FilmOut delivers another marathon of genre fun with its Super Sci-Fi Saturday on April 7 from Noon to Midnight at the Birch Theater in North Park. Hurry, before that red crystal in your hand lights up.
Kudos to FilmOut programmer Michael McQuiggan for not playing it safe with his film choices. This is his third film marathon and each has grown a little more popular. He's a fan of genre filmmaking and he's willing to take a risk to bring some unique, fun, and unconventional film programming to San Diego. We may be close to LA but film selection in San Diego is not nearly as diverse and widespread as it is in LA. So I'm so grateful there's someone like McQuiggan willing to step up to the plate and say we need to try something that brings out the folks who really enjoy going out to a film event to have a good time. His first venture was a diaster triple feature with classics like "The Towering Inferno." The next was a 12-hour marathon of horror called Thrill-O-Rama. And now we get sci-fi that goes from cheesy fun to deliciously dark themes. And you can't beat the price: $20 for the whole day! Or 5 bucks a film.
Here's the run down with trailers. There will also be a costume contest and a guest appearance by Graham Skipper of "Re-Animator: The Musical," which just collected a bunch of awards from the LA Weekly Theater Awards.
"Logan's Run" (1976)
Date: April 7th, 12:00pm
Director: Michael Anderson
It's all cool till you turn 30 and a red crystal in your hand lights up, and it's lights out for you. A cheesy but delightful sci-fi adventure with Michael York, Jenny Agutter, and Farrah Fawcett! Credited as the screen’s first use of laser holography, it was honored with a Special Achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects. York is Logan who decides to run rather than submit to the rules of society.
"Flash Gordon" (1980)
Date: April 7th, 2:00pm
Director: Mike Hodges
The 1930s comic strip gets a wild and wacky update with Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) now a football hero who is skyjacked aboard Dr. Hans Zarkov's (Topol from "Fiddler on the Roof") rocketship along with beautiful Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) and then face Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydow). Then throw in Ming's gorgeous daughter (Ornella Muti) and music by QUEEN and you have an irresistible 80s cheese ball classic.
"Barbarella" (1968)
Date: April 7th, 4:30pm
Director: Roger Vadim
Jane Fonda -- before she became so politically correct -- was not above playing a sex kitten in her husband Roger Vadim's "Barbarella," based on the French comic. Wearing what has to be the sexiest sapce suits ever (when she's wearing anything, that is) Barbarella encounters an evil Queen (Anita Pallenberg) and the Angel Pygar (John Phillip Law). David Hemmings and Marcel Marceau co-star. You don't want to miss this delectable 60s kitsch.
"The Fly" (1986)
Date: April 7th, 6:30pm
Director: David Cronenberg
"Be afraid. Be very afraid." David Cronenberg's "The Fly" proves that remakes can be as good and perhaps even better than there originals. Jeff Goldblum plays a scientist who has a little accident in the lab and ends up mixing his DNA with that of a fly. This is classic Cronenberg body horror and is truly chilling and disturbing. But at the core it is also a love story between Goldblum and Geena Davis.
"Re-Animator" (1980)
Date: April 7th, 8:15pm
Director: Stuart Gordon
This has to be one of my all-time favorite films. Jeffrey Combs play Herbert West, a brilliant medical student who has perfected a serum to bring the dead back to life. Only problem is that they come back pissed. There are so many quotable lines and brilliantly inspired gore. Gordon adapted the film into a musical for the stage last year, "Re-Animator: The Musical," and proved that the ingenuity and savvy sensibilities that made the film so good were also on display in the film. Graham Skipper, who was Herbert West in the play and who reprises the role as the play returns to LA before touring the globe, will be at the screening to introduce the film. Maybe you can learn the Miskatonic Fight song from the play so we can all give him a proper welcome.
And finally...
"Frankenhooker" (1990)
Date: April 7th, 10:00pm
Director: Frank Henenlotter
And closing out the marathon will be "Frankenhooker," from the director of "Basket Case" and just as gruesomely funny. James Lorinz plays a neurotic electrician and wannabe mad scientist who accidentally shreds his girlfriend (former Penthouse pet, Patty Mullen) and then rebuilds her like a Frankenstein monster... but one eager to prostitute herself. You have to see it to believe it.
