Dick Miller Triple Feature Tonight in the Twin Cities!?

If you've made it out to all of the JoeDante series screenings, you may have noticed a certain actor making brief but memorable appearances in each flick. In Small Soldiers he was the toy delivery driver, in Piranha he was the resort owner, in The Howling he was the bookstore owner, in The Burbs he was one of the garbage men,and tonight he'll be plow driver Murray Futterman in both Gremlins 1 & 2. (Bonus Horror for the Holidays appearance: in Night of the Creeps he's the guy who gives the flame thrower to Tom Atkins!) Yes, we are talking about everyone's favorite “that guy” Dick Miller!

We've been pumped for the Gremlins double feature all month long, and just yesterday it was brought to our attention that we could make this a triple feature night if we stopped by The Southern Theater. The Southern has been featuring some pretty fantastic plays, performance pieces, and live accompaniment movies this month, and after each day's performances they've topped the night off with some amazing movie screenings. Tonight they are screening the original Little Shop of Horrors, featuring the one and only Dick Miller!

So come see Gremlins 1 & 2 and make the drive over to the Southern Theater by 12:45AM and catch LittleShop of Horrors in an amazing old theater. (if you get there a little early you can see some of Tim's monster taxidermy adorning the walls to boot) We're totally making it a Miller triple feature night, join us won't you?

Gremlins 7:30 and Gremlins 2 (on 35mm) 9:30(ish) @ Theatres at Mall of America, 5 bucks each movie. Little Shop of Horrors 12:45 @ The Southern Theater, free!

Super Awesome Bonus Trivia:

Dick Miller has appeared in at least 174 films, and we've seen our fair share of them, but so far we've only seen him play the lead in one film. Dick stars in the Roger Corman classic Bucket of Blood as a beatnik sculptor Walter Paisley. That character name became somewhat of a inside joke to those who loved to cast him. In The Howling, Chopping Mall, Twilight Zone The Movie, and a handful of other films his character credit is some version of Walter Paisley. (We're beside ourselves excited for the documentary That Guy Dick Miller to be released, we've heard nothing but good things about it and we could listen to stories about Mr. Miller all day!)

That Guy Dick Miller

We've written about Dick Miller before but you really can't say enough about him. That's likely why Elijah Drenner made a documentary about him!


If you aren't familiar with Dick Miller by name, you most likely would recognize him from any of his  175 roles. He sells guns to the Terminator, he's the town drunk/snow plow driver in Gremlins, in the Howling he sells convenient books on werewolfs. He pops up in Pirannah, Chopping Mall, The 'Burbs, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Innerspace, Matinee, Unlawful Entry, Small Solders, and he's got a (rare) starring role in A Bucket of Blood.

We seriously can't wait for That Guy Dick Miller so we can learn so much more about this iconic That Guy. But we only have to wait for Friday because Trylon is screening That Guy all weekend! Check it out and know so much more about a man you've seen in everything.

Fri, Apr 4th 7 & 9pm
Sat, Apr 5th 7 & 9pm
Sun, Apr 6th 5 & 7pm

Aquatic Horror: Piranha (1978)

This Joe Dante directed freshwater classic is a fantastic jab at Jaws but also sets up one of our favorite that's-way-too-long-after-the-last-instalment-to-make-another-instalment sequels!

The plot unfolds something like this: An insurance adjuster has been sent to find the bodies of two missing teenagers in a remote summer resort town. While searching an abandon research facility, she accidentally releases genetically engineered fresh-water piranha into the town's river. Who would be genetically piranha you ask? The military of course! And they're hell bent on getting their fish back, innocent locals be damned...

Low key jabs at the military: Though the military cooperated with the production of Piranha, they were doing so under the assumption that the military portrayed in the film would end up the heroes. That might be because Dante gave them a fake script that portrayed that exact scenario, but the actual version of the film basically makes the military the bad guys. And it's not just because they created the piranha in the first place, but also their reckless attempts to get the fish back into their position and their lying to the public about the eradication of the piranha.

Great appearances by: Barbara Steele as the military scientist, Dick Miller as the local resort owner, and Paul Bartel shows up to be berated by Miller's character while he directs a commercial for his resort.

Jaws rip-off: Dante didn't try to hide from the audience that they were parodying Jaws, they even have on of the main characters playing a Jaws stand-up video game under the directer credit in the opening scene!

Chopping Mall

This is a favorite of Chris' (who we were working with over at the Mall), he even played it as a mystery movie once after a Horror for the Holidays! If you've not seen it, put it high up on your list of things to watch

The plot unfolds something like this: A group of teenagers working at their local mall decide to have a slumber party in the furniture store. Unfortunatly for them, mall security has implamented their new security-bots this same night. Likely, everything will be fine though. Unless lighting strikes or something...

Things to watch for: Lots of action amidst the horror. Amazing 80s robot technology. A nice balance of shirtless dudes and ladies. One of the greatest head explosions committed to film. Some epically obnoxious dude-bro gum chewing.


Soundtrack: The soundtrack is also fantastic, if you like awesome 80s synth stuff! (And why wouldn't you?)

That-guy moments with the Corman crew:Gerrit Graham, and the Corman crew Dick Miller, and Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov (my faves)!










Original title: Killbots (the more fitting title in our opinion).