For ten years, the haunted historic Crest Theatre in Sacramento has occasionally sounded with screams, cries, yells and laughter.
Trash Film Orgy is an iconoclasm-fueled cult movie festival that manifests each summer, Halloween and Christmas. Fans convene on the Crest for schlocky horror movies; sexy, funny preshows; and a night out with like-minded people in a wide array of dress, from gory zombie costumes to sexed-up vampires to normal street clothes.
For Halloween this year, TFO held a vote on its Facebook page to determine the movie to be shown. The winner was George A. Romero and Stephen King’s cult classic “Creepshow.” If not for Halloween being a Thursday this year, they could have made it a “Creepshow” triple feature and few attendees would likely have minded being there until the sun rose on Dia de los Muertos.
Preceding the show, TFO had also arranged an “Adult Trick or Treating” event along K Street. It was presented like a scheduled and sponsored pub crawl, starting at Henry’s Lounge, then moving onto Marilyn’s on K, Oishii Sushi, Dive Bar, Pizza Rock, Tequila Museo Mayahuel, and finally Crest Café for bobbing for apples, music, balloons and other festivities as the crowd waited for the doors to open, letting them pour into “Trash Street” for even more. Businesses had drink specials and complimentary appetizers, or sometimes just candy. The chicken enchilada on tortilla chips appetizer at Mayahuel’s was especially good. The perfect combination of spicy sauce and salty cheese on blue corn tortilla chips complimented a margarita superbly.
On Trash Street, a row of “houses” were set up. Trick or treaters would first walk by the TFO merch table displaying posters and DVDs of TFO productions for purchase. The first table of trick or treating held bags (in case the juvenile delinquent at heart missed acquiring one from the pub crawl) and cupcakes provided by Chef Rachel from Revolution Wines. Then participants could progress to a house where a sorcerer and his assistant cursed them with mad libs. If they could meet the conditions to break the curse (or just, well, lie), they then won a prize! The prize of questionable taste (“vintage” porn) was provided by From the Land Beyond. After that, a man in scrubs oversaw a game of “pin the organ on the person,” with more prizes.
Another door down, a vampire handed the trick or treaters three origami bats to toss through a goal for a prize of a comic provided by World’s Best Comics. Finally, a skeletal pirate orchestrated a game of matching for a prize of assorted goodies. A trick or treater got one shot, but given that the cards weren’t mixed between plays, it was all too easy to win a free small popcorn from the concession stand.
Trash Film Orgy put on an amazing Halloween, which fostered the nostalgia of trick or treating as a youngling, but with the tastes of the mature mind and a bit of adult refreshment along the way and before the show.
Trash Film Orgy is currently producing a new feature of its own creation, “Badass Monster Killer,” following past productions of “Planet of the Vampire Women” and “Monster from Bikini Beach.” “Badass Monster Killer” features talent picked from the producers of TFO itself, and TFO is working on a special event for Christmas, only the second time they’ve been able to do so. Their new season begins spring 2014.
Trash Film Orgy will also be holding a special show, the “BADASS MOTOR BOOTY PARTY A GO-GO,” on Nov. 30 at the Starlite Lounge (1517 21st Street) to raise funds for “Badass Monster Killer.” The show will include shorts and music videos produced by TFO, a burlesque show, and live music by local band SoulMotor, as well games, comedy and prizes. Entry is $10 at the door.
