Wednesday gets weird when Late Shift at the Grindhouse hosts Ross Meyer, Joe Derderian, and Aaron Holmgren dig up low-budget b-movies, horror and gore-fests, and camp classics for your viewing pleasure. Buy your ticket and take a ride in our Time Machine! Punch in and earn a bonus! $3 Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboys and $2 small popcorn! PLUS -- special custom trash trailer reel curated by Ross with cheap swag and prize giveaways!

Matinee (1993)

Directed by Joe Dante (The Howling)

Lawrence Woolsey presents the end of civilization as we know it.  Make that... proudly presents... on 35mm film!

"Joe Dante manages to recapture the joy of attending an overhyped gimmick movie and the mood during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, in this funny and nostalgic comedy." - Michael J. Weldon, The Psychotronic Video Guide

"An affectionate homage to the 'creature features' of the '50s and '60s." - TV Guide 

"There are a lot of big laughs in Matinee, and not many moments when I didn't have a wide smile on my face." - Roger Ebert

"Matinee is such an earnest film lacking in cynicism about the gimmickry of old that its warmth is infectious." - Sean Mulvihill, FanboyNation.com

"One of director Joe Dante's finest achievements." - Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy

John Goodman is at his uproarious best as the William Castle-inspired movie promoter Lawrence Woolsey, who brings his unique brand of flashy showmanship to the unsuspecting residents of Key West, Florida.  

It's 1962, and fifteen-year-old fan Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton) can't wait for the arrival of Woolsey, who is in town to promote his latest offering of atomic power gone berserk, Mant!  Buty the absurd vision of Woolsey's tale takes on a sudden urgency as the Cuban Missile Crisis places the real threat of atomic horror just 90 miles off the coast.  With the help of Woolsey's leading lady, Ruth (Cathy Moriarty, the master showman gives Key West a premiere they'll never forget.  Anything can happen in the movies, and everything does in this hilarious tribute to a more innocent (and outrageous) time in American cinema.  

Winner: Silver Raven - Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film (BIFFF) 1993