As I reported a few days ago, on Saturday the 22^nd, myself, along with Aaron Christensen, Dave Kosanke, and Gavin Schmitt, made the trip up to Merrill, Wisconsin for the Bill Rebane’s Hollywood Midwest: A Retrospective on Wisconsin’s First Feature Film Studio, an exhibit being held at the Merrill Historical Society, put on by Brandon Johnson. Because it opened at 9am and we wanted to be there right when it opened, it meant that I had to leave at 3am, drive into Chicago to pick up Aaron, then head north to pick up Dave, and then meet Gavin at the Museum as close to 9am as we could. We got there at 8:55am. Pretty good planning if I do say so myself!

But why would I be crazy enough to come up with such a plan? And then involved other friends to join me on this insane trip? Maybe it was because I wanted to prove to myself that I was still young at heart and crazy enough to attempt such a thing. Which is partly true, but honestly, it was because I felt that it was important to be able to show support for such an event. And my buddies that went along for the trip felt the same way. Trust me, the whole drive up there, I was stressing over the fact that once we get in there, they might have only a couple of movie posters and some stills from a movie or two, and that would be it. That anxiety quickly disappeared when we walked into the event. But let me back up a bit.

Brandon Johnson (pictured left in the photo above), the man behind this whole exhibit, had reached out to me some time ago to tell me about this event they were planning, because I had been at the Bill Rebane Film Fest that was held back in 2005 in Madison. I was immediately interested and kept in touch with him to find out more and more details, when it was going to happen, who might be there, and all the other details. When he gave me the date, I was a little bummed when I found out that this year’s Music Box of Horrors marathon was going to take place on the same date. I have missed the marathon the last two years because I had been at a convention. But as much as I wanted to make it to the marathon, I knew this exhibit was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss, especially since Bill Rebane was planning to be there. Not to put down the marathon, but there will be more marathons. Being at the opening of exhibit focusing on a truly an underrated filmmaker, one that produced films that played all over the world, that were shot and produced in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin, was one event that I felt I couldn’t miss. I know I made the right decision.

One benefit of leaving so early in the morning is that we didn’t have any traffic getting into and out of Chicago, which is always a win. The drive was relatively easy and fast, getting to chat about movies with Aaron and Dave the way up. We arrived in the small town of Merrill, Wisconsin just before the opening of the museum, but already noticed a few people there. But the first thing that hit us when we got out of the van was just how friendly people were. The people volunteering for the museum, whether it was guiding traffic, answering questions, or pointing out places to even eat, were so kind and generous of their time and just thrilled that you were there. Apparently, Brandon had told some of the volunteers that a group from Chicago were coming up, because we heard that more than a few times from different people. “Are you the ones from Chicago? I can’t believe you drove all that way!” Major kudos to those working for the Merrill Historical Society because they welcomed us outsiders with open arms and were just so damn friendly.

But let’s get to the exhibit. The minute you walk in there, you are confronted by the huge spider in the center of the room. There were two giant spiders in the film, one that was made and positioned over a VW, which is used when the spider is actually moving, such as when it is attacking the baseball field. Then there was the other one, known as the “eating spider” which is the one used when it wasn’t moving, but either sitting on the house, or attacking and swallowing someone. The cage at the exhibit is the latter. But it isn’t just a metal frame, but they had covered one half of the spider with black fur and legs to make it look like it did back in 1975, but leaving the other half open, so you can see how it was operated, even putting mannikins inside to show where the people sat to make it look like it was moving around. The fact that they got this thing INSIDE the museum was a monumental task, but it just looked amazing and was so cool to see a piece of real movie history. Some may scoff at that statement, but for those that saw this movie as a kid, it truly was epic.

But that wasn’t the only thing in this exhibit. Johnson had collected so much stuff about many of the different feature films, industrial films, and other projects that Rebane had worked on and had them displayed throughout the room. There were display boards filled with stills, on-the-set photos, posters, advertising, and all sorts of cool little bits of information about the film’s production. But one of the coolest things there, at least for me, was that there are two cabinet displays of different VHS releases of Rebane’s films, some from other countries. I had been a VHS collector years ago, and there were plenty of tapes on display that I had never even seen before, which had some incredible artwork! In all my years of collecting, I had only come across one release of Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake, and here in front of me are multiple releases, all with some bad-ass artwork! I mean, what youngster looking for a horror film while wandering the aisle at their local video store and come across this tape for The Alpha Incident (pictured to the right), would not immediately grab it off the shelf to rent! I know I would! It didn’t take more than a few minutes of talking with Brandon to see how genuinely thrilled about this exhibit, and of Rebane’s work. He clearly was a huge fan.

We got to chat with Mr. Rebane for a bit, and he was even shocked that we drove up from his “old stomping grounds” as he called it, giving us tales of his commute down into Chicago when he was working on different projects. I was able to pick up a copy of The Giant Spider Invasion Scrapbook from Bill’s table, which is filled to the brim with photos from the film, as well as tales of the production. I also got a copy of the book Brandon had put together, sort of a tie-in with the exhibit, which featured all the advertising from Rebane’s films, as well as pics of the VHS covers, posters, stills and so much stuff. Very cool and thrilled to have that in my library!

I have posted a bunch of the photos I took at the exhibit, but I apologize for some of them since they were taken of items behind glass display cases. I tried to get the glare or reflections out as best I could. Some of the thumbnails look a little blurry but if you click on them, you’ll see the regular photo which is pretty clear.

This exhibit will be running for a year, so if you are anywhere near the area, or happen to be a huge fan of Rebane’s work, then I would strongly urge you to make the journey as we did and check out this exhibit. You can contact the Merrill Historical Society through their website HERE, email them at merrillpast@gmail.com, or call them at 715-536-5652. They are open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9am to 1pm, or call for an appointment.

Thanks again to Brandon Johnson for making this all possible, and the incredible amount of time and effort he put into to give a little more spotlight to this unique filmmaker, Bill Rebane.