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This weekend was Camp Hackenslash, the yearly summer camp that the Alamo Drafthouse puts on for us freaks. The general idea is, dress up like you're a kid at camp, do camp sports and activities, and then watch camp slasher movies all night. It's a hoot.

We actually showed up kind of late - it started at 1pm, and we didn't get there until five or so. Checked in, got our camp t-shirt and regulation striped tube socks, got dressed and situated, and commenced the drinking. Did I mention the heavy drinking? We didn't really get there in time to sign up for any good crafty activities, so we just wandered around the campground and watched other people make postcards home and little skull necklaces. People were playing dodgeball and indian leg wrestling, and that was fun to watch, too. Dave and Mel showed up even later, and there was more drinking and wandering.

One of the highlights of the day was the catered dinner from the Salt Lick, which was, coincidentally, across the road from the campground. I think the brisket and sausage they brought over was even better than usual, and that's pretty damn good. As we ate, they began to set up the entertainment portion of the evening. There was a wet t-shirt contest, which was shut down way too early because of of the male contestants got a little bit eager and showed the campers some intimate jewelry. Fortunately, Professor Griffin was there to fill in with a horror movie trivia contest, and Usher did a great fire performance, with the spinning and the blowing and the hey lady.

It was getting dark, so they inflated the screen, and started showing trailers - every Friday the 13th trailer, and every Nightmare on Elm Street trailer. That's a lot of trailers. After one last one - the new Chainsaw Massacre film - they jumped right into the feature presentation: the world premiere of Freddy vs. Jason! Beforehand, we were told that we were the first audience to see the real ending of the movie - not even the test audiences saw the whole thing. We were also admonished not to tell anyone what happened, and if we were good little boys and girls, we'd probably get another special treat from New Line in October - a premiere of Chainsaw at the abandoned mental institution, I think. So, I'm not the hugest slasher flick fan in the world, but I'm pretty much down with the big guys - this was a really fun movie, for what it was. Citizen Kane it ain't, but it was a good kick-off for the night. Afterwards, they had Robert Englund and the rest of the crew up for a question and answer session with the (insane) crowd, and then came the next feature, Sleepaway Camp. This one was not so good.

So, it's getting late, and we've just sat through the washed-up star of Sleepaway Camp giving us his acapella rendition of "Lean On Me", and we think it might start raining before too long, so we head home. There were more big thunderstorms that night, and that's the end of the story.