The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Not being a brown nose, a yes man that makes me a troll? Not following a "Cult of Personallity" makes me a troll? Please. I do agree with AErinhon. I do enjoy both thons and I do enjoy and respect both Bruce and Joe. I was looking back on past Horror thons and the movies that Bruce and Joe are 99% great choices. Plus I want see movies I've never seen before as well. BTW I never set foot in a Blockbuster in over three years. I've been getting my movies via Amazon, Video Central, and Netflix. I've been using worldcat.org to look up the movies as well. However I will still get my ticket in the next two weeks. I'll stand in line at no later than 7AM. I'll will spend money at the consessions. I'll cheer when Mr. Gordon makes his appearence. I'm a SCIENCE FICTION AND HORROR MARATHON VET

The following is the plot for The abominable Dr. Phibes-via IMDB: Doctors are being murdered in a bizarre manner: bats, bees, killer frog masks, etc., which represent the nine Biblical plagues. The crimes are orchestrated by a demented organ player with the help of his mute assistant. The detective is stumped until he finds that all of the doctors being killed assisted a Dr. Vesalius on an unsuccessful operation involving the wife of Dr. Phibes, but he couldn't be the culprit, could he? He was killed in a car crash upon learning of his wife's death... Now here is the plot for Se7en: This thriller portrays the exploits of a deranged serial-killer. His twisted agenda involves choosing seven victims who represent egregious examples of transgressions of each of the Seven Deadly Sins. He then views himself as akin to the Sword of God, handing out horrific punishment to these sinners. Two cops, an experienced veteran of the streets who is about to retire and the ambitious young homicide detective hired to replace him, team up to capture the perpetrator of these gruesome killings. Unfortunately, they too become ensnared in his diabolical plan.... Now it seems to me that these two stories are completely different, the only true link being that there are biblical references in each... and another thing, se7en scores an 84% on rotten tomatoes, while dr. phibes only got a 73%......need I say more?

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"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part"

Well, the reason I love the inclusion of Irreversible is the EXACT reason that LA doesn't - because it IS BORDERLINE horror. You have to admit that having Stuart there to introduce and talk about the film will make it all the more interesting. I am sure he will talk about many of the same things we are discussing on this board. If he doesn't, I hope someone asks him the question - "Why he thinks it is a horror film." Joe, it is your duty to do this!

Funny, I had this discussion over lunch...well...maybe over several lunches through the course of a weekend with another group of my friends. Nobody could agree on exactly what a horror film was, but it was an interesting discussion nonetheless. One person thought that Taxi Driver was a horror film. I didn't, necessarily. It is discussions like these that provoke thought and help forward genre and allow us to study and learn.

REGARDING HENRY
Now - I think Henry is a horror film....it's hard for me to defend though because I have not seen it in 15 years or more! If the film were told from the perspectives of the victims, I think nobody would question that it wasn't a horror film. This is why nobody says Halloween isn't a horror film - it's told form the perspective of the victims. OK - there are a few POV camera scenes, but those are for effect. In general the story is about Laurie Strode and her friends. THIS is what make Henry interesting. It's a genre film FLIPPED inside out and told from the perspective of the killer. By the way, I realize this is not the first film to do this, afterall Maniac far preceded Henry. I wonder if any of you would consider Devil's Rejects a horror film. It pretty much does the same thing as Henry, however, I admit that I did not care for the film, though I do think that it is a horror film.

So what is a horror film? Horror films are those films that deal with and evoke horror. OK, so that sounds lame....BUT let me go on... The dictionary definition of horror is:

HORROR - Noun- An overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear: to shrink back from a mutilated corpse in horror.

So is a something like Taxi Driver a horror film....well it could be. What about Flight 93. Is that a horror film? Well, with flight 93, it certainly deals with horrifying material and so does Taxi Driver. Flight 93 is about terrorist who hijack a plane and attempt to kill all 50 passengers by crashing the plane.


SPOILER ALERT (Taxi Driver)







Taxi Driver ends in a bloodbath. With Travis Bickle killing the Pimp and his posse.




SPOIL OVER



It is violent and difficult to watch. However, with those films, I contend that the principle focus is not on the horror. With Taxi Driver it is an examination of of society and a member of society, Travis Bickle, who does not fit in. Some may say that Travis Bickle is like an avenging Angel cleansing society and "washing away all the filth" from the streets. Bickel doesn't quite fit in, so in some ways he is his own entity separate from society and all it's norms, thus he is like an avenging angel from above. Flight 93 focuses on Heroism. Sure it is about horrible deeds, but the focus is on heroism and the act of saving. So personally I don't think either are horror films. NOW, definitely Flight 93 is not a horror film, but I CAN see the arguments for Taxi Driver and who knows....with more thought on the matter I may come around to TD as a horror film. In fact, I may have to revisit the film, as I have not seen it in about 15 years. This time watching it, I will try and see it as a horror film.

Back to the definition. Even though the word Horror, is easily defined by Webster dictionary, it is still hard to define and pinpoint what a horror film is. This is because horror changes and WHAT a horror film is changes as time goes by because what horrifies us and shocks us changes. It wasn't until after the industrial age that "serial" killers became more prevalant. The fear of nuclear creatures from the bottom of the sea could not have existed before the invention of the nuclear bomb. When Frankenstein was written, the fear of serial killers was not as much in the conscious mind as the fear of Ghouls, Vampires, Werewolves, and animated corpses. Let's face it...seems that those "supernatural" fears will always be with us. It's burned into our subconcious. The fear and horror of serial killers is something that is relatively new. Thus we have the slasher genre and the serial killer genre. I think that Henry is a continuation of the slasher genre....it's a horror film told from the point of view of the killer. It is a genre beding film.

WHAT ABOUT IRREVERSIBLE
Well....too hard for me to argue this one too...as I have not seen it since it came out. I was certainly freaked out by it. I am not even sure I think that it is a horror film myself. I would have to see it again. Sooooo, I will be lame and not discuss it.


Wow....my thoughts are really scattered and I am just droning on.... Basically, I love that the Marathon includes these type of films. The marathon should not be all ghost films, or slasher films, or even all supernatural films. This is the chance to actually have an academic discussion with a group of horror fans and a famous director on a subject matter that is challenging and thought provoking. A very unique oppurtunity for all those in attendence. This is what makes the screening of this film special. I don't think Joe would have booked it had Stuart not suggested showing the title. Henry - Yes. I think Henry is more obviously horror than Irreversible, though even that is debatable. I mean, you could argue that Dead Alive is not a horror film, or DEFINITELY argue that Army of Darkness is not horror. Would anyone have trouble with those films showing....I doubt it. Hell, Army is a fantasy comedy with hardly any horror in it at all.

Horror should not always be safe! Horror has always pushed the envelope. To me the Horror Marathons are about the entire genre, border-line horror, classic horror, supernatural, etc etc. I gurantee people will be talking about this in the lobby. Yes, some people may be furious for such material screening. Some may be freaked out....but you know what, that is what horror does and that is why I am a genre fan.


PS - LA, the Columbus crowds are much more accepting of material such as this than the Boston crowds.

PSS - I didn't want to go too far into the discussion of what a horror film is....I could write a thesis on the subject! I could have went into and talked about iconography of horror, subgenre, etc....but I sort of ended my discussion a little early as I didn't want to REALLY start boring people.

willcail, sorry about the misunderstaning. When you use the word "safe" it means something entirely different to me. I thought you meant, playing it safe - tame - not challenging. So thus I was surprised by your use of the word "safe".

It does seem that all the titles are on video except for I Sell The Dead. It would be nice to see some more material in the line-up that is not available on DVD. They have manage to do this in years past, but I can tell you that it is challenging. The days of old, where repertoire theaters were the only way to see films is long gone. Everything seems to make it to video these days. There is a FAR wider selection of material on video than on film. It is getting harder and harder. I remember a few years back they played Pieces which was not on video at the time, but has since been put to DVD. Squirm is another film that comes to mind - now that is on DVD. There are film prints out there that are not on DVD, but it is a meager selection.

I still think this is a nice collection of films even though most are available on video. I recently saw Day of the Dead on film. I must have seen this film at least 15 times. It was absolutely brilliant seeing it on film. Gorgeous print. Felt like I was seeing it for the first time. You know what, I had never seen this on film. I had only saw it on video. So just because the films are available on DVD, does not mean they can not be enjoyed in their original formats. I hope you are able to enjoy some of the other titles besides the few you mentioned.

I sincerely wish I could make it this year. Maybe next year.....

Perhaps the Ohio Marathoners are more forgiving of borderline stuff than the Boston crowd is. Still, these events happen only a handful of times per year, and I don't find it 'time slot' efficient to put in too many off topic films when there are dozens and dozens of on-topic titles which have their sole existing 35MM print literally decaying and/or being left to rot away never to be replaced by a new print. That's just me. And, even more so than the Science Fiction film marathon, there SO MANY good solid meat and potatoes true Horror films that have either never been shown at the Horror Marathon or are obscure enough that many in the crowd haven't seen them.

Plus, your intelligent retort still begs the question of why not a FLIGHT 93? Why not the FACES OF DEATH movies? And, why not some revolting porn film? Why stop at IRREVERSIBLE?

The book definition of "horror" may be accurate, but that does necessarily mean that it fits a "horror film". I will paraphrase the great actor Boris Karloff for a definition of a horror film - A film that makes one's hair stand on end, not that makes you lose your breakfast.

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

One friend of mine called Requiem for a Dream the best horror film of the decade. And I can kind of see what he meant. Not the first category I'd put it in, but in the context of everything Carter said, it could certainly fit. I'm really not into nitpicking every title or description of a film or people's personal preferences. I mention Se7en as an example of another borderline horror and it starts its own sidebar conversation about the quality of the film. I really didn't care if anyone or no one liked the movie, I just thought it was a good example of blurring the distinctions between genres.

On my own side note, at the 2004 Sci-fi marathon, the person in front of me stunk so bad from the very beginning, that I put a car air freshener on the back of his seat. I told Joe that he should book Se7en at a horror marathon as an excuse to decorate the theater with little pine trees and mask the stench of 300 marathoids. Please shower and use deodorant before coming everyone.

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

I love this year's lineup.

It is better than Cats.

I'm going to see it again and again....

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

LA, fair enough. I see your point of trying to squeeze in as much "on-topic" material as possible. If you view borderline material as off-topic. That is fair.

By the way, this discussion is all in the interest good fun.. I am not trying to start a war. In fact, as some of you may not realize, LA and I are friends.

I pose the question that I mentioned earlier - would you object to showing Army of Darkness or perhaps something like Love at First Bite or Young Frankenstein?

I notice Joe posted the deadline after I put up my countdown, saying I would be gone through today. Now I have to pay a WHOLE $2 more for my ticket.

Seriously, it looks like a great lineup.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

I just want to have a challenging line up that"s all. I'm just an die hard horror fan and majority of my Netflix queue is horror and cult flicks. Since I'm posting this using a PC instead trying to bang it out on a LG Rumor.

I know this sort of doesnt belong in this topic, but after all the references thus far, I had to check out night of the living bread on youtube...hilarious! I truly loved it...I couldn't find loaf, however, just a trailer for it...can the bread dvd be found online?

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"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part"

There were DVD's of all four Bread films. The catch is that these were offer at one of the Nightmare at Studio 35 event. I don't know if they are going to be another run. The DVD contains the following: Night of the Living Bread, LOAF, Another Bread Film, and the final Bread film that was shot on 35MM film Sandwitch. Very hard to find.

The official, fully colorized version of the flier should be hitting the streets this coming Tuesday, but until then, here's an approximation of what it will look like. Enjoy! And tell your friends!

Brings a tear to my eye..... Wish I could make it. Nice flyer - I love the stark contrasty image of the From Beyond artwork as a center piece.

Nice flyer. Can't wait to see it in color.

The question I have that will From Beyond be the director's cut or the R rated version? I re watch my From Beyond DVD and enjoy the director's cut of the film.