Twenty-four hours of terror...

The image above is of Dayton's Dabel Cinema, a onetime Cinerama house and the largest theatre I ever regularly saw movies at. It was demolished in late 1992, which is lamentable to this very day. Next door to it was a weird/fun/seedy record store called Renaissance Music Media, and between the two places, I had many adventures in the Ohio summers I spent in my youth. But I use the image of the Dabel because 1) its lobby reminded me of the one in Night of the Comet, just bigger, and 2) whenever I get caught up in the fantasy of running a 24-hour movie marathon (actually, 24:22 according to my calculations), it's always here, in a 752-seat grand palace stuffed with memories.

Also, since it no longer exists, I've not had to see its star diminished by time, digital conversion, subdivision, or corporate malfeasance. So let's pretend, shall we, that here's where we'll be attending this marathon. Fifteen features, two shorts, and an excerpt that sets the thematic tone of the evening.


Events will kick off right around 8:00 PM (you know how the Eastern time zone is), and I hope you find this Halloween extravaganza rewarding and upsetting in the best possible fashion. Also, because the Dabel was a Cinerama house, there was a three-projector setup, meaning downtime between films could be kept to an absolute minimum.


8:00 PM
The opening sequence from SCREAM 2
(1997-Wes CRAVEN) 12m

8:14 PM
CANDYMAN
(1992-Bernard ROSE) 99m

9:55 PM
THE SENDER
(1982-Roger CHRISTIAN) 91m

11:28 PM
PERFECT BLUE
(1997-KON Satoshi) 81m

12:49 AM
 ten minute bathroom/snack/stretch break

12:59 AM
MARTIN
(1976-George A. ROMERO) 95m

1:36 AM
THE NIGHT FLIER
(1997-Mark PAVIA) 94m

3:12 AM
THE KEEP
(1983-Michael MANN) 96m

4:48 AM
 five minute break

4:53 AM
EYES OF FIRE
(1983-Avery CROUNSE) 90m

6:25 AM
INFERNO
(1980-Dario ARGENTO) 107m

8:14 AM
SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE
(1986-Carol FRANK) 74m

9:28 AM
 five minute break

9:33 AM
THESIS
(1996-Alejandro AMENABAR) 125m

11:40 AM
OUTER SPACE
(1999-Peter TSCHERKASSKY) 10m

11:52 AM
LORD OF ILLUSIONS
(1995-Clive BARKER) 120m

1:54 PM
VINCENT
(1982-Tim BURTON) 6m

2:02 PM
THE HAUNTING
(1963-Robert WISE) 112m

3:54 PM
 ten minute break

4:04 PM
ROCKULA
(1990-Luca BERCOVICI) 87m

5:33 PM
PAGANINI HORROR
(1989-Luigi COZZI) 82m

6:57 PM
BODY SNATCHERS
(1993-Abel FERRARA) 87m

8:22 PM
 go home.


If you try this at home, blog or tweet it and let me know how it goes...

Famous people talked to me: Tom Hanks.

The opening night film for this year's New York Film Festival was Captain Phillips, and as such, I was able to be part of the big press event with star Tom Hanks. Here's that. Sorry I didn't post this sooner, but I had a major tech failure while I was in New York in that a design flaw with the laptop I was using became an insurmountable crevasse.

At the movies: You're Next.

Biding its time since its premiere two years ago, this vicious little gem has been waiting for exactly the right time to kick the collective ass of the viewing public. Smart, gross, funny, vicious, and so very pointed in the way it examines the messed-up ties of family and love, I can't recommend this film highly enough.

At the electronic outlet: The Canyons.

So yeah. This is the piece where I bring down some anger my way. I dug The Canyons a lot. Most people may very well hate it. Here's a quick test... Look at the image below. You see that '70s sweater La Lohan is wearing? If you don't feel immediately intrigued as to that combination of elements, then this may not be the film for you. 

Talking Showgirls with David Schmader.

Last Thursday, in the hallowed halls of the Belcourt Theatre, David Schamder held court with an epic screening of Paul Verhoeven's 1995 film Showgirls. It was a transformative experience, and all who attended left theatre as different people than they arrived as. I had the chance to talk to Schmader a week before, to hype up the event, and we teased a couple of different pieces out of it. There were some online bits that couldn't fit the print edition, then the print edit itself. Well, in commemoration of the event, my fearless editor and I have placed the entire* piece online, and it's yours to read and enjoy. So please do enjoy it.

* - Entire, that is, minus the epic mini-discussion we had about Rena Riffel's Showgirls 2: penny's From heaven, which I hope to let loose on the world at a later date for a screening of that film.

At the movies: The Lone Ranger.

Well, it's not often that one day after a review I write is published that a consensus between the exhibition industry, 'conventional wisdom,' and angry kids at the mall develops that casts aside not only a film I dig, but several points that I specifically tried to emphasize. It's sad, because it's now apparent that this is going to be 2013's John Carter of Mars- that is, an interesting, overlong phantasmagoria that will get used as a bludgeon (see also the piece I wrote about Heaven's Gate last month). Anyway, give me a read if you like, and see the film- it's so much better than any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

In which I do yammer on...

So I got to talk about the expansion of the Belcourt's Midnight Movie series this week. I think I come off- dare I say it- respectable.