Facing your fears at the Carolina

This Saturday night you could fight for a booth at the Loop, fight for a Beast Light in Kilgo quad or watch a zombie fight a shark in a gory, underwater battle to the death.  

Thanks to Jim Carl and Matt Pennachi, two employees at the Carolina Theatre, your nightlife now can include all of your nastiest nightmares at Retrofantasma. The Carolina, a haven for Durham's indie film scene, has been bringing classic cult horror films back to the big screen on a now monthly basis since 1998. 

The format of this series harkens back to the 1950s custom of bringing audiences an A-reel feature followed by a B-movie. Over the past couple of years Retrofantasma has been gaining an ardent contingent of like-minded moviegoers who appreciate the value of a good ol' army of decomposing cadavers. Any regular of the series knows that the audience participation level resembles March Madness more than Wimbledon; there are door prizes, bursts of applause and the occasional scream.  

Each film is preceded by several vintage trailers, previewing movies that range from fan favorites to notorious flops. Carl and Pennachi gauge the spectators' responses to these previews in an effort to select future programming. The films themselves include everything from major-studio releases like Halloween II to foreign, rare and public-domain 35mm prints. The upcoming bills for Retrofantasma include vaunted movies such as Pink Floyd's The Wall and The Warriors, paired with the underappreciated, underrated, and underviewed films The Children and John Carpenter's They Live.  

These are movies you didn't see when they came out the first time. These are movies you haven't rented from Blockbuster. These aren't even movies you would likely watch if it were 4 a.m., you'd been sexiled and the only alternative was the WNBA preseason. So why venture down to the Carolina Theatre to catch these less-than-brilliant cinematic stepchildren?  

Because it's not about the cinematography, it's not about the editing and it's sure as hell not about the script. It's about watching a woman get her eye poked out while you're sitting in a theater full of people who are revolted and loving it. The feeling amongst the audience as hordes of flesh-crazed zombies barrel down on the unsuspecting protagonists can be described as rapport: just as the movie's heroes are assaulted by a legion of Haitian ghouls, the movie's audience is assaulted by a ridiculous movie. 

The audience that partakes of Carl and Pennachi's vision has been growing for some time now. Retrofantasma has been feeding off the popularity of the Carolina's annual Nevermore Film Festival, a showcase for newer horror and fantasy films otherwise unavailable to U.S. audiences. But for those who need their fix more than once a year, there is hope. At 7:30 p.m. on the penultimate Friday of every month, Retrofantasma can take you away from the concerns of Orgo and Curriculum 2000 for a few hours. You can escape your workaday cares and enjoy the simple pleasures of a good, clean American zombie knife-fight. Now that's entertainment.