This is my wrap-up about Drive-In Super Monster-Rama 2011. I wrote a bit about it previously here and here. (More images and an even better write-up on night one and night two can be found at the Monster Dad blog–a favorite site for me.)

This is going to be a long post, because I’m including photos of, and comments on, the 2010 DSMR as well. Last year, I’d worked up a post about2010′s event for my Famous Monsters blog, but it disappeared. (Apparently WordPress, the buggiest blog platform out there, “ate” it–but I’m not surprised, as it routinely has glitches.) But I just this week found my paper notes on last year’s event, and I also found my photos from 2010 on a thumb drive. So why not share them? I’ve identified the photos from 2010 as being from last year.

No matter whether I’m writing about last year or  this year, I find myself gripped by horror mania each time I this event. And why not? One of the routes to get you to the theater takes you across “Spooky Hollow Road” and also past this place:

The drive there goes through a rural area and is very picturesque.

Besides jack-o-lantern pumpkins for sale not far away, there were bats in the air at dusk, and fog on the ground on the second night. How could you not be in a Halloween-and-horror frame of mind by the time by the movies started?

And this year, there was a full moon for the event:

This year on the trip I was without my wife Jane, who has a great memory for direction and never gets lost. 

Just outside of Pittsburgh I was sure I had gotten lost, so I stopped  near a busy shopping center and asked the first guy I saw for directions. He looked at my t-shirt with a photo of Forry Ackerman (the late Famous Monsters magazine editor and king of all horror and sci-fi fandom) on it  and said “I was a big fan of his!” Talk about a spooky serendipity!  

What Kind of Creature is That?

 Here’s DSMR creator and organizer George Reis of DVD Drive-In:

Drive-in owner and projectionist Todd Ament (rear, left) looks like George’s hunchbacked assistant in this photo!

Another peek into the projection booth:

I asked George a few questions about the drive-in movie experience and to describe the kind of.films that are right for an event like this.

Max Cheney: What is a drive-in movie?

George Reis: “A drive-in movie is an entertaining film, usually of the exploitation variety (meaning they have to sell it for what it is, and not its stars, unless Vincent Price or someone of that ilk is in it). Anything with horror and monsters from the decades of the 1950s to the 1970s fit the category, as do beach party flicks, rock and roll (Elvis of course),  car chase films and blaxploitation. I think the art of the drive-in film is a thing of the past in terms of content (simplicity went a long way, especially when compared to the modern era of CGI-plagued blockbusters), ) and with the trailers, which really sold these films for all they were worth. The vintage trailers we show at Monster-Rama are prime examples of how these films were hyped on drive-in screens across the country, with the usual ‘SEE’ and ‘Never Before on the Screen!’ and ‘Shock after Shock, after Shock!’. This kind of loving ballyhoo is a thing of the past, but thanks to the Riverside, we’ll be able to celebrate the past way into the future.”

MC: Did you grow up with a drive-in? Were there any special events there?

GR: “I did grow up near drive-in theaters, but I didn’t get to go to many as a kid. I guess my folks just didn’t think about doing that often, and when we did, it was usually for some Disney film. I think the fact that I was drive-in deprived as child is the reason why I wanted so badly to do this festival! Many, many classic horror and exploitation films have been revived at various hardtop theaters (some grand and some puny), but I believe that nothing gives you an authentic nostalgic feeling then seeing them at a drive-in. You really feel like you’re living and breathing in another era, even if it’s only for a couple of nights at a time.”

What was your best drive-in experience before this?

GR: “My best drive-in experiences before this was seeing revivals of older horror films at the Bengies in Baltimore, and more recently, at the Starlight Drive-In in Atlanta. Drive Invasion was a ) music and B movie fest, where I got to see such gems as BLOOD BATH, I EAT YOUR SKIN, VANISHING POINT, FOXY BROWN, THE BIG DOLL HOUSE, THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT, THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, SPIDER BABY and others. Drive Invasion is a big inspiration for Monster-Rama, but we can’t afford the bands or celebrity guests just yet. Maybe one day.”

MC: What is one film not shown so far that needs to be seen at one?

GR: One film that needs to be shown if I could track down a print is THE GREEN SLIME. It seems that most monster kids who saw it first run witnessed this Japanese monster epic (with American stars) at an outdoor theater, and I still get asked about it often. 

MC: What was your worst Drive-in experience?

GR: I don’t have too many awful drive-in experiences, but any time it rains too much, or something goes wrong with the film that’s running (which is understandable, since some of these prints and trailers are very old), that can be a pain. Also, fighting the Sandman at 3:30 AM is not good either, but it’s an excuse to make one final trip to the concession stand!

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The (Drive-) In Crowd: Super Monsterrific People

Seeing once or twice year friends who are scattered all over the map is one of the pleasures of events like this one. Here’s the event’s film supplier Harry Guerro, founder of Exhumed Films, seen with friends in a shot taken at last year’s event:

Guerro and Exhumed Films have been programming horror film events in the Philadelphia area since 1997. Many of Guerro’s favorite films are “B-grade movies” from the late Sixties through the mid-Eighties. Programming events like DSMR through Exhumed Films often allows him to see his favorite movies for the first time at a  drive-in theater, and to share the experience with friends and fellow fright film fanatics. His friend Jaime Davidson says, “I learned a lot about horror films from Harry.”

Skylar Gahagan, a very enthusiastic and engaging drive-in fan, loves events like Drive-In Super Monster-Rama. “They have a special atmosphere and don’t stick to one time frame for films,” he says. , He appreciates older movies because “they aren’t solely about the visuals. They have character development, strong dialogue and a strong plot. I saw the remake of George Romero’s The Crazies at a drive-in, and now I’ve seen the original at a drive-in!” And with the added food offerings found at at drive-in snack bars, Gahagan describes  Drive-In Super Monster-Rama as “like a night at the movies and a cookout rolled into one.”

 I asked a  snack bar employee named Leslie Lorant how the horror fans coming to DSMR were different from regular customers. She said “Except for the kids who love zombie films,  they’re older and more responsible. They come to actually SEE the movies!”

The event has many loyal attendees each year. These fans came all the way from New York–

Both Jim and Karen Smith went to drive-ins to see horror movies when they were growing up. Karen remembers being “terrified” seeing Count Yorga, Vampire when she was 14. She and her husband Jim have passed their passion onto their son Jonathan, who started coming to the event since the second . “When I was a kid, my parents talked about horror movies they saw at the drive-in back  in the day. Movies like Count Yorga, and the Hammer movies and ones with Vincent Price. So I had to come!” 

From the show Saturday Fright Special, writer Mark Nelson, who comes every year from New Hampshire–

Monster Dad blogger Glen Schultzberg from Massachussetts enjoying his drive-in speaker spliced into his radio:

Glen and I chuckled when we saw this–

Artist/comic art collector Ron Zoso (right) comes each year:

Attending for the first time was spfx makeup artist, actor, and director Tom Savini, who camped there for the weekend, and was enthusiastically greeted by attendees. He entertained a bit before the show by briefly practicing cracking a bullwhip he had in his car.

I chatted with him a bit, and he said he remembered seeing most of the films when they first came out, adding that the first film he remembered seeing was The Creature From the Black Lagoon during its initial release, when he was eight years old.

Families who love film frights come each year–

The Harmon family of New Kensington, PA (and their young friend Rachel) love Drive-in Super Monster-Rama. Andrew Harmon, 38, chatted with me and said “My wife and my daughter are classic horror fans. (My wife wanted to come but couldn’t.) We go to this every summer. It’s a better value than a regular movie theater, and it’s a more  social experience, too. I went to the drive-in as a kid; I think the kids like that they can walk around and hang out at.” Mary, 19,  simply said, “It’s my thing!” Her friend Rachel, who had not been before 2010, interjected, “It’s kickin’ sweet!” 

Adam Harmon, 14, added another reason why seeing movies outdoors at the drive-in is better than seeing at a traditional theater : “You can fall asleep and no one cares if you snore.”

Almost as interesting as the films and attendees were some of the cars. For one night last year, when our car broke down, my wife and I had to rent a U-Haul truck at the last minute to get there! Wish we’d had a car like this one:

The car, which I saw shoot fire out of its dual tailpipes, belongs to Bob and Darlene Madara, who own the Harvest Moon Drive-In in Linden, PA. They expanded the snack bar of their theater into a “restaurant that shows movies,” which they call a “car-feteria.”

The Return of the Adams Family

Like last year, the folks of Creepy Classics came back to set up their table of dvds, magazines, shirts and collectables, which makes the event better. Fans pored over the items, bought a lot, and chatted with each other about their finds.

(Photo above taken by Glen Schultzburg of the blog MONSTER DAD)

Ron Adams, the proprietor of Creepy Classics,  organizer of the long-running classic horror convention Monster Bash, and publisher of the magazine bearing the event’s name, sat down in the lobby and answered some questions for me.

Max Cheney: What memories do you have of this drive-in or other ones in the area?

Ron Adams: “This theater, the Riverside, was my wife’s drive-in; so Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is a magic thing come full circle. My drive-in as a kid was the Starlite Drive-In near Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. I remember very fondly going there to seeMunster Go Home and Blackbeard’s Ghost. We went in the family station wagon–a Dodge–and my younger sister and I could sleep in the back in sleeping bags when we got tired. Sometimes we couldn’t stay awake through a double feature. That was the worst!”

MC: People talk of drive-in movies as if they were their own genre. What IS a drive-in movie?

RA: “Drive-in movies encompass and supercede all genres. They’re anything fun and exciting and not too serious or thoughtful. “Exciting” is the key word. Drive-in movies include wild comedies to biker movies to monster movies.”

MC: Any movie you haven’t seen at a drive-in that you want to see at one?

RA:  ”One movie I’ve never seen at one but which SHOULD be seen at a drive-in is Destroy All Monsters. It has a dozen or more monsters and just explodes with action. It’s bigger than life  and the drive-in  screen is also.”

MC: Do you think people value going to the drive-in enough to keep them going?

RA: “People look at our movie posters wherever we set up and say, ‘I saw that at the drive-in. My kids should go to one.’ I’ve heard that a lot. They want to pass on this unique way of seeing movies.

MC: Do you think drive-in theaters can last far into the 21st Century? Will people support them?

RA: “I hope people will support their local drive-ins.  I hope parents will carry on a family tradition of going to their local drive-ins with their kids like mine did. It would be a shame if drive-ins disappeared But I’m hopeful. It’s nice to see the Riverside keeps going and keeping up tradition.”‘

The Lobby That Fried My Lobes

Riverside Drive-in has a old-fashioned lobby and snack bar, looking like the ones I remember from my childhood and teenage years. The time warp the place presents to my eyes every year just fries my brain. Here, look:

Okay, so they didn’t really serve my brain in the snack bar. (The photo above was taken at Horror Find last year.) But the Riverside did have a few things I never seen at any other drive-in: hot sausage hoagies and homemade Polish haluski, a dish of fried onions, noodles, cooked cabbage, and (in this version) loads of bacon. It was delicious, but very heavy. Kinda of like some of previews.

This next photo was taken last year, but it doesn’t matter. This theater is timeless.  (My camera’s battery ran outta juice for part of this year’s event, and I never got around to posting photos from last year, so it’s all good.) Let’s all go to the lobby…

…to get ourselves a treat! There were nice gory touches–

Who wouldn’t want to get snacks with all the old, nostalgic concession stand trailers that are played every year?

Every year there are not only real friends to see, but welcome film friends as well, like Boris Karloff,  Barbara Steele and this horror icon— 

Oh–I forgot to mention this master of menace–

A beautiful 35mm new print of The Last Man on Earth was shown this year. Here’s Vincent Price showing some of his versatility of expression and emotion from the original film adaptation of the novel I Am Legend:

And just because I’m in a Vincent Price frame of mind, here’s a nice title drawing of Price from last year’s showing of The Comedy of Terrors:

Every year in a trailer or feature presented we see Christopher Lee  in some sort of bad headgear. This year it was a terrible toupee in I, Monster. (That was the last film of the second night and I barely kept awake, so I didn’t get a shot of his greasy wig as “Dr. Marlowe.”)  Last year it was Lee’s bad blonde and gray thatch from The Oblong Box:

The first year of this event had a trailer of Hammer’s film She, where Lee sports a goofy helmet. (You can see it here. ) Next year George ought to show The Curse of Frankenstein (Lee wearing a Beatle wig) and The Wicker Man (Lee in a poofy mod mop) just to complete the Lee  history of horrible hairpieces.

And speaking of trailers and previews and such,  here’s part of one seen this year–

Maybe the video above was enhanced with YouTube’s editor, or maybe it wasn’t.  In any case, I think the only successful subliminal message was to ride a train.

The distraction of a train passing wasn’t typical, nor was the lightning that appeared far off on the horizon on the second night. There were some very loud booms, and at first I mistook them for thunder. But most of the distant lights and sounds were coming from a big fireworks display in the area, and they seemed to go on for a long time. They kind of distracted from the movie, but they also seemed like an ominous flash-and-bass effect underling the tenseness of the last minutes of Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Every year it rains for a while on one night of the weekend . This isn’t much of a distraction, especially if you have this–

Of course, drive-ins no longer sell them, but people made their own.

But some  (like me and a few other stalwarts) still stayed outside during the rain, if it was only drizzling–

Rare and lesser-known films always show up in mix of previews:

Here’s a typical trailer, and like a lot of ‘em, better than the actual feature:

There’s a lot of beautiful women, skulls, scary faces,  and eye imagery in the trailers and features–

 

 

2010. From The Witchmaker.

From The Oblong Box. 

From last year’s The Oblong Box:

There’s always a lot of alliteration, too.

Every year the night begins with a trailer playing the national anthem–

–and each night features the antics of the Three Stooges, too:

 Last year, like this year, the event was held on the weekend of  Sept. 11.  A respectful moment of silence was held this year and last in remembrance of the awful events of ten years ago. So this brief trailer image was apt, if coincidental and a little surprising:

I’m sure no one realized it was in there before it was run.

DSMR is an event that I predict will last for many years. It’s got solid programming, great word-of-mouth, a nostalgic and an enjoyable host theater.

And people can be far more comfortable than in a regular theater.

 

This image above is the one I’ll close with: George Reis, Harry Guerro and Todd Ament looking at the title ASYLUM.  One weekend every September they’ve given me and other fans asylum from everyday worries with this event.

Thanks, guys.