Episode 260: B-Fest 2026: Too Many Pirates, Too Many Ron Perlmans, and ThePoeticCritic
CatBusRuss and ThePoeticCritic conquered another B-Fest. If you had to endure "A Gnome Named Gnorm" after watching at least 11 movies in 20 hours, you would definitely feel like you earned a win. For our podcast host, it was seeing "Demons" on the big screen for the first time (and a blu-ray of "Best Defense" that no one else claimed after the raffle concluded). For his sister, it was just further cementing the friendships the world wide web has provided her (and probably further bashing her younger sibling's appreciation of "Disney's Wish").
When the CatBus arrived back in Morton, Illinois on Sunday, his father asked, "How was the festival?" He told his dad that, "The movie qualities were lesser, but the reactions were greater." To which he responded, "So, bad movies, good times." As long as you get the latter, the trip to Northwestern is worth it.
The two siblings both agreed that B-Fest is a harder habit to break than tattoos. If you enjoy your first lock in at the Norris University Center, you will be back every year. It takes at least two ink appointment before you insist on using your skin as canvas. This is cinema heroin, but there are times that feel like movie-house fentanyl.
Like Russ jamming himself into roller skates to once again introduce "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "The Wizard of Speed and Time". He did not fall which is what his big sister feared, but when he got to see one of his childhood favorite space operas, "The Ice Pirates", he realized he over thought his presentation. But the sores in his toes were worth realizing that this early Ron Perlman film is damn near perfect, at least for B-Fest with its skates and blacksploitation. This is one he and his dad will probably try to sneak on for his little sister's kids.
"Voyage of the Rock Aliens" checked off the other element that makes for a great B-Fest, a kaiju (and lovable monsters like Michael Berryman).
As for films that required drugs to either enjoy or forget, the "24 Hours of the Best of the Worst Movies Ever" had them. The two siblings debate whether or not the biggest Australian bomb, "The Pirate Movie", had anything redeeming about it. Should Russ regret not watching the Yuletide Nazi Elf movie "Elves"? Were too many household pets maimed in this marathon? Were Clint Howard and Alfonso Ribeiro's fates too gruesome or too funny in "Arachnophobia" knock off "Ticks"?
There were some definitive crowd pleasers. We cannot call them art, but Bruce Lee's battles with other pop culture icons from "The Dragon Lives Again" and the absolute insanity of the elevator horror feature "Down" have to be seen by all cinephiles to grasp what B-movies can be truly offer.