It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Like any good night at The Rocky Horror Picture Show, screenings at the new late-night movie series "Midnight Mass" will look and sound like a raucous party, with moviegoers in outrageous costumes hurling foodstuffs and epithets at the screen. Hosted by drag diva Peaches Christ, the Saturday night summer series will also specialize in themed contests and events; the Showgirls screening June 6, for example, opens with an amateur strip contest; at the June 20 screening of the John Waters cult classic Female Trouble, the misadventures of juvenile delinquent Dawn Davenport are preceded by an audition for viewer makeovers, to be done by Glama Rama Beauty Salon stylist Deena Davenport and unveiled following the film. The catfights, homicides, and mayhem continue throughout the summer: a wet Speedo contest July 4, before Sal Mineo's Speedo-wearing scene in Who Killed Teddy Bear? (a delightful little horror film about a stalker obsessed with the go-go DJ at a '60s disco); and a screening of Gus Van Sant's To Die For July 11, where raffle winners will experience their own 15 minutes of fame by being interviewed, hearing hundreds of viewers chant their name, and being mobbed by paparazzi. The series begins around midnight this Saturday with Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and a Tura Satana look-alike contest at the Bridge Theater, 3010 Geary (at Blake), S.F. Admission is $5; call 751-3213. Over in the East Bay, "Midnight Movie Madness" screens a variety of cult classics as well, ranging thematically from the kiddie acid trip feel of Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory opening night (May 30) to the eerie Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate, starring the late Frank Sinatra (July 25). "Midnight Movie Madness" also screens Saturdays, at the Act One/Two Theater, 2128 Center (at Shattuck), Berkeley. Admission is $5; call (510) 843-3456. (H.W.)