Mothra Madness at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater!

June 15th, 2026

I've seen quite a few movies in theaters this year, but because of how busy life can get, I haven't had much of a chance to sit down and write about any of them. For a special occasion like this though, I figured I'd kick myself into gear and get it done. This past Saturday, my best friend and I made a trip up to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington, Indiana for a very special event: Godzilla Weekend! The Buskirk-Chumley is an old historic theater that was built in 1922, and it usually hosts local events such as plays, concerts, and small re-releases of classic films. With just one screen, a neon-lit marquee and seating on both the ground level and upstairs balcony, it's an awesome place to go if you want a great old-school movie experience. Godzilla Weekend is one of their newer events - a two-day celebration of all things Godzilla that is put together by local businesses and fans of giant monster movies. This was only their second year putting it on, and this year they decided to dedicate it to the Queen of the Monsters herself: Mothra! To coincide with the special occasion, the mayor of Bloomington even declared Friday, June 12th to be Mothra Day. Mothra is one of my favorite kaiju in the Godzilla movies, so I can't help but feel a certain level of geeky satisfaction over a nearby city declaring a holiday for a giant majestic butterfly.

Since this year's theme was Mothra Madness, every movie that was shown highlighted the Queen in one form or another. We didn't make it to the first night of the event, but from what I saw, they kicked everything off with a screening of the original solo Mothra movie from 1961. I like that movie quite a bit, and at first I was a little bummed to not be able to make it to both nights, but the lineup of the second night more than made up for missing the first one. Saturday's lineup was a triple feature of 1964's Mothra vs. Godzilla, 1968's Destroy All Monsters, and 2001's Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. Mothra vs. Godzilla is easily in my top 5 of the original Showa-era Godzilla films, and GMK is one of my friend's favorites as well, so both of us were eating pretty well that day.

We had each seen all of the movies multiple times, but rewatching them in a place like the Buskirk made these viewings feel really fresh and new. A big theater screen and loud sound definitely helped to enhance the spectacle of the battles, but the reactions from the audience made the movies even more fun than they already are. Any time Mothra, Godzilla or any other monster had a big moment to show off, the theater erupted into cheers and applause. The celebrating wasn't limited to just the fight scenes, though. One of the funniest crowd moments was when everyone cheered at a part in GMK where a dog is shown to have survived a monster attack while all the humans got wiped out. The atmosphere was super friendly and cheerful, and everyone got a chance to mingle and shoot the shit for a while at the merch booths in the lobby during intermissions. It was also pretty cool seeing the variety of ages of the people who were there. Some were older than us, many were around our age, and there were even some little kids there who seemed to be having a lot of fun despite the movies being subtitled. I couldn't help but smile when I saw a kid playing with a Gigan figure, or when I heard a boy right behind us excitedly talking to his dad all throughout Mothra vs. Godzilla, since he sounded like he was about the same age I was when I first saw King Kong. Welcome to the monster movie club, little dudes!

My favorite highlight of the day had to be the guest speaker that they got to introduce each movie. His name was Ed Godziszewski, and since I hadn't heard of him before, at first I assumed he was just a fellow fan who just wanted to share some trivia. But as it turns out, "fan" is putting it way too lightly, since Ed is more like a historian of these kaiju movies. He co-authored a few books about Japanese sci-fi / monster movies, such as Godzilla: The First 70 Years, as well as the first English biography of Godzilla director Ishiro Honda. He's been a fan since the 1960s-70s, and due to the amount of research he's done and time spent in Japan, his introductions for the movies did a really great job of getting the audience familiar with the time and circumstances in which they were made. His introduction for GMK was easily the best, and it went on for probably close to 45 minutes. He had the opportunity to visit the set for a couple of days while the movie was being made, and he showed off a bunch of pictures and videos of the setup and filming of a few special effects sequences. When you get the chance to look behind the scenes and see how these movies used to be made, such as the sculpting of miniature landscapes and how each monster suit was put together, it really makes you appreciate all of the craftsmanship and effort that went into making movies that are way too often dismissed as dumb kids' fare. He also ran a booth in the lobby selling DVDs, keychains of various monsters, card games, posters, and all sorts of stuff. He even had a couple of claws from the Godzilla suit used in Destroy All Monsters, and some of Ghidorah's back spines from the one in GMK. He seemed like a super interesting and nice guy, and if he comes back for next year's event, I'd love to work up the nerve to talk to him for a little bit and see what other filmmaking stories he has to share.

As a fan, I couldn't be happier with what the organizers put together for Godzilla Weekend, since it was such a labor of love from people who were clearly fans as well. I'm already looking forward to seeing what they have in store for 2027, since they ended the night by teasing some bigger plans for next year's event. It's sure to be a treat, and I can't wait to go back!