Brilliant … But Bouncy

I Felt Like Paul McCartney in 1965.

Since Shane is a horror fan, I scheduled a trip to a nearby celebration of horror. It’s called Blobfest.

Blobfest is a fan festival for an old, old movie called The Blob. Made in 1958, The Blob was filmed in Pennsylvania, in a small town with a historic theater called The Colonial.

In the movie, the blob – a terrifying mass of red goo – threatens the town, eating inanimate objects, buildings and people in its way. At one point, it oozes into the local theater- The Colonial – and hordes of teenagers run screaming out the front doors, narrowly escaping the blob.

The Colonial is still standing. And once a year, for 20 years now, the town celebrates by allowing folks to reenact the run-out scene on Friday night – followed by movie marathons and an all-day street festival on Saturday, and guest speakers on Sunday.

Shane and I have never experienced anything quite like it. We couldn’t understand the fascination with this particular movie, but even its fans seem to realize that it wasn’t a particularly well made piece of art. It’s campy in a way that few other movies can match.

But we celebrated anyway. In fact, we were among the couple of hundred fortunate people to actually RUN in the runout. It was our first time at Blobfest, and we were both shocked to the point of near stopping when we first ran out of the theater:

There were thousands of people outside, lining the streets, watching us run. I mean THOUSANDS! For a moment, I felt like Paul McCartney in 1965.

We ran for less than a minute, past the throng of onlookers, and kept on going right to our car, still stunned by our audience.

We didn’t come back until Saturday.

For Saturday, we donned hand-made CO2 shirts, which – spoiler alert – were a hit during the street festival. We had tickets for both The Blob and Forbidden Planet. And we wandered past booths shopping the horror-induced artwork, DVDs, buttons, magnets and shirts. While Shane’s favorite movies are much more modern, he was able to procure a light switch cover featuring Stephen King’s It villain, Pennywise.

We watched an incredibly ridiculous parade, a costume contest that wasn’t about costumes at all, a screaming competition, and some performances that were among the most bizarre of anything we’ve seen in our lives.

Blobfest has been recognized – quite literally – by Ripley’s Believe It or Not, inducted into the bowels of the museum in 2016.

And now, thanks to my off-the-beaten-path son, I can say I’ve experienced it firsthand.

There’s even a chance we’ll be going back next year. God help us all.