Patrick and JB are joined by first-time survivor Doug and special guest Jan B to recap the 2012 Massacre, Chicago's 24-hour horror film festival. 13 movies. Tons of Phantasming. It was a long one.
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The more people participate in the podcast the most fun they are to listen to. This one is one of my favorites, love to have four different opinions going on at once.
ReplyDeleteActually, Jan is making a repeat appearance on the podcast. Her voice was heard in the background in the 100th podcast spectacular bitching that it took 100 podcasts for her to be heard. I love Jan, she's my kind of gal: loves movies, has strong opinions about them, is married to a film lover (whom he lets hang out with their mutual friends to record movie podcasts) and raised a future filmmaker. Hope Jan and Erika get together in a podcast with Patrick (2 against 1, or 2 against 2 if Doug or JB team-up with Patrick), that would be something. :D
I agree with Doug (hey, when great minds think alike!): Hammer is tough for me to sit through and appreciate on as a whole, although individual movies here and there ("The Bound of the Haskersvilles," "The Creeping Unknown," etc.) rise above the predictable wreck of super-bright, ultra-colorful, over-acted stuff that's theatrical to an extreme that affects the pace of the movie. Not even Cushing and Price can sustain horror for the movie's entire length (good as they are).
Thanks for pointing out something I've felt since forever: "Nightmare on Elm Street 3" is not as good as most fans remember it being. It was a necessary evil to put it back on track after the 'too gay' path "NOES 2" put the series on, and it commits the sin of killing the heroine from the first "NOES" (fuck that!). Sad to hear "Hausu" didn't go as well with the "Massacre," but I'll blame it at 2:00AM start time. I love the "Hausu" music too, Patrick (have it on my MP3 player), I think it rivals "Creature of the Black Lagoon" in its use of the one musical note over and over and over again. The final shot when the camera lingers on Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) as we hear a voice-over brings the movie into the realm of tragedy for me; there were no villains or heroes in this OTT comedic tragedy, just the sadness that unfulfilled love by the granny is a self-fulfilling circle of tragedy that takes all these girls before they have a chance to love. I love "House." :'(
Had I been at the Massacre I would have slept through some other movie and stayed awake for "Prince of Darkness." I love that movie because of the atmosphere and vibe-of-dread it creates (plus Victor Wong), but yeah, 5:00AM is the wrong time to program this. "Puddle of Evil"? God, I really love Jan. :-)
I'm watching "Halloween II" (i.e. the movie for which Carpenter and Hill steal a death wholesale from Argento's "Deep Red") later this week for the "SMC," thanks a lot for making me dread the prospect. BTW, Alan Howarth is the co-scorer that pretty much did the music for Carpenter movies when he got too big/busy to handle the music himself.
Ive always thought a 24 hour movie marathon would be tough but fun and something I would liek to have a god at some time...but you guys make it sound like absolute fucking torture. Foul smells, uncomfortable seating, bodies shutting down, time standing still. Why do you do it!?!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, great show. JanBee is a great addition to the cast.
I sat through a Halloween night marathon at a Gotham theater a few years back (7 movies from 6PM to 6AM, free pizza) and I literally felt delirious by the end (which helped make "Burial Ground" such a surreal experience; an entire theater screaming at once in sheer disgust/horror when 'that scene' comes up).
Delete24 hrs. sounds freaking insane if the line-up isn't solid-enough to sustain some sort of momentum, and it sounds like this year's "Massacre" was running on fumes by the time "NOES3/Hausu" came on. And ending on the depressing "Halloween II" (except for the LOL moment when a car slams against the fake Michael Myers) is not how to send people out the door after 24 hrs. of mixed-bag horror.
We don't mean to make it sound like torture. It's fun! That's why we do it. But this year was tough, because even though I like so many of the movies that showed, they're hard to watch back to back to back. Mostly we do it because we hate ourselves, and this is what we deserve. I'm too lazy to actually self-flagellate, so watching Phantasm II is way easier.
DeleteHa, fair enough. Despite the depths of hell you all appeared to sink to, if the opportunity presented itself to me I would probably try to go to one of these too. Although I think Im nearing the limits of my horror capacity. When October is over I think I might go a few weeks not watching any movies (I've been going very hard for SMC3) then I might go some Rom-Coms or dip into my Police Academy collection. I need a breather, but Im enjoying the hell out of it, like you guys did with the massacre......and the conversation comes full circle.
DeleteI'm already planning what chick flicks and high-minded dramas I'll watch in November to cleanse the palette from all the gory death, casual sex, disregard for human life and pissing on basic human emotion (not to mention bad acting) that's present in about 95% of the horror stuff I'm watching. James L. Brooks ("Terms of Endearment"), Joe Wright ("Atonement") and Terence Malick ("The New World") are already lined-up. :-)
DeleteNice to see/meet all of you on Saturday. It was fun.
ReplyDeleteThe lineup on paper had me excited but in practice it was a little rough. Once I realized I had no reason to stay through the whole thing, I tapped out. Plus I was becoming VERY AWARE of the number of characters sleeping in Prince of Darkness or talking about going to bed. Lastly, I had to attend a Wake of all things at 3pm on Sunday, followed by catching up with my friends' horror DVD marathon, so yesterday was a weird day.
I agree with JB that going into the Universal Monsters catalog would be a good idea. I would like to see some of the Val Lewton Karloff movies shown as well. Also, this might be against the Massacre tradition, but why not go from 9am to Noon with horror-themed movies that are more "family friendly" as a palette cleanser. I would rather watch The Witches, Gremlins, Hocus Pocus, Monster House, The Addams Family, hell even Casper at that part of the day. Act like you're programming a day on HBO in the 90's when there were rules for when you could show certain things.
I also hope they get around to showing Carnival of Souls and Demon Knight one of these years.
Adam! Great hanging out. Your fake question for Linnea Quigley was one of the highlights of the weekend. Well, that and hearing her thoughts about rape.
DeleteYou're absolutely right about paper vs. practice. When I looked at the list of movies, I was amazed at how many things were on there that I like. Watching them all back to back was much tougher than just watching one at a time.
I like both Carnival of Souls and Demon Knight, but I fear that the former might be tough to sit through overnight the same way so many of this year's entries were.
Witchfinder General has been sitting on my Instant queue for a while; I think I'll have to finally get to that. (Roundheads? Cavaliers? Witchfinders? Right up my alley.)
ReplyDeleteMan, you guys have the constitutions of Navy SEALs. The stuff you guys talked about (the smell, fatigue, your body shutting down) sounds like the kind of thing that I bet the soldiers who finally nabbed Bin Laden overcame. In fact...come to think of it, I've never seen you all and those soldiers in the same place....
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I really don't know how you do it. I envy it. Also, this year's episode was easier to listen to because you guys didn't sound quite as miserable as last year. Man, last year seemed ROUGH.
The only other thing I can say is that I really, really like Curse of The Werewolf. I watched it for the first time this year for a seven word review and was impressed. Of course, it's obvious that I really love Hammer movies, but it's hard to find some of them, and this was the year for that one. Even the title screen with the close up on the werewolf's eyes dripping with tears was fantastic. There's just something about all those movies that I love and identify with very closely. I'm a huge anglophile and I suppose that's it, which is the same reason I think I hold old Doctor Who so closely. Low budgets but big acting, making the most of a script and a location, be it a forest or a rock quarry. It's comforting to me, and Hammer movies are all just so ENGLISH. I don't think I've ever felt more at home than I did in England.
Anyway, thanks for bringing us along with you, so to speak, and sharing what it was like to be there one more year.
Just a reminder that tonight (10-24) is the TCM showing of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein in a movie theater near you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fathomevents.com/classics/series/tcm2012.aspx
And what a feeling it is! Unfortunately (fortunately?), I didn't experience it at The Massacre due to familial obligations, but I almost did during The Curse of the Werewolf.
ReplyDeleteHow long did you make it? I couldn't believe someone fell dead asleep during The Black Cat. It was FIRST.
DeleteMe either--I guess Un Chien Andalou was a real eyesore.
DeleteI left right after The Return of the Living Dead. I sort of wanted to stay for Phantasm II to make is exactly halfway (and I had just watched the first one), but it sounds like I'm glad I didn't.
I can't download this and I'm sad
ReplyDeleteTry now! Hopefully it's fixed.
DeleteYou are my spirit animal
ReplyDelete