The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

I think you misunderstood, cleazer. We were talking about As Above, So Below.

I don't think anyone was suggesting that What We Do In the Shadows should not play.

For the record, I REALLY want to see that film - I love Flight of the Conchords, and also loved Taiki Waititi's other film, Eagle vs. Shark.

It seemed to be a rant against found footage in general. Which would include WWDITS.

A good suggestion for a non-found footage semi-recent film would be Grabbers. (A bunch of Irish drunks discover that aliens won't attack them when they're drunk.)

A nice enjoyable little movie. It doesn't quite rise to the level of all-time classic or funniest movie of all time, but it's a film that the marathon crowd would surely enjoy.

To be clear, found footage is the style in which things are captured by amateur video and could be pieced together. Movies like WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (as well as stuff like THE SACREMENT, which is quite good) are more mockumentary style.

Of course, that's not to say that some found footage movies aren't enjoyable. TROLL HUNTER, which showed several years ago at SciFi was pretty great, and even CLOVERFIELD can be fun.

The found footage genre, however, has been done to death. AS ABOVE / SO BELOW had some great stuff in it, but it was all squandered by the found footage format and the best stuff left unexplored. Other movies like PROJECT ALMANAC and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES use the found footage style to mask crappy filmmaking.

I know some people disagree with me and like the style, but I hate it with the fiery passion of a billion burning supernovae. There are a handful of exceptions, but for the most part, I can't stand basic found footage movies. They're nauseating to watch on the big screen, and most of them are derivative and uninspired.

But like I said, mockumentaries that tell a cohesive story can be pretty good if done well.

It Follows is great, but a mere six months after a wide release may be a bit soon. Then again, I guess Lucy would fall into that category on the SciFi side...

I saw a fantastic horror film at the Phoenix Film Festival this past weekend called Blood Punch. The director claimed that they actually have distribution, but I haven't seen any further details about that on their IMDB or their official page either. Keeps your eyes open, though, because if it happens to turn up somewhere in your neck of the woods later this year, you will definitely want to check it out. Also try not to read any spoilers, as it is a Cabin In The Woods style, the less you know the better type of mind-bender. But trust me, it is very good.

I also caught a screening of a movie from some of the creative team behind the SciFi premiere of a couple years ago, Manborg. It's called The Editor and it is an often hilarious Giallo parody that practically begs to be screened at a Horror Marathon programmed by Joe Neff.

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

Once again, I'm with Kevin on this... "found footage" is not the same thing as "mockumentary."

While I guess you could say there is some gray area between the two, I think most of the time, it's pretty easy to tell the two apart:
Spinal Tap? Mockumentary
Blair Witch Project? Found Footage

WWDITS appears, from the trailer, to fall quite neatly into the mockumentary genre, and not found footage.

And while I generally love a good muckumentary, I also (like Kevin and Einhorn) find the Fount Footage genre to be way overdone, not very creative, and often irritating to watch. So, yea, I could live happily without ever seeing As Above, So Below.

WWDITS - count me in, for wanting to see that one! DO IT, JOE!

Also - Grabbers is a good suggestion, cleazer! Saw it on Netflix - would love to see it with the marathon crowd.

OMG - I looked up that film on IMDB - no trailer, alas, but...
UDO KIER!

Anything with Udo Kier is worth watching!

I actually saw the movie, and of course it falls under the category of mockumentary, but I see no reason it couldn't be classified as both. One doesn't necessarily exclude the other. (Nor does it always include the other, obviously.)




Yeah, if you want to talk about movies that flew under the radar, that one flew even lower than Babadook, It Follows, and WWDITS. Surely that's something that well under 10% of the marathon crowd saw. (Especially when you consider the large portions of the recent marathon crowds that hadn't previously seen stuff like Lucy, You're Next, Inception, or 2001.)



That said, here I am suggesting mostly movies I've already seen, but I'd love to see stuff that's new to me. (Though I am quite certain the marathon crowd would love WWDITS. Just about everything they do in that movie just works perfectly.)

A brief teaser trailer for The Editor can be found HERE.

And, in case anyone's interested, one for Blood Punch is HERE.

I normally don't recommend trailers in today's unfortunately spoiler-heavy saturated marketing environment. However, these are highly effective, virtually spoiler-free and prime examples on how to pretty much get it right.

And, indeed, Udo Kier is pretty darn awesome...

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

whoa, cool trailer

I vote 2 big thumbs up for both of those!

Especially The Editor... that trailer reminded me a bit of The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears, and, moreso, Italian Spiderman!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhHhXukovMU

How about any of the Critters series? Those were always fun movies!

I'm down for some light hearted, kid friendly movies. It's good to cleanse the palate after seeing some real gritty stuff.

Ernest Scared Stupid
Hocus Pocus
Monster Squad
Witches
The Halloween Tree

If they ever play ERNEST SCARED STUPID, they should serve miak at the concession stand.

I would love to see CRITTERS at the Horror and/or Sci-Fi Marathon.

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"If you have GHOSTS you have Everything" - Papa Emeritus II GHOST B.C.

I'm a fan of a nice pallet cleaner film every now and then. My first marathon, one of the offerings was "Young Frankenstein."