This is going up a bit late, but hopefully some of you in Las Vegas can make it down tomorrow (Sunday). If anyone from Mobius comes to the screening, please say hello. Looks like Dave Friedman probably won't be able to make it, but Connie Mason and Alex Mann will definitely be coming down to introduce the films and do Q&A's afterwards.

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As a follow-up to our sold-out July event in Las Vegas, The Grindhouse Film Festival will be making a return trip for a special screening at the Tropicana Cinemas tomorrow (Sunday, December 10th). This event will present rare 35mm prints of BLOOD FEAST (1963) and I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (1970), with both films to be introduced by special guests. The screening starts at 7:00pm, and admission for the double feature plus a reel of rare exploitation trailers and a free raffle is only $7.00.

BLOOD FEAST, from director Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David F. Friedman, stars Playboy Playmate Connie Mason and is widely considered the first "gore" film. The film tells the tale of Egyptian caterer Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold), who is killing women in Miami in an attempt to resurrect the goddess Ishtar. Lewis has been dubbed the "Godfather of Gore" for his many over-the-top horror hits of the 1960's and 1970's, including 2000 MANIACS, COLOR ME BLOOD RED and THE WIZARD OF GORE, and this is where it all started. Special guests Connie Mason and David F. Friedman (tentative) will introduce BLOOD FEAST and do a Q&A session after the film.

David Durston's I DRINK YOUR BLOOD is another early entry in the extreme horror field, notable for its grimy early-70's atmosphere and for being one of the first films to be rated 'X' for violence alone. In the film, an acid-crazed, Satanic hippie cult wreaks gruesome havoc in a small town when they become contaminated with rabies. The film will be introduced by star Alex Mann.

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Sunday, December 10th, 2006

Eric Caidin and Brian Quinn present
The Grindhouse Film Festival
Tropicana Cinemas
3330 E. Tropicana Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89121
(702) 450-3737
Admission: $7.00

Special Guests: Connie Mason, David F. Friedman (tentative) and Alex Mann

7:00pm
Blood Feast (1963)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. Starring Connie Mason, William Kerwin and Mal Arnold.

9:00pm
I Drink Your Blood (1970)
Directed by David Durston. Starring Bhaskar, Jadine Wong, Jack Damon, Lynn Lowry and Alex Mann.

I'm definitely going to this. I'll post a trip report later... I just hope that the marathon traffic has dissipated by the time the movies start. Otherwise, anyone coming from the west side of town will have a major headache getting there.

Okay, I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, but I haven’t had the time until now…

I had a great time at the event. I had never seen either of the two movies before. In fact, I had never before seen a classic exploitation movie on the big screen, so I was pretty psyched up about going. For those who have never been to one of these things, the format of the event is to begin with a reel of exploitation and cult movie trailers, followed by a raffle, and then the first feature. Next they hold a Q&A with a person related to the film, and then they show a second feature coupled with another Q&A.

The reel of trailers had some tremendous finds. Like most people who frequent this board, I’ve seen more than my share of obscure trailers, but I had never before seen a single one of the trailers that was shown at the Grindhouse Film Festival. The highlights of the reel included hysterical overacting from THE MAFU CAGE, some no-budget horror outing with caped apemen jumping off of ledges, and the eerily captivating trailer for Werner Herzog’s NOSFERATU. Next up was the raffle; I didn’t win anything :(. The prizes ranged from the near useless (a porn DVD and a poster for TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES II were among the booby prizes), to some stuff I was pretty jealous about not winning myself like press materials from DJANGO and a collection of glossy exploitation ads.

The first film was, of course, BLOOD FEAST. I have to come clean and admit that I’ve never been much of a Herschell Gordon Lewis fan, and having seen a handful of Lewis’ other films, BLOOD FEAST delivered pretty much what I was expecting. What holds up best about the film are the comedic aspects, which come courtesy of William Kerwin’s wink-wink performance as a police detective and Lewis’ bizarro script. I think the event’s organizers may have shown a hacked up print because the cutting was pretty jumpy around the murder scenes, and I remember Harry Novak mentioning that the film had censorship problems in the documentary SCHLOCK. Connie Mason showed up for the Q&A, and to look at her you’d never guess that she was even born when BLOOD FEAST premiered. Unfortunately, I think the actual Q&A would have been a lot more interesting if David Friedman was there. Mason rambled on a lot and doesn’t share Friedman’s knack for anecdotes. Having heard of Friedman’s shameless reputation for chasing women I wanted to ask her if David ever hit on her. I opted for discretion/didn’t have the balls, but it was probably for the better that I chickened out because I later found out that the geriatric who stole my seat when I went to the bathroom and was now sitting directly behind me making disturbing noises with his false teeth was actually her spouse.

The second feature was the incomparable I DRINK YOUR BLOOD. This film is so wild that I don’t even want to give away the general premise. If you like exploitation movies just take my word for it that this film is incredible, and you should do whatever you can to see it at once. Regretably, the organizers of the event were unable to find an uncut print, but the DVD release is supposed to have all the violence intact… and has therefore earned a top spot on my Christmas list. Alex Mann, who played the hippie who gets his feet sliced open, was there for the Q&A, and came off as a really nice guy. Apparently, he was good friends with the infamous/legendary Jerry Gross, and I asked him if he had any anecdotes about the man. He told the only story that is widely known about Gross, about how he died alone and in poverty. He didn’t seem to want to go any further about Gross, so I didn’t press him about it. He was kind enough, however, to autograph for me a reproduction of the amazing poster for I DRINK YOUR BLOOD/I EAT YOUR SKIN that I picked up at the event.

In summary, I had a great experience at the Grindhouse Film Festival and I look forward to catching their next show in Vegas. I do, however, have a couple complaints about the event. First, the posts made about these grindhouse shows strike me as being a little (actually, a lot) spammy, and I wish the organizers did more to foster discussion about the show in their posts rather than just take advantage of the free advertising. The other negative about the show is that a large portion of the audience showed up for no other reason than to loudly mock the films that were shown. Even the credits were met with gales of forced laughter. The only time they stopped laughing was about halfway into the NOSFERATU trailer, but anything short of the work of arguably the world’s greatest living filmmaker set them off. Oh yeah, they didn’t laugh at the animal abuse in I DRINK YOUR BLOOD either. This whole reaction struck me as annoying and very insecure. I’m aware that there are some humorous touches, both intentional and unintentional, in both of the films that were shown, but the audience bellowed with laughter regardless of what was being shown on screen. I’d like to know what other MHVFers think about this type of audience reaction. Am I alone in just wanting to enjoy these movies rather than deride them? And if I’m not alone, would it be at all inappropriate to launch boxes of movie candy at their heads when they won't shut up?

Ian, thanks for coming down and thanks for writing this report. I always mean to write a report after these events but rarely seem to find the time. Glad you had a (mostly) good time. We do our best, but unfortunately we don't always have the best prints - though in most cases there just aren't any better prints available of these titles. Our print of I DRINK YOUR BLOOD was, like most prints of this film, chopped all to hell on its original release. If I recall, BLOOD FEAST may have been missing frames here and there but wasn't missing too much (though I was outside the theater for parts of it and haven't watched this print fully through in awhile). Connie did look amazing, very impressive. Too bad my camera died just as I was about to take a few photos of her! We were hoping Dave Friedman would be able to make it out, as he was in LA this past week, but he just wasn't feeling up to the drive out to Vegas. I drove Alex Mann and myself out Sunday afternoon, but had to be back in LA on Monday so had to turn around and drive back right after the event. That was pretty rough on me, and I'm half Dave's age (though Alex Mann seemed to handle it just fine in the passenger seat). If you want some great stories from Alex, sit in a car with him for 8 hours!

Sorry if the posts announcing these things sound a bit spammy, but usually I'm just short on time so I post the same thing here that I send out to our mailing list and to the local press, with maybe a few modifications. Figure it's better to get the info on here so people at least know about it, even if it may not be the best way to do a write-up for an audience already familiar with these films and people. This is pretty much something we do on the side for fun, so whatever work I put into it has to fit in those spaces between work and a social/family life.

As for the audience, well...that gets a bit hard to control sometimes. There wasn't as much laughter at the last show in Vegas, so we didn't expect too much at this one. Of course, anyone who DOESN'T laugh at a line like "looks like another long hard one" probably has some serious issues. We do this because we truly love these films, but there's no denying that a lot of them ARE funny at times (both intentionally and unintentionally), so a litte laughter here and there can be OK. Hell, some of the loudest laughter and comments at our screenings have come from the directors and cast members! If you scold an audience too much with "shut up during the movie" beforehand, sometimes that leads to a real uncomfortable silence and takes away from what should be a shared group experience. When it gets out of hand we do our best to get people to tone it down. A lot of these films should probably be viewed twice - alone in the comfort of your home while watching a beautiful remastered DVD, and at a screening like ours with a beat up 35mm print and a rowdy drunken audience. Different experiences, but both valid and enjoyable.

And most people love when they win the porn DVD's! That NINJA TURTLES poster was the booby prize, but the porn was supposed to be a good prize!

Thanks again for coming down. Hopefully we'll be back in Las Vegas again in a few months. We've still got some of those original Django posters so you have a few more chances to win one.

Thanks for the write up Ian!

I'm with you Ian. I've been to several screenings where members of the audience beforehand have decided to openly laugh at a film. I'm not talking about a simple "Haha, that actor is bad or that line was funny" but a "Haha, this is so bad" from the opening frame. And I've seen this happen in everything from THE BEYOND to HARD BOILED. Sadly, it comes with the territory so what can you do?

Ian - for details on the nature of the Dave Friedman / Connie Mason relationship, check out Friedman's autobiography, A YOUTH IN BABYLON. As I recall, though, he's a little bit coy on the topic, and it would have been nice to hear Mason's side straight from the horse's mouth. No, er, pun intended. Sure. None intended.