"... on USA UP All Night..."
If that brings back happy Saturday-night memories of yourself, eating Wavy Lays and French bread pizza on your futon in the '90s, watching classics like Summer School and Dead Reckoning back-to-back (with a little Duckman thrown in for fun), run, don't walk (or take a Lyft; you do you), to Brandon to meet Rhonda Shear along with other cult, horror and exploitation heroes at Tampa Bay Screams. Screams offers fans a day filled with memorabilia, films and meet-and-greets. The lineup includes Pompano Beach native Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead), Rhonda Shear, Denice Duff (Frogtown II and Dark Vengeance), Jill Schoelen (The Stepfather), William Grefe (Stanley) and Jordan Woods Robinson (yep, from The Walking Dead). And St. Petersburg's own Eugenie Bondurant (The Hunger Games), of course.
To complete the lineup of what Tampa Bay Screams stops short of calling a B Movie Fest (but we won't) will be Catherine Parks (Friday The 13th Part III), Joel D. Wynkoop (Creep), Todd Sheets (Bonehill Road) and Bob Glazier (Cannibal Claus). For those of us who meet up at every RiffTrax and squealed with delight earlier this week with the news of Sharknado 6, well, it's Christmas come early!
As for actual films you can see? This one-day fest is a cinematic fucking triumph, is what it is: You can view Lycanimator, Stanley, Bonehill Road, Truth Or Dare Part V and Death-Scort Service Part III: Taste Me (like Nightmare on Elm Street, we all know the third one is the best, amirite?) at Tampa Bay Screams.
If you, like us, feel like Halloween should be a full month of celebrating (with a two-month ramp up to that), and if you, like us, though The Meg wasn't quite campy enough, well, then, you'll probs want to hit up Tampa Bay Screams this Saturday in Brandon.
Tampa Bay Screams | Clarion Inn, 9331 Adamo Dr., Brandon | Aug. 25: 12-11 p.m. | $20 | More info at Local
