I
seriously needed my biannual Cinema Wasteland break from real life. Not going
to get into any gory and unneeded details other than to say that life has been
kicking my butt. Spending a weekend with friends talking movies and partaking
of adult beverages was just what the doctor ordered… minus the booze and spicy
foods probably. We just won’t tell him about that.
The show
starts on Friday, but I always try and do something fun to get myself in the
mood. Normally that means watching a bunch of old drive-in or horror movies.
This time was a bit different since Samantha Mathis was one of the guests and I
wanted to watch something from her career. I had a couple of choices; my
favorites are Pump up the Volume and Broken Arrow and chose to go with some old
school John Woo action. I didn’t stay up too late as I had lunch plans the
following Friday, so it ended up being just the one movie.
Friday
arrived and after packing I headed up to the hotel. It was too early to check
in, but that was okay since I was meeting Eric and Angie for some lunch. You
guys might remember them as the hosts of Dead End Cinema which I’ve written
about many times here at the Horror Dude Blog. We went out for some decent sub
sandwiches and headed off to the grocery store for supplies. A good idea when
hitting up a convention is to bring your own snacks and drinks. It is way
cheaper and helps you save money for the dealer’s room. After meeting up with
my roommate for the weekend, Brett, it was time for the show to open and the
fun to start.
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| Some of my Friday Purchases |
My first
run thru the dealer’s room had me picking up some movies from out of print Dan.
We are going to be doing some eighties teen comedies for the Bloodbath and
Boomsticks podcast and those things are hard to track down. But now I have
copies of GORP and Splitz to watch and review there. I also got a “bucket” list
movie that I’ve been wanting to watch for years called Skatetown U.S.A. which
was awesome. Not the movie per se, but the fact that I actually own a copy now
is awesome. There is a whole story about that which I’m not going to go into
detail here but am saving for a future issue of Midnight Magazine. I also
stopped in and saw 42nd Street Pete to pick up my copy of Grindhouse
Purgatory as well as a John Wayne movie that I’ve always wanted a copy of.
Overall it was a good first day for purchases.
After the
dealer’s room closed a group of us met up and ordered a pizza. Eating and
shooting the breeze with my Wasteland friends is one of the reasons that I love
going to the show. The only screening on Friday that I was interested in was
Predator. They were showing it on 16 mm film and with the added bonus of a
Wasteland crowd it became a must see. It didn’t disappoint as the movie was as
awesome as always and the crowd was really into it. Plus hearing the audience’s
reaction to the funny lines and the horribly un PC jokes was fun. This was the
perfect way to end day one.
I took my
time Saturday morning so ended up only catching the end of Hangover theater.
This year they played the amusing Monster on Campus, which I’ve reviewed for
the blog. You can check that out by
clicking here. Immediately after that it was
time for my favorite ninety minutes of the weekend, the Three Stooges hosted by
the Son of Ghoul. We got a Shemp short and a Curly short this time around. As
an added bonus he edited down another longer movie to show the basic story with
only the Stooges routines. There was some familiar stuff, but it included a few
bits I’d never seen before. That was awesome.
Saturday
was also the day that my friends Dustin and International man of mystery
Bubbles showed up. This was Bubbles first Wasteland and they managed to catch
the Stooges. Afterwards we chatted and hit the dealer’s room. Since I hadn’t
gotten my one autograph of the weekend, it was going to be a light show for
that, and I had a couple willing cameramen it was time to meet Samantha Mathis.
She was very cool and charging a reasonable price. I picked out a picture from
Broken Arrow for her to sign and well that was pretty much it. She seemed to be
having a good time and I hope that she made a lot of money. Though I’m worried
that she was maybe not in the wheelhouse of a lot of Wasteland fans.
I did some
more shopping and upgraded a couple movies to Blu-Ray releases with some neat special
features. There isn’t much that I haven’t seen or feel the need to add to my
collection anymore. I find myself upgrading to Blu-Rays that have some extras
that I’ve not seen before and might add to my appreciation of a flick that I
already like. The days of the long list of must-see movies is really over. It
was bound to happen if you watch as much crap as I do. After dropping off my
purchases in the room it was time to check out the I Drink Your Blood guest
panel.
Only
Cinema Wasteland would do a reunion show featuring the remaining cast members
of such a weird movie. I love I Drink Your Blood as it is one of my favorite
drive-in movies. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll just give you a brief spoiler
free recap. Hippies are jerks and beat up and old guy, his grandson finds the
body of a rabid dog and injects the blood into some meat pies. The hippies eat
the pies and get rabies. Hilarity ensues! Seeing the cast members from the
movie on the stage talking about shooting the movie and working with director
David Durston was a once in a lifetime thing for a fan like me. Having talked
to David several times before he passed away, I knew most of the stories, but
it was still a blast.
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| Tim Gross in the house! |
After the
dealer’s room closed on Saturday we headed out to a local sports bar for some
grub and then back to the hotel to hang out and shoot the breeze. If I can give
another piece of convention advice it is to make sure you make smart food
decisions. I decided to try a BBQ Chicken Parm meal, which seemed like a good
idea at the time. It was not. While I still had a decent time, I was starting
to feel a bit bad. By Sunday morning I was hurting.
I managed
one more walk thru the dealer’s room where I picked up some comics from Dirk
Manning. He has some great horror/Lovecraft themed stuff that I had never
noticed before. Saturday night when I couldn’t sleep, I read the one that I
bought Saturday and ended up going back and buying the rest before I went home
on Sunday. Seriously if you like horror you need to check out his books. I’m
including a link so you can track down his appearances and/or purchase his
comics. He can be found at http://www.dirkmanning.com/
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| Brett, Dusin, and Bubbles |
I didn’t
end up sticking around and watching anything on Sunday because of how I was
feeling. Good news is that I got over that just in time to come down with a
nasty “summer” cold which is why this wasn’t posted earlier. It was a rough
week. I had a great time at the show and recommend that anyone who hasn’t had
the chance to hit up Cinema Wasteland take the time. If you do so email me and
let me know you are and we can hang out. The next show is shaping up to be
another good time with the main event being a Martin reunion. I’m not a huge
fan of that movie, but it is a Romero flick so that is always a welcome bit of
nostalgia. Check out https://cinemawasteland.com/ for more details on who is
attending.
© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer
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