The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

So I’m curious what films have you seen at the marathon you had either no or low expectations of that were much better than you expected? Some of my pleasant surprises were Dark City, City of Lost Children and Stingray Sam.

Stingray Sam was a great (I loved the cliffhanger adventure concept). I thought Zerum was pretty good.
The one that was the most pleasant surprise for me so far was Timecrimes. I enjoyed it so much I bought a copy.

frequency was one of the best premiers ever, I expected it to be good but it was way better than I expected.

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Primer, Them (Ils), Timecrimes, Big Man Japan ... all four ended up impressing me far more than I expected. All four ended up on my shelf within weeks of their DVD release date.

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The great thing about the marathons are the unexpected discoveries. There are some films I had good expectations for and they exceeded them, but the more pleasant surprises for me are the ones that I had little or no confidence in my expectation to enjoy them.

There have been several over the years, but here are the ones that stand out for me (in reverse chronological order):

Stingray Sam (was expecting Automatons all over again)
Primer (the marathon has a history of low-budget forgettable "premieres" and every once in a while something like this comes along).
Cowboy Bebop (hate Anime, loved this)
Equilibrium (thought it would be a cheesy Matrix ripoff like so many were during that time).
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (sorry, Joe).
Repo Man (thought it was '80s VHS boom garbage, and maybe it is, but it is still a quintessential Marathon experience).
The City of Lost Children (my introduction to Jeunet, and one of the reasons I went to see what became one of my favorite films of all time, Amelie).
The Mysterians (so much more than JAFJM)
Metropolis (This was at my first marathon, and in a way ushered in my love of film. At the time I was not aware that anything made before I was born could have possibly been worth watching).

Many of these also gave me a filmgoing experience that cannot be duplicated anywhere else but the marathon.

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In reverse-chronological order:

(And these are only the ones that were pleasant surprises - there were plenty of movies I expected good from and got it)

Shock Around the Clock 2:
Martyrs - Yeah, people don't like it. I don't like it. But it delivered for me, and I expected nothing from it.

SF27
Stingray Sam - I didn't like this as much as some - but it was really funny. And "Jeff and Bruce had a son named Juice!" will never leave me.

2-Headed Marathon 4
Ils - Creepy as heck. This really did a lot for me.
Black Sheep - I expected something dumb, and I got it. But I didn't expect the intentional comedy to work, and it did.

SF15
Steamboy - Way prettier than I expected. I'd gotten tired of anime. This film rekindled my interest.

SF20
Equilibrium - Pretty much what has already been said. I expected a Matrix knock-off. Instead, I got a kick-ass fusion of 1984 and Logan's Run

SF19
Happy Accidents - What should have been a dumb romantic comedy was an oddly intriguing time-travel romance, with killer performances from Tomei and Denofrio.

SF12
Gattaca - I had no clue what to expect, but I didn't expect all the ways this film delivered. Absolutely killer performances all around, and much better thought out than you might expect. This one held up afterwards much better than I thought it would.

Night of the Living Drexel 6
Cronos - What I thought going in: "A mechanical vampire film in Spanish? Ugh." What I thought afterwards: "That was brilliant." And who knew that I would discover one of my favorite contemporary directors?

Night of the Living Drexel 5
Braindead - I had no expectations. I ended up with a Top 10 Zombie movie. And discovered another favorite contemporay director.

SF6
Metropolis - I knew I loved this movie. I didn't know how awesome the live music would make the experience.

Night of the Living Drexel 4
(I was a kid, and knew so little about film. This whole marathon remains one of my favorites. It was also the first one I brought my brother to, and despite his having nightmares for a week after, it got him hooked.)
Guyver, Near Dark & Society - All three of these films vastly exceeded my expectations. They each messed with my head hard, and stuck with me way afterwards.

Looking back at the Hall of Marathonia archives, I'm struck by how high my pre-opinion of most of the Marathon films has been, so this question is a tough one. But a few still stand out. I'll play along with Aaron and use the reverse chronology method:

Mindwarp: An Infinity of Terror a.k.a Galaxy of Terror a.k.a That Worm Movie (SF24)-I covered this in the thread on the best Marathon of the second era, but I'll reiterate that my expectations of pure B-flick drivel were pleasantly subverted by this oftentimes surreal gem.

Puzzlehead(SF24)-I had seen this in Boston a few months beforehand, and while I liked it, I also thought that it was a fairly minor effort. But the second time around I was deeply impressed by the technical details, including a complex and interesting sound mix.

First on the Moon(SF23)-I had no notion of how this would play, but it ended up being my favorite film of this Marathon. And yeah, I know that I'm in the minority with that opinion.

Tremors II: Aftershocks(SF10)-I was fairly critical of this selection in the run-up to the first Riffe Center Marathon, but in execution it worked like gangbusters.

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb(SF9)-Like the bastard child of Eraserhead and the Brothers Quay (can man mate with film?), this hour-plus mindbender was an absolutely riveting experience in the wee hours of the morning.

And last, but certainly not least...

Dawn of the Dead(H7)-Yep, believe it or not, a confirmed lifelong Romero fan like yours truly had spent his formative years thinking that the pix of Dawn he saw in numerous glossy horror film books indicated a sub par ripoff of a sequel. So when Gaylen Ross's fever dream-stricken face materialized on the Drexel North's screen, I had no expectations for what was to come. What followed was one of the defining moments of my film watching life, a stunning experience that showed me how a horror film could be frightening, funny, satirical and politically astute all at the same time. Many years have passed since that memorable evening, but seeing Dawn of the Dead for the first time remains a profound influence.

Hey! I started it!



I was not including my unfortunately minor Horror marathon experiences because this was in the SciFi thread, but I definately need to give a shout out to Braindead (which would later become Dead/Alive for those who may not know). I had zero awareness of the film and therefore zero expectations. This was, of course, back in the day where you couldn't just "Google it." Plus there was not even a website dedicated to the marathon, so all we knew about it was what was on the program when we got there, plus a small tease from our esteemed guest that year, Mr. Stuart Gordon.

It absolutely blew me away and is probably my favorite marathon movie ever. That is simply an experience you cannot recreate anywhere, ever.

Other pleasant horror surprises include Spider Baby (which is due for a return soon, right Joe?). And I also gained a better appreciation for From Beyond, which I dismissed initially by unfairly comparing it to the superior Re-Animator.

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