October
has arrived and that means it is time for another Cinema Wasteland. I was
especially excited about this one due to the My Bloody Valentine cast reunion
taking place at the show. It is my favorite slasher movie and I never thought I’d
get to meet the cast. Needless to say, I was counting the days and hours before
I got to walk thru the doors of the Holiday Inn in scenic Strongsville Ohio. I
took Friday off again, as is my habit, and did my Wasteland “prep” for the
show. That involves packing the right shirts to wear as well as watching My
Bloody Valentine while I was double checking that I had everything I needed for
the show. For the first time in a few years I stayed at the hotel because I
didn’t want to miss a minute!
Friday
finally came and after having my traditional lunch with the lovely Mrs. Horror
Dude before leaving town I hopped in the car and headed on my way. After
checking into the hotel, I went over and picked up my weekend pass to wait for
the dealer’s room to open for business. My first stop was to hit up my man Dan
for some movies. He is my connection for all the oddities that are impossible to
find otherwise. He had an old Norwegian horror flick from the fifties that I’ve
been looking for called Lake of the Dead as well as I was a Teenage Frankenstein
and I Married a Monster from Outer Space. Thanks to him I’m going to be getting
many more Friday fifties movie reviews after October’s zombie marathon ends.
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| So excited to own this! |
The other
highlight of Friday was getting in line and getting my mini poster signed by
the attending cast of My Bloody Valentine. I don’t do original one sheets
because I don’t have the wall space to display them, so those 11x17
reproductions are perfect. I’m always worried when I meet people from a movie
that I really love because for me if they are jerks that will become part of my
memory every time I watch it. The cast from My Bloody Valentine were great and
made sure to interact with the fans and ask them questions. It felt like they
were enjoying themselves as much as we were enjoying them being there. It was a
wonder memory and makes me love the movie even more.
After
safely tucking away my poster I hit the dealer’s room again and upgraded my
copies of The Changeling, Grizzly, and picked up a copy of the brand-new
Blu-Ray of Deep Rising. They all have some killer special features that I can’t
wait to dig into. After that I hung out with Tim, Dan, and Brett eating some
grub and talking movies. I have a list of flicks that I’ll be needing to check
out and was able to turn them onto some movies that they hadn’t heard about.
This is one of the reasons that I love Wasteland. It wasn’t until I was getting
ready to call it a night that I realized I hadn’t watched any movies! I was
going to fix that the next day.
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| Have to watch some Stooges! |
Saturday
morning rolled around and the first thing on my agenda was checking out the
screening of It Conquered the World starring the late great Lee Van Cleef. Then
Eric and Angie from Midnight Magazine arrived, and we hung out for a bit before
it was time to watch the Stooges. The Son of Ghoul never disappoints with his
choices to bring us an hour’s worth of comedy gold. In case you were wondering
it was one Shemp and two Curlys, the perfect ratio. Spent the next couple hours
visiting with the crew before heading off to the guest panel with the cast of
My Bloody Valentine. It was packed, so much so that I couldn’t get in the door.
While that was a little disappointing it was also great to see the panel so
busy.
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| Chillin' with the Flemings |
I met up
with Eric, Angie, and Brett again for some pizza and more movie talk. Then it
was time to head back to the lobby after the dealer’s room closed and the party
got started. Spent most of the rest of the day just shooting the breeze and
again talking movies. I did catch one more flick, Pick-Up Summer, that was
directed by and starred some of the cast of My Bloody Valentine. Just when I
think that I’ve seen every teen sex comedy from the eighties I find another new
to me one like this. It was funny, crude, and reminded me of being a kid again.
After the movie it was time to hit the sack.
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| Tim and Dan! |
Sunday is
always the day that things are winding down. But I did catch the screening
where they dig up something on 16 mm film but was made for television. This
time around it was Hammer Studios episode Paint Me a Murder. It was pretty
cool. After that I headed back to the dealer’s room for one more go around and
to say goodbye to all of my friends. Another tradition that I have is to go
back to Dan’s table on the last day of the show and have him pick out a movie
that will blow my mind. I can’t remember the
title for what he chose, but it
was described as “Bollywood Nightmare on Elm Street”. Indian Freddy Krueger
with dancing and singing… Okay that might blow my mind. That being done I
headed back home to take a nap and watch some of the gems that I grabbed at the
show.
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| The Midnight crew |
As always
this was an amazing weekend of likeminded movie fans where I could see stuff
that normally I’d never get a chance to as well as stay connected with friends.
Cinema Wasteland has been a big part of my life for the last seventeen years
and I continue to look forward to every show. The next one is shaping up to be
interesting and features a cast reunion of I Drink Your Blood. Now that is
something you would never see anywhere else! Check out their site for more
information about future shows at https://www.cinemawasteland.com/show.html
© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer
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