TR: all freakin' night

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Here's a trip report for ya'll thats completely devoid of climbing content. Saturday night (Sunday morning actually) was "All Freakin' Night" at the Olympia Film Festival. They show horror movies from Midnight till whenever, which was 10:30am this time around. Some of you might appreciate the genre, so here's a trip report:

 

First flick was The Tingler (1950?) with Vincent Price. It was a typical older funny sort, complete with admonishments to the audience by the director (in the film) to scream to release one's fear tension. A little slow but funny, it was a wise placement for the start of things because it might have been deadly round about 5am. I think the original release had some sort of seat vibrating mechanism (the tingler!).

 

Second flick was Dog Soldiers (2002). British army patrol runs into werewolves in the remote scottish highlands, carnage ensues. This one came out this year, and I'd give it a thumbs up, classic monster flick, overtones of Aliens (but no sci-fi element) and a brit production.

 

Third we had the unrated version of Re-Animator (1985). Young med student tries to conquer Death, which never seems to be a good idea. This one is in the funny-gross category, graphic but not as over the top as Peter Jackson's early work. I think the main thing the unrated version offers is a little sex between the girl and Dr. Hill's severed head. It was fun, a nice peppy number to have in this time slot.

 

Fourth came Versus (2000), and I'd highly recommend this one. A modern Samurai Japanese Gangster Zombie film with an "opponents destined to re-encounter each other through the incarnations" story line. Very stylish, lots of action so sub-titles weren't much of an issue, some great (and funny) supporting cast. Style owes somewhat to The Matrix, or to some Hong Kong action flick that Matrix lifted its style from. The plot is a little week, but so what.

 

Fifth flick was Surf 2 (1981) which was another comedy number. (there never was a Surf 1) Early 80's so-cal teen surfer flick, with a young Eric Stolz. Somebody is turning formerly wholesome surfer dudes into punk zombies who eat garbage. Definitely played tongue in cheek, probably not available on video. As a bonus, it features Ruth Buzzi (from laugh-in), gratuitous tit shots (not Ruth, thankfully), and a police chief named Chief Boyardie (yes, he does request spaghetti-o's at one point).

 

There were the various contests (the brain toss, like an egg toss but using real cooked cow brains was my favorite) and short films. The best short was Lucas Versus the Monster Root Beer Float which looked to be a local super 8 production. Funky looking nerd punks in jumpsuits make a root beer float out of lots of Sparkle ice cream and Root Beer in a 32 gallon garbage can. They proceed to consume voluminously, until they begin to spew. Then consume more, barf more, repeat until rolling in the aisles. Definitely the best barf scenes of the night, all the better because you knew it was the real thing.