The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

My first marathon was the 2nd annual Night of the Living Drexel in 1989. I was 13 and did my darnedest to stay awake, but I couldn't do it. During They Came From Within, I thought I nodded off for a quick head snap, but alas I missed about 20 minutes at the end. Why did I think I only snapped my head? Because apparently there's about 20 minutes over crazed-orgy-zombies chasing our leads from when they enter the parking garage (when I fell asleep) and when the cars all leave the garage at the end (when I awoke). Took until I rented the VHS 6 months later when I realized how much awesomeness I missed. And at the last Chicago horror marathon I could barely stay awake for the first third of the marathon (though I found a second wind when Halloween, Poltergeist, Pumpkinhead and Gates of Hell played) because I just worked for five 14 hour days in a row.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

Gah! I already posted about sleeping through way too much of the final Marathon at the North, but you just reminded me about my experience with the final Drexel North Horror Marathon as well!

To set the stage: as I've mentioned several times before, I was obviously involved in all the wrong extracurriculars during my high school days. My cohorts and I missed out on the fist four hours of the 1994 It Came From the Drexel North due to our participation in a production of LIL' ABNER(!) and I missed out on most of the afternoons of my two Nights of the Living Drexel due to having to leave for a marching band contest each time.

Sooo......the 1994 Night of the Living Drexel rolls around. A few of us get there super early in the morning in order to secure our usual prime seats, but I, of course, have to leave 20 minutes into the first feature, my childhood favorite The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Yeah, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. What followed was an hour drive to Tecumseh High School in Springfield (the site of the previous year's contest as well....really, of all the places that our crumbling marching band could've gone, we had to pick someplace an hour away...on the SAME FREAKIN' WEEKEND as the Horror Marathon?), followed by me performing with the band for our 15 minute slot, followed by me hightailing it an hour back to Columbus. Luckily, I only missed 2.5 features and made it back in time for Pumpkinhead II (wait, is that possibly the only time that anyone will ever use the phrase "luckily I made it back in time for Pumpkinhead II"?)

Subsequently, it seemed like all was right with the world. I was back with my friends, garbed in that year's super sweet t-shirt (still my all-time favorite), and listening to Jeff Burr regale us (although that might be too strong a term) with stories about independent filmmaking and the production of the Pumpkinhead sequel. He even showed us the final reel of his semi-underrated omnibus film The Offspring a.k.a From a Whisper to a Scream (as a nod to that year's mini-tribute to the recently deceased Vincent Price? even though, according to some sources, Price hated the film? Hmmm......) And then he let slip that we were about to watch a landmark of independent filmmaking in the form of that evening's long-teased surprise film: Dawn of the Dead! I've told this story many times, but for years beforehand I thought (sight unseen) that Dawn was a hacky sequel to the classic Night, mostly based on a stray image or two I saw in a horror-related book. Of course, I was wildly wrong. To say that you're blown away by something is often hyperbole, but I was dead freakin' blown away by my maiden voyage aboard Romero's cinematic ship of horrors, transfixed for two hours by the potent mix of visceral horror and wry social commentary..and shopping mall antics!

So all of a sudden, I'm even more duly pumped for the remainder of the Marathon. And then Gary Jones showed up with the local premiere of his film Mosquito.

Now, no offense to Mr. Jones and his film. Yes, it was mildly amusing, junky b-movie fare. But it struck a chink in my insomniac armor. I still vividly remember his post-film Q+A in which one audience member asked why people kept making rotten films like this. I'm still not sure if his no-selling of the question was due to his biting his tongue or if he just didn't get the point of the question.

Anyway, armor dented, I was still optimistic. And then the premiere of Haunted Symphony hit the screen. To this day, just thinking about this flick makes me yawn. And it was at this point when I realized that as opposed to the previous year (when my return from the exact same band contest shot me through the rest of the event sans sleep), I was going to be a goner very soon. The fatigue from earlier that day, along with the fatigue from months of related stress from my real life, finally clobbered me and I dozed off during most of this wretched film.

But I didn't stop there. Twenty minutes into Vampyres: Daughters of Dracula I was out. I woke up, primed myself for some Hammer goodness, and then zonked out twenty minutes into Scars of Dracula. And then again through all of Spider Baby and parts of It's Alive. On the plus side, somewhere in the middle of this extended tribute to Lord Morpheus, I saw (for the first time) the trailer for Suspiria, which I'd only read about for years.

Finally, The Fog rolled in, and I stayed awake for enough of it to get the point. And that was it. I was disappointed in my lackluster effort, but hey, the lineup was only okay that year. And besides, there would always be next year, right?

Flash forward to Friday January 13th(!) 1995. I wake up for breakfast, only to read the headline that probably cemented by love of the Marathons more than anything else: the Drexel was killing the Horror Marathon. Talk about your stake to the heart! That weekend, I promptly wrote a two page letter to Jeff Frank, explicitly detailing the flaws in his logic, how the Horrorthon couldn't just end like this (especially with such a half-baked lineup), how the fans deserved one last Marathon as a proper sendoff for the event.

My wish was granted, in ways that I didn't realize, that spring. Although it wasn't the Horror Marathon that ended up being the one last Marathon at the North.

The year that the infamous Cafe Flesh trailer pops up. Where the audiance was dead quiet. There was alot of improper jokes going through my head. Afterwards someone says thank you Bruce.

A few years back when Bruce thought it was a good ideal to screen a few of the ninteen-forty-eight Batman serial episodes. Seeing Bruce facepalmed when the racial slurs was utter by the narrator. What did you expect?

Joe, what this Pumpkinhead II you speak of?

I agree completely. While my wife (before she was my wife) attended the last few at the Drexel North and the couple at the Riffe, I have been unable to get her to fall in love the with the Marathon's. She mostly now just tolerates them.

I worry my older son, will not get them either. He isn't as in to movies as I was at his age 8 (almost 9.) We did watch the Raymond Burr version of Godzilla a few weeks back. He felt bad for Godzilla, thought the people were being mean to him. Yes he was destroying things, but it was usually by accident or self defense. He's got a good heart and just does not enjoy mayhem and destruction. Yet.

I used to spend every Saturday watching Superhost on Channel 43 out of Cleveland. I used to constantly check book out of the Glenmont Elelmntary Libray about Godzilla, or the Wolfman, or Frankenstein. As Kent said, I felt a community by the end of the marathon. My parents had dropped me off at the marathon, but I had to walk home when it was over. The other thing I recall about that marathon was that we had to check in after evry movie and get a different stamp on our tickets. Only then could we get a certificate and we didn't get it for weeks.

Some of the marathons run together. There are the early years at the Drexel North when I went alone. The years when I went with my girlfriend, now wife. The Riffe years. The scary years when I thought the event might die. Then the Arena Grand/Gateway years. Now the current Drexel East era.

For example,

I recall from the early years, the first time I saw Gravity. Another memory is the guy next to me commenting on the number of times Sigourney Weaver is in her underwear in Alien vs. Aliens. The later Drexel years are a mixed bag of positives, Ed Kemmer, possibly the nicest person of all time and negatives, the full pop can throwing incident which lead to the Bread films being exiled for a time. Another positive is waiting in line near Bob, who I only introduced myself to years later, who had a group with him as he read from the Nitpickers guide to ST:TNG.

The Riffe years I recall fondly Gravity live and seeing the extended ID4 trailer. Oh, and getting, sort of flashed during the costume contest. I also recall Mothra vs. Star Fleet Officer not so fondly. And lots of more Artsy films, imho. Not that there was anything wrong with them, it just seemed like there were more than usual.

The scary years included the Contient, which had one of the most pleasant line waits. The weather was great, there was space to Frisbee, etc. It also had T2 going backwards and reverse for the final reel. At the time there was talk Cameron might direct Spiderman, which caused a funny shout out that we were actually seeing the early SFX shots from that film. We also had the Trailerthon and the introduction of Spaceboy. The Grandview also had Frequency, one of my favortie premieres.

The Arena Grand made it seem like we finally had a permanent home. Yeah, we had to share the theater, but we had great sound, reserved seats (I was living in DC at the time and getting to the line at a normal time for me) was difficult. There was Phil Tippet, who was entertaining, the Batman short director, who was not, and plenty of bathrooms for a change.

After a quick stop at the Grandview again we were at the Gateway for some racist Batman, a robot movie that seemed to be related to current events, but was a tad strident and not quite cutting edge, or even bearble, when it comes to sound and special effects. I also took my nephew to his first and only marathon. Just never got into it. I could tell when we watched the series of King King Trailers that looked progressively (for the most part) more primitive. He still thinks of Peter Jackson's King Kong as THE King Kong. I also recall fondly watching the young ladies in line for the shop across from the theater who were, for the most part, very esy on the eyes.

And now, the "moder" era at the Drexel East. I volunteered more (I usually did it in the past if the weather was crappy to get inside sooner) and got to see the basement of the theater and got a chance to meet some other folks or know some of the others better. I enjoyed Patricia Neal's memorable one liner. My failed efforts to pump some life back into the costume contest with some cash prizes. The dominance of Ro-Man in the costume contest. Lady Terminator. The Yes We Kahn T-Shirt. Our dog ate mine as a puppy about 2 years ago. <sigh>

Yeah, I didn't go into a lot of detail on most of these. But hopefully I sparked a few memories for folks. Sorry I haven't been around much. A couple factors have kept me tied up, but I will see all of you on the 19th.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

Thanks Dennis for reminding me about standing out in the dark at the Gateway Theater. Now I remember that one of the two years at the Gateway I got their first with the number one ticket. The first time I got the number one ticket. (By the way this is the second time I've gotten the first ticket.) There was some employees at some bar-eatery asking us what are we doing. I think it was the older man with the beard shouted back waiting for that Stone Cold Creamery to open.

Sorry to go off-topic, but that reminds me about how much I enjoyed Rowdy Roddy Piper's intense bout with Stone Cold Creamery oh so many years ago.

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"