The Mayfair Theatre will host Schlock Around the Clock, a 24-hour trash cinema marathon on Nov. 17 as part of the theatre’s ongoing fundraiser for a digital projector. Come January 2013, distributors will no longer provide new movies in 35mm film. According to Lee Demarbre, programmer at the Mayfair, the cost of a digital projector is roughly $55,000 and the Mayfair has raised about half of that amount.
Schlock Around the Clock will screen 14 feature-length films on VHS, and will run from 1:30 p.m. Nov. 17 to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 18.
Cool as Ice, the 1991 film debut of Vanilla Ice is included in the line-up, as well as Hell Comes to Frogtown, a post-nuclear war thriller from the ‘80s. With a bomb strapped to his crotch, Sam Hell, played by Roddy Piper, must rescue human concubines from a gang of mutants.
While Schlock Around the Clock is a fundraiser, more than anything it’s a celebration of trash cinema. The roster for this marathon is obscure, and so unintentionally bad, it’s brilliant.
“People love their trash cinema,” Demarbre said.
“If a filmmaker is sincere and they go out there, and they try and tell a story and they fall on their face doing it, whether it be technically or in the way they tell the story, then it’s tremendously entertaining to watch.”
The Mayfair, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary on Dec. 2, regularly shows trash cinema classics like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Room to packed audiences. Less than two months remain for the theatre to raise a substantial amount of money.
“I’d love to see them stay,” said Mark Shapland, a second-year Carleton film student.
“For film lovers who love to go see independent movies, and movies that aren’t shown in Cineplexes it’s a great place to go.”
Shlock Around the Clock is the Mayfair’s first 24-hour movie marathon, and Demarbre encourages film buffs to test their endurance.
“I dare people who think they like movies to come for all 14 movies,” he said. “How many people can brag that they stayed in a movie theatre for 24 hours?”
