So there’s plenty of opportunities to see movies on the big screen in Atlanta. I’m not just talking about stuff like Gone With the Wind, no. I’m talking about the healthy horror-loving community that we have here. There’s a group called the Silver Scream Spook Show that puts on a film each month in the badass Plaza Theatre, which is an old single-converted-into-a-double cinema house. Generally, I’m too damn busy to make it. For example, a little ways back they showed Demons–and you can imagine my heartbreak when I couldn’t see a movie about infectious demons running amok in an old cinema–in an old cinema. But when I heard they were doing Creature From the Black Lagoon…in 3-D…well, we carved out time. You simply have to for a flick like that. Especially since somehow I didn’t even know there was a 3-D version out there. I don’t remember that from my Universal Legacy edition of the film or its commentary, so I’ll need to refresh my memory when I watch it again this Halloween.
So this was my first Spook Show performance, and it was an absolute hoot. Hosted by Professor Morte, there’s also his sidekick Retch, along with the lovely Pandora (whose Creature-inspired outfit was fantastic) and Persephone (who sang a Creature tribute to the tune of “The Rainbow Connection”–also fantastic). They also enlisted the help of the wildlife-chasing witch doctor Mumbobo, who took them to the location of Creature‘s production in a special film.
[ad#longpost]They did all this in the time-honored tradition of the shows that would appear before double features and other midnight movies–with little budget but lots of imagination. They did throw skeletons into the audience, have a special appearance by The Trashmen that would have made Miss Destructo‘s head explode with delight, and turn the stage into a black-light saturated aquarium in which giant versions of sea life engaged in combat. If there’s anything else you want at a matinee spook show, then I don’t know what the hell it is.
And the feature film itself was spectacular to see on the big screen with the traditional red and blue glasses. While it would be awesome to see in something like digital Real3D or whatever the hell it’s called, there still needs to be room to see the fossilized creature hand jutting out of the rocks and COMING RIGHT AT YOU, tinged in red and blue.
The Spook Show was a great time, and I highly recommend it–and the Plaza Theatre–to any lover of the genre. You can find them on MySpace, and the Plaza Theatre’s site is here.
