This past Saturday The San Diego Film Geeks, a wonderful bunch of people bringing and expanding our city’s cinema experiences, hosted their first 13 hours horror movie marathon Held in the soon to be ComicCon Museum in Balboa Park, the mini-festival boasted six movies from the 70s and 80s, plus a bonus 7th film for those who endurance had not been exhausted. (I am sad to report that my own endurance failed during the sixth film.) The party started about 11:30 am Saturday morning and concluded in the wee early hours of the Sunday. In between features we were treated to snack and lotteries for cool prizes and before each feature a selection of trailers were shown to act as clues to the upcoming movie has the program was a surprise.
The first film was Mother’s Day (1980), an over the top production from Troma Films and directed by a local who now runs the tasty Bread and Cie bakery. It’s the4 story of three women out camping who are abducted by a pair of brothers and brutalized for their mother’s enjoyment, Campy, graphic, and disturbing the movie exists utterly in Troma’s wheelhouse.
Sisters (1972) followed as the next movie. Directed by Brian de Palma and starring Margot Kidder this is a film I had never heard of much less seen. It concerns a young French-Canadian lady and her twin sister with a violent and murderous nature. When Grace a neighbor and also a reporter witnesses a murder that police refuse to believe happened, she investigates uncovering the unnerving secret. Classic 70’s this film concludes with the hero’s pyrrhic victory having revealed the truth but at a price that was far too high.
The third movie of the marathon, Society( 1989) worked the least for me of all the ones I watched. With limited budget, flat cinematography that looks as though it were shot on video, and a disjointed script that is meant to convey paranoia but merely confuses, the movie failed, for me, to convey the sense of a secret society within the rich that consume the rest of America.
The next film Basket Case, though it also suffered from limited production value,worked much better for me. In this movie a young man come to New York city, shot guerilla fashion the film captures the sleaze of early 80s times squares, carrying a wicker basket and an enormous grudge. Bent on revenge the film explores the bonds of brotherhood and who is and isn’t valued by society.
Next came what was perhaps my favorite film of the marathon,Turkey Shoot (1982). Starring Steve Railsback and Olivia Hussey this move hails from the exploitation cycle that came out of Australia. Set in a dystopian near future the story concerns prisoners in a ‘re-education’ camp who are offered their freedom if they participate in a hunt, as the game targeted by elite and insufferable members of the corrupt regime. Though derivative from The Deadliest Game, this movie did a perfectly good job providing excitement with a touch of commentary.
Sadly though I started the sixth, and final official film of the marathon, Night of the Creeps (1986) my energy flagged and that combined with a lack of interest in this presentation conspired to force me to call it an evening and I returned home just after midnight.
For those souls who managed all six movie the bonus movie was Susperia (1977.) I wish I could have seen it but I made the correct call and I’ll catch up with this one on home video.
I had a terrific time and I am very grateful to everyone who made this possible Film Geeks San Diego and their sponsors, Bread and Cie, Lefty’s Pizza, FilmOut San Diego, and the Comicon Museum.
