Let’s All Watch Glenn Danzig’s VEROTIKA Together This Thursday

Look, the past few weeks have been a lot.

Beloved movie theater chains closing their doors. Restaurants, bars, and schools shutting down. Conflicting, sometimes flat out untrue pieces of information disseminated by our very own leaders. According to the people who do seem to know what the fuck they're talking about, the smart play is to practice "social distancing" - isolating ourselves at home and eschewing social lives in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. It's good advice and we're all following it here at BMD, but it can be a little boring. We've got the internet and text messaging and social media to stay in touch with one another, but none of that truly replaces the act of engaging in a communal activity. 

Which got me to thinking: what's something we could all do together, something that'd brighten our spirits, possibly even provide us with a few laughs? Something that'd have that "communal activity" feel without actually requiring us to leave our homes. As is usually the case during times of struggle, it wasn't long before my mind turned to the Dark Lord, Glenn Danzig.

Quite recently, a group of friends and I piled into a buddy's private screening room and watched Danzig's Verotika - a truly singular piece of work from a filmmaker who seems to have nothing but contempt for the generally agreed-upon rules of filmmaking. There were maybe half a dozen of us, several cases of beer, and various other party supplies designed to help us through the Verotika process. I cannot stand here telling lies about Verotika being a good movie, but I will say this: that group viewing was one of the funniest, most spirited movie screenings I have attended in years. Sure, Glenn Danzig made a movie that'd be virtually impossible to get through on your own, but with a group? I'm telling you, Verotika is straight-up magic.

So here's what I'm proposing: this Thursday, at 9PM CST, we will all watch Verotika together, with Twitter as our screening room. People use Twitter to live-tweet TV shows and movies all the time (it remains, yes, a divisive practice, but given the circumstances I'm prepared to throw caution to the wind), and there's nothing to stop us from harnessing that same functionality to schedule our own screening. Of Glenn Danzig's Verotika. On purpose. 

The more people who join in, the better. The rowdier things get, the funnier this will be. You'll have to drop $5 to rent Verotika, sure, but what's $5 when your entire social life has been brought to a screeching halt? For the cost of one draft beer, you can experience Verotika the way it was not-entirely-meant to be seen: with a sprawling collection of horror enthusiasts, Danzig fans, and unrepentant smartasses who quite literally have nothing better to do.

Want in? Excellent. Here's what to do: clear your schedule (har!) for Thursday evening. Follow me on Twitter here, for updates and whatnot. Make sure you're able to rent Verotika via Prime, and have it all ready to go before 9PM CST rolls around on Thursday evening. We'll do a countdown, we'll all smash that "Play" button at the same time, and for 90 baffling, glorious minutes, we'll all have something to do together beyond getting more anxious about everything else that's going on. I hope you'll join us. If everything goes according to plan, I think we're gonna have a grand old time.

See ya then.