HEAR YE, HEAR YE!: MR. LOBO & CINEMA INSOMNIA'S 25TH & RETRO CON 2026

Here's a special announcement regarding MR. LOBO, RETRO CON 2026 and CINEMA INSOMNIA's 25 years of presenting the creme de la creme in misunderstood movies: 

Our old friend Mr. Lobo returns for Retro Con 2026! The always well-dressed ambassador of B-movies, forgotten gems, and cinematic oddities is ready to prove once again that there are no bad movies- just misunderstood ones!

For 25 years, Mr. Lobo has proudly championed the weird world of cult cinema as the host of Cinema Insomnia, the nationally syndicated late-night movie show that's been entertaining sleepless horror fans and B-movie lovers since 2001. Today the show airs on 66 television stations and streams on Roku via Mr. Lobo's OSI 74 channel, proving that sometimes insomnia pays off!

Mr. Lobo has also brought his unique brand of movie madness to Cinemassacre, Angry Video Game Nerd, Hack the Movies, Movie Dumpster, Coast to Coast AM, Creature Features, and MST3K bonus features. He's appeared in films such as Plan 9 (2016), American Scary, Spirit Riser, Pizza Guy 8, A Blind Bargain with Crispin Glover, and multiple Troma productions. He was also spoofed in an episode of 'Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated', and was a featured part of cutscenes in the recent Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit game!

Come celebrate 25 years of Cinema Insomnia, meet the man behind the motto "They're Not Bad Movies- Just Misunderstood!", and stick around for a special panel he has planned for Retro Con!

Find Mr. Lobo on Twitch at twitch.tv/cinemainsomnia

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA: ROAD TO BALI, THIS JULY 4TH

Join Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia this July 4th for a carefree presentation of Hal Walker's Road to Bali. The preshow begins at 10pm, on Twitch, OSI74/Roku and Amazon Fire, with the main feature following soon thereafter. (Road to Bali will be inserted in Cinema Insomnia's 250th/July 4th, misunderstood mega-marathon, which will play around the clock starting 10pm on July 3rd.)

Road to Bali (1952) is the sixth entry in the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope, song-and-dance, comedy-adventure series and the only one shot in Technicolor. For this outing, the fellows portray stage performers George and Harold, who eschew marriage by bumbling their way to Bali, Indonesia, where they encounter Murvyn Vye's menacing monarch, submerged treasure, conciliating headhunters and Dorothy Lamour's enchanting Princess Lala McTavish, who can't help but fall for them both.

In addition to its surreal, breaking-the-fourth-wall antics, the exploit is cameo-strung, with appearances from Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Jane Russell (reprising her Son of Paleface role), Humphrey Bogart (in a clip from The African Queen) and a disguised Ray Milland (in a scene from Reap the Wild Wind, which makes it appear that Hope is being attacked by a squid). For extra fun, the up-and-coming Carolyn Jones and Michael Ansara can be spotted among the supporting players, and legendary stuntman Steve Calvert enters the island action, playing "married" gorillas.  

Without question, Road to Bali offers heaps of goofy escapism and is made even more delightful by Mr. Lobo's gracious guidance, as he stirs his appreciated, misunderstood ingredients for one and all to enjoy.

BTW: One can back this Cinema Insomnia episode by pre-ordering the Mr. Lobo-autographed, Blu-ray release (with a complementary DVD enclosed) and have one's name listed as an associate producer in the credits! To do so, visit 

https://osi74.square.site/s/search?q=road%20to%20bali

In any case, get ready for tropical trails and giddy guffaws this Saturday night, with the big premiere of Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia Presents Road to Bali. 🏝

MR. LOBO'S LIVE STREAMS!

 

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA: BLOOD FREAK, ON OSI74 ROKU

Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia's Jive Turkey Friendsgiving Special: Blood Freak is now streaming on OSI74's Roku Channel. 

Mr. Lobo, Sally the Zombie Cheerleader, Yella Fever and the gang bring lots of groovy, side-dish flavor to this cult favorite that director/narrator Brad F. Grinter coscripted with actor Steve Hawkes way back in far-out 1972.

In the hippy-dippy trip, Hawkes portrays a doomed biker/Vietnam vet named Herschell, who lands a stint at a turkey farm, where company scientists transform him into the titular, beaked beast.

Grinter pays tribute to the Amazing Criswell by appearing on camera at the film's start and finish, instilling the narrative with a powerful, Filmation-esque warning, which viewers are certain to keep close to their ravenous hearts well after the appetizing fable ends.  

No matter when one feasts upon Blood Freak, it'll always fill one's aesthetic belly, albeit in a most "misunderstood," mutant-ous way. Gobble! Gobble!

https://www.osi74.com/index.php/watch-osi-74/

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA: BLOOD FREAK, THANKSGIVING SPECIAL

Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia offers a tasty, new "misunderstood" dish: the monster-"turkey" epic, Blood Freak. 

Director/narrator Brad F. Grinter coscripted this 1972, hippy/drug-oriented opus with Steve Hawkes, who plays its doomed biker/Vietnam vet, Herschell. As poor Herschell's luck would have it, he lands a job at a turkey farm, where a couple of company scientists transform him into the titular, rampaging beast, a sort of spiritual, vampiric cousin, if one will, to The Giant Claw, or so some cinema buffs have argued. 

This Ed Wood-ish entry is lots of fun, with its profound, drug-warning message, scary tactics and pretty girls, but it becomes even more fulfilling thanks to Mr. Lobo and special guest Sally the Zombie Cheerleader, who fringe it with plenty of off-the-cuff stuffing.

One can own a copy of this fine serving (and even gain on-screen credit) if one orders the Blu-ray release. It can be procured and secured at

https://osi74.square.site/s/search?q=blood%20freak

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA: DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME, THIS SATURDAY

This Saturday night on Roku OSI 74 and Twitch (kicking off with a sprightly preshow at 10:00 and the main feature at 11:00), Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia presents a great, pop-cultural crossover, as Boris Karloff goes up against Ralph Byrd in the 1947, B-movie classic, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. 

Directed by John (The Green Hornet Strikes Again!) Rawlins and written by Robert E. Kent and William Graffis, the adventure oozes of fun, with Karloff's titular baddie (abetted by Skelton Knagg's X-Ray) pulls a semi-Mr. Freeze/Captain Cool, using an immobilizing gas to subdue his adversaries. Byrd's dashing, master detective (along with his sweetie, Anne Gwynne's Tess Trueheart, and his sidekick, Lyle Latell's Pat Patson) counters the villainy with super-sharp know-how.  

For the movie's wraparound, Mr. Lobo shares his irreverent perspectives on the Chester Gould-inspired tale, squeezing in trailers, snack-bar inserts and a politically incorrect, Dick Tracy cartoon from the 1960s. To support the brash frivolity, the sexy Lady Shank'nstein pumps up the action with an amiable yet competitive visit.

 

Be sure to tune in, folks. The one delivers the investigative goods and oodles more!

SALLY & MR. LOBO AT POP DESIGNER TOY ART FESTIVAL, PHILLY (AUG 9-10)

HAPPY 25 "MISUNDERSTOOD" YEARS, CINEMA INSOMNIA (7/28)

 

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA PRESENTS THE MAD MONSTER/MONSTERPALOOZA BLU-RAY

 

Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia's Monsterpalooza Con Crud Special: The Mad Monster (set in Pasadena, Ca & OSI 74, Pa) is now available on blazing Blu-ray. 

Released by PRC, The Mad Monster is a neato, 1942, werewolf flick, which stars two horror titans, George Zucco (at the time in full swing with his Mummy/Kharis efforts) and Glenn Strange (just two years before playing Frankenstein's Monster), wherein the former (a mad scientist) transforms the latter (a child-like handyman) into a lycanthrope (with a little, ferocious help from makeup artist Harry Ross). The werewolf emergence is comparable to Whit Bissell's transformation of Michael Landon in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, though that one struck a good fifteen years after the fuzzy fact. 

In addition to Zucco and Strange, Mad Monster stars Johnny (Our Gang) Downs and Anne (Black Friday) Nagel, and was directed and produced by Sam Newfield (the uncredited director of the Gojira II redux, Gigantis: the Fire Monster) and scripted by Fred (Nabonga) Myton. The results create a wolf-soldier-serum experience that triggers top-tier tension throughout its tight running time. 

For extra enjoyment, Mr. Lobo intersects the melodrama by bringing his bushy-tailed cheer to the big convention, meeting fascinating venders, avant-garde artists and even G. Larry (Frankenstein Versus the Monster from Blood Cove/Skate to Hell) Butler. Such is accompanied by a jubilant, studio visit by the hyper Yellow Fever, who nurses a sickly Mr. Lobo back to health with bananas.

Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia, Monsterpalooza Con Crud Special: The Mad Monster is an ideal submission for any "misunderstood," physical-media library, and one can procure it at 

https://osi74.square.site/product/blu-ray-backer-pre-order-cinema-insomnia-monsterpalooza-con-crud-special-mad-monster-with-credit/186?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA: SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT, THIS SATURDAY

 

It's Christmas in July this Saturday night (July 5) on Twitch, OSI74/Roku and Amazon Fire, with a reshowing of Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia's 2023 Naughty Christmas/Xmas Special. (The preshow commences at 10 pm.) 

Produced by Troma's Lloyd Kaufman and directed by Theodore Gershuny, who cowrote with Ira Teller and Jeffrey (The Sentinel) Konvitz, Silent Night, Bloody Night is revered not only as a pioneering Christmas, horror picture, but one that holds a noteworthy cast, which includes John Carradine, Patrick O'Neal, Astrid Heeren, Walter Abel, Philip Bruns, Jay Garner, James Patterson and sexy, cult-film sensation, Mary Woronov. 

Along the warm, Yuletide way, the movie takes shameless stabs at Psycho (with an arguable, Empire Strikes Back catch), bumping off a couple of its leads early, as they occupy an old mansion/former asylum where madness and carnage prevail, thanks to a shadowy fiend who flaunts the moniker, Marianne. Why does Marianne kill? Well, the answer lies in that age-old motivator ... back-story revenge!

To wrap the carnage in sardonic joy, Mr. Lobo (equipped with a Grinchy Necronomicon) leads an all-star, Cinema Insomnia roster, featuring Miss Mittens, Countess Bloodsuger (Jessie Seeherman), Sally the Zombie Cheerleader (Nicole King), Yella Fever (Eric Sabo), filmmaker (and Silent Night, Bloody Night connoisseur) Michael Verrati and the laser-disc-loving puppet with a huge heart, Igor (Ben Stansbery), who sprinkle enough cynicism on the proceedings to make any unreformed Scrooge sigh with sadistic respect. 

No ifs, ands or buts about it, Cinema Insomnia's Naughty X-Mess Special: Silent Night, Bloody Night is a gruesome, "misunderstood" gift to open any time of the year; so be there this Saturday night to do just that!