The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Perhaps you should preface this rant with a "spoiler alert?"
In any case, I will do my best to answer your questions as I interpret them...

The girl that broke up with his partner was a "scout" of sorts for the "strange wicker cult." She tagged his mirror with their symbol. The "victims" all said "thank you" because they were ALL cult members and willing participants in the sacrifice, along with (as revealed in the final minutes) the contractor and the "doctor" he visits for his infection. He had to kill his family as the final sacrifice for whatever ritual they were completing. It apparently had to be a willful strike, thus the deception and manipulation. The reveal of the "cult" is the twist to make the audience realize that everything the main character has done up to the final sacrifice was predetermined by the cult, and every situation he was put into was a part of their agenda. The writer did not "cop out" on the ending because the entire movie was the ending. It's a common narrative trope that can be very powerful when it works and pretty much be the death of everything when it doesn't.

Here, I think it works to an extent, but not completely. The only question I cannot answer for you is "And what was with the strange wicker cult?" I have no idea what the final ritual was going to accomplish, positively or negatively, for the members of the cult, which is I think a major flaw of the film. What happens next? No clue, but the "reveal" was satisfying and the logistics of everything made sense and it was emotionally devastating for me.

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

In the linked piece AEinhorn writes: " Sadly, White Zombie is not one of the great Bela’s finest hours. Oh, he’s captivating as always on screen, but the film is profoundly stupid, and none of the other characters ever raise beyond the level of stereotype.I’m not upset that White Zombie aired. If it has ever shown at our marathon before, it’s been a long time. And any Universal classic film is always welcome before we get into the ugly, gritty horror films of the modern era. But this film was a yawner."

First of all, this was one of the most famous independent productions of the 30s. It was made by an enterprising pair of siblings, The Halperin Brothers. It was not a Universal film (it was distributed by United Artists - but, not produced by them).

Second, it is widely considered to be one of Bela Lugosi's "finest hours", including by Lugosi himself. The most seminal books on the classic horror cinema written by authors William K. Everson, Carlos Clarens and Calvin Beck all consider it be, if not the best, one of the his most superior films - and performances.

I agree.

Of course, to each his own. I have never gotten the chance to see it on the big screen. I do highly recommend the Roan Group DVD. It isn't perfect, but it is the best restoration job on this title.

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

I apologize for getting the producer of the film wrong (and will fix the article, along with another slight fix Bruce pointed out to me).

I won't apologize for my opinion. I quite like a lot of films of that era, but I was honestly bored to tears with White Zombie.

First and foremost, going into the marathon, I thought that on-paper, it was the most interesting lineup assembled in the 8-9 years I’ve been attending. It delivered and then some. Of the 12 movies screened, I thought nine were good or great, two I was indifferent to but appreciated and only one did I find myself actively loathing.

I was already totally in the bag for Dead Alive, Videodrome and American Werewolf in London. No need to expound on those classics any. All great gets.

Biggest surprise: Something Wicked This Way Comes. I’d never seen it before and figured I’d like it, but ended up flat-out loving it. Great story, great performances and plenty of genuine creepiness despite the Disney name in the title cards. Touching too. Joe nailed it when he talked about its ability to capture the child view the way it does. Excellent. I can’t recommend it enough.

The one-two punch of Possession and The Devils didn’t disappoint in the slightest. Possession was even weirder than I expected (and I expected weird). As horrifying as the horror in it is, those knock-down, drag-out arguments between Neil and Adjani are every bit as cringe-causing. This has been the movie my movie-buff friends who didn’t attend have quizzed me the most about. I just tell them to track it down and watch it. Must track down more Zulawski. Also, I want to learn to fight Heinrich style.
Having seen a few Ken Russell flicks before, The Devils was exactly what I expected. In a good way. Lots to love about it (except that score - YIKES) but, oddly enough, I think the sets will stick with me the most. Some really striking visuals with those white tiles of the nunnery.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes and the Phantom of the Paradise have both been on my mental to-watch list for a while and both exceeded my expectations. Beef!

I liked Kill List (looked excellent) but also sorta struggled with the ultimate story, particularly with the issue of motivation. The mechanics of how it gets to where it goes didn’t bother me, but the lack of clarity about why it goes where it goes sorta did. I don’t always demand an explanation from the movies I watch, but this was one where the answer to why felt important to me. It warrants watching again, but I can’t help but feel there isn’t a why there, just a plot machine (a well-executed plot machine to its credit) to get the protagonist from point A to the shock ending.

It was cool to see White Zombie. I always appreciate the inclusion of classics such as this, but they honestly never do much for me. I admire its place in history, but probably wouldn’t revisit on my own.
I also was generally indifferent to The Last Circus. It was certainly well done, but it felt about 15-20 minutes too long for my liking and I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t counting down the time until the credits. I’m willing to take some of the blame due to tiredness and early morning irritability, but past movies screened around the same time have won me over. This one didn’t quite do it. Carolina Bang was smoking hot.

The only dud -- Werewolves on Wheels. Glad to have scratched that itch after seeing the trailer for years, but definitely bad-bad and not good-bad as I had long hoped. Someone else already mentioned it but it definitely felt like about 75 percent of the movie was improvised in a really, really bad way.

The overall event was, once again, an overwhelmingly positive experience. Great service, good food offerings, more great decorations, awesome coffee mugs yet again. I always enjoy the pre-movie thoughts and Joe’s reading of the Bradbury essay this year was a nice touch. The crowd was good (I also agree it seemed more than in the past, which is great!) - I remember no objectionable sounds or smells.

But now, regretfully, my one negative note -- scheduling. I’ve been attending for about 8-9 years now and almost every year I have attended and definitely every year since going back to 24 hours, there has been issues with keeping on schedule. I can only speak for myself on this, but the inability to stay on schedule has been a constant point of frustration for me as an attendee. I am sympathetic to issues like projection problems or other hindrances that on occasion have happened. I’m obviously not privy to the details about why the stated schedule can’t be maintained and I’m sure it has varied from year to year, but one thing is certain -- something always happens and when it does it leads to either a movie being cut, as in previous years, or the event running an entire movie length over schedule. Neither of which are ideal.

While I really do appreciate all the work Joe, Bruce and their team do in planning and executing this wonderful event every years, it seems that the schedule every year winds up an over commitment. It just doesn’t seem like 12 movies can be done in 24 hours whatever the reasons may be. I may be in the minority, but I’d rather have an 11 film lineup finishing on time than a 12 film lineup that risks dropping a movie and/or running over schedule. An additional 1.5 hours may not seem much in the scheme of a 24 hour event, but it sure felt like it on Sunday. Giving your customers what they purchased is definitely important, but that isn’t just the slate of movies, that’s the time commitment as well.
My intent is constructive criticism. I hope this one complaint isn’t interpreted as anything but.

Again, thanks for everything you all do.

Also, this Thon desperately needed more Franco and Ciccio

Kudos to Joe and Bruce for another successful event.

However, I do want to mention one negative thing and then I will shut up about it. Two friends of mine "lost" their seats early on because they were helping film the event (Joe's introductions, the contests, etc.) Their stuff was in their seats and they were clearly taken seats. The people chose to be (*self-censored*) about it and refused to move even though the seats were not theirs. Since when is it cool to just take someone's seats like that, especially those of people who are trying to help the event? If the seats were completely empty, I could understand. But when someone says, "those seats are taken", you should be willing to move. My friends were cool about it and chose not to make it an issue, but just for future reference it's not cool to do that. You don't just take seats that are CLEARLY OCCUPIED as if they are empty and then act like they have been yours the whole time. Again, empty seats, fine. Occupied seats with people's stuff in them, NOT fine. And don't try to tell me that you can't tell the difference. Not buying it. It's not our fault that you showed up at 2:15 and expected to find seats in the second row.

Having said that, I greatly enjoyed the event otherwise and I'm looking forward to next year.

Oh, and you also missed

8. Joe REALLY loves The Alan Parsons Project's legendary album TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION.

I'm really sorry this happened to you and there is no reason for anyone to ever be stupid about seats. Silver lining here is that this is as crowded as I have ever seen a Marathon since I have been coming back the past 11 years and that in and of itself, as AEinhorn said before, is a Good Thing(tm).

It has been a while since I have heard the "make room for your fellow marathoners" speech from Bruce and Joe. I hope things like this don't discourage some of those non-veterans out there, because for me the crowd and the claustrophobic feel is all part of the fun...

Some other more serious thoughts on the Marathon this year:

First time in a while I didn't actually hate anything that played. Even Werewolves on Wheels was charming for a few minutes and I slept through about half of it and don't feel I missed much. I mentioned to my buddies that I did not see an "editor" credit in the credits, because my theory is they just printed everything they shot.

It was so wonderful to experience the audience just drink in Possession. I still don't know what to make of it, but I was certainly never bored. Perhaps the perfect Marathon movie in the perfect time slot. And that tunnel freak-out was truly Something To Behold.

Overall, projection issues were much improved. And kudos to ALL prints being present and accounted for and in fantastic shape.
The major hiccups during the first movie was easy to laugh off, but the one before The Devils was a real momentum killer. This pushed a deliberately paced film that was already probably scheduled too late into a horribly unsuitable time slot. I imagine a lot of peoiple head-snapped like me during this one when they did not want to.

I liked The Last Circus, but not as much as I wanted to because by that point I had simply had enough of the "everyone dies at the end" pattern. I know this is a HORROR marathon, but jeez, even I can only take so much depression in one night before it really starts to weigh on your psyche.

A fantastic event as usual, for many reasons, not just what was on screen. Managed to stay awake for nearly everything except 30 minutes or so of Videodrome and the aforementioned Werewolves on Wheels. Many thanks again to Bruce and Joe (and Vitruvianzeke and the Nedrows).

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

Something that I haven't seen addressed - which I find interesting in the light of the comments on the topic both on the forum and at the event - was the amount of snarking at the event, which seemed to be way down.

Not complaining, but I can barely remember hearing a comment through the event, and I certainly can't remember any that hit in the middle of a film that ended up distracting or bothering me.

The group I was with actually watched this happen. Not 100% sure if it's the same people but the folks I saw steal the seats actually grabbed the stuff and handed it to them, even though it was marked off (with caution tape too). Not to mention the "seat thieves" came 30 minutes late into the theater.

Look, I understand people have prior commitments and can't always show up on time but this is scheduled several months in advance, don't make others suffer because of your inability to be on time. Rant over...

As mentioned above, I too would rather have 11 films and end on time than to have 12 and go over. With that said, the event is one of my favorite "holidays" and is done so very well. Thanks again Joe and Bruce and the folks at the Grandview Theatre for all you do!

Sorry Everyone but I don't agree, knowing that premieres are important to the event what film would you have dropped from the list this year? Obviously Joe and Bruce would keep Kill List and The Last Circus but what would have been dropped if this was an 11 film event? I am sure everyone would suggest a different title. Than next year when there is that one movie you didn't like you would be wondering what the "12th movie" would have been and why they didn't choose that movie over the one you didn't care for. It's best to keep it a 12 movie event and risk going over or dropping a film HOWEVER I would suggest that if a film is Dropped due to time issues the marathon should play that movie the following year NO MATTER WHAT!!

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Jaws3dfan®
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I have to agree with Jaws3Dfan, I'd rather have the extra movie. It may not be as big of a deal for some, but this is a fairly big movie event for me and my fiancee. An extra hour or 2 isn't going to hurt me one bit. I was saddened by the lack of trailers toward the end (I'm a movie trailer junkie), but I do understand for time.


//begin semi-rant

While we didn't arrive late, we did have problems finding 2 seats together. We stood up nearly the entire time during Phibes because we saw all the seats that were saved. We eventually found a couple of seats (not together, but found some people that were willing to switch so we could sit together.)

While I like the fact people got there much earlier, what I didn't understand was the fact that I saw several saved seats unused for the first couple of movies...I was really infuriated by this couple (during Phibes) who took someone's obviously saved seats and put their stuff in the aisle. I didn't care for the sense of entitlement they had, but I'm also not going to make a scene during the middle of a movie.

//end semi-rant

It isn't about what should've been dropped. My point is nothing should be dropped and the event shouldn't run a full movie-length behind (30 minutes over time, ok; 1.5 hours, not ok), but history has shown that 12 movies in 24 hours just doesn't fit for whatever reasons.

I think Joe, Bruce and Co. do a great job and I think everything they do comes from a good place, but I think 12 movies has consistently proven to be an overcommitment on their part. It's a well-intentioned commitment, but it keeps leading to either the threat of cutting a movie from a lineup customers have paid to see or demanding more time from customers who've already committed 24 hours. The time issue is particularly problematic since the final movie in the lineup is usually one of some note so people are faced with the choice of sticking it out despite exhaustion or whatever plans they may have after the event or leaving and missing what is likely one of the better movies on the slate.

You can play the "why didn't they pick this movie instead" game with any marathon of any size. That's irrelevant to me.

Again, not trying to be an a-hole. Trying to be constructive.

I haven't been able to attend a Schlock Around the Clock since the first one at the Grandview with Stuart Gordon as the special guest so every thing I say is based on memories of the past 23 of marathons that I've been attending on and off and does not apply to this past year...

First off, there's no way you should cut back on movies to get this thing on schedule! There used to be 13 movies at the marathons! The problem tends to be projection problems and too many trailers and shorts. There's not much you can do about projection problems unfortunately. Sometimes stuff just happens and the projection Gods have to fix it. That brings us to the other factor effecting the schedule....

Chicago has been doing 12-13 films per marathon for about 8 years and they've never run more than 15-20 minutes over schedule. In fact last year the Music Box Massacre ended about 40 minutes early!!!! They do this by showing almost no trailers between movies which I am absolutely NOT a fan of. I think trailers and shorts are a huge part of the marathon experience for me and I greatly miss them when I can't make it to Columbus. I can't speak to this year's Chicago marathons because I didn't finish either of them (damn old age). The new hosts at the Music Box did start playing trailers between about every other movie this year so maybe they were late. But the old hosts who moved their event to the Portage Theater kept up their tradition of only playing trailers before the first movie and not again (unless it was after 8am). They are such sticklers for Staying on Schedule that there was literally NO BREAK between some of the movies. And I don't just mean short breaks, their 2 projector system let one movie end and the next movie begin immediately at least twice. I personally don't think that's any way to run a marathon but they don't listen to me, so it is what it is.

So Columbus usually has the opposite problem. Sometimes there are 20 minute breaks followed by 30-40 minute trailer/shorts blocks. That can be too much. I love the trailer reels as much as anyone, but they should probably cut down to a more manageable length. Or if there is a 30 minute trailer reel, then don't have a break-let that 30 minutes be the break. But sometimes it would literally be 45 minutes after one feature ends and another begins which begins to be a little too much. Solution is to either cut down the trailers substantially or cut the break time to 5 minutes and cut the trailers to no more than 10 minutes before each film. That gives everyone a total of 15 minutes to walk around and stretch without missing any of the films and then everyone gets the chance to see trailers if they want. If you still run late you can remove the trailers from the late night films.

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

For the record, I'd be totally cool with 12 movies run on a tighter schedule too. Just seems easier to do one fewer movie since late starts, projection problems and whatever else may crop up seem to be an inevitability.