The Sci-Fi Spectacular #4 at Chicago's Music Box Theater

Saturday, April 10^th was the 4^th annual Sci-Fi Spectacular at the Music Box Theater in Chicago and, for the fourth consecutive year, my nephew Curt and I made the jaunt to the Music Box for 14 hours of sci-fi entertainment. And for the fourth straight year I can pass on that we enjoyed ourselves immensely and look forward to next year's fifth annual festival.

The crowd started off fairly decent. By the noon start time the theater was half full. By 5pm it was pretty packed and stayed that way through the rest of the evening. The Sci-Fi spectacular has caught on almost as much as October's Music Box Massacre - 24 hours of horror films.

When you tend to do certain something's once or twice a year over the course of some years, traditions (besides the main one) are born. For us it starts after parking the car just north of the theater and walking to a bar/restaurant located right across the street from the theater called the Blue Bayou. We were pleased to discover very few people in line so we knew we didn't have to rush through our morning meal. Each year Curt gets himself a lunch and I always get a breakfast meal. At the conclusion we walked out and across to the theater where the line hadn't begun to grow yet. By the time the doors would open at 11am (a half hour earlier than normal this year) there were about 50 people lined up down Southport avenue.

As usual the person running the whole show, a young and energetic fellow with the curious name of Rusty Nails, greeted us as we waited in line. He has come to recognize us from the years of attending this and the horror festival in October but I don't think he knows our names yet. Maybe someday.

Once we were let in Curt and I were able to grab our favorite seats in the auditorium, something we haven't done in our last three visits. We then perused the lobby which had sales tables with loads of merchandise (including movies, posters, books and action figures) for sale. We were content to just look for the most part and then retired to our seats where we would more or less be for the next fourteen and a half hours.

The show began with something new this year and that was 30 minutes of classic movie trailers, though it should be added that most of the films were not classics by any means. Among those we saw scenes for were War of the Colossal Beast, The Amazing Transparent Man, House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts, The Tingler, The Party Crashers and several others.

The films then began at noon with the last one starting at 12:30am the next morning. Most of the time there was a decent intermission length allowing customers to line up for the bathroom, take a smoke break or just go out and stretch and get some fresh air. Before each film there were more classic trailers and also trailers for horror movies made by local talent.

Here are the movies that showed this year (shown in the order we saw them) and a comment or three about each of them. Oddly we (and you likely will agree) didn't consider all of these films as Sci-Fi but we didn't really quibble. They weren't all great movies but it was fun nonetheless and something I truly treasure sharing with my nephew each year.

THEM! - The first movie of the marathon was far and away the best. It is a classic horror film starring James Whitmore as a New Mexico police officer who, as the film opens, finds a little girl roaming the desert in a state of shock. A few disappearances later and FBI agent James Arness is called in to help soon to be followed by scientist Edmund Gwenn and his very attractive daughter. The creatures of the film are ants grown to enormous size due to the testing of the bombs in the desert some nine years previously. Admittedly the story line sounds more than a little farfetched but the script delivers some tense moments and the film is well directed by Gordon Douglas. Along with The Thing From Another World (also featuring Arness), this is my choice as the best horror films of the 50's.

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES - Far and away the worst film we saw was this 1965 Italian (poorly dubbed) film about a space crew that lands on a planet and is overtaken by zombie-like creatures that hopes to take the crew over one by one. How? When one is taken over he attempts to attack one of his crew mates but that person can fight back and soon the first crewman is no longer infected. Or something like that. This film was so awful I suggested to Curt that we go for a beer but we sat it out, much to our dismay.

DARK STAR - I am unapologetic in my love for the films of John Carpenter. Something about his work just does it for me and I end up liking most of his movies that others don't like. This was Carpenter's first film, a student film taking place on a ship in space with four crew members whose job it is to destroy unstable planets in star systems that will be colonized in the future. As their mission comes close to ending they have to deal with an alien that looks like a beach ball, a smart bomb that is smarter than they think and general computer problems. The film is amusing and has its moments (especially in the last reel) but it is slow going for the first hour. Carpenter does a passable job but in no way is there any indication here of what his career would become.

FLASH GORDON - This is the 1980 box office flop and I was most excited to see this film because I hadn't seen it since its theatrical release when I was fifteen. I truly disliked the film then and I was wondering if my opinion would change. After all, this movie was one year removed from Star Trek and two years from Superman so perhaps my anticipation for the film to succeed was too great. What I learned after watching Flash Gordon again was that if a fifteen year old hates a movie it is either too deep and over their heads or it truly sucks. Ladies and gentlemen, Flash Gordon truly sucks. I must admit I did see some possibilities that never carried through however. A few scenes actually worked for me. But the problem with a campy movie is that the actors have to be able to act and deliver the lines as if they don't know what they are in is camp. On this level the one and only good thing about the movie is Max Von Sydow as the villain, Ming the Merciless. Unfortunately even he plays it wrong. He plays it too straight when he should have had fun with it much like Gene Hackman did playing Lex Luthor. The lead performances are the key to the film's failure however. Melody Anderson makes a weak and whimpering Dale Arden but I will credit her for not being as terrible as I remember. Sam J. Jones, however, as Flash, is plain awful. His line delivery is the same from one scene to the next. He is as wooden as a log and it is no wonder Jones never went on to much else after this film. He brings the film down to its knees.

Q - There is usually always one surprise over the course of a movie marathon and this year it was Larry Cohen's Q, a movie I had disliked when it first came out in 1982 because I was totally transfixed by how fake I thought the winged serpent looked instead of trying to appreciate the total campiness of the whole movie. This time I got the joke and really enjoyed the movie. The film tells a needlessly complicated story of voodoo mumbo jumbo that leads to the birth of a large winged serpent that flies around New York killing nude roof sunbathers and window washers. Michael Moriarty plays a hoodlum who mistakenly discovers the nesting place of the bird at the top of the Chrysler Building. Moriarty, a fine and underrated actor, overplays his part to the hilt and steals the show. Also strong in the film is David Carradine as a detective trying to solve the killings and has some correct theories no one will listen to. The film also features Richard Roundtree and Candy Clark. This is a truly entertaining B-movie that isn't to be taken in the least bit serious.

After the film writer/director Larry Cohen took the stage for an entertaining and enlightening Q&A session that lasted for 30 minutes. Cohen then took to the lobby where he would sign autographs for anyone and everyone waiting to meet him.

LIFEFORCE - Tobe Hooper directed this thriller about a space crew that brings back three alien life forms and soon those life forms (naked and looking like female and male models) set out to take human form and kill those already inhabiting the body. I am not a fan of director Hooper and believe he is one of the most overrated directors in the business. Of all his films the only one I ever liked (and, no, I don't count Poltergeist because it is widely believed that producer Steven Spielberg handled much of the direction of that film) was The Funhouse, a creepy slasher film that takes place after hours at a carnival, one of my favorite film settings. Here Hooper uses plenty of clichés to tell his story and still gains a measure of suspense as heroes Steve Railsback and Peter Firth try to hunt the woman (Mathilda May) alien down. Honestly compels me to say that the then 20-year old May looks fantastic without her clothes on and appears this way through much of the movie. Unfortunately the last half of the movie becomes absurd and only the expected arrivals of May within a scene are of the only interest remaining. It's not a terrible film but with a more capable director it could have been so much better.

THEY LIVE - The final film of the evening was John Carpenter's thriller about a homeless man (played competently by wrestler Roddy Piper) who soon discovers there are aliens living and working amongst us and he sets out to first prove it and then to stop them. Carpenter's film is full of energy and excitement while still having the mark of a 1950's B-movie (check out the little alien ships and the nearly six minute fist fight) that keeps it grounded and most entertaining. The film seems to end abruptly but I think Carpenter made his point and decided to end on a wickedly satirical shot that had the audience applauding. It's a good but not great Carpenter film but one to be enjoyed by audiences who don't want to think too much and just sit back and enjoy. This film delivers just that.