Slaughter Movie House: 'Dead Weight' + Q&A

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013
@ Screenland Armour

I was first introduced to Dead Weight through working for DownRight Creepy.  They received a screener of the film and I was lucky enough to borrow it.  I was blown away.  The cinematography is breathtaking.  It is one of those movies that leaves you speechless, shocked, and empty.  Eric Havens (DownRight Creepy) describes it best, "A pretty damn bleak and troubling story."

Last summer/fall I went to a ton of horror conventions and got to know the Dead Weight crew pretty well.  They are, for the most part, from Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
July: I met John Pata (co-director, co-writer, editor) and Joe Belknap (lead actor) at Days of the Dead Indianapolis.
August: John came to KC for Crypticon.
September: I went back to Indianapolis for HorrorHound Weekend where I finally met Adam Bartlett (co-director/co-writer) and Aaron Christensen (actor).
October: The weekend before Halloween, on my way home from Minneapolis, I met up with John in Iowa City at the Landlocked Film Festival.  There, I met another member of the DW crew, Nick Elert (composer).
I am now proud to call these guys friends.  Mr. Pata helps me a lot, especially with booking films for Slaughter Movie House.

I wanted to bring DW to Kansas City.  I normally play independent horror first Mondays at Czar Bar, but I thought this was too heavy for the bar.  I wanted to wait until we had the option to use a theater.  And, honestly, I would barely consider this a horror film, more of a thriller/drama.

In November I emailed John and told him I was ready to get serious about putting this screening together and that if at all possible I would love for him, Adam and whoever else could make it to come!  I asked Adam Roberts (owner/operator) if he would be interested in letting us host it at Screenland Armour.  Not only did he say yes, he offered us a Saturday evening!

The event was an OUTSTANDING success.  Screenland Armour has 2 theaters and we originally planned to use the smaller of the two.  I was so nervous with them traveling all this way, but the turn-out was so great that we had to move into the larger theater!  After the film, Eric lead a Q&A with John, Adam, Joe Belknap, and Jess Ader (actor).  It was such an honor that they made the trip down here.  I couldn't have asked for more.  Thank you everyone!

Check out all the photos by Anna Perry HERE.

Adam Bartlett, John Pata, Joe Belknap, me, and Jess Ader.  Photo by Anna Perry.