For our third year of doing our newer T-Day event in May, I decided to do something a little different. Since there have been quite a few movies screened over the last fourteen years, I know there were more than a few that some of the other participates had missed. So we decided to do a Best Of this time out. I sent out the list of all the movies that had been screen previously, and had everyone pick three titles they’d like to see in the lineup. There were six films that got more than one vote, so we went with those. I know we usually try to get through seven titles, but this year was a little different and a little more relaxed.
One of those reasons was we had a couple of first time attendees, which I’m not sure which one I’m surprised at the most. Any regular reader of our T-Day events know that Aaron Christensen has been my co-pilot on these excursions since 2005, and is one that not only loves Turkey movies, but sees past the inferior filmmaking for the entertainment value they are. His wife Michelle, on the other hand, has not come over to the dark side, and hadn’t yet grasp why anybody would want to watch a poorly made film. So when Aaron called me a couple of days before the event and said that Michelle would be joining us, I was shocked, amazed, and scared to death that she would snap during one of the films and kill us all. Okay, so maybe that was a little too dramatic. Maybe we’d just walk out with a black eye or at least a limp. But I have to say that she made it safely through most of the first six films and didn’t explode, or even develop a nervous twitch. Not sure if she’ll be back next time to do it again, but I give her a lot of credit for surviving this one. Major kudos to you, Michelle!
The second reason was due to another person, just like Aaron, that I had first met at Flashback Weekend, though only a couple of years ago. His name is Scott Bradley who lives in San Francisco, California. After hearing about our little Turkey Day get-togethers, he decided that he needed to make the 2000+ mile trip out here to experience for himself. I always knew he was a bit crazy, besides the fact that he seemed to like to hang around our motley crew, but I never expected him, or anyone, to be that crazy to travel that great of a distance just to watch some Turkeys. But I guess, it really is more than that, isn’t it? A small gathering of like-minded cinephiles that revel in this kind of cinematic shipwrecks, but also appreciate them for what they are. Because at their lowest point, they are still damn entertaining. And watching them with the rest of these people, make it even more enjoyable.
The rest of the gang that showed up for the Best of Turkey Day were the usual suspects. They were Brian Fukula, Jason Coffman, Neil Calderone, Matt Harding, Craig Clarke, Bryan Martinez, and of course, Aaron Christensen. And the six features that they decided on were: King Dinosaur (1955), Blood Freak (1972), Killdozer (1974), Octaman (1971), Fatal Frames (1996), and Things (1989). And later, after most everyone left, when it was just Scott, Bryan, and Matt, we threw in The Giant Claw (1957) to end the night.
But I also have to make special mention of my son Nick, who supplied all the food for us during the movies. Nick cranked out more than a dozen pizzas throughout the day, from Crab Rangoon, the chili dog pizza, the Drunken Billy, to so many more. What was even more amazing is that he did all of this on his own, AFTER working from 11pm to 7am that morning. So going on no sleep, he slaved away in the kitchen while his old man and friends were downstairs enjoying flicks. I can’t say enough how proud I am of not only his amazing culinary skills (which came from his mother, definitely not me), but that he would volunteer to do all of this work for my little get-together. I know everyone was more than impressed and full by his mad pizza skills. So a big thank you, Nick.
I’m not going to go into any detail about these features since I already did it once in the preceding Turkey Day reports, and don’t feel the need to repeat all of that. But you can always go back through our past reports to check out our thoughts on not just these titles, but all the ones we’ve watched over the last fourteen years. It was a lot of fun, as always, and it never gets old sitting there amongst these friends enjoying these movies. It really is something special and I’m so grateful to have friends like this to be able to hold these little viewing parties.
See you in November, when we’ll be celebrating our 15th year of the Turkey Day Marathons!
And in case you need proof that Michelle attended…here it is:
You’ll notice that Michelle, front and center, is the only one without a smile on her face, or at least a look of accomplishment!
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