{"id":4505,"date":"2012-09-30T18:51:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T00:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4505"},"modified":"2012-09-30T18:51:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T00:51:59","slug":"attack-of-the-gila-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4505","title":{"rendered":"Attack Of The Gila Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bill Dever knows precisely why hundreds of people flock to his B Movie Celebrations featuring monsters as oversized as the flicks\u2019 campy fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of maladjusted people out there,\u201d Dever said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Consider the Franklin resident proudly among them. Dever will host the sixth annual B Movie Celebration this weekend at Columbus\u2019 YES Cinema. In past years, the fest\u2019s lighthearted focus entertained up to 2,000 fans, including some from all over the globe, at Franklin\u2019s Artcraft Theatre and two other Johnson County venues.<\/p>\n

Fangoria.com, a leading horror and monster movie website, last year called Dever\u2019s gatherings \u201cone of the most unique film festival\/convention hybrids in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

With film titles this year such as, \u201cZombies From Outer Space,\u201d \u201cVirgin Beach Creature,\u201d and \u201cTwo-Headed Shark Attack,\u201d how can he go wrong?<\/p>\n

Dever sees low-budget B movies as A-plus entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these films\u2019 popularity is linked to escapism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dever said he\u2019s grateful for the support of his efforts promoting films mostly about creatures from brain-suckers to blobs. Attendance is important, but the screenwriter is focused elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be happy even with small numbers,\u201d Dever said. \u201cWhat I really want is to see people excited about these films.\u201d<\/p>\n

This includes \u201cGila,\u201d which he produced and helped write, about a lizard-like creature terrorizing Franklin\u2019s unsuspecting citizens. It is a remake of the 1959 sci-fi classic, \u201cGiant Gila Monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columbus\u2019 Robert Hay-Smith, known here for his jazz music, theatrical performances and stage direction roles, traded in his smarts to play a clueless truck driver steering into the path of the Big Green Guy looking for lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI play a really silly, old fool,\u201d Hay-Smith said.<\/p>\n

He laughed when asked if he and a passenger \u201cgo down easily,\u201d so to speak, in their big scene. Though no cast members have seen the finished product, Hay-Smith can guess.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we do (get eaten),\u201d he said, but not before downing a bottle of tea made to look like whiskey.<\/p>\n

Columbus\u2019 Jeff Bodart can relate to such fun. He played Larry the ambulance driver, who tries to stay beyond the reach of danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I actually go face to face with the monster,\u201d Bodart said. \u201cBut it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dever hopes viewers here see the value of the festival in an age when Hollywood presents its own take on the genre. Though the budgets in Tinsel Town are larger, Dever said that many blockbuster hits, such as \u201cTransformers,\u201d embody the same campy fun as B movies, and that he believes that the roots of \u201cthe grand American cinematic tradition\u201d lie in these older films.<\/p>\n

Consequently, Dever mentioned that he and his brethren deserve a little more respect from the bigger boys and girls on the filmmaking block.<\/p>\n

\u201cLow-budget B is considered to be second class or in some way inferior to Hollywood\u2019s slick corporate product,\u201d he said. \u201cWe at the B Movie Celebration know otherwise.\u201d
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