept us laughing.
11:50 PM: Tim comes out to remind us his policy (the same you hear from QT at his fest): react to the movies but don't make fun of them. I break out my thermos of coffee. It's going to be a long night. Midnight: Tim reveals that mystery movie #1 is Mario Bava's 'The Twitch of the Death Nerve.' My Harry moment: I just watched Jason X on DVD. Not bad at all--very surprised. On that DVD is a documentary titled 'The Many Lives of Jason Vorhees.' Basically a history of the franchise. In that documentary many reference 'Death Nerve' as the Italian body count movie that inspired 'Last House on the Left' and thusly Halloween and F13. So I just ordered it from Netflix. It's on it's way. I get to send it right back now. Anyway, a few jackasses didn't hear or understand Tim's message and decided to provide the comedy track during this movie. They were brutally shushed. No review, but worth a rental if you're a horror fan.
1:50 AM: Tim kindly tells people to get off the hospital's water tower. Why didn't I think of going up there? Oh yeah, I wasn't high. I'm getting tired. Go smoke a cigar and walk around (legit cigar...sorry).
2 AM: 'Alone in the Dark' unreels. No review, but again worth a rental.
3:50 AM: Tim tells us that a friendly cohort in horror has opened a free lemonade stand by the consession area. 'Jim Jones' I think to myself. The mystery movie is next....CABIN FEVER! Tim introduces us to the director, Eli Roth, who gets very little applause. Poor guy. The fact is that the crowd was obviously expecting and disappointed when '1000 Corpses' wasn't announced. Oh well. It's still a premiere. Wrong attitude to have we quickly learn. Wow. What a fun movie. Put it this :the reception for the director at the end of the film was a tad more enthusiastic. OK, a LOT more enthusiastic. There are reviews around AICN already, but let me add that this was the one of the best executed horror movies I've seen in forever and here's why: INDEPENDENT. No dumbing down by pointy head execs. Afterwards, Roth detailed how it was shot, shut down due to no $$, started again. He stressed that he wanted to make the movie he wanted to make and that's why it took so long. He also told of how the companies that wouldn't finance his vision all bid on the final product. Only weaknesses: the overuse of profanity (real teens use profanity, but I'd be interested to see what the 'fuck' word count is). Many in the audience began screaming 'fuck' and ?fucking gay? in two scenes where the overuse was almost comical--maybe that was the joke. The biggest strength: the offbeat sense of humor. This is almost a comedy and I mean that in a good way. The aside comments throughout the film and the ?Evil-Dead 2?-type gore and violence are used very well. The lemonade stand guy from earlier it turns out was the director in a brilliant little in-joke. And one of the jokes at the end blew us all away (owners of the rifle). Anyway, support this film. I'm interested to see if it can find an audience since it has so many shocking scenes in it of gory vomiting, leg shaving, putting fingers where they shouldn't go, etc.
6:20 AM: The BNAT ticket drawing AKA Mass Chaos. After some jackass in a Jason costume made everyone get in line, Harry handed out raffle tickets for everyone still in costume. Oh. The Surf Nazi costume...ok a tie for first place. If I heard right he gave out 300 tickets (300 people in costume). An hour later he drew names. And, yes ,I got tickets. Lucky number 003. What a great time. Thanks, Tim and Harry, for coordinating this. Harry, have everyone who went stand up or meet in an area at BNAT. A little reunion Bring a piece of your costume. Harry mentioned 'See you next year' as if he'd repeat the event. Ideas for next year: make t-shirts, be stricter with the costumes (Must be horror related, etc.), and make better use of the microphone time movies: have a costume contest, tell ghost stories, have all the Mike Myers arm wrestle.
Enjoyed meeting many of you.
See you at BNAT.
Jason
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I am in one of the nation's smallest states. As far as I know, we never have these kind of festivals. I am a bit long in the tooth to be going to something like this, but I sure would love to have my teenage daughters go. Sounds like it was a blast.
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Man, I couldn't get off work, so I couldn't be there, wish I'd just called in sick, now I'm kicking myself in the ass. Hope Harry has it again next Halloween.
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I live vicariously so the more info the better. Damn, my life sucks.
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Dude, you were 003? I was 004. And I was ready to kick your ass when they called your number, because you cut right in front of me to get it. I was one of the Scream guys. Later 004 was called and I was so relieved. Weird that 002 was also called. And the 140s got fucking lucky. Well as long as I have my BNAT tickets, I guess we're cool. But yeah Cabin Fever kicked ass and I wish we could go back and give our man Eli Roth a better reception. I also was rooting for House Of 1000 Corpses, but was totally satisfied with what I got.
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I swear, we (some of the 30's)were standing with the 60's and we heard like 18 tickets in a row called in the same 130-155 range. it was about to be a geek-throw-down. (we all got our tickets later though)I had fun that night, but I wish they hadn't run out of Red Bull so early. I think half of the people left early, what a bunch of losers. seriously, thanks to Harry and the Leagues for putting on another great show.
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I enjoyed reliving the evening through this review. What a blast (even if I didn't win a chance for BNAT tickets!). The Alamo is definitely one of the reasons why I love living in Austin. Oh, and having Harry here doesn't suck, either. Now, how could I get a BNAT ticket?!?
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If there was no Mario Bava we'd have no John Carpenter, no Ridley Scott, no Joe Dante, no Tim Burton or no Argento. The day will come when he is placed up there with the great directors of all time, and not just for PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. And Alfredo Leone should be shot for trying to remake Bava's films.
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After seeing TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE you're going to send your DVD "right back?" After admitting you're a FRIDAY THE 13th fan, you didn't like TWITCH? I suppose it's all a matter of taste, but considering the entire FRIDAY THE 13TH series is a FRAME BY FRAME RIP OFF OF TOTDN, I find that really, really weird. Frankly, that reminds me of a guy I used to work with. Loved Tori Amos, didn't like Kate Bush. Liked John Wesley Harding, hated Elvis Costello. Some people are only satified with pale imitations, I guess.
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I've just been informed by my GF that Netflix is a rental place...sorry, I thought you had PURCHASED TOTDN, and were sending it back unopened. Just let me reset my kneejerk here...
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"If there was no Mario Bava we'd have no John Carpenter, no Ridley Scott, no Joe Dante, no Tim Burton or no Argento."
And where would Joe D'Amato have been? I have been reading about his films on IMDB. What a prolific director! The man behind ATOR! The man behind THE GRIM REAPER! The man behind TROLLS II! The man behind so many EMMANUELLE mess-terpieces! Yowsa!
Never mind Jess Franco. Another genius! -
...I find it amusing that there's an attempt to spin doctor the emergence of TWITCH in the Jason camp. Sean Cunningham was the North American distributor for TWITCH (or CARNAGE, which is the title it was going by then.) There is little to no question that Cunningham simply, er, "remade" (read: stole outright) TWITCH with a hockey mask. Now, it influenced those other films first...well, yes, it probably did influence them, but to suggest that the TWITCH/F13 is a few generations down, well...that's just damned funny.
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Damn, if I still lived in Houston, there'd have been little to stop me from coming... Damn California, bastard state of a million corpses! Fingers crossed for BNAT, however...
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