The Revenge of the Worst Film Festival Ever is back at Guild Cinema with one dozen rare, unintentionally hilarious films.
Film guru Devin O'Leary amassed this weekend's collection from his personal stash and from a distributor.
"Some people just appreciate bad art," he said. "Some people like velvet paintings and William Shatner albums. It's amazing to see how wrong a film can go. There must be some kind of art to making a film as consistently bad as these films are. And it's amazing that doesn't stop people from making these films. They've got no sets, no actors, no skills, and they made these movies."
A weekend pass costs $15 or $5 per film. Passes are available at Burning Paradise Video at 800 Central Ave. S.W. and Guild Cinema at 3405 Central Ave. N.E.
The Guild will feature "Robot Monster," "Giant Gila Monster," "Voodoo Woman," "War of the Zombies," "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter," "City Limits," "Wild Women of Wongo," "Santo vs. the Martians," "Night of the Bloody Apes," "Fire Maidens from Outer Space," and "The Terror of Tiny Town," made in 1938, with a full cast of midgets. It came out the same year as "Gone with the Wind."
"'Robot Monster' and 'Wild Women of Wongo' and 'Terror of Tiny Town' are some of the most notoriously bad films ever made," O'Leary said. "'Terror of Tiny Town' is pretty notorious because the idea is so awful to begin with. It's a Western, and it was made in the '30s, and it stars an entire cat of little people, which sounds like a terrible idea. It's not intentionally supposed to be a hilarious comedy."
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There's a print of "Wild Women of Wongo" that has never been screened before, he said, and it's in the original color format.
"The color is pretty wonky by today's standards," he said. "There's the tribe of women who live on this jungle island, and they have to fight off the savage cavemen who want them for breeding purposes. Occasionally, these rubber alligators show up. They're kind of blue in color, and the women have to fight them off."
Keif Henley, who runs the Guild, said the festival will be a blast and should get people talking.
"I'm hoping the audience won't be too quiet and docile," he said. "I hope they start talking at the screen a little bit. A running commentary's going to be annoying, but people laughing it up and goofing it up a little - sure."
He especially liked "Robot Monster" when it played two years ago at the Guild. The monster looks like a huge gorilla in a submarine helmet.
"It's just plain funny sometimes," Henley said. "It's sort of interesting to see these films that were made in a certain era and how they register now. Or how they don't register now. It's like a time capsule piece. It's like, 'What were they thinking?' Some of these movies just have odd, strange concepts, and it comes across stranger and funnier than they ever intended. It's bizarre cinema."
Revenge of the Worst Film Festival Ever
Friday
7:00 p.m. Robot Monster
8:30 p.m. Giant Gila Monster
10:00 Voodoo Woman
Saturday
2:00 p.m. War of the Zombies
4:00 p.m. Terror of Tiny Town
5:30 p.m. Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
7:15 p.m. City Limits
9:00 p.m. Wild Women of Wongo
Sunday
2:00 p.m. Wild Women of Wongo
3:30 p.m. Santa vs. the Martians
5:30 p.m. Night of the Bloody Apes
7:15 p.m. Fire Maidens from Outer Space
9:00 p.m. Giant Gila Monster
$15 for all-access pass or $5 per film
