Ahh while watching a 3-D presentation of Revenge of the Creature I couldn't help but think about that famous picture of the audience all wearing the red and blue 3-D glasses from that famous 50's photograph. I naturally turned around, and what did my wondering eyes behold.
Out of the dark veil of night I beheld a crowd of hundreds floating in the water, sitting on dry land and standing all with the tell-tale cardboard glasses. Then when I focused I could make out a six foot red lobster bobbing up and down, a pink and black shark, the steel belted tire, a girl with flamingo wings, a 7ft alligator, and a 3ft one wrapped around a young innocent child. Then there was the Killer Whale. However, there is no need to fear. For the ADVENTURE 2000 raft is loaded down with brave souls. Screams of hundreds of young red and blue eyed children cry out piercing the night air. And in front of us all the Gillman back for second helpings. Surreal doesn't even begin to cover it.
Austin prides itself on movies and swimming holes, but who in there right mind would bring these two seemingly unlikely elements together? It took Jim Maloy to marry the two. Some of my earliest film memories came from those 2 & 3 year old memories of my parents renting 16 mm Films like Hoppity Goes To Town from Jim Maloy's Feature Film Service. Then his film series at Zilker Park, brought us Close Encounters of the Third Kind under the starlit sky. Now he brings us the wettest theaters in town, and it isn't from spilled drinks.
I've been attending his Splash Party Movie Nights for three years now. They move from pool to pool. When I first went to them, they were scarcely attended. Then, as all good things do, they found an audience. I realized how special they were at last year's presentation of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON in 3-D. The very concept of seeing that film while swimming brought a grin from ear to ear, but then when I heard it was in 3-D. Wow. That would be an experience.
Let me set you up for this. You know how movie theaters are quiet places for movie worship. The respectfully quiet audience (if you're lucky) watches a gigantic screen and listens in awe to the Digital THX auditorium. Well, you will not find a more disrespectful group of fidgety noise-makers at a screening of a film anywhere.
At last year's Creature performance, it was if I were trapped in a flooded Shea Stadium in 1967 as the Beatles performed. You couldn't hear the film, there was a constant barrage of shrill screams, splashes of water, and... it was incredible. Here was a 40 year old film that had found it's audience again. The mean age was about 13, but who cares. The energy as the kids were genuinely terrified, as if William Castle were buzzing each and every one of them. An audience of constant movement. It takes a master of concentration to follow the film, but the thrill of the audience is fantastic.
In the past I've seen Jaws, Pocahontas, and The Lion King via swimming pools. This year we have the joy of seeing Revenge of the Creature, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Freaky Friday, The Goofy Movie and Captain Ron. Personally the bonus of seeing a film concerning water really heightens the experience. Perhaps in the future we will see such water classics as: Piranha, 20,000 Leagues Beneath The Sea, The Abyss, Hitchcock's Lifeboat, A Night To Remember, Treasure Island and there are so many more.
If you haven't seen a film in a swimming pool, then you are depriving yourself of one of the most unique film experiences you will ever have. Put your head back in the water and hear the seemingly haunting echo of the movies' sound. An experience like none other.
