Digging Up the Marrow and Some Upcoming Movie Dates

The long awaited day when Digging Up the Marrow would begin its tour finally came. Last week on Thursday, a huge percentage of the Overlook citizens (and some non-citizen film lovers) took a trip to the East Bay to witness the unveiling of Adam Green and Alex Pardee's collaboration, Digging Up the Marrow. We came from all directions and assembled at the beautiful Landmark Shattuck in downtown Berkeley. 

Photo borrowed from the ZeroFriends instagram

In all of the excitement and hurrying around (because Lord Battle and I had about seven people's tickets and have a habit of being fashionably late) I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have liked. I just didn't have enough hands to balance everything, so I borrowed the one above from the Zero Friends instagram. I also just noticed all the little silhouetted creatures lining the theatre, which makes me love this place even more. The walls of the lobby were lined with a lot of great titles, some I've seen, others I thought I missed. There were already reasons to come back to this theatre. But really, all I could think about at that moment was getting our tickets printed and our seats claimed. 

The room Digging Up the Marrow was going to be shown in had an Egyptian theme throughout its walls, which had a very different feel from the 1920's interiors of the Castro or Stanford theatres. It was a nice change, not that I don't absolutely love the classics. Before the movie, Adam Green and Alex Pardee came out to greet and welcome the sold out room. They introduced the movie and gave a brief back story of how it came to be, which listeners of the Movie Crypt probably know by heart by now. It's such a cool story, and definitely gives me reason to believe in some kind of destiny or fate. For two people, who have never met, to be so completely on the same page ad not even realize it... I'm still kind of amazed by the whole thing. 

After their intro, Adam and Alex took their seats and Digging Up the Marrow began! Here is all I can say: I went into this movie knowing as little as I could because I have faith in Adam Green as a filmmaker and story teller, and I expected a lot out of it because of that fact. And I was very impressed.

After the movie, Adam and Alex came back out for the Q&A, but there were not many questions. Someone did ask about the possibility of sequel. The response was that the end was left pretty open but that they didn't know of anything in the works.

Next on the itinerary was the merch buying/ autograph signing part of the night. This was when all order in the theatre quickly faded away, basically as soon as the audience shuffled into the lobby. A hoard of excited people rushed the merch tables and art exhibit, which felt like they were not given enough space. Those who were still waiting to reach the tables talked about the movie we had all just experienced. Horror fans or not, everyone had only good things to say.

We eventually made it up to the merch table and to both Adam and Alex, and they were both nice enough to personalize a couple of things to the theatre. And, even though I had been mentally preparing myself for days, I still managed to feel like a big doofus when I talked to Adam Green.

Lord Battle and I also made sure to grab at least one VIP ticket between us, so that we could get one of these, also signed by both Adam and Alex.

I feel very lucky to have been a part of this event, and I'm happy to say that all the people that we got to come out had a great time. The Overlook Theatre will definitely be reviewing this film soon!

You can join in on the excitement of this film in just 2 days, as it will be hitting Video on Demand this Friday the 20th. You can also preorder a copy here. If you are the patient type, Digging Up the Marrow will be coming to more cities in about 2 weeks.

Another note about this Friday: The latest installment in the Naruto movie franchise,  Naruto: The Last, has been brought to America and will be showing at the New People Cinemas in San Francisco, and New Zealand's What We Do in the Shadows will be released in theatres in the states. I don't think I've seen any advertising for this movie but it's been out in New Zealand since last year. This is a horror comedy documentary about four different-era vampires living together in New Zealand. It was co-written and co-directed by Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi. I know Jermaine from Flight of the Concords mainly, but I'm not familiar with Taika Waititi. There are 4 bay area theatres that will host this movie starting Friday. They are Landmark's Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and Camera 3 in San Jose. Other theatres and dates are posted on the film's site.

And finally, this is the one week mark of an awesome double feature showing at the Castro Theatre: The Exorcist and The Babadook. The first movie will start at 7pm, and the second at 9:25pm. On a related note, Linda Blair will be a featured guest at next month's Time Tunnel Toy Show, which is March 7 and 8. She will be signing autographs on Saturday March 7th ONLY and proceeds will go to the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation. Also scheduled to sign at this event are Gigi Edgley (Farscape) who will be there for both days, and Kyra Schon (Night of the Living Dead) who will only be there on Sunday. Updates and other info for the event can be found on their blog. 

Hope you guys can make it out to at least a couple of these events!

-Huntress