Exhumed Films' 24-Hour Horror Marathon - 10/30/11

Another successful twenty-four-hour marathon from Exhumed Films. This is the second year I've attended, and it was just as fun both times. Exhumed puts this on every October, last week of the month, noon to noon, at the International House in Philadelphia. They run a great show, with every movie played on film, trailers and shorts packed in between the films, and a zero tolerance policy in regards to talking and cell phone use during the movies. They also do not tell you which films will be playing, giving only vague clues. You can try and guess what they'll show, and at the end they give out prizes to those who guessed the most correctly--but the clues offer very little information, and it's damn near impossible to get any right. Fun trying to guess, though, and I like not knowing what's coming up until the title appears on the screen.

I went with my friend Mike, probably about the only person I know who'd sit for twenty-four hours of horror films, and we got in line about an hour and a half early, to insure getting a good seat. I like to sit on the end, not in the middle. There isn’t a hell of a lot of leg room at the International House (though the seats are pretty comfortable over all) and I get up a lot, probably at least one time per movie, and I’d hate to have to squeeze past people that many times throughout the day/night. Actually, we got almost the same seats we had last year, on the left side, towards the middle/front. As with last year, the crowd was really cool, not obnoxious at all, the theater didn’t smell too bad, and the temperature went back and forth between a moderate cool and a moderate warm, which is fine with me.

As we did last year, Mike and I got up after four movies to go down to the Italian restaurant for pizza and (just a few) beers. That restaurant is terrible; same awful service I remember from last year. They apparently have no idea that four hundred extra people are occupying the I-House right down the street for twenty-four hours, and they’re understaffed and slow.

We chose that point to leave because the movie playing in slot #5 was The Dead (2011), a new film, the only title announced ahead of time, since this is its “Philadelphia premier.” Unfortunately, the movie was presented digitally, the only one presented that way, as the distributor didn’t provide film prints for its North American release. Lame. Mike said he’d seen it the week before and didn’t think it was that good, so we skipped it and spent an hour and a half at Pizza Rustica (which is, I believe, Italian for “rusty pizza”).

The opening movies weren’t as strong as last year's. They kicked things off with a pretty bad undead-on-motorcycles movie called Death Wheelers (1973), or Psychomania, the title Mike knew it as. Some crazy British motorcyclists commit suicide and come back to life, drive around, terrorize people, kill innocents without ever showing blood. It wasn't a good movie, but the crowd laughed a lot and I found myself enjoying it nevertheless. Then we had Rodan (1956), which was fun to see; I hadn’t watched that since I was about ten (for the record, I'm now about thirty).

Then we had Frightmare (1983), which I thought I’d seen, but quickly realized was different than the Frightmare I’d watched and disliked. This Frightmare, with a young Jeffrey Combs, was pretty decent. After that, they changed things up a bit, showing an uncharacteristically grim (for Exhumed’s marathons) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), which I hadn’t seen since I was fourteen or so. At the time, it was probably the most brutal movie I’d ever watched (till I saw Last House on the Left, shortly after), and it’s amazing how . . . not “tame”, but . . . I don’t know the word I’m looking for, but after seeing Hostel, some of the French stuff (Inside, Martyrs), Serbian Film, some of the movies that have come out since Henry, it didn’t seem as torturous as it did when I was a kid. Still, the scene where Henry and Ottis videotape themselves murdering the family is hard to watch. Very good movie.

When we came back, we got an excellent block of three movies, all completely new to me: Trick Or Treat (1986), Night Warning (1983), and Frankenhooker (1990). The first I'd heard of but had never seen--and the marathon was a great way to view this one for the first time. A kid summons the evil spirit of a dead heavy metal star, after playing said star's unreleased final record backwards. Fuckin A.

Things slowed down when Decision for Doom (1976) (aka Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, a much better, catchier title) came on, followed by Legend of the Wolf Woman (1977), an extremely sleazy European jobbie about a werewolf who spends most of h
er time as a naked human woman. After that Blood Diner(1987) played. I own this movie, but not a single frame seemed familiar. By now it was about six in the morning, and I fell asleep for the second half of this movie, but woke up for The Burning (1981), only nodding off towards the end of that one.

The Burning was a lot of fun to watch that early in the morning, after being up most of the night. I woke up to this one feeling the same way I did upon waking for Friday the 13th Part 2 last year. Slasher movies hold a special place in my heart, and they work great in a spot towards the head of the marathon (although I wouldn't mind seeing more towards the beginning either).

Maximum Overdrive (1986) was next, and I hadn't seen that in a while, so that was fun. Started nodding off towards the end. The final movie was Meet the Feebles (1989), but Mike (who was falling in and out of sleep and starting to feel kinda shitty) and I (who would have fallen asleep regardless of what the last movie was) did the same as we did last year and left after the final movie, Meet the Feebles, revealed its title.

Great time this year. Saw some favorites and some crazy movies totally new to me. As with previous years, Grindcore House provided coffee and pastries, and the I-House deli was open part of the time. I felt bad for the guy workin that place; he definitely had his hands full. The bagel egg-and-cheese sandwich I ordered was awesome, though. Looking forward to going again next year.