I needed an excuse to go out and spend $2.50 on a can of PBR last night, so I called up Mike and we headed up to the Cradle for Flicker #55. The highlight of the evening for me — besides being in the company of FO3 (”Friend of 301,” don’t ya know, big boy) Sean “Linked to by Defamer” Russell — was the Super 8 goodness of Steve Daniels’ “The Gibbering Horror of Howard Ghormley.” In my mind it managed to conjure Lovecraft (and, indeed, it will be in this year’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival), Kafka, and early David Lynch with a guileless charm and some fresh cinematography. Another interesting (if not entirely enjoyable due to bad sound) piece from last night was Laura DeBar’s “Dave Hager Went to Hollywood,” a montage-over-monologue about a North Carolina native’s off-and-on career as an extra in Hollywood and his argument for the filmmaking industry in NC (see also: Bring Back NC Film). Although “This Big,” a spoof of Big Fish by a trio of goofs from Greensboro, should’ve left a good five out of its eleven minutes on the cutting room floor, it did provide some great bloody sight gags. Afterwards, we headed to the OCSC for a few beers. I seem to remember someone saying something about Sylvester Stallone’s preference for fellatio techniques involving, “shaft, balls, and my name” … in that order. [Last link is NSFW.]

I received an email from Mike about an article over at CHUD.com. Seems the man behind the screenplay for the remake of Dawn of the Dead and the best Troma movie of all time, Tromeo and Juliet, has directed what looks like a delicious return to the gross-out camp of the 1980s (watching the trailer, films like The Being, Alien Predator, and Contamination come to mind). Bloody-Disgusting has as interview with James Gunn, the director of Slither, here.
Also, scanning the front page of Bloody-Disgusting, I see that a teaser (of sorts) for Creepshow 3 has been released … one of the directors is also behind the remake of Day of the Dead.