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What a long, strange trip it's been -- "Truckin'" The Grateful Dead

Cliche, I know, but that lyric wouldn't stop bouncing around my head last weekend as venerable actor, New Beverly Cinema fixture and, I'm quite proud to say, my friend Clu Gulager hosted four nights of his films at the Beverly. He and I had a lot of history together long before I had the pleasure of actually meeting him, which served as a 25-year set up for his film fest.

I wasn't a huge horror fan growing up, but I had to learn how to become one quickly. The other kids in the neighborhood loved horror films. To have a dissenting opinion as child is to be a social outcast, so I, too, fell in line and learned to at least not hate horror. I've always liked films that were fun or exciting. Horror films were neither.


Standards were obviously a little different in the heady days of the mid-'80s. The films that were considered extreme at the time seem pretty tame after two decades of societal decay, but even then I was put off by most of the slasher films. The only horror films I dug were a little outta left field.

A maniac with a machette didn't do it for me. Freddy Krueger was badass. I could watch stuff about aliens, monsters or alien monsters. (There's an alien monster film that even qualifies as an out-and-out masterpiece.)

But hands down my favorite sub-genre was zombie flicks.



I first saw THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD in junior high and immediately fell in love with its demented genius. (And the west-coast punk soundtrack certainly helped.) The characters were strange and far different than the cookie cutter targets who only existed to meet a gruesome demise in other flicks. The movie's full of brilliant throwaway gags, like the eye chart that reads "Burt is a slavedriver and a cheap sonofabitch..." Freddy's varsity jacket is another favorite of mine. The back reads "F**k You" in the theatrical version. On TV it reads "Television Version." Brilliant.

I saw the film often over the years and it easily became my favorite horror film. But never during any of the viewings did I imagine I'd someday be sitting with the man playing Burt and listening to his war stories about making this celluloid abomination.


But I'm getting ahead of myself. The night began with a viewing and panel for FEAST. Turns out that Clu has an in with the director.

I first saw FEAST a few months ago in a red envelope viewing after a co-worker recommended it to me. I really liked it for a lot of the same reasons I've loved RETURN all these years: It's very smart, funny and self-aware without skimping on the horror. It's obvious neither film had much of a budget, but the directors of both manage to overcome that obvious constraint.

As with most films, FEAST was even better on the big screen. Judging from the big laughs in the appropriate places, many in the audience had never seen it before and, I'd imagine, walked away fans.


Resident genius Marc hosted the panel that followed, which included the Gulagers, actress (and Gulager by marriage) Diane Goldner, actor Duane Whitaker (Who's much, much cooler than the colossal pricks he plays in this film and another film you perhaps have seen) and a few crew members.



The younger Gulager dished about the challenges of making FEAST. Making a low-budget film is hard enough, he said, but making a film with everything being documented for television while two dozen producers are breathing down your neck is especially taxing. All involved described the shoot as exasperating, but added that the reshoots which were done minus the interference from Bravo and the producers, were quite fun.





The night wrapped with a screening of RETURN, which got the full panel treatment the night before but I was absent due to a slight case of work. I had never seen it at the cinema before, and one of the many reasons I love the Bev is that it allows me to see these films that served as the cornerstones of my childhood as intended. Home video is great, but there is simply no substitute for seeing a film on the big screen with an audience, especially one full of geeks who know proper (cult) movie etiquette.

It was nothing short of a thrill watching the film. Seeing it with Clu, who I've gotten to know pretty well after spending many hours standing in line with him over the past year, made it all the sweeter. It was kind of a culminating moment after a quarter-century of geeking over RETURN.

I thought it'd be a good idea to mark the occasion and continue the tradition we kicked off with Diablo Cody during her turn at the theatre's helm.

It goes without saying that Clu was more than happy to pose for a geek team photo.

A long, strange trip indeed.

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