SFBG. Midnight Movies.

Johnny Ray Huston opens a package for the San Francisco Bay Guardian with a slew of voices sketching a "brief, hazy, and far-from-official" oral history of midnight movies in the Bay Area.

Dennis Harvey revisits Psych-Out, "perhaps the all-time high-water mark in cinematic hippiesploitation" and "a camp classic that nonetheless makes you desperately wish you were there then. It's a 'bad' movie, yet wonderful in ways that aren't silly or dated at all. Its freak flag is on."

Peaches Christ is the "savior of midnight movies in San Francisco," writes Jason Shamai, who talks with Joshua Grannell, "the surprisingly subdued and clean-cut gentleman behind the character of Midnight Mass's holy hostess." The 10th anniversary edition launches on Friday, July 13, with appearances by Mink Stole and Tura Satana; the following night features John Waters, also live, also in person, and the fun rolls on all through the summer.

Landmark After Dark is something of a hub for midnight programming in a cluster of San Francisco Bay Area theaters; Cheryl Eddy checks in with the programmers. Also: the thrill of Thrillville.

And: "Ask Jesse Hawthorne Ficks what his favorite movie is, and he won't hesitate: it's Ski School. Ficks, who programs and hosts the Castro Theatre's monthly Midnites for Maniacs triple feature, interprets 'favorite' literally: the 1991 raunch-com might not surface on any highbrow top-10 lists, but it's likely no scholar loves Citizen Kane (1941) as much as Ficks loves Ski School."

Posted by dwhudson at July 4, 2007 11:42 AM