By KEVIN HOOVER
Over the last four years, Joe Bob Briggs’ merry band of mutant devotees have descended upon drive-ins scattered around the country for the annual “World Drive-In Jamboree.” This year’s iteration, however, will look a little different while promising to retain many of the elements that have made previous events destination vacations.
Dallas’ Texas Theatre will host JOE BOB BRIGGS’ INDOOR HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR this Halloween with twelve hours of festivities paying homage to the spirit of the drive-in theater—but with air conditioning. The centerpiece of the event will be screenings of “five and a half” films, peppered with the trademark wit and banter between Joe Bob and Darcy the Mail Girl that has endeared Shudder’s The Last Drive-In to fans for the past seven years. “I’ve wanted to do a Popcorn-style horrorthon since the first time I ever saw that movie,” remarks Darcy, “and now I finally get to! On actual Halloween night with my Mutant Fam! I am so hyped for this!”
More than just a dusk-till-dawn movie marathon, the cosplay adept can partake in a costume contest, while burlesque performances will offer up a serving of sultry to go along with all the scares. And hosting an old-fashioned spook show will be the skeleton-faced Professor Morte, the creation of Shane Morton, who has staged the Silver Scream Spook Show in Atlanta for eighteen years and doubles as the Production Designer for The Last Drive-In. “Are you ready to get the yell scared out of you?” asks Morton. “I promise magic, monsters and mayhem, and everyone in the audience will have a chance to win a dead body.”
Whereas past events have been open-air affairs held at historic theaters like Pennsylvania’s Mahoning Drive-In and in the oven-baked environs of Las Vegas, this year’s host location imbues a special sense of haunted charm. The Texas Theatre is where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested back in 1963 shortly after assassinating then-president JFK. Does his spirit still haunt the halls of the infamous cinema? Buy a ticket and find out for yourself at JOE BOB BRIGGS’ INDOOR HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR!
