This springs Drive-In Monster-ama April Ghouls was subtitles Stalk and Slash focusing on 1980’s style stalker films. As usual I went with my brother Joe. Unusually we both were slightly under the weather and we were less social than usual largely because we didn’t want to really infect anyone with our colds.
The whole trip was one of constant motion. We only stopped moving to eat, sleep or watch movies.
After an early dinner we did a little shopping just to kill some time before going to the hotel and crashing for the night.
We were up early of Friday so we could go to G & G in Vandergrift for breakfast. Usually it’s packed but since it was raining we think the crowds were kept away.
After that we went back into Pittsburgh for a trip to the Carnegie Science Center where we saw the exhibit on the Vikings
Enjoyed the movie robot exhibit out side the IMAX theater where we saw the IMAX 3D film ANGKOR (you need to see it in 3D- a full review of it and all the other films this weekend are coming) and we wandered around the other exhibits.
We then wandered to the Riverside for a rainy evening of movies.
After some confusion about who I am (there was a suspicion I was named Bob) and some further confusion Joe and I talked to the infamous Jake and Mike for a bit before sitting down for a couple of films.
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| Jake and Mike |
The first film was the legendary SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT which managed to make a chunk of change and spawn sequels thanks to wild protests about the film being about a man dressed as Santa killing people. I hadn’t seen it in years and while it’s not a bad family it is a rather hateful and bleak film that hates pretty much everyone.
The second film was CHOPPING MALL, which I have been avoiding the last few months since it’s been heavily promoted on several of the streaming services. A truly bad film with a great cast, it’s a film that sucked the fun out of the evening despite the constant riffing between my brother and myself.
We were so burnt by the film we headed home.
Saturday was a pick up day. More shopping involved a trip to Legends Games and Hobbies and lunch at Kelly O’s, a breakfast and lunch place that was featured on Diners,Drive-ins & Dives. The food was so good we look to be making a trip there on our next trips to the Monster-amas.
More chilling at the drive-in as the forecast of no rain proved to be wrong,
We spent a chunk of the prefest listening to movie podcasts before settling in for the evenings films
MANIAC was a film I saw opening night four decades ago. I hadn’t really seen it in years so I was looking forward to seeing the groundbreaking film. Sadly, seeing the film for the first time in probably 15 years I found it’s more of interest historically than as a good film. Yes Spinell is excellent. It’s a great performance and the dialog is spot on. The trouble is the narrative is nonexistent with the film being more random scenes than anything. Nothing makes sense because we know nothing, I mean why does Caroline Munroe spend so much time with him? Additionally the effects, which we used to spend hours watching and trying to replicate have dated badly. It was a disappointing experience.
The film was followed by MANIAC COP which is a pure popcorn delight. William Lustig directs a Larry Cohen script and its just crazy exploitation madness. It makes no sense and LA is not NYC but it works.
After the films Joe and I headed home. I had seen TOOLBOX MURDERS way too many times over the years and I recently had seen SILENT MADNESS so there was no reason to stay.
As it is we got back to the hotel close to two.
Over all we had a blast and we're looking forward until next year.
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