Re: Halloween Horror Marathon 2017
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 2:54 pm
Yesterday I attended the fourth annual Dismember the Alamo horror marathon at my local Alamo Drafthouse. This is where they don’t tell you what movie you’re going to see and you only find out once the film starts rolling. I went two years ago and mostly enjoyed it so I thought I’d try again this year. They bumped up the number of movies from four to five. At the start they told us each movie was a sequel and all of them were “Part 2’s.”
Things started off well with PSYCHO II, which I hadn’t seen in quite a while. I thought it held up nicely with a great performance from Anthony Perkins. The audience also enjoyed it but possibly for different reasons. Afterwards I heard several people comment how much they enjoyed it because it was “cheesy and hilarious.” That’s not how I would describe that movie.
Next was the most lighthearted film of the day, HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY. I don’t remember seeing this one before. It was fitfully amusing but slightly incoherent. John Ratzenberger’s appearance was the clear highlight.
The third movie was THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2. I’ve never seen any of the chainsaw movies until now. This really isn’t my kind of horror movie although by the final act it had achieved a level of bonkers insanity that I wasn’t sure was intentional or not. I’ve never seen a movie with so much constant screaming and yelling before.
The hosts then announced that the fourth movie would be shown on VHS as it has never been released on DVD. At first, they started a copy of SCOOBY DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED, which was obviously a joke. Then the real tape was put in and we watched THE UNBORN II, a so-bad-it’s-good Corman produced thriller from 1994 about a killer baby. The cast included Michelle Greene (from L.A. Law) Robin Curtis and Scott Valentine. The crowd loved it.
The final movie was a bit of a cheat. It was a badly faded 35mm print of ZOMBIE, which is considered by some fans to be a sort of sequel to Dawn of the Dead? Anyway this is definitely NOT my kind of movie. I don’t like 70’s era exploitation horror and 30 minutes was enough to convince me it was time to go home.
So the final tally was one genuinely good movie (PSYCHO II), one truly awful (but entertaining) VHS-era stinker and a couplie of OK but not great movies. I’m not sure if I’ll do this again. The tastes of the programmers and mine aren’t exactly the same.
Things started off well with PSYCHO II, which I hadn’t seen in quite a while. I thought it held up nicely with a great performance from Anthony Perkins. The audience also enjoyed it but possibly for different reasons. Afterwards I heard several people comment how much they enjoyed it because it was “cheesy and hilarious.” That’s not how I would describe that movie.
Next was the most lighthearted film of the day, HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY. I don’t remember seeing this one before. It was fitfully amusing but slightly incoherent. John Ratzenberger’s appearance was the clear highlight.
The third movie was THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2. I’ve never seen any of the chainsaw movies until now. This really isn’t my kind of horror movie although by the final act it had achieved a level of bonkers insanity that I wasn’t sure was intentional or not. I’ve never seen a movie with so much constant screaming and yelling before.
The hosts then announced that the fourth movie would be shown on VHS as it has never been released on DVD. At first, they started a copy of SCOOBY DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED, which was obviously a joke. Then the real tape was put in and we watched THE UNBORN II, a so-bad-it’s-good Corman produced thriller from 1994 about a killer baby. The cast included Michelle Greene (from L.A. Law) Robin Curtis and Scott Valentine. The crowd loved it.
The final movie was a bit of a cheat. It was a badly faded 35mm print of ZOMBIE, which is considered by some fans to be a sort of sequel to Dawn of the Dead? Anyway this is definitely NOT my kind of movie. I don’t like 70’s era exploitation horror and 30 minutes was enough to convince me it was time to go home.
So the final tally was one genuinely good movie (PSYCHO II), one truly awful (but entertaining) VHS-era stinker and a couplie of OK but not great movies. I’m not sure if I’ll do this again. The tastes of the programmers and mine aren’t exactly the same.