Trash Cinema 101 – “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”
Trash Cinema 101 – “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”
Hosted by Logan Donahoo
Saturday, January 19, 2013
The Venue, Orlando FL</strong>
The process of recycling crappy B movies has challenged the entertainment industry since Roger Corman was a production assistant. Late night UHF, Elvira and finally Joel Hodgson’s “MST3K” have extracted increasingly more post-use entertainment values from this matrix of bad concepts, bad writing and bad acting. Local impresario Logan Donahoo lifted the concept, added a bar and charges a few bucks and now you, too, can riff along at The Venue so long as you can stay up late.
Tonight’s experiment was “The Brain That Would Not Die” (a.k.a. “The HEAD That Would Not Die”) featuring creepy Dr. Bill Cortner, his decapitated girlfriend Jan Compton, and a cast of supporting actors that couldn’t pull together a failing Fringe show. Pre-show we hung about and drank “Jan’s Pan Juice” cocktails as Thomas Thorspecken sketched away. We moved into the theatre, and after a slight delay Logan Donahoo took the stage in his traditional pink Adam Ant face painting. There’s a preshow discussion, complete with Power Point and a quiz. The film has some interesting history, and since you were there, well, you have an internet.
The movie rolls, Donahoo makes snarky comments and gradually the audience warms up. The audio is rough, the original source was muddy at best and with the volume up and the concrete ceiling of The Venue, it’s a bit like Rocky Horror – you’d best have your cues memorized because hearing dialog is a challenge. Despite the slow pacing of the film, it’s still a bit creepy and while the film makes no sense medically, it’s at least takes some care with the effects. Occasional comments from Donahoo or the audience pop up but to make true funny commentary for the movie it helps to see it and take notes first, painful as that may be. That’s Logan’s job, were paying him to highlight the absurdity before it happens. It’s a dirty job, but you know we need some after hours entertainment in Orlando. Trash Cinema is late and it’s loud, and lots of fun if you enjoy bad horror.
Trash Cinema 101 is very needy and wants you to like it at http://fb.me/TrashCinema101
More information on events at The Venue resides at http://TheVenueOrlando.com/</em>
