The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

January 10th, Midnight Monster Movies with Dr. Bob will be having the WORLD PREMIERE of "Kingdom of Metal" at the Gateway Film Center!

Not familiar with Kingdom of Metal? If you're a longtime marathoner, you'll know it when it played at the 1994 Drexel North marathon under the name "Knights" with Kathy Long, Lance Henriksen and Kris Kristofferson! This is director Albert Pyun's drastic re-cut and re-edit of the film, hence the new title. There was a lot the producers had forced on him but he has, luckily for us, been able to release the film close to his vision of a woman kickboxing her way through cyborg vampires of the future!

"Will you teach me to be a cyborg killer?"

Cool! We had the U.S. Theatrical Premiere when we showed KNIGHTS at the 8th Annual Ohio 24 Hour Science Fiction Marathon at the Drexel North in '94, so it looks like Columbus is Ground Zero for this particular take on a bleak future. KNIGHTS was pretty well received at that 'thon, but I could see how a recut could be an improvement. The real highlight of that screening was star Kathy Long's appearance. After a terrific Q&A, she sat in the lobby and signed posters and talked to people for hours and hours. Just an absolute delight from the time she stepped off the plane! And with Ed Kemmer there introducing THE SPIDER and swearing the Marathoids into membership in the SPACE PATROL, it was one of my favorite 'thons in four decades of this nonsense.

Check the 1994 It Came from the Drexel North file in the ARCHIVES section for photos and documentation.

Kathy Long was a great guest at that marathon. I particularly remember her saying that Kris Kristofferson tried to re-write the KNIGHTS script so he could make out with her. That, and claiming she could beat Jean Claude Van Damme in a fight as long as she could avoid getting kicked in the face.

Good times.

Albert Pyun got all his footage back and cut this back to his original story where it ties more-or-less directly into Cyborg with the Master Builders backstory being revealed to be Cyborg's Area 51.

That year was definitely a banner year for the marathon! While we won't have Space Patrol, we will have an episode of out Flash Gordon serial!

I remember Kathy Long teling the story about when some jerk pi$$ed her off while she was driving and they both pulled over to fight it out. She said it was like he was in slow motion when he threw the first punch and she was trying to decide the best way to kick his a$$. She was a very cool Guest.

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

Next Saturday, the 10th, is your only chance to see Kathy Long kick cyborg butt on the big screen again! And it's free!

Check out the trailer here

Seating begins at 11:30 with a chapter of our 1936 Flash Gordon serial!