Saturday in Austin. A perfect blue sky day, with nothing to look forward to but morning coffee and an afternoon at the QT lll KIDDIE MATINEE, featuring one of my all-time Toho favorites, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD a 1965 odd re-imagining of the legendary monster done up Godzilla-style. This was a staple of late night horror television, my brother Scott and I often bathed in the static glow of the Zenith whenever it popped up.

I was interested to see how Quentin would handle an audience of children, and it hardly needs to be said that he knew exactly how to do it. He talked to them as equals, got them pumped up and made the folks feel safe in his presence. I was surprised how many kiddies were there with their parents; it's clear they were probably bigger fans of Tarantino then their scion. Instead of the usual exploitive trailers, there was a panopoly of Saturday morning toy ads, each one a delight to the memory senses. I'm sure the tykes came out of there bugging mommy or daddy for a Major Matt Mason. This was a fun screening and captured the perfect Saturday afternoon monster movie vibe. Hopefully, the kids were inspired to begin a lifelong interest in Godzilla and friends. 

Only a few hours left until the final horror all-nighter...