Cinema Wasteland Fall 2019

The fall 2019 edition of the Cinema Wasteland convention was held in Strongsville, Ohio over the first weekend of October. Cody was there, and this is how he spent his Wasteland weekend.

Getting to the Cinema Wasteland convention in Strongsville, Ohio used to be so easy. I started going to these shows in the spring of 2006, and it used to be a quick drive, about 90 minutes, to get there. That was a drive I didn't even do myself, my mom always did the driving. At first she would go to the convention with me, the spring and fall shows, as we would only drop by for one day. When I started spending the weekend at these shows in fall 2009, she would drop me off at the Holiday Inn where the convention is held on Friday and pick me up there on Sunday. It was that way until 2016. That's when I started missing the spring shows due to other commitments. Then my mom passed away in May of 2017 and everything fell apart.

Instead of spending the weekend at the fall 2017 show, I just drove myself there and spent seven hours hanging out at the convention. Soon after I had to move to Tennessee, so when I wanted to return to Cinema Wasteland in the fall of 2018 I caught a ride with Life Between Frames contributor Jay Burleson, whose movie The Nobodies was being released at that time and would be available for purchase at Cinema Wasteland on the Troma table. He and a couple other friends picked me up in Tennessee on the way to Ohio from Alabama.

This year Burleson was too busy to go to Cinema Wasteland with me, so I had to find another way to get back to Strongsville, even though I don't have my own transportation at the moment. Some may recommend that I not worry about it, that I should just let Cinema Wasteland go. But that convention became a home away from home for me over the years, and I would be deeply upset if I weren't able to return to at least one show a year. So I redeemed some frequent flyer miles and plotted a journey that involved four planes and four car rides, including a Lyft.

The best part of the plan is that the travel only cost me about $55 total. The worst part of this journey came right at the start. Although Cinema Wasteland begins at 4pm on Friday, the person I get a ride to the airport in Tennessee from works during the day, so I couldn't just catch a flight Friday morning. I had to catch a flight Thursday night and plan an itinerary that would get me to Strongsville at a time when I could hopefully check into the hotel. So I flew out of Tennessee at night and landed in Chicago for a ten hour layover. I had read on the site SleepingInAirports.net that the Chicago airport has some S-shaped couches that I might be able to sleep on, so I hoped to be able to use my bags as a pillow and get a decent night's sleep there. What I discovered is that spending the night in an airport is a nightmare, and those S-shaped couches are not great places to sleep. Sure, I did sleep on them for maybe a couple hours, but it wasn't peaceful.

But I endured the night, and flew out to Cleveland in the morning. The Holiday Inn that hosts Cinema Wasteland offers a shuttle service to and from the airport, but I wasn't staying at the Holiday Inn, I was saving some money and staying at the Super 8 across the parking lot. So I had to get a ride to the Super 8, and after comparing the prices of taxis, Ubers, and Lyfts, I found that Lyft was the cheapest option by a few dollars. The airport is only around six miles from the hotels, and I caught a ride from a nice guy. It worked out.

I arrived at the Super 8 around noon, two hours before check-in time, and was able to check in early. I got into my room and crashed on the bed for a while. After my nap, I showered and then went over to the Holiday Inn to pick up my three day pass. With that in hand, I returned to my room at the Super 8 and ordered some Dominos. Once food was consumed, it was finally time to enter the Wasteland once again.

FRIDAY (October 4th):

4:00pm - All 3-Day Pass holders admitted into the Guest and Vendor Room.

Two car rides, two plane rides, and nearly 24 hours after I left the house in Tennessee, I walked into the familiar atmosphere of Cinema Wasteland. I took a walk around the guest and vendor room, intending to make my first stop at the table of indie filmmaker Henrique Couto. Henrique was already busy dealing with customers by the time I got there, though, so my first stop ended up being at the table of Happy Cloud Media.

This month Happy Cloud has published a book called Night of the Living Dead '90: The Version You've Never Seen, which collects the storyboards director Tom Savini hired artist Brad Hunter to create for the 1990 remake. Before production began, Savini had the entire movie drawn out of paper. The book is called "The Version You've Never Seen" because the making of that movie was a nightmare for Savini and he has said that the finished film only represents 40% of the vision he had for it. His full vision is in that book.

With the book in hand, I then made my way over to Henrique Couto's table and we talked for a while as I purchased copies of two movies he recently produced, The Girl in the Crawlspace and Scarecrow County, as well as the first season of the movie show he hosts, Popcorn Fodder.

During my day one walks around the guest and vendor room, I crossed paths with my friend Jason Siegel. It's always good to see him at a Wasteland, I think he has been going to the shows for ten years now, but it had been a while since the last time I saw him. Since I missed a couple shows in between and he wasn't at the fall 2018 show when I was, we hadn't been at the same Wasteland at the same time since fall 2017, when I shot video of him delivering Coffin Joe's monologue from At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul.

4:45pm - MOVIE: Catch an episode of The Mummy and The Monkey Show when they present the horror classic, THE DEVIL BAT, to traditionally begin the weekend screenings in MOVIE ROOM 2.

The Mummy and the Monkey have a show on their Facebook page called the "Hairy Scary Hangout", where they host a movie live every Friday night. I watch that show every week. Since they were guests at Cinema Wasteland they weren't going to be having a Hairy Scary Hangout that night, so I decided to check out this screening of an episode of their old YouTube show.

The movie they hosted in this episode was The Devil Bat, a fun one from 1940 in which Bela Lugosi plays kindly doctor Paul Carruthers, a chemist who works for a cosmetics company. Carruthers feels undervalued by the company even after receiving a $5000 bonus check (that's $91,627.86 in today's money, I don't know why he's not happy), so he decides to kill his bosses and their family members. He uses electrical gland stimulation to make bigger and stronger bats, makes sure that his intended victims dab on the new shaving lotion he has concocted - which has a fragrance that bats go crazy for - and then lets his bats loose into the night. The bats are drawn to the people wearing the shaving lotion, kill them, then fly back home.

The Devil Bat is a movie I enjoy watching on its own, but the Mummy and the Monkey version of it adds another level of entertainment with the addition of sound effects and audio clips that turn every moment into a comedic one.

Intercut with the movie were segments filmed at the Monster Bash convention, where the Mummy and the Monkey interacted with fellow movie hosts Bone Jangler, Penny Dreadful, Lil' John, Mr. Lobo, and Dr. Midnight.

I was surprised that the Mummy and the Monkey weren't in the movie room when I got in there to watch the episode, and as it turns out their absence was due to some confusion - they thought the episode had been scheduled to show at 6pm. I found this out when I stepped out of the movie room before the show had ended and found the Mummy and the Monkey standing there, having arrived at 6pm in hopes of introducing the episode. Seeing me leave, the Monkey jokingly asked, "Are we that bad?" My social anxiety kicked in and I just smiled as I went on my way. I could have told them they're not bad, that I'm a fan of the show, but I just smiled.

I had only returned from a two month trip to Brazil a week and a half before Cinema Wasteland, and central air was not a feature in the place I had stayed in Brazil. Once I was back in the central air of my U.S. residence, my throat and sinuses did not react well to it, so I had a lot of coughing and nose blowing going on that weekend. Thankfully the issue didn't turn into a full-blown cold until the trip was over, but I missed out on a couple minutes of The Devil Bat because I had to go to the restroom and blow my nose.

When I got back to the movie room, the Mummy and the Monkey were part of the audience. They sat through the rest of the episode with us and gave a brief "outro" when it ended.


Before the next movie started, I decided to go to the table of former indie filmmaker J.R. Bookwalter and pick up a copy of the limited edition Blu-ray release of his second feature, Robot Ninja. I had been going back and forth on whether or not I should get the Blu-ray, since I had already received a DVD copy of Robot Ninja for supporting the crowd-funding campaign for the Blu-ray release of Bookwalter's The Dead Next Door. But Bookwalter put so much time and effort into making the Robot Ninja Blu-ray, and packed the release with so many extras, that I decided to go ahead and pay the $35 for it.

The Blu-ray came with a double-sided Robot Ninja poster and a Robot Ninja comic book, both of which Bookwalter signed.

This is another interaction that could have been better if I didn't have social anxiety. I'm a big fan of Bookwalter's work and the movies he made in Ohio in the '80s and '90s are an inspiration to me, but I didn't say any of that. He and I did talk a bit about the Night of the Living Dead '90 book I was carrying around.

6:30pm - MOVIE: Horror Host regular, Gunga Jim, brings Gunga’s Drive-In to Cinema Wasteland with a screening of VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES, in MOVIE ROOM 2.

I wrote about the Leon Klimovsky / Paul Naschy collaboration Vengeance of the Zombies last year, at which time I said I didn't really like it but I was glad I watched it because it was so strange and convoluted. I wasn't glad enough to watch it a second time, though, and would have avoided a screening of it if not for the fact that this was a Gunga Jim presentation.

Gunga Jim adds in sound effects and comedic comments to make a mockery of the movies he shows. His work on this one was really amusing and made Vengeance of the Zombies much easier to sit through a second time. He usually has host segments in his show, but he didn't this time around. The Vengeance of the Zombies episode was just the movie with his audio additions, but it was a lot of fun.

After the Gunga Jim screening ended, I took another walk around the guest and vendor room. Seeing that there were two empty seats at the Troma table, right behind where Burleson's movie The Nobodies was placed on the table, I took a picture so I could post it on Facebook and say that Jay Burleson and cast member Bart Hyatt, who was at Wasteland with us last year, should have been sitting in those seats.

I also took a few minutes to go over to my Super 8 room and drop off the day's purchases so I wouldn't have to continue carrying around a book, three Blu-rays, a DVD set, a poster, and a comic book.

Then I returned to the Holiday Inn to see a Q&A.


8:30pm - GUEST: Christopher Neame meets with fans to kick off the weekend guest talks before a screening of DRACULA A.D. 1972 in MOVIE ROOM 2.

I can't say I knew actor Christopher Neame by name or even by sight, but I have seen several of his 100 screen credits. He played Johnny Alucard in Dracula A.D. 1972, he showed up in Licence to Kill to tell James Bond he was "a loose cannon on deck." Neame was a bit low energy due to being jet lagged, but the interview and Q&A with him was interesting.

Neame discussed working with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee on Dracula A.D. 1972, saying Cushing was "one of the guys" while Lee kept a distance from the other actors. Lee was like royalty and spent his time in his trailer, singing opera... and when he was on set, Lee was Dracula. Neame didn't remember working on one movie that was mentioned, 1988's Transformations, but said the least favorite of all the movie he has made was Species III. He said the great joy of his career was working with Patrick Swayze in Namibia on the 1987 film Steel Dawn.


When the Neame Q&A ended, I didn't stick around for Dracula A.D. 1972. Since the guest and vendor room was about to close, I went over to my room at the Super 8. I had the thought in my mind that I might take a nap before catching the 12:45 showing of Wasteland guest Jack Sholder's slasher Alone in the Dark... but that didn't happen. When I got in bed, I ended up sleeping until the morning. I was too tired from the travel and that uncomfortable night in Chicago.


SATURDAY (October 5th):

After showering and taking advantage of the free breakfast offered by Super 8, because my favorite type of meal is a free meal, I was ready for my second day at Cinema Wasteland. Which was also, unfortunately, my last day at Cinema Wasteland, because I had to make my way to the airport before the doors opened on Sunday. But I was there as soon as the doors opened on Saturday.

10:00am - Doors Open for all pass holders.

After taking a morning stroll around the guest and vendor room, I was ready to watch a movie.

10:30am - MOVIE: Saturday Morning Hangover Theater begins with the sci-fi classic, EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, on 16mm film in MOVIE ROOM 1.

A non-fiction book by UFO researcher Donald Keyhoe inspired this movie about Earth going to battle with aliens that get around in flying saucers. The battle is started by a pair of misunderstandings: when Earth starts launching satellites as part of a space program called Project Skyhook, a dying race of aliens mistakes the satellites for weapons and blasts them down. Then the aliens land at Skyhook's base of operations in hopes of having a peaceful talk with the people there, but the military opens fire on them instead. So the aliens kill almost everyone at the base and start planning to take over the world. Can't have that.

The aliens in this movie reminded me of the Torch puppet from the Puppet Master franchise as they wobbled around with helmets covering their heads, blasting deadly beams from their arms.

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers isn't the most interesting or engaging alien invasion movie I've seen, I got a bit restless sitting through its 84 minutes, but it's not bad.


12:45pm - GUEST: Ian Ogilvy meets up with fans before a screening of The Sorcerers in MOVIE ROOM 2.

With over 100 credits to his name, Ian Ogilvy is, like Christopher Neame, another prolific character actor who I wouldn't have known by name or sight before this. Regardless, I was interested in seeing his interview and Q&A. But I couldn't, because it was scheduled too close to another event I wanted to attend. I only saw about 10 minutes of the talk with Ian Ogilvy, during which he talked about working with Peter Cushing and mentioned one of the same things Neame had mentioned, that Cushing would wear a white glove while smoking cigarettes so the nicotine wouldn't stain his fingers.

I felt bad leaving the Q&A after just a couple minutes, but when another person exited the room I followed right behind them.

1:15pm - MOVIE: George Romero’s underrated horror classic, MARTIN, begins in MOVIE ROOM 1.

This is the event I wanted to make sure to get a seat for. After missing the screening of My Bloody Valentine at the October 2018 show because the movie room got packed before I could get in there, I made sure to get a seat for Martin 20 minutes before the movie started.

Romero's unique take on the concept of vampirism, Martin is one of my favorite films. It was among the earliest movies I wrote about here on Life Between Frames (in this article), and I will be giving it a Film Appreciation write-up one of these days.

3:15pm - GUEST PANEL: The attending cast of MARTIN meets up with fans after the movie screening in MOVIE ROOM 1

The Martin guests in attendance were star John Amplas, who I have crossed paths with a couple times and got to sign my Martin DVD in (I think) 2008; co-star Christine Forrest Romero, who was in a relationship with George A. Romero when he made Martin and was married to him for many years; cinematographer Michael Gornick; special effects artist and co-star Tom Savini; actress Sara Venable, who is featured in a very memorable sequence; composer Donald Rubinstein; and sound recordist Tony Buba, who also appears in the movie. Buba's family home was the primarily filming location for Martin.

This panel was being recorded, so there's a chance it might show up as a special feature on a home video release of Martin sometime down the line. During the Q&A, Gornick mentioned he has overseen a 4K restoration of the film that he hopes to get released soon. The only thing holding it back is an issue with the producer, who happens to Donald Rubinstein's brother. People frequently talk about having issues with the producer, so it was a bit awkward and a bit amusing to have one of those issues mentioned with his brother there. Hopefully this issue will be worked out and we'll be seeing a 4K release of Martin before long.

A story I didn't know that was revealed during the Q&A is that Romero wrote the script over the course of a week while he and Christine were on vacation in Massachusetts. He would work on the script all day, then in the evening the couple would go out for lobster dinner.

The sequence Venable is in is my part of the film. I mentioned it when I wrote about Martin before, this masterful 19 minute sequence in which we see the title character stalk a woman (Venable's character) and then pull off a home invasion with plans of drinking her blood. As it turns out, it was this sequence that got Romero noticed by some key people in the industry - the praise he got for editing that sequence enabled him to get an agent for the first time in his career, and also led to his meeting with Stephen King. Romero and King would strike up a friendship and work together several times over the years, resulting in Creepshow, Creepshow 2 (directed by Gornick), The Dark Half, and King's cameo in Knightriders.


There were a couple more Q&As I wanted to see later in the day, one with Thunderball's Luciana Paluzzi and another with character actor Lou Wagner, but I got distracted by a quest for food and missed them.

The last couple years, the Holiday Inn has been offering cheaper food options, selling hamburgers, chicken fingers, chips, and drinks at a special set-up in the lobby. I was planning to get my dinner from that set-up, but it was gone by the time I got out of the Martin panel. So I headed over to my Super 8 room and ordered some more Dominos. I didn't feel great about having Dominos two days in a row... until the delivery person arrived and it was a guy who has been delivering my pizzas during my Cinema Wasteland stays for years. It's always cool to see him.

After I ate, I went back to Cinema Wasteland to spend some more time in the guest and vendor room before it closed for the night, since it was the last time I'll be in there for a year.

At some point during the day, I'm not sure when, I went to the table of reviewer Tim Gross of the Grossfest convention and purchased a copy of indie filmmaker Jim Roberts' latest movie Closing Time.

Wanting to make up for my awkward interaction with the Mummy and the Monkey the day before, I went to their table and let them know that I love their show and watch the Hairy Scary Hangout every week. I was pretty awkward in this interaction as well, tripped over my words and thanked them for "kleeping" the Cleveland tradition of movie hosts alive, but at least I was able to tell them I'm a fan. As I walked away I heard the Mummy say "That was sweet", so I guess I didn't bungle things too badly. Maybe someday I'll have an interaction with them where I don't come off as such an anxiety-riddled dweeb.

From there I went back over to Henrique Couto's table so we could have one last conversation before my time at the show came to an end. I was at Henrique's table until just a couple minutes before the show closed up for the night, and while I was there I let actress Rachael Redolfi know I thought she was great in Scarecrow County.

And then this happened:


7:00pm - The DEALER and GUEST ROOM closes for the night, but we’ve still got plenty of things to do and some great movies screening until 2:00am tonight.

After the doors to the big room were closed, I went back over to my Super 8 room and took a nap. I had the TV in my room set to the MeTV channel, so at 8pm I started watching the Svengoolie horror host show. Svengoolie was showing 1951's The Son of Dr. Jekyll that night, and I was not captivated. I ended up falling asleep before the show was over, but thankfully I set an alarm.

10:30pm - MOVIE: Horny mutant fish creatures attack when HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP kicks off the 16mm double feature for the night in MOVIE ROOM 1.

I wanted to take in some of the Saturday night Cinema Wasteland atmosphere, so I went over the Holiday Inn and mostly just sat in the lobby for a while.

I did step into Movie Room 1 and watched about 13 minutes of Humanoids from the Deep, long enough to see the humanoids claim a couple victims.

Jason Siegel was dressed up as Captain Spaulding as seen in House of 1000 Corpses that night, a costume he had been putting together before Sid Haig passed away two weeks before the show. His Spaulding outfit ended up being a nice tribute to an actor who was loved by the Cinema Wasteland crowd. Haig was a past Wasteland guest, and I got him to sign my copy of Spider Baby at the Spring 2008 show.

I ended my time at the Fall 2019 show by saying goodbye to Jason and heading back to the Super 8.

The next morning I caught a free ride to the airport and flew back to Tennessee. On that half of the trip I only had a six hour layover in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Going to Cinema Wasteland is tougher than it used to be, but once I'm there I enjoy the experience so much that it makes all the trouble worthwhile. Even when the trouble includes a ten hour overnight stay in the Chicago airport.

Thanks as always for Wasteland founder Ken Kish for organizing a great show, the fans and guests for making the Wasteland such an awesome place to be, and to the Holiday Inn for being the home of the Wasteland (and for agreeing to continue being the home of the Wasteland through at least 2023.)

Thanks also to blog contributor Priscilla for keeping me company, through text, during my downtime. I went to the convention alone, but I wasn't fully alone because she was talking to me.

I will return to another Cinema Wasteland in the future.