Another T-Day in May is in the books, with our usual 7 features devoured, along with about 22 pizzas! Truth be told, this last month or so has been a struggle for me, dealing with some health issues, new medication, work stress, and all the other fun things that go into life. Nothing serious, but just those things that can try to take any of the positives and put them in the shadows making it a little harder to see. But getting together with about a dozen like-minded film nerds, sitting and watching 7 features that probably would never make anybody’s Best-Of lists, and having a damn fun time doing it, really did wonders for me. It was the closest that I’ve felt back to my normal self in a long time. So, for those of you that came out, thank you!

We didn’t have anybody making their T-Day debut this time, but a nice cast of our usual suspects. Of course, Aaron Christensen was here, who has been my co-pilot for these events since I met him in 2005. For better or for worse, he’s never missed one since. We also had other Chicagoans, like Jason Coffman, Neil Calderone, Brian Fukula, and Tim Palace back for more as well. Gavin Schmitt came down from Wisconsin once again, and we even had Jill & Gregg Olheiser come up from southern Illinois, so it was just a great group for this year’s events.

My wife Dawn and son Nick did an incredible job in the kitchen, with all the food prep for the pizza-madness that would take place. It once again makes me realize just how lucky I am to have a wife that not only puts up with these crazy events I organize, but encourages them, as well as busting her ass in the kitchen, coming up with some incredible pizzas! Same goes for Nick, who spent most of his day Thursday and Friday doing a majority of the food prep, which just makes the rest of the stuff so much more manageable, as well as helping make the food that was coming out throughout the day. A lot of the pizza ideas and concepts came from Nick and Dawn, taking an idea from something, adding their own take on it, and turning it into an amazing flavorful delight. These T-Day events just would not be the same without their work. I often joke that is the real reasons my friends come out and put up with the crazy movies I choose to screen! And each time I make that joke at the event, no one seems to laugh . . .

But let’s get to the movies, shall we?

Night of the Blood Monster (1958) – An early Corman production, with Bernard L. Kowalski directing, about a spaceship coming back to earth after orbiting space, only to have brought something back with it. Isn’t that always the case? At first, the single pilot seems to have died in the re-entry, but has not started to decompose yet, which is puzzling the doctor and the rest of the small team involved in the rocket test. Because of the isolated area, the small team that recovered the dead pilot and craft are on their own for the time being, or at least until they can make contact with NASA. While they try and figure out why the pilot seems dead, they also start to realize that some sort of creature is on the prowl, somehow connected to the pilot. When the pilot suddenly is alive and awake, they slowly start to learn just what happened during that return back to earth.

Michael Emmet plays the pilot, who would go on to work with director Kowalski the following year on Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), which is not only a great T-Day title, but a really fun movie. Ed Nelson plays one of the technicians in the group, who is probably the most recognizable since of all the work he did with Corman, such as in Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), and The Brain Eaters (1958), as well as doing a lot of TV work in his later day career. But he always gives a strong performance, no matter the role. Tyler McVey, who plays the confused doctor, also co-starred with Emmet in Attack of the Giant Leeches. Ross Sturlin was the lucky guy to be in the monster costume, who would also go on to play one of the Giant Leeches as well.

If you’re a fan of those sci-fi/horror pictures from the ’50s, then you’ll enjoy this one. It’s a little cheesy here and there, but still an entertaining film.

Castle of Evil (1966) – This was unanimously voted as the least favorite of the day. Directed by Francis D. Lyon, who not only directed Cult of the Cobra (1955), but he also directed a previous T-Day title, Destination Inner Space (1966). That film starred Scott Brady, who plays one of the leads here as well. Brady appeared in a couple of Al Adamson films, Satan’s Sadist and Five Bloody Graves, both in 1969, as well as in Wicked, Wicked (1973). Hugh Marlowe, from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and World Without End (1956) also co-stars.

A group of strangers arrive on a strange island, at the request of a man named Kovic, who they all hated and had been screwed over by him at some point. When they arrive, they find the man apparently dead and now attending his wake and reading of the will, which could give the survivors a bunch of money if they come out alive. Even more money, if their numbers decrease.

Now a lot going on here, other than a lot of walking. Walking in the secret corridors, up and down the stairs, across the rooms, etc. The makeup on the one and only “bad guy” is interesting and somewhat cool, but he doesn’t really do much, other than more walking! Some fun dialogue, but not enough to keep the interests of most of the group. Plus, since I don’t believe this has ever gotten a legitimate release on digital media, the poor-quality print didn’t help much.

Hollywood Horror House (1970) – Also known as Savage Intruder, I picked this up from Vinegar Syndrome when it first came out, mainly because I had never heard of it before, and the fact that it starred Miriam Hopkins, from the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Gale Sondergaard, who appeared in quite a few dark thrillers in the ’40s, such as The Black Cat (1941), The Spider Woman (1943), The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944) and The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946). This was directed by Donald Wolfe, his one and only feature film.

Right away, you’ll notice just how freaking amazing this print looks, in all its glorious color. The story is about an aging film star from the good old days of Hollywood, living a life of memories, filled with depression and alcohol. When the film starts off, showing the run-down, and dilapidated famous Hollywood sign (before it was completely redone in 1978), showing what was new but now old and falling apart, then we meet Katharine Packard, played by Hopkins, we see the obvious correlation. Sondergaard plays Leslie, her secretary or basically the one that runs the estate, trying to keep Packard from getting too drunk and/or hurting herself. After falling down the stairs in a drunken and delirious stupor, she is bound to a crutches or wheelchair. At this time, a wandering murderer happens upon the estate and somehow manages to become employed to take care of Packard. We know from the get-go this guy is bad news, and corpses pile up, and more and more people because suspicious.

The film does have its share of gore, and some very seedy and trippy side of Hollywood in the ‘70s, showing that it truly isn’t all the glamour as they’d like you to think. But it’s actually better than most would think, showing the transition from the old to the new, for better or for worse.

Criminally Insane (1975) – Nick Philips’ (aka Nick Millard) low budget, 60-minute tale of Ethel Janowski, a large young woman who gets released from an institute due to her violent rages. She’s supposed to return once a week to continue shock therapy, but refuses to go, and immediately starts killing anyone and everyone, including her own grandmother, that tries to stop her from doing what she wants, which is basically eating and watching TV. The ones she does kill, she just drags to one of the bedrooms, where they start to decompose and smell up the place. There is not really a character in here that you care about, each having their own issue, so it just becomes a lineup of who’s going to get killed next. Actress Priscilla Alden does do a good job as the intimidating Ethel, mainly because of her size, but does seem to get a real joy in the violence. But she also shows a side of the psychosis where after the deadly act is done, she pretty much puts it out of her mind. Though it was very cool to see a young Buck Flowers show up as a police detective investigating one of the disappearances.

This is a title that was at just about every mom ‘n’ pop video store back in the day. Not great, but definitely memorable.

Gamera: Super Monster (1980) – Now I am a fan of the Gamera films, as cheesy as they be, years before the incredible reboot in the ’90s from Shûsuke Kaneko. Yeah, they can be a bit silly, but we are talking about a giant turtle that shoots fire out of its shell, spinning around as it flies across the sky. This entry is basically a “Best Of”, where an alien force, driving a ship that looks very similar to a Star Destroyer from the Star Wars films, sends out different monsters to destroy Earth. These are all creatures Gamera had battled in previous films, so they just cut the battles down to five-to-ten-minute sequences and built a flimsy story to try and connect them together. Yeap, that’s pretty much it.

But . . . if you are a fan of the Gamera movies, this can be pretty fun because it is a “best of”. You get to see a lot of different monsters and how Gamera takes them to task. Kaiju films might not be for everyone, but I’ve always found them a lot of fun, especially the ones from the ’60s and early ’70s.

Cthulhu Mansion (1992) – One would think that being this is directed by J.P. Simon, aka Juan Piquer Simón, the man who gave us Pieces (1982), Slugs (1988), and The Rift (1990), that he would create another timeless classic of horror, especially when you through the name Cthulhu in it. And even starring British icon Frank Finlay in the lead role! But alas . . . no. That is not what we get. Instead, we get a muddle mess of a film, with barely a plot, not really anything to do with Lovecraft or Cthulhu, with characters that we are just waiting for them to die. But even when they do, it’s pretty uneventful.

About the one positive element in the film is the special makeup effects, which are pretty cool, if only used on a couple of characters. When a couple of characters start to transform, the makeup is very really well done, gruesome and gooey, and not really like something we’d seen before, so props to that.

Unfortunately, that is about the only positive thing I could say. Finlay does what he can with what he’s given, but it just isn’t enough. Melanie Shatner is in the cast, who’s had a few genre pics, such as Syngenor (1990), and a couple of the Subspecies films. I’m sure being William Shatner’s daughter didn’t hurt with casting.

Mosquito (1994) – Lucky for everyone, we were able to end the day on a high note, with Gary Jones’ made-in-Michigan film about giant killer mosquitos. While this was made for a premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel, it’s actually a lot of fun. The practical effects, especially the giant title terrors, are done quite well, as well as the look of the victims of these big giant bloodsuckers.

Gunnar Hansen is the big name of the film, playing a bank robber on the run, who just happens to run into some park rangers trying to escape the killer bugs. There is a “bit” of a nod to his most famous role near the end of the film, when he picks up a chainsaw, which will give audiences a laugh, snicker or groan. But nonetheless, Hansen is pretty good here playing this bad-ass character. Though the other star is Ron Asheton, who really tried to get into acting in the late ’80s and early ’90s with films like The Carrier (1988), Hellmaster (1992), Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo (1995), but mainly is known for being a member of the punk band The Stooges. The rest of the cast, outside a couple of characters played for silly laughs, the movie is played pretty straight and has some pretty good sequences. And it doesn’t take long to get going either!

For fans of early practical effects monsters, and old-fashioned makeup effects, you’ll get a kick out of this one. There are some early optical effects that are way obvious, but honestly, it didn’t take away from the fun viewing we had. It was a great title to end the marathon on, and I think everyone agreed it was the best of the lineup. What a way to end on a high note!

That’s it for this year’s Turkey Day in May report. We can all rest up until this November before we tackle the next lineup of cinematic wonders!