Tuesday, June 2, 2009

"Hell" weekend

Great fun on Saturday watching Drag Me to Hell with a bunch of like-minded (doomed) souls at the drive-in that time forgot in Montclair, CA. The event was organized, and has been memorialized here, by Dennis Cozzalio of the passionate movie blog "Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule."

Key quote: "The single shot where we slowly become aware of the old woman’s presence in the back seat of Lohman’s car in that parking garage is a small masterpiece of slow-revealing terror that will reconnect you with the childlike sensation of not being able to get your hands up over your face fast enough, while being unable to resist the temptation to peek at the same time."

This was, in effect, a tail gate party, with beach chairs and yoga pads deployed upon the asphalt, but a tail gate party for movie freaks rather than football fans. At regular intervals, freight trains rolled past, drowning out several lines of dialog. My only regret? We should have been eating chili dogs and jalpeno nachos from the concession stand, rather than chicken and red wine from a picnic basket, fare better suited to classical music at the Bowl. Above all, in this life, one must have a sense of occasion.

A convincing rave.

And a Post-Mortum.

3 comments:

Christian Lindke said...

I'm searching my spam folder frantically for an invite to this event.

Not that Dennis Cozzalio has any idea who I am.

Dennis Cozzalio said...

I do, I do, Christian! You're a Facebook friend! I just didn't realize you were in L.A., otherwise I would have contacted you. You're on the list for the next one!

David Chute said...

Sarah Weinman has referenced DMTH, so now it's a must see:

"THE STRAIN, a collaborative reworking of the vampire mythos for today's times by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, might be the purest example of entertainment for entertainment's sake I've read in quite some time. In a lot of ways it reminded me of DRAG ME TO HELL - their common aim is to tell a good story, keep up rollercoaster-esque relentless momentum, and leave the reader/moviegoer with flushed cheeks and in a state of near-hyperventilation."