Horror friends, we are gathered here today to pay our respects to a great friend—a friend who could take a perfectly tedious day like Thursday and turn it into a holy-day for the horror faithful, a friend whose monthly morsels of the macabre eased our gore-hunger, and made all the non-Halloween-months a bit less lame; this friend, Bloodthirsty Thursdays, is gone now, but shall remain with us in our hearts.
Born on August 12, 2010, Bloodthirsty Thursdays came ripping to life at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater with a triple-feature showing of the first three Friday the 13th movies. Unlike most new institutions, there was no gradual, word-of-mouth climb to success; the event was immediately popular, the auditorium was packed on that first day and would be packed for every event from then on. Demand was great enough that it was necessary to hold 2 showings, one at 7 and another at 10. And so it was that the second Thursday of every month would come to be known as Bloodthirsty Thursdays.
It really was a beautiful tradition, watching a horror movie on the big screen—some old favorites, some little-known gems, whatever was playing was worth the ticket price. The man behind Bloodthirsty Thursdays, Kelly Warren Hammond, would be there himself at each event to curate the evening’s proceedings, providing us with movie trivia, and sometimes handing out prizes. From all over the city, San Antonio’s horror community would gather and, for at least that day, we were among our own kind—fellow gore-hounds, thrill-seekers, gothic romantics, and horror cinephiles all drawn to the flickering flame of the silver screen, gathered before it like worshipful druids, bound together by our reverence and passion. This was the true magic of Bloodthirsty Thursdays.
And that is what I find myself missing most of all. I miss the company of my fellow San Antonio horror compatriots. Sure, some of us still meet up for informal get-togethers, but nothing can quite compare to the feeling of all of us there as a united entity, strangers no longer, for simply by being there we each knew something of the other—we love horror. When Bloodthirsty Thursdays passed away in 2014, that community of horror-lovers once again dispersed into the loosely-connected nomad population it had been.
And so, my fellow horror enthusiasts, it is with some bitterness that we must bid Bloodthirsty Thursdays a fond adieu. But rather than focus on our terrible loss, let us instead remember the good times, the many happy evenings spent in the cozy confines of a theater seat, eyes raptly glued to the screen. Shed a tear if you must and drop a handful of dirt upon the Drafthouse box-office as you pass it, and remember that something great once lived there.
splatterjunkie 