My brother Joe and I went to this year’s April Ghouls edition of the Drive-in Monster-ama at the Riverside Drive in and we had a grand time. As always, we had a grand time.
Yes, it was at the same time as the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, but we stayed on the fringe of the massive crowds, so we were fine.
I will have a separate report on our trip to the Living Dead Museum at the Monroeville Mall because there is a lot to say about the museum and the soon to be demolished mall. I will also have a report on Kniess’s Miniature Golf Course which they said was the oldest operating Mini-Golf course in America.(It is soooo much fun)
This year Joe and only stayed for 3 of the 8 films. Circumstance and weather played a role.
As always, it was great to see everyone there. Gene and George always put on a hell of a show. Meanwhile Mike and Jake are fun to talk to.
We also kibitzed a bunch with Chris and Todd from the drive in. Chris was simply trying to make sure the riff raff like me and my brother stayed in mine. Todd was just trying to stay out of the projection room until it was time to go. Todd also was a source for where to go to get an old-school drive-in speaker for a project that my brother had in mind.
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| Photo by Gene |
The first night we saw the first two films.
John Carpenter’s PRINCE OF DARKNESS opened, and it was the first time on the big screen for me. To be honest it has never been my favorite Carpenter film. To be honest I love the set up of finding an ancient evil in the basement of a church. It’s nothing like we’ve seen before and its damn creepy. It also raises all sorts of philosophical questions about god, evil and existence. The trouble is that after the great opening the film collapses as the evil doesn’t do much, the science about messages from the future is garbled and it simply unfolds as a soulless and characterless slasher film. Yes I love that good, kind of wins and that people survive but at the same sense nothing once they get to the church makes any sense even internally. Either they cut the living hell out of it or they made it up on the fly. It’s the least written of any of Carpenter’s films.
The second film was POPCORN about a film class doing an all-night monster-thon where a crazed killer is doing his thing. A kind of homage to the gimmick films of the 50’s and 60’s the film is a great deal of fun. I’ve been a fan since I saw on the opening day back in the day. This would be a great co-feature with Matinee.
Because it was running late and because we were semi frustrated with off and on rain Joe and I left after the film and headed home.
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| Photo by Gene |
The next night we only saw HALLOWEEN 4. We were going to stay for two more, but Joe’s wife won a patio set and we had to get to White Plains by 2PMon Sunday to pick it up.
I hate HALLOWEEN 4. Despite having a couple of good moments, for example the fact the wrong person gets killed by accident, the film makes no sense. I mean nothing in the film makes no sense. Its as if they had a few ideas none of which went together but the put them together. There is a reason that when they went back to continue the series they spent decades retconning the sequels to the point that this film was just ignored. I said on social media that this is the worst written horror film I ever remember seeing because no bit connects to any other bit logically.
It’s a grand turd ball.
After the film we went back to the hotel.
We had a blast.
The next one is September 25 and 26, but I’m not sure we’ll make it because I may not be able to get off from work.
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