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Halloween
Horror Picture Show 2013 Review Sections
01. Forward
recap: The demise and the rise of the support of independent film in Tampa
Bay.
02. The
Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Shelby McIntyre’s UnBanned. Propaganda?
03. Supporting
independent film in Tampa Bay.
04. Halloween
Horror Picture Show 2013 Review.
05. Meet
and greet at the film festival Lobby for the Halloween Horror Picture
Show 2013.
06. The
Halloween Horror Picture Show 2013 Film Festival Event Scorecard.
Halloween Horror Picture Show 2013
Halloween Horror Picture Show 2013 Review
Lost
and Confused
Rick Danford first announced
that the Halloween Horror Picture Show was coming
back in early 2013, set for the Fall of 2013. Now, while I can’t
speak for everyone, as I am not a mind reader, I, for one, rejoiced. Not
only would the Reverence Film Festival and my
other projects not have to go it alone in the future, but it looked as
if the true independent film festival was on
its way back from the brink.
I looked forward to the reincarnation of the Halloween Horror Picture
Show, as there had not been one, or anything like it, in five years. The
last HHPS, indeed, had been in 2008, and it had been missed, since.
So, it was set. The date for Halloween Horror Picture Show 2013 was September
28, 2013, and the venue booked was the Tampa Pitcher Show,
a small theater in Northdale.
The Tampa Pitcher Show? I had to think about that. I lived in the Carollwood
/ Northdale area from 1992 until 1995, so why had I not heard of this
place? I found out later that the Tampa Pitcher Show has been around for
THREE decades, which well predated me living in the area, so I was surprised
that I had never heard of it. Still, though, the name was clever.
In
August 2013, Chris Woods and partner John Miller screened their new feature
independent film, Amerikan Holokaust, which,
in my opinion, is like a low-budget snuff film (then again, that is just
my impression, because I have not actually seen the film, yet. I will,
and it shall be reviewed). I heard that the screening was a success, although
I rolled my eyes when I read that John Miller was drunk at the debut of
his film. Nice. I would have loved to see his sloppy introduction and
the Q & A session afterwards.
Anyway, I am bringing up the debut of their film at this venue because
I had wanted to attend to see the film, and could not because of scheduling
conflicts (The debut was way, way, way too late, at 11PM on a Friday night,
for me to attend, and I’m sure that I am not the only one who had
a conflict with the time). I did, however, take the time to look up the
venue to see where it was located at that time, and, suffice it to say,
it did not help me when it came time to attend HHPS 2013.
More about that in a moment, though.
Things had changed in the half decade since HHPS 2008. Social media was
everywhere, and Facebook became important for promoting the event. I was
happy to see that long-time independent film supporters such as Roderick
Colbert, Marcus Kemp, and Andy Lalino had confirmed that they were going
to attend. I looked forward to hanging out with them all at the film festival.
I had intended to be more prepared to cover the 2013 Halloween Horror
Picture Show, and I had months to do so, but things did not turn out that
way. When the day came, I was barely ready to do my job. I only had half
of the resources in place to cover it, and I would have to make due with
what I had. Hell, I had to go solo because Ann could not go, even though
I had brought it up to her over a month earlier when she and her boyfriend
Matt and I went to the cinema in Brandon to see Kick-Ass 2.
Alas, it was not to be.
So, I went solo.
Of course, my weird schedule came into play, too. I woke up at 8PM on
Friday the 27th, an hour before I had wanted to wake up, because a Roof
Rat in my kitchen woke me up with a lot of noise. So, I set a live trap
for the Rat and began my day, well, the day before, on only 4 hours of
sleep!
I worked overnight, prepping my equipment, and on Saturday morning, I
returned home to get ready for the film festival. Upon returning home,
I noticed that the Roof Rat was now in the live trap, and I had to deal
with it, so I spent an hour that I did not have walking the loaded trap
into the woods to release him. I named him Alex, after a sleazy local
glamour photographer, and set him free into the wild, perhaps to be eaten
by a snake in his new predator-filled domain.
Excited, I called my parents, and told them that I had finally caught
the Rat that I had suspected that I had had for a few weeks. Mission accomplished
(Note: So I thought. In the days to follow, I caught several more Rats)!
Delayed, I got ready for the film festival. It was scheduled to start
at 11 AM, and I really did not know where I was going. So, I left around
10:15 AM, first to get three cheeseburgers so that I would not starve,
and then to go to my bank to get $40.00 in cash (Note: This is not enough,
as I found out. You need to bring at least a $100.00 if you want to come
away with the DVD’s that you will want, even with the average price
of a DVD between $10.00 to $15.00) to cover the cost of admission, as
well as any DVD’s that I might want to buy; a hard lesson learned
from HHPS 2007, where Rick Danford and Tiffany Shepis were nice enough
to give me DVD’s when I failed to bring along any cash. I owe both
of them, still.
Upon leaving my bank, it was 10 minutes to 11, and, cash-in-hand, I still
had no clue where the venue was. So, I decided to save some time and use
the power of my Android smart phone (Before my Galaxy S4, which is awesome,
and which was a few months away at this point. My phone on this day was
a Samsung Stride slider phone, which kind of sucked, although my slide-out
keyboard was awesome!) and social media! At last, it would prove to be
useful!
Well, for some reason, and I’m thinking that it was because it was
a beautiful Saturday morning, the network was extremely slow because everyone
was using it. My smart phone literally crawled, with each link clicked
taking over five minutes to show results.
It was extremely frustrating, and I spent 20 minutes in a Lowe’s
parking lot, with my car running and my air blasting, trying to find out
directions to the venue. Hell, I could not even find a MAP of the place
using Google or Bing, and with each click taking several minutes, I had
to be very strategic about it!
I called the number for the Tampa Pitcher Show venue. Surely, I could
get instructions that way! Well, I was greeted with a sloppy recording
with some guy who was obviously reading, and there was a mention that
it was on north Dale Mabry south of Ehrlich. At last, a reference point!
But, with just a street number, which side of Dale Mabry was it on, and
which shopping plaza exactly? The recording didn’t say.
Fed up, as it was approaching 11:15 AM, and the film festival had already
started, I decided to head out, with no more information than when I had
started the fiasco but a street number. I would have to find it the old-fashioned
way.
So much for smart phones and wireless networks. I wanted to smash my phone
in. I was also mad at the Tampa Pitcher Show for not making it easier
to find them.
The traffic from Riverview to Tampa, well, sucked. I-4 was backed up like
it usually is on weekday rush hour (Except that it was NOT a weekday rush
hour), and the drivers drove like distracted assholes. Wishing to avoid
the evil, evil red light cameras at Waters and Dale Mabry, which was blocks
north from my old house on Sligh and Dale Mabry, where I lived from 1992
to 1995, I got off on Busch, instead, and took that to Dale Mabry. Northbound
on Dale Mabry, I I began looking intently at street signs and numbers.
This, with the traffic, was NOT fun, at all (Mental note: As I am sure
that some of you are thinking this, it is my understanding that street
numbers are done in an even and odd numbering format depending upon what
side of the street that the address is on, although I could be mistaken.
I did not think about this at the time, however, and still don’t
know how this works; I know many things, but I do not know everything.
I will have to find out, because the street address should indicate whether
it is on the northbound or the southbound lanes of Dale Mabry).
I passed by the old Publix shopping center just north of Busch to the
right. Game World, a hangout of mine from
1994, used to be there. There were a lot of memories of that place, a
lot of good memories. They used to have a lot of great video game deals
there, and they had game systems set up where you could pay to play in
front of the other customers. I used to shock college girls there by playing
Night Trap on the 3DO, and triggering the bad endings where the girls
got drilled (It sounds more demented and perverse than it is. If you are
familiar with the game, you will know what I am talking about. I have
a published anecdote about this on Frontier Pop). Great times!
Several miles up on Dale Mabry, I finally noticed a Tampa Pitcher Show
sign. It was on the other side of the highway, however, the soutbound
side! I was in the right lane on the northbound side, the worst possible
place that I could be. Nice! I had to fight traffic to get over in the
left hand lane, which almost did not happen because an idiot driver would
not let me over. Upon (barely) making it over to a left hand turn lane
where I could make a U-Turn, I had to wait for several minutes to turn
because of oncoming traffic and cars in front of me.
I certainly do not miss Dale Mabry traffic. Although the volume has remained
the same, the drivers are worse today than they were 20 years ago. It
is almost like they are distracted and in a hurry, and because their faces
seem to have an eery glow to them (from their smart phones, you see, which
makes them dumber), you can clearly see their frowns.
After negotiating my unpleasant U-Turn, I finally pulled into the shopping
center where the large sign was.
It was around noon. I had finally arrived!
Or, had I?
You see, there was a sign there, but I couldn’t find the actual
Tampa Pitcher Show venue! I drove around, eventually parking just south
of Star Bucks in a connected sister plaza, geared up, and started walking
around. I had to resort to reading address numbers on all of the store
fronts. Hell, I was even tempted to brave the disgusting coffee smell
of Starbucks to ask for directions. I did not want to smell the coffee,
though (Ironically, I had been up 16 hours by that time running on 4 hours
of sleep, so you might have thought that I’d want to smell the coffee,
but, seriously, smelling coffee for me is as appealing as smelling vomit.
It literally makes me sick to my stomach).
Ten minutes later, wandering north into the plaza with the sign, I finally
found the Tampa Pitcher Show in a cubby hole overhang to the west under
a huge sign which read “CANDY”.
Yeah, whatever. I was not happy.
NEXT: Meet and greet at the film festival Lobby for the Halloween Horror Picture Show 2013.
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