Day 13: New Beverly All Night Horror Show

There is an art to programming 12 hour and 24 hour film events. There is an ebb and flow that needs to happen. It's like a narrative that requires peaks and valleys. You need to be taken from laughter, to thrills, to scares, and to go from drama to action, from cheesy to classy, and from low key to epic. Not only that, the path needs to be in the right order. I mean, the goal is to stay awake for the whole event. Program the wrong film at the wrong hour and you will lose your audience as they crash head on into a wall of deep slumber to never return to the land of the wake.

I'm more use to the 24 hour format. I started attending the 24 hour Columbus Ohio Science Fiction and Horror film marathons in 1992, my second year in college. Well, actually my first was a 12 hour Schlock Around The Clock event, but I quickly graduated to the 24 hour format. Anyway, I digress. While I can't brag as some that I last all 24 hours without sleeping, I usually manage to make it through only missing one film around the 4AM hour. When I tell people about these 24 hour marathons, most people look at me like I'm insane, like I just told them that I stood on one foot for 24 hours while holding a dead rat. I can see it on their faces, "Why the hell would you want to do that!" When I first heard about these events, I had quite a different reaction. My reaction was, "Oh my god, why doesn't this happen more often. A 24 hour film slumber party with a theater full of people, I'm in!" OK, slumber is the wrong word. The idea is not to sleep. You get the idea.

Columbus 24hr Shock Around The Clock Flyer

Most people envision film after film after film after film. Done right it's not like that. There's shorts, cartoons, trailers, intermission music, costume contests, scream contests, prize giveaways, special guests, Q&A's with directors and actors, premieres, film introductions, it goes much faster than you think. The 12 hour events are actually more difficult to program because they generally run from Sun Down to Sun Rise and typically don't have special guests. Also, the whole event is overnight making it harder to program slower paced material in the wee hours of the morning. In a 24 hour time frame you can play all the slower material during the day. The 24 hour events generally go from noon until noon. So you can play Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula in the afternoon and leave the Howling and Texas Chainsaw for late to keep your audience awake.

OK, I digress. I seem to be using that word a lot lately. The event at hand is the New Beverly All Night Horror Show. On Saturday from dusk to dawn the audience packed the house for an all night show of rare film treats. The purpose behind the line up of films was to schedule films that had not played in the Los Angeles area for a long time. Pumpkinhead, Hellraiser, Evildead, all have played a cagillion times. They wanted to show films which don't normally play. Films that you don't normally get to see and may not get to see again on the big screen. We're talking 35mm, not video. So who knows when these films will play again. A true rare treat indeed!

I got there about an hour in advance and there were already about 70 people in line. When I went across the street for some dinner, the cashier said that people were in line at 3pm, which was 4 1/2 hours before showtime. All in an effort to get a good seat I guess.

The event overall was a little off pace. The films didn't quite work well together as a group. Reflecting back, the lineup was full of films that were good or interesting, but flawed in someway and often slow paced. So as an overall event the films didn't play well together, but the individual films on their own were all worthy of seeing, save one, Neon Maniacs.  I know they were trying to avoid showing the more popular films, but that's what was missing. That film that is guaranteed to pick you up. I think it's needed. To book films based on the criteria of their rarity makes it hard to sit through for 12 hours straight. Having said that, I totally appreciated what they were doing and the fact that I had only seen 3 of the 6 films shown was nice. Anyway, on to the event.

This is different than a lot of the other all nighters or 24 hour events. There were no premieres, guests, or even contests. They did give away prizes and showed some trailers and shorts, but I missed the contests and other goodies between to help rejuvenate me. Nothing like a good scream contest at 2AM in the morning.

---- All times approximate ----

7:45PM Introductions

8:00PM Trailer Reel 1

* Slumber Party Massacre

* Sorority House Massacre

* House on Sorority Row

* Hell Night

* Fright Night

* Silent Scream

Love the themed trailers! It really reminds one of the grindhouse or b-movie experience. Where you would get a Sorority House Triple bill or you would go see 3 movies with "Night" in the title. Grindhouses generally ran 24/7 and the triple bills just played over and over. The trailers make me feel all warm and fuzzy for the grindhouse experience. Unfortunately I was too young and I lived in a small town, so I never truly got an authentic grindhouse movie experience.

8:15PM Strange Behavior

I actually forgot that I had seen this before. Its a good, but flawed film. The pacing is a little uneven and starts the event off on the wrong foot. The print was in solid condition. A little faded, but I think that was probably what the original film looked like. 80's film stocks were not that good.

The nearby university is conducting some rather unusual psychological experiments. Pete Brady, yes Peter Brady, volunteers because like all high school students, he needs the money. The studies conducted are on mind control. Hmmmm...could the murders in the town be connected. As the plot unfolds it all connects to Peter's past.

Good performance from the nurse played by Fiona Lewis (Fearless Vampire Killers, Dr. Phibes Rises Again).  I like Michael Murphy's (The Dad) odd low key acting in this, but at times it comes across as a little funny. Louis Fletcher (Nurse Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) also gives another good low key performance. Unfortunately, the lead boy played by Dan Shor is a little spotty.

10:15 Trailer Reel 2

* House on Haunted Hill

* 13 Ghosts

* The Haunting

* Legend of Hell House

* What's Up Tiger Lily

Wow! What's Up Tiger Lily. An odd choice to throw into the mix. I have never seen it, but now I certainly want to. The trailers for this reel all fit the spirit of the film to come, Night Monster (1942). You have to love the gimmick trailers and films of William Castle. 13 Ghosts with its ghost viewer - look through the viewer to see the ghosts on screen. Nice!

10:30PM Three Stooges Short, "If A Body Meets a Body"

This helped wake me up. Something about watching the Stooges late at night when you are feeling a little slap happy helps make them twice as funny.

10:45PM Night Monster

They always try and program an old classic 2nd. Last year they played Creature From The Black Lagoon. This year they wanted to program something that had not played in awhile to fit their theme. Night Monster with Bela Lugosi fits the bill. As far as they can tell, the last time this played in a theater in Los Angeles was 1949! The print they secured was a Universal archival print - the first print struck after the answer print. It was in absolute pristine condition. Like it had barely been ran through a projector! What a rare treat!

Unfortunately the film is shot like a play. Mostly in wide establishing shots with all the action choreographed within the frame. This makes for a very slow paced movie and started me on a downward sleepy spiral. It was great seeing Bela in a non-dracula role, but he was such a side character. I managed to stay awake, but this is where I had to start hitting the coffee. A little early for that. I usually like to wait until later for the caffein.

12:30 Trailer Reel 3

* Happy Birthday to Me

* Visiting Hours

* Funhouse

* Mothers Day

* Three On A Meathook

* Black Christmas

Oh man, I had never seen the Mother's Day trailer. That film is going on my wish list right away. Funny, Three On A Meathook just arrived from Netflix, so I'll get to catch up with that soon. It looks pretty ridiculous.

1:15PM Curtains

Another flawed, but interesting film. That seems to be the theme so far. This was the one film on the list which I hadn't even heard of. It's a very serious film about a very serious craft, Acting! Acting with a Capital "A". The plot is basically an over bearing, very serious, very snooty director invites a group of actresses to his mansion for a 2 day audition process. A masked killer begins eliminating the group one by one. Who is behind the mask?  

The beginning is great. Samantha Sherwood has stared in all the directors films. She will go through anything to get a part. For his newest film, to play the part of the mentally disturbed Audry, she plans to to commit herself to an asylum to study the role of the lead characrer.  Along with the directors help she feigns a moment of madness and has a nervous breakdown in front of some film executives. Part of their ploy is for her to feign madness and try to stab the director. The men in white show up to put her in a straight jacket and have her carried off to an asylum where she will research the part. Well, what she doesn't know is that the director plans to leave her there to rot away and plans to recast with some else. What an asshole! Regardless, she manages to escape the Asylum and find her way to the audition. She really wants that part!  Pretty cool start, but unfortunately, once we get to the mansion and the killing starts the film becomes a little less interesting.

Again the print was in really good shape. Thankfully all the films so far have been in good condition. 

3:00 Trailer Reel 4

* Hitcher

* Maniac

* Toolbox Murders

* Schizoid

* Meat Cleaver Massacre

Great titles. 

3:15PM Neon Maniacs

Oh my! This movie officially makes my worst movies of all time list. It is one of the most inept movies I have ever seen and I'm including Ed Wood films. There is no ending, no middle, no beginning, no reel plot. The characters are completely dull. The acting is awful. The script, if it even had one, is just random scribblings. The photography is bland. The effects and creatures are silly. Nothing and I mean nothing is good about this movie. 

Ah, but I know what you are thinking. Maybe it's one of those movies that are so bad it's good. Nope, get that thought out of your head. Some movies have that special something, like Hell of the Living Dead which I saw earlier this month. There are just some ridulous scenes in that movie that make your mind scramble "what were they thinking when they executed that scene?" The only thing my mind scrambled for during this film was, "Why in the hell did the make this movie?" There's no Tutu scene or no over the top gore or anything out of the ordinary to get your attention. The movie is just bad through and through. I will spare you the plot, what little there is of one.

The awesome makeup fx for Neon Maniacs...err maybe not.

5:00 Trailer Reel 5

* Eyeball

* Torso

* Cemetery Man

* ??? Missed title

* Zombie

* Bird With A Crystal Plumage

5:15Tell Tale Heart animated short

Cool little animated film. 

5:25 Psychic

OK, so far I have been awake for the whole thing. Neon Maniacs succeeded in frustrating me. I sat there begging for the film to end. This was the one unannounced title on the list. The Psychic is a good Italian giallo, but really slow paced with not a lot of violence or gore or much of anything to keep you awake. I made it to about 45 minutes into the film and then started to doze off. Not the best film to book at this hour. I appreciate the intent behind the film bookings, but they did not play well as an all night film line up. It needed a Pumpkinhead or Nightmare On Elm Street to kick me in the ass and wake me up.

7:00 Frankenhooker

I couldn't bounce back from the Psychic. I continued to be half awake for most of Frankenhooker. Fully awake for the first 20 and last 20 minutes, the middle 50 is a blur. Fortunately I have seen the film before. It's a great film and a perfect last film, but I was already gone by this point. Too bad, as I wanted to see this again having not seen it in about 20 years.

Overall, I am glad I got to see all these films and really appreciate what the New Beverly is doing, especially with this series.  However, the lineup was a hard one to get through for a 12 hour event. Next 12 hour film series is at the Aero Theater the last weekend in October. The films are not as rare, in fact, I have seen every one of them and even most on the big screen, but I think they will play well together. A friend of mine is attending along with me, so it will be a true test to see how it plays. Will we crash before the end or will we make it through the night.