ADVERTISEMENT

    Overnight B-Movie Marathon Hits Gateway Film Center

    If Halloween season is starting early this year, then its official kickoff is Dr. Bob Tesla’s 24 Hour Wild Eye Marathon at Gateway Film Center.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    An offshoot of the monthly midnight program Monster Movies with Dr. Bob, the 24-hour horror marathon runs from 11 a.m. Saturday, September 16 through midday Sunday, September 17, promising a lot of what fans of the monthly series love.

    “We’ll show just about anything as long as it’s fun,” says Bob Gilbert, show host Dr. Bob Tesla’s alter ego. “The thing I hear most is that people don’t always know what they’re going to see, but they know they’re going to have fun.”

    The free monthly series includes old serials from 11:30 p.m. to midnight and live antics via a recurring cast and storyline.

    “We have our live hosts: Dr. Bob Tesla and his crew,” Bob says. “He’s assisted by his more famous brother Nikola Tesla, which is a brain in a tank. And Nurse Feratu is his main assistant, who runs the merchandise table. Then we have a rotating cast of friends, enemies and Igors and we have a continuing storyline, which does help set us apart from a lot of horror hosts.”

    Monster Movies is in its sixth season, and Gilbert feels pretty comfortable with the way things are going.

    “We want to have the old William Castle feel on the live show,” he says. “But with the movie, we just want people to have a good experience.”

    Over the years, Gilbert has developed a symbiotic relationship with Wild Eye Releasing, an indie horror distributor. Dr. Bob & Company created a YouTube channel just to capture and share their own reactions to Wild Eye films, because some of them, “are doozies,” Gilbert says.

    “Sometimes we actually uncover some gems that we want to show for the Midnight Monster Movies.”

    In fact, Gilbert found several that he wanted to use for the marathon – a 24-hour affair consisting entirely of films from Wild Eye’s catalog.

    A few movies Gilbert is especially pleased to share: Tales of Poe, The Disco Exorcist and Caesar & Otto’s Deadly Xmas.

    He thinks the audience will also appreciate the marathon capper, Badass Monster Killer.

    “Its tagline is HP Lovecraft meets Shaft,” he says.

    An additional highlight: Asylum of Darkness, Jay Woelfel’s Columbus-based mind bender, which is slated to include a cast and crew Q&A.

    “We also are using this as an opportunity to bring back one of our most requested shows,” Gilbert says. “We won’t normally repeat a show at Midnight Monster Movies –we’re a new episode every month. But our first interaction with Wild Eye Productions was their Night of the Living Dead Reanimated, which was our last episode at the Grandview Theater.”

    The Wild Eye film consists of many different animators’ versions of scenes from the Romero classic.

    “To me, it was a great idea,” says Gilbert. “But it was just missing a little something. So I came up with the idea of putting it side by side with the original on the screen. That was a huge hit. People loved it. That basically kicked off our partnership with Wild Eye.”

    Night of the Living Dead Reanimated will run smack in the middle of the lineup:

    • Tales of Poe
    • Caesar & Otto’s Deadly Xmas
    • Frankenstein’s Hungry Dead
    • Queen Crab
    • Bigfoot: The Movie
    • Shark Exorcist
    • Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated simultaneous double feature
    • Asylum of Darkness
    • The Disco Exorcist
    • Sodomaniac
    • Clownkill
    • Badass Monster Killer

    Marathon tickets run $25.

    For tickets and additional information visit gatewayfilmcenter.org

    Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her movie podcasts THE SCREENING ROOM and FRIGHT CLUB.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Subscribe

    More to Explore:

    Gateway’s New Program Celebrates Women Making Horror

    Hot on the heels of Gateway Film Center’s frosty...

    Cinema Columbus Returns to Venues Across CBUS

    Cinema Columbus returns to local theaters beginning Wednesday, April...

    Loads of Spooky Goodness for March

    So much spookiness to choose from this week: family-friendly,...

    Concert Preview: Sleater-Kinney at Newport Music Hall

    Little Rope is the 11th studio album from veteran...

    Beat Bazaar Creates New Space for Columbus Producers

    On February 23, The Kutt Record shop filled with...
    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
    ADVERTISEMENT