Fri 10/3 – Sun 10/5
Amble through halls permeated with primal fears and infested with primordial revulsions where the walls seem to drip gore and your nightmares are palpable.
In its 14th year, Cinema Wasteland is a biannual B-movie and memorabilia exposition with more than 60 hours of macabre motion pictures and mayhem sprawled across a three-day weekend. Eulogizing the ghoulish, the festival is an assault on decency where evil lurks around every corner as terror snarls its blood-drenched teeth, complete with a wedding.
Entrenched in two rooms, heinous hosts, nefarious idols, and their devotees mingle in a weekend chock-full of drive-in movies, live commentaries, guest talks, indie flicks, question and answer sessions, and shorts.
Actor, writer, producer, director Greydon Clark will kick off the frightivities on Friday night after a double feature of his cult classics, Satan’s Cheerleaders and Without Warning.
A dreamlander who appeared in most of John Waters’ films, Mink Stole will be introducing the excrement-eating classic Pink Flamingos Friday night as well.
After screening the Peter Cushing-led Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, a Hammer Films panel will ensue with Martine Beswick, Veronica Carlson, and Caroline Munro. Beswick appeared in three Bond films and the Raquel Welch classic One Million Years B.C. before starring in Hammer Film’s Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (which is on the weekend’s roster as well). Munro is also part of the Bond legacy (as Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me) in addition to her Hammer films.
Former Penthouse pet Patty Mullen will speak briefly on Saturday before a screening of her 1987 camp slasher vehicle, Doom Asylum, and Geretta Geretta will recount her career in Italian sci-fi and horror pictures before a screening of Demons on Saturday afternoon.
Other guests include adult film stars Amber Lynn and Joanna Angel; star of more than 100 B-movies Robert Z’Dar; and Kyra Schon, the little girl-turned-zombie in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead who famously leered out at you from the film’s promo posters inciting night terrors across the globe.
Lest you think it’s all celluloid and silicone, various festival guest stars will join A. Ghastlee Ghoul at A Ghastlee Nite at the Movies with campy skits, deliberately awful tunes, interactive games and contests. And, as always, the lure of the unknown is so intriguing there are bound to be additional surprises slinking through the darkness.
16mm films abound with Bob Clark’s 1983 cult comedy Porky’s 2: The Next Day, Oliver Stone’s low-budget creeper The Hand starring Michael Cane, a western cathouse comedy starring Lee Marvin, and the bevy of aforementioned classics. Of course, no horror convention would be complete without Vincent Price; see him in The Last Man on Earth.
DVDs will project possessed tercentenarians, killer cult corpses, a fictional serial killer documentary, an irritable bowel only murder can soothe, slasher films old and new, salutes to gritty 1970s exploitation flicks and quirky 1950s sci-fi thrillers, lesbian cannibals, and aliens (including a specimen with Jack Palance, Martin Landau, and a young David Caruso).
The Friday night short film block will feature stranger danger during back-road break downs, a menstrual medical experiment gone wrong, a movie review shows spoof, and a possessed forklift of death, among others. Comedy-horror TV host Gunga Jim will present Drive-In Massacre later that evening.
Special touches include movie trailers, cartoons, old intermission and snack bar spots and public service announcement reels, along with an early morning viewing of hardcore wrestling. Attendees can also kick off Saturday morning with Son of Ghoul as he screens his banned cartoon carnival and Three Stooges shorts.
Ghastly narratives are a Cleveland institution as local horror hosts have aired B movies on Northeast Ohio television for more than 60 years to the morbid delight of devout viewers.
“I have featured those classic B horror movies on television for a solid 28 years, which only proves that Clevelanders still have a taste for these films and a love for the horror host and this kind of programming,” Son of Ghoul explained. “The Cinema Wasteland Movie and Memorabilia Expo is a great place to meet other folks who share the same interests and love for these films. With 14 years of success, Ken and Pam Kish always provide a well run, class A show featuring many famous movie and television celebrities, live music, stage shows, Q & A sessions, screening rooms featuring rare 16mm films and DVDs, and a giant dealer room packed to the rafters with collectibles you just can’t live without.”
Don’t take the chance of perishing for lack of possessedions; visit The Cinema Wasteland Movie and Memorabilia Expo October 3, 4 and 5 at the Holiday Inn Cleveland Strongsville.
3 Day VIP Passes are available at the door Friday for $50.Single day admissions are available for $20 per day at the door Friday and Saturday and $15 on Sunday. Children 10 years or under are free when accompanied and supervised by a paying adult, although the festival is not recommended for persons under 16 years old.
Hollie Gibbs has a BS in journalism from Kent State University and studied photography at School of the Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her articles and photographs have appeared in numerous local and national publications. She can also be found playing guitar with various bands and building life-size monster props.
Strongsville, OH 44136