Lansdowne theater makes the best out of the worst

There are certain movies that shouldn't be watched alone. Or maybe at all.

Movies so terrible that somehow their worth comes full-circle: so bad they're good, and best served to a group of friends who mock the movie openly.

That's the inspiration behind Terrible Tuesday, a weekly occurrence at Cinema 16:9, a small independent theater in downtown Lansdowne.

Just $5 buys admission to a film like The Wild Women of Wongo, in which "tribal" women who sound more Connecticut than Amazon fight in leopard-print outfits better suited for the runway than the wild. Or The Brain That Wouldn't Die, a movie about a mad scientist and his decapitated girlfriend. Or Gamera, a sort of ugly stepbrother to Godzilla who flies, one fan says, by "farting fire."

Last Tuesday, a dozen people - a crew mostly in their teens and 20-somethings who know the director of every film you can name - perched in old-school movie chairs covered in rough fabric to watch Hercules, a 1958 film starring the bearded and buff Steve Reeves.

And then, the audience let it rip.

The lead actress' short dress reminded John Hume, 17, of an old Nair ad. "Who doth enjoy short shorts?" the Monsignor Bonner High School student shouted in the dark theater. "I doth enjoy short shorts!"

Noticing the ruins standing behind Hercules, David Titus, the theater's 31-year-old owner, observed drily: "Apparently back in ancient Rome, they already had ruins."

When the Hercules character Iphitus, whose name sounds like a fetus, died on screen, Michael Gallagher, 19, of Lansdowne, said, "I guess that was technically an abortion."

Hume - known to his friends as Hat Man, since he always wears a black hat - added: "He died the way he lived: not technically alive."

Not even mighty Hercules was spared.

"My beard senses you were in danger!" John Yates, 23, of Lansdowne, said as Hercules sprinted across the screen to aid a damsel in distress.

This week's terrible feature is Mesa of Lost Women, and costumes are encouraged, Titus said. Men should wear sombreros or bring guitars, and women should "dress to kill," or dress as giant spiders.

Apparently, bad movies can develop as much of a following as good ones. That's the story behind the 2009 documentary Best Worst Movie, about the making and the fans of Troll 2, a movie monumentally revered in the industry for its terrible attributes.

Audiences have hurled insults, even objects, at movie screens as a hobby since at least 1975, when The Rocky Horror Picture Show hit theaters. Initially a bomb at the box office, the film gained a cult following built on a kind of orchestrated audience participation.

Many theaters still offer midnight showings of B-movies or cult films. A recent film, The Room, is developing a Rocky Horror-esque following that includes flinging plastic spoons.

Titus opened Cinema 16:9 (named for the aspect ratio of the screen) in March 2009 in a small former retail spot next to the historic Lansdowne Theater, which was shuttered in 1987 but advocates hope to reopen.

He started Terrible Tuesday a year ago.

"There is a giant market, amazingly, of films that are absolutely terrible," Titus said. "It seems as though we make more bad movies than good ones. If it's a bad movie, people want to yell at it, so this was a great opportunity to say you, anyone, the whole community, can get together and just yell at a terrible movie."

Mocking a horrid movie is not nearly as much fun as mocking it en masse, where your jokes are (sometimes) rewarded with laughter.

For teens, it's also an escape in a sleepy suburban town.

"It's a lot of fun and it's something to do on a Tuesday night," said Hume. "During the school year, that's something we need so we don't go insane."

Cinema 16:9 is one of a few new developments sprouting up along Lansdowne Avenue that local officials hope will revive the downtown. In the last few years, a coffee shop, a natural-foods store, and a restaurant have opened.

The Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp., a nonprofit that bought the old theater in 2007, is poised to launch a fund-raising campaign to restore and reopen the old theater, with hopes of hosting national music acts, said Matthew Schultz, a longtime Lansdowne resident and president of the nonprofit.

The presence of Cinema 16:9 and other new businesses bring more foot traffic downtown, which leads Schultz to believe Lansdowne may one day look more like Media or even Manayunk.

Cinema 16:9 melds new with old. Its old seats come from the historic theater next door.

The concession stand offers organic all-beef hotdogs from grass-fed cows in Lancaster. No Coke or Pepsi, but black cherry soda, root beer, and cream soda from local distributors. There are gluten-free cookies, kale chips, and old-fashioned candies.

With the one-year anniversary of Terrible Tuesday approaching next month, Titus is planning a double feature: Sex Madness, a 1938 film purporting to reveal the consequences and perils of sex, followed by the classic Reefer Madness.