Rude Reels

With all the discerning purveyors of schlock, genre, and exploitation cinema in the Bay Area, do we really need some dudes from Texas to show us a good time? Hell, no. But San Franciscans are hospitable types, and two local exhibitors have opened their doors to the deviates of Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, known for its long-running Terror Tuesdays and Weird Wednesdays. Cinemapocalypse, as this 10-gallon tour is dubbed, launched April 18 with the enjoyable mid-’70s Italian crime comedy Mister Scarface (featuring Jack Palance) and the raunchy babes-in-prison classic Chained Heat (with Linda Blair and Stella Stevens) at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. A mere appetizer, that, for today’s bug-eye marathon of ’80s breast-baring and bloodletting presented with Midnites for Maniacs. John Carpenter (Escape from New York) is the, um, classiest name on a bill that also features Robert Forster as the titular Vigilante, Cameron Mitchell in the sleazy zombie riot Raw Force, and one-hit wonder Barbara Anne Constable as nympho Lady Terminator. Lest we forget, these were the very flicks that once graced the marquees of rundown movie palaces on Market Street — and perhaps East Sixth Street in Austin.
Sun., April 19, 2 p.m., 2009