Severin Saturday

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Severin Saturday

Castle Of Blood / Psychomania / Drive In Massacre
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Last night's triple feature at the drive-in was hosted by Severin Films with three classic horror films from their large distribution catalog screened on 35mm.

Representatives from Severin Films were in attendance with a large stock of movies for sale.  They also had a table that had free stickers and free mini-posters for each of the night's films.

 

The first movie of the night was the 1964 Antonio Margheriti gothic horror film Castle Of Blood.  This is the story of a journalist named Alan Foster who accepts a wager with Lord Blackwood to spend the night between All Saints Day and All Souls Day in his haunted castle.  Blackwood claimed that this was not the first time that he has made such a bet, and no one who accepted the challenge was able to survive the night.

This movie felt very familiar to me to the point where I thought that I might have seen it before.  In hindsight, I think that I was remembering the 1988 horror comedy High Spirits which, like Castle Of Blood, shows that the ghosts who inhabit the castle are stuck in a constant loop of reenacting their own death.

I enjoyed Castle Of Blood.  It had a dark and ominous tone that didn't go over the top, as well as a pretty cool ending.  I'd recommend this to any fan of horror films.  You can stream it for free on Tubi.

Next up was the 1973 British film Psychomania.  The print that was screened for us was from it's release in the United States that was retitled The Death Wheelers.  This movie is centered on a young man named Tom Latham who both looks and acts like Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange.  Since this film was released just two years after the Stanley Kubrick classic, I suspect that the similarities were not a coincidence.

Tom is the leader of a violent motorcycle gang and he comes from a wealthy family.  His mother and the family's butler, played brilliantly by George Sanders (who sadly committed suicide shortly after filming wrapped) had a bargain with the Frog God that has granted the two of them eternal life.  His father would be there as well, but the trick to attaining immortality is to have no doubt at the moment of your death that you will come back to life, and he had doubts at the last minute and was unable to return.  On his 18th birthday, Tom commits suicide and comes back to life.  He soon convinces his gang to do the same, and they terrorize the British countryside.

This was my favorite movie of the night.  Like the first movie, you can stream this for free on Tubi, but you'll want to search for it by its American title.

The final movie of the night is one that I know pretty well; the 1976 slasher Drive-In Massacre.  I've seen this movie on 35mm at a drive-in theater twice before.  The first time was during the closing weekend of the 2010 season at the Laurel Drive-In where it was shown as the first half of a horror classics double feature with the 1980 Lucio Fulci film City Of The Living Dead (aka: Gates Of Hell).  The second time was 12 years later at the Mahoning when it was shown as the first half of the Luther's Mid-Fright Snack Live double feature with the 1979 horror cult classic Driller Killer.

I can think of no better horror flick to experience at a drive-in theater than a slasher in which all of the kills take place at a drive-in.  The ending is perfect in that it gives the audience a terror that goes beyond the closing credits, as the killer could be in the audience with you right now.

This one is also available to stream for free on Tubi, so you could conceivably recreate this event at home without it costing you a dime, but no matter how good your setup is, there's nothing like the atmosphere of seeing classic films on 35mm at a drive-in theater.

This was one of my favorite nights of the season so far.  I was told that Severin Films will be back to host another triple feature in 2026, and I will absolutely be there.

Here Come Johnny, Gonna Tell You The Story

Brothers In Arms
Dire Straits (1985)
The Grammy Award winning fifth studio album by Dire Straits was released forty years ago today.  It is without question one of the greatest records to have been released in my lifetime, going 10x platinum in the UK and 9x platinum in the US.  It was also the first album in history to sell over a million copies on CD.

The biggest hit on the album, and the most successful single in the band's catalog, is Money For Nothing.  It's instantly recognizable to just about everyone who knows what rock music is.  Another excellent song that got a lot of radio play is the opening track, So Far Away.  However, the first song that comes to my mind when someone mentions Dire Straits is the third track which was included on the album by Mark Knopfler at the last minute.  If I was going to create a mixtape of songs that encapsulate my experience of growing up in the 80's, this song would absolutely be included.  It's called Walk Of Life.

Walk Of Life
Dire Straits (1985)

Here come Johnny singing oldies, goldies

"Be-Bop-A-Lula," baby, "What'd I Say"

Here come Johnny singing "I Got A Woman"

Down in the tunnels, tryna make it pay

He got the action, he got the motion

Oh, yeah, the boy can play

Dedication, devotion

He turnin' all the night-time into the day

He do the song about the sweet loving woman

He do the song about the knife

Then he do the walk, do the walk of life

Yeah, he do the walk of life

Here come Johnny gonna tell you the story

Hand me down, my walking shoes

Here come Johnny with the power and the glory

Backbeat, the talking blues

He got the action, he got the motion

Oh, yeah, the boy can play

Dedication, devotion

He turning all the night-time into the day

He do the song about the sweet loving woman

He do the song about the knife

And he do the walk, he do the walk of life

Yeah, he do the walk of life

Here come Johnny singing oldies, goldies

"Be-Bop-A-Lula," baby, "What'd I Say"

Here come Johnny singing "I Got a Woman"

Down in the tunnels, tryna make it pay

He got the action, he got the motion

Oh, yeah, the boy can play

The dedication, devotion

He turning all the night-time into the day

And after all the violence and double-talk

There's just a song in all the trouble and the strife

You do the walk, yeah, you do the walk of life

They do the walk of life

I Only Gamble With My Life, Never My Money

Remake Double Take

The Mummy (1932) / The Mummy (1999)
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
One of the most interesting annual double features at the Mahoning season is Remake Double Take in which the original form of a movie is screened with a remake of that film shown on the big screen afterward.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

This year's Remake Double Take was the original 1932 Universal Pictures monster film The Mummy followed by the 1999 blockbuster of the same name that starred Brendan Fraser.

 

Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

The poster for tonight's event was especially cool with Boris Karloff as The Mummy ominously peering at the top right with Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell in the foreground.

Show t-shirt designed by Tom Bifulco

The t-shirt, which was also designed by Tom Bifulco, had a very similar vibe to the poster.

 

Speaking of t-shirts, our friends Bill and Anissa made a custom shirt for their pug, Gizmo, who attended the event.

Prior to tonight's double feature, there was a screening of the 1968 Woody Woodpecker cartoon called One Horse Town.  This short has been screened at the Mahoning at quite a few shows that I've been to over the years.  Tonight, it was being shown especially for one of the fans in attendance who enjoys it.  It is a pretty funny cartoon that's chock full of Vitamin Hay.

 

After the cartoon, the first movie of the night was the horror classic, The Mummy.  We got to see a different mummy movie from the original Universal Monsters franchise two years ago when the 1944 film The Mummy's Ghost was shown as a part of the 2023 Universal Monster Mash weekend, but this was my first time seeing the 1932 original.  It's a great film and black and white always looks incredible on the big screen at the Mahoning.  Unfortunately, there were some sound issues in the second reel that made part of the movie difficult to hear.

The second feature film of the night was the 1999 film The Mummy.  This is a movie that I had only seen once before, and my memories of it was that it was pretty good, but it didn't really inspire me to seek out any of its sequels.  Although it was pretty foggy throughout the second half of the film, I did enjoy it more this time around.  I might have to have a Mummy movie marathon sometime over the winter after drive-in season is over so I can give the series a fair shake.

Do We Have Any Of That Plutonian Nyborg Left?

Heavy Metal
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The fourth punch on my Thursday Thread-Up card for the 2025 season was the 1981 animated classic Heavy Metal.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

I have heard of Heavy Metal since I was in middle school, but I've never seen it before.  If I'm being completely honest, I never really had too much interest in seeing it.  I had never read or even heard of the Heavy Metal magazine/comic until very recently, and the cover of the VHS tape for this movie made me think that it was a direct-to-video tape of crudely animated barbarian women fighting and undressing to random guitar riffs.  I like rock music, sword fights, and nudity as much as the next guy, but it just kind of struck me as one of those things that I might get into one night if I was really stoned and didn't have anything better to watch.

When it was first announced on the Mahoning calendar, I figured "what the hell".  It's been over thirty years since I first became aware of Heavy Metal.  If I didn't come out to the drive-in to see it tonight, I was probably never going to see it at all.

There was an awesome surprise on the big screen before the start of tonight's movie.  Rob screened a 35mm print of the music video for the 1984 A-ha song Take On Me.  This is not only one of my all-time favorite songs, and probably my favorite music video of all time, but it's also what my wife and I have called "our song" since we started dating in 2006.

If there's one thing that I have learned about movies since we started going to the Mahoning Drive-In Theater, it's is to be skeptical of any opinions that you may have about a movie before you see it for yourself.  I'm not saying that you should disregard the poster, the box, the trailer, the reviews, or the opinions of family and friends entirely, but don't be too quick to use any of these things as a reason to dismiss a film.  Sure, you may end up "wasting" a few hours here and there on something that isn't necessarilly your cup of tea, but that price is more than worth paying for all of the excellent movies that you'll be able to enjoy and discuss with your friends that you would have missed out on.

Heavy Metal is an excellent animated film.  It's an anthology movie with a half dozen different stories with another wrap-around story to tie them all together, and it features voice acting performances from John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis, among many others.  Granted, I wasn't too far off the mark with my assumption that it involved a lot of naked cartoon ladies.  In fact, I don't think there was a single female character that didn't take off their clothes, but there's so much more to Heavy Metal than that.  The sci-fi elements and social commentary in Harry Canyon was brilliant.  Den was hysterically funny with an excellent performance from John Candy as the title character.  Captain Sternn made me think that the story was the inspiration for Zapp Brannigan.  The sex robot in So Beautiful & So Dangerous would fit right in beside him.  Now that I think of it, the whole movie seems like it belongs in the Futurama universe.  All together, this is one of the most entertaining adult animated features that I've ever seen, and the music was incredible.

 

It's been raining a lot recently, but we got lucky and didn't have a drop throughout the entire movie.  There was a dense fog that started to move in towards the end of the film, but we got lucky again in that the worst of it held off until after the credits rolled.

This Is A Public Service Announcement... With Guitars

Combat Rock
The Clash (1982)
The fifth studio album from The Clash was released on this day in 1982.  The two biggest hits on the album are probably Rock The Casbah and Should I Stay Or Should I Go, but I like the opening track best.  Seems oddly appropriate for the world that we're living in today.

Know Your Rights
The Clash (1982)

This is a public service announcement... with guitars

Know your rights

All three of 'em

Number one

You have the right not to be killed

Murder is a crime

Unless it was done

By a policeman

Or an aristocrat

Know your rights

Number two

You have the right to food money

Providing of course you

Don't mind a little

Investigation, humiliation

And if you cross your fingers

Rehabilitation

Know your rights

These are your rights

Number three

You have the right to free speech

As long as you're not

Dumb enough to actually try it

Know your rights

These are your rights

All three of 'em

And it has been suggested

In some quarters that this is not enough

Well, get off the streets

Get off the streets

Tannis, Anyone?

Rosemary's Baby
The Gap Theatre - Wind Gap, PA
It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this that I love horror movies, but if I had to pick one of them as my absolute favorite horror movie of all time, it's the 1968 Roman Polanski masterpiece Rosemary's Baby.

Show poster designed by Justin Miller

I've always wanted to see Rosemary's Baby at the Mahoning.  The last time they showed it was on a Tunnel Vision Tuesday night in 2020, which is a year before we knew the place existed.  With any luck, they'll bring it back to the drive-in in the near future, but I was not going to miss my opportunity to see it today on 35mm at The Gap Theatre.

Rosemary's Baby is about as perfect as a film can get.  I'm not at all the most qualified person to explain the techniques employed in this film, but it draws you into its world in a way that few other movies can match.  Mia Farrow delivers an outstanding performance from start to finish.  Every shot... every note of music... every line... every facial expression, even from background characters who have one or two lines of dialogue pull you into Rosemary's world as she is manipulated by nearly everyone around her.

If you ever have the opportunity to see this all-time classic on the big screen, do not miss it.

You Are Home

Almost Famous
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Mother's Day at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater was dedicated to one of the first truly great movies of the 2000's; Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical masterpiece Almost Famous.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

I'm getting closer to the high score on the Ms. Pac Man machine in the concession building with a new personal best score of 163,070.

 

While playing Ms. Pac Man, I noticed a VHS tape on the wall near the machine that had episodes of the 90's animated series Wild West Cowboys Of Moo Mesa.  I get the pun that they're going for here, but "Bang 'Em High" sounds more like the title of an adult feature than it does a cartoon.

Prior to showtime, there was a live acoustic set performed at the photo op stage outside of the concession building that featured Rich Penecale on guitar and Virgil on vocals.  They performed about six songs including this cover of Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

Almost Famous premiered in theaters on September 22nd, 2000, but I didn't see it for the first time until just a couple of years ago.  The story is set in 1973 and it follows a 15 year old prodigy named William Miller whose musical tastes were influenced by his rock and roll loving older sister Anita.  His writing earns him the opportunity to go on tour with a rock band to write a story about their struggles with success.  In the process, he befriends Penny Lane and her group of "band aides" (groupies who don't like to call themselves groupies) and grows to have a complicated relationship with Stillwater guitarist Russell Hammond.

This movie is incredible in every way, picking the audience out of their time and place and putting them in the shoes of its protagonist.  It's shot beautifully, the music is perfect, and a standout performance by Kate Hudson who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  Philip Seymour Hoffman and Fairuza Balk also deliver excellent performances that left me wanting their characters to have more screen time.

Actor Zack Ward appears in a brief cameo towards the end of the film as "The Legendary Red Dog", a roadie for The Allman Brothers Band.  He's best remembered for his role as the bully, Scut Farkus, in the 1983 holiday classic A Christmas Story.  He's also the actor who was kind enough to give me the greatest photo op that I've had at the Mahoning.

Uncle!  Unnnnncleeeee!!!

I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to see this on the big screen.  Just prior to the start of the film, Rob mentioned that there is an extended cut of this film on Bluray which has forty minutes of additional footage.  I'm going to have to hunt that down to watch next.

The Hardcore Icon

Terry Brunk
1964 - 2025
Professional wrestling legend Sabu passed away earlier today.  His career spanned forty years with stops in USWA, FMW, New Japan, All Japan, WCW, WWF/E, and TNA, but he is best known for his time as one of the pillars of Extreme Championship Wrestling.  His death comes just three weeks after his retirement match; a no robe barbed wire match that was the main event of Joey Janela's Spring Break 2025.  He was 60 years old.

Professional Wrestling Goes Prime Time

Saturday Night's Main Event

World Wrestling Federation (1985)
The show that brought professional wrestling to an estimated 88 million viewers premiered on NBC forty years ago today.

The Citizen Register - Ossining, New York  (May 2, 1985)

Graboids, Dancing, and the Afterlife

Bacon Bits: Flatliners / Footloose / Tremors

Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
This weekend's tribute to Kevin Bacon was the last event that was originally scheduled before the passing of the Mahoning Drive-In Theater owner and master projectionist Jeff Mattox which had to be rescheduled.  This event was originally scheduled for the weekend of May 10th and 11th, 2024 and was delayed by almost exactly one year as it was rescheduled for the 2025 season.

 

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

I've been cutting back on t-shirts this season, but this one was too good to pass up.  The artwork on the shirt was created by Tom Bifulco and is the same design as what was used on the poster.

Actress Finn Carter was in attendance both nights to meet fans, take pictures, and sign autographs.  She played Rhonda LeBeck in Tremors; a role for which she received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Night One - Friday, May 9

Flatliners

The first movie of Friday night was Joel Schumacher's 1990 psychological horror film Flatliners.  It features an ensemble cast that includes Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt, and the namesake of the weekend's event, Kevin Bacon.  They play the role of five med students who are conducting secret experiments in what appears to be an abandoned church in which they bring their peers to a point where their heart stops (or flatlines) to explore what exists beyond death before they are then brought back through the use of drugs, a defibrillator, and CPR.

I've only seen this movie one time before this weekend.  When I was 12 years old, I lived with my dad, stepmom, and stepsister in South Florida.  My stepsister and I got along well and we'd often hang out in her room and have a movie night.  One of the movies she rented on one of these nights was Flatliners.  My memory of this film is that I thought it was cool, but I didn't really remember any of the details.  It all started coming back to me as we watched the story unfold on the big screen at the drive-in.  My feelings on this movie haven't changed 33 years later.  Despite the critical reviews which are pretty rough, I still think it's a very cool and atmospheric film and one that I'd recommend to anyone who loves movies.

Night Two - Saturday, May 10

Footloose

The movie that kicked off the second night of Bacon Bits was the 1984 teen drama Footloose.  This film has become synonymous with the 80's, but for as much time as I've spent watching films from the decade of my childhood, I have never seen Footloose before tonight.  The only thing I knew about the film is that it starred Kevin Bacon and John Lithgow, and it's about a small town where dancing is against the law.

This is not a difficult movie to find so I've had plenty of opportunities to see it over the years, but I didn't think it would be the kind of thing that I'd like all that much, so I never gave it a chance.  In fact, I came very close to passing up this opportunity to see it on 35mm on the big screen.  I only got tickets to Bacon Bits: Night One when tickets first went on sale last year, and if not for the fact that a lot of my friends on the lot told me that they were going to be at this show, I probably would have sat this one out.

I'm very glad that I did decide to give Footloose a chance because it's a pretty damn good movie!  It's not exactly filled with plot twists that you won't see coming a mile away, but it's an entertaining story with solid performances throughout the cast, including an incredible performance from John Lithgow as the reverend (and father of Kevin Bacon's love interest) who is responsible for the town's dance ban.

 

Since the second feature of both nights features monsters that live underground, Rob included the 35mm commercial of Dig Dug in the intermission trailer reel.  I'm always happy to see this hit the big screen.  It does a good job of taking the audience out of 2025 and bringing them back to a time when theaters showed a promo for an arcade game prior to the feature film.  It's things like this that make this place more than just a drive-in theater.

Both Nights - Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10

Tremors

The second film that was screened on both Friday and Saturday night was the 1990 modern monster flick Tremors.  I slept through about 45 minutes of this film on Friday night, but that has nothing to do the movie or my interest in seeing it.  First of all, it's hard for me to stay up on Friday nights since I wake up for work at 5:00 am.  Second, it started drizzling, so we had to pack up the lawn chairs and head into the car for the second half of the double feature on Friday night.  I can usually stay awake even if I'm tired as long as we're sitting outside, but when I settle in behind the wheel in a warm car with the seat back and a pillow behind my head, I almost always doze off for at least part of the film.  Finally, I knew that I would be coming back the next night when they'd be playing Tremors again, so the incentive to try to force myself to stay awake and alert just wasn't there.  I had no trouble staying up to see it tonight.  It was kind of chilly, but there was no rain so we were able to sit outside for the whole night.

Like Flatliners, Tremors was a movie that I have only ever seen one time before.  When I was ten years old, I went on a road trip with my maternal grandmother, her husband, my uncle Kuuipo and his wife, and a bunch of my cousins to spend a month staying with my Uncle Sumo and his family in Provo, Utah.  I didn't get along too well with my mother's side of the family when I was a kid, and that has only gotten worse as I've gotten older as I haven't spoken to any of them in years.  Frankly, I'm glad to not have them in my life and I'm sure that most of them feel the same way about me, so it's for the best.  Despite this, my memories of our time in Utah aren't all bad.  One of the more pleasant things that I remember from the Summer of 1990 was the movie night we had.  One of my uncles brought home Back To The Future and Tremors on VHS from the rental shop.  We popped some popcorn and watched both of them in my Uncle Sumo's living room.

I remember that I thought Tremors was pretty cool when I saw it as a kid, but the only thing I remembered about it nearly 35 years later is that it took place in a desert town in the US Southwest, and it's about giant worms that are terrorizing the people who lived there.  I enjoyed it even more seeing it on the big screen at the Mahoning.

And that's a wrap on Bacon Bits.  I'm not sure if this is going to become an annual event, but there are plenty of Kevin Bacon films to choose from (including one that was shown as a secret feature), so they could keep this going for many years to come if it draws a crowd.  It was a fun weekend, so I'm rooting for it to make a return in 2026.