The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Burrrr. . .seemed to get just a little colder in cyberspace all of a sudden.

Jeff and Bruce had a son named Juice!! ...well, i tried, that line made everyone happy the last time it was uttered

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

HAIR METAL RULES, Way better than that Grunge Crap.

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Versus never played a Drexel marathon. Also I just wanted to derail the current discussion because I was getting bored with it. Plus I felt the need to bash the 90's for ruining America. Other than that yes you are correct there have been a lot of good premiers.

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I have a question. . .will Jason X be playing at the marathon?

Probably not but I hope so, one of the few "Newer" movies not ruined by the 90's effect lol

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I was just joking. I know it won't play unless it is a last minute suprise and the Bollywood film was just a prank. But one can hope. And I was trying to change the subject as well. A little levity please? Just a little over a week and I am getting excited. Anyone know if we are close to a sell-out this year?

[/quote]Versus never played a Drexel marathon. Also I just wanted to derail the current discussion because I was getting bored with it. Plus I felt the need to bash the 90's for ruining America. Other than that yes you are correct there have been a lot of good premiers.[/quote]

I certainly don't want to get into politics on here: I hate both parties but I hate one more than the other. And to say the 1990s ruined the country is ridiculous as our country has stepped into overdrive to ruin itself the last 10 years (and seriously I hate both parties). But I will agree that the 1990s ruined horror movies. Horror thrives when there's economic uncertainty, war, etc... When a nation feels secure they turn they're attention inwards and suddenly political correctness and Presidential fellatio are the "horror" stories dominating the psyche. The 1980's had 2 massive recessions, Iran-contra, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the past decade's had terrorism, 3 major wars and economic collapse. And both decades have produced some remarkable genre films. The other strike against 90s genre filmmaking was the overuse of subpar CGI as it became a contest to see who could have the most CGI regardless of how it looked or if it was necessary. And yeah, grunge sucked.

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

Hey now, my rebuke to Tim's post was supposed to be brimming with levity. Super dry levity, yes, but levity nonetheless. Besides, this guy and I go back to 1997. Hell, if not for that fateful day when he recommended me for the job, I might never have gone back to manage the Drexel Grandview. Hmmm...now I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Jim is spot on about the decline of horror in the '90s. Part of that decline was also due to the genre attaining some modicum of mainstream acceptance, which is the kiss of death for films like this. Much like the French New Wave, it took the resurgence of J-Horror in the late '90s and early '00s to inspire American filmmakers to reinvigorate some of their fare.

But a bigger problem for horror films has been the virtual death of truly independent distribution. For three decades AIP and then Corman's New World and New Horizons provided a steady stream of sometimes inspired low budget fare and constant opportunities for budding auteurs (and budding hacks) to learn their craft. In the '80s, Charles Band's empire was at full force, the Golan/Globus factory at Cannon was cranking out product and New Line had yet to be taken over by Warners. You could go to the local multiplex and see unrated delights like Re-Animator and Day of the Dead, films which today would struggle to get any kind of a major release. Yes, the internet and cheaper camera equipment have given more filmmakers the chance to produce their own work, but the lack of wider distribution and dilution of overall quality has led to the truly good genre films sometimes being lost in a flood of mediocrity.

Now, just to poke Tim one more time (HA!), I'll note that much of the watered down and PG-13 horror fare that we've seen for awhile can, in part, be traced back to...the '80s! Because it was early in that decade that the major movie studios began worshipping at the corporate shrine, hiring television veterans like Michael Eisner and Jeff Katzenberg to head their film divisions and beginning a long process that eventually led to all of the majors being owned by international corporations obsessed with the bottom line above all else. And when you're only worried about profit margins and shareholders, you're more likely to greenlight films that will appeal to the widest possible audience...which is the worst possible environment for cutting edge horror. So in many ways, the go-go Greed is Good 80's created the atmosphere that poisoned much of the horror field a decade later.

1990's was a decade that majority of the time was peace and prosperity. The 1980's have three good things going for it was animation, video games, and movies. Other than that it was a decade under a threat of nuclear war. If you think nuclear war is a good thing then you need your head examining. Plus it was Reagan's CIA that gave us Osama Bin Laden. So no the 1980's was a crap decade.

The 1980's was a decade of douchebags and assholes.

-pokes head out and pulls out film canisters for Automatons 2-

Don't make me use these, people. Back away from the political talk. Get back to the movies.

-puts canisters away-

In all seriousness, pick any given era and you will find films that you can say "This is responsible for the death of the genre" and "Wow, those were amazing."

I am, however, in the camp of "Do we have too much that is new/unknown? Would we be better off with another well-known 'fun' film?" I don't know what in the line-up I'd suggest we drop - many of this year's premieres look good.

Boy, I hope that we never show Joe Dante's Homecoming at the Horror Marathon. Aaron's head might explode.

But seriously, any talk of the history of the genre, or the history of film for that matter, will inevitably lead to some political/sociological talk. It's that whole art being a reflection of society thing. And hey, one of the best books about the horror genre is David Skal's The Monster Show (highly recommended) which offers a decade by decade analysis of how horror and sci-fi films dealt with social issue that mainstream cinema was not yet prepared to address.

Every era has had it's issues but at least in the 80's we knew how to ignore all the sh!t and have fun. In the 90's the "PC" crowd forced the word to stop the party and look at the world for what it is (and it isn't a good place) the whole reason for movies and music is to escape the BS and forget about the fact that you could die any second, or that millions of people are starving.

I saw a great comedian on t.v. years ago that summed it up perfectly, his girlfriend wanted to see some drama filled movie with feelings and problems, he wanted to see "People under the stairs" and his logic was brilliant.. he said "I have drama, feeling and problems in my life but I don't have people that live under my stairs that eat other people" to that I say AMEN.

I don't want to know or care about other peoples problems, I have enough of my own to deal with. And the thing I hate most about the "PC" generation is the whole "I was offended" attitude. First off No one can offend anyone, you have to choose to be offended. And secondly being offended requires no action on the part of the person who is offended.."I am offended so you need to change" that is pure BS if your so offended grow a thicker skin or go to a shrink but don't expect the world to change because your offended.

Lets make a list of things we shouldn't joke about because at lease one person may be offended. The list would be a mile long and no one would ever be able to write a song, movie or TV show ever again because you would get the one person who would be all like "that guy on t.v. got a splinter in his finger and that offended me because I knew a guy who once got a splinter and it seemed to really hurt him for like 2 seconds and no one should have to relive that pain, it was very unfeeling for them to make a movie like this without thinking of those who have gotten splinters and how it effected their lives"

Yes I can come up with a way to be offended by anything but I choose to ignore people because everyone is different, everyone thinks differently and everyone has something they can be offended by if they let it happen.

I personally judge everyone on the same scale, I don't care about your color, race, age, religion, sex, sexual preference or body oder, all I care about is when I am talking to you are you an a$$hole or not. Now of coarse the term a$$hole is relevant to everyone, I quote John Amos in Die Hard 2 when Bruce Willis said to him "Guess I was wrong about you. You're not such an a$$hole after all." and he replies "Oh, you were right. I'm just your kind of a$$hole."

So I say ignore the problems in the world and have fun while your alive, you can't do anything to fix it anyway, in the end your gonna get old and die just like your parents and your grandparents did. The world will still be here long after your gone and everyone will still be Bitching about the same stupid sh!t that they have been bitching about since the caveman invented the wheel.

I leave you with the immortal lyrics of Suicidal Tendencies:
"And if I offended you, oh I'm sorry...
But maybe you need to be offended
But here's my apology and one more thing...f*** you!"

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*kicks feet up and grabs popcorn*

No, no ... keep going guys, this is just getting good.

You know, all I want is a Pepsi, just one Pepsi.

*glances around*

Gah ... FINE.

*heads to concession stand and brings back a Pepsi*

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All right, NOW if you want to turn this into a broader discussion about society, you can take it over to the unregulated flame war section of the board. Everybody happy?

Geez, I spend way too much time on this board.