by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor

The Sci-Phi Film Festival, hosted by the nonprofit Hiway Theater in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, is a three-day science fiction film extravaganza, showcasing a carefully-curated schedule of outstanding repertoire films. This is the third year of the festival, which is funded via a grant courtesy of the Vesta Fund, and it is my first year attending. As I write this article, my excitement grows to see these films–some of which I have never seen and all of which I have never seen on a big screen.

The festival this year runs the weekend of March 28-30 in the Hiway Theater. Tickets can be purchased to any of the individual screenings, but festival passes are also still available. Each pass is $65 ($50 for Hiway Theater members), a steal for admission into nine classic films.

Here’s the Sci-Phi festival lineup this year:

Spaceballs
Directed by Mel Brooks
Screening March 28
Tickets here

Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs is considered a masterpiece of the parody genre and is loved by sci-fi and comedy fans alike. The film’s plot spoofs Star Wars (1977): the roguish hero Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his Mawg–half man, half dog–sidekick Barf (John Candy) are contracted to rescue the Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and her droid Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers and Lorene Yarnell) from the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis). What follows is a wacky Brooksian farce at the height of the director’s career.

Brooks takes his parody seriously: he had agreements with George Lucas to closely imitate the characters as long as there was no merchandising and much of the post-production visual effects were done by John Dykstra, who is most famous for his work on Star Wars. Other sci-fi properties are not immune: the Star Trek franchise, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Planet of the Apes (1968), and Transformers (1986) are all referenced as well. One of my favorite gags involves Alien (1979) and a space diner.

Event Horizon
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
Screening March 28
Tickets here

Event Horizon is one of those films I have just never gotten around to watching, so I’m excited to catch it for the first time on the big screen. In the year 2047, the rescue vessel Lewis and Clark is dispatched to investigate a distress signal from the ship Event Horizon which disappeared mysteriously several years earlier. Director Paul W. S. Anderson was fresh off of the success of Mortal Kombat (1995), so this is his blank check movie, which has since become a cult classic. The plot sounds like a sci-fi horror riff on Alien, one of my favorite films, and the film is known for memorable performances by its stellar cast–Lawrence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, and Joely Richardson, to name a few.

Invasion of Astro-Monster
Directed by Ishirô Honda
Screening March 29
Tickets here

Cards on the table: Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) is my favorite Godzilla movie. Not because it is a particularly great highlight of the franchise, but because I have such fond memories of watching it with my father and siblings. The film is certifiably a B-movie: Earth sends two astronauts to explore the surface of a newly discovered planet on the far side of Jupiter, Planet X, only for them to encounter the technologically advanced and gracious inhabitants. The Xiliens, as they call themselves–this movie goes all in on the X motif–ask Earth to lend them their two greatest kaiju, Godzilla and Rodan, to defeat King Ghidorah who has recently taken up residence on Planet X and is making a nuisance of himself. In exchange, the Xiliens promise Earth the cure for cancer, but something about the deal seems suspicious.

The plot isn’t really important: what is important is the gigantic, silly monster fights and the incredibly precise model work. Godzilla and Rodan are basically a wrestling tag team, and there’s even a kaiju dance! It’s so fun, and Hiway theater has made the smart decision to show the English dub at 10am on a Saturday so that kids can follow along easily. I’ve never seen this film in a theater, so my inner child is thrilled at this opportunity.

The Thing From Another World
Directed by Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby
Screening March 29
Tickets here

For fans of John Carpenter, here’s a chance to see the 1951 film that inspired his 1982 magnus opus The Thing. Directed by Hollywood legend Howard Hawks–his only foray into science-fiction–and close collaborator Christian Nyby, the film kicked off the ‘50s alien invasion trend. A team of researchers at an Artic station discover a saucer-like vehicle in the ice, while a frozen humanoid body inside. When the body thaws, they find themselves hunted by an utterly alien creature. I’m curious how it will compare to Carpenter’s classic, but I know that it’s going to give some good ‘50s horror.

Paprika
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Screening March 29
Tickets here

This screening will be my first film directed by Satoshi Kon, who also directed Perfect Blue (1997) and Tokyo Godfathers (2003). The premise is intriguing: the invention of a device allowing users to share dreams allows head scientist Dr. Atsuko Chiba to assume a dream alter ego, a detective named Paprika, to help psychiatric patients. But when the device is stolen, Chiba and Paprika must track down the thieves. The film sounds part Inception and part anime noir, and the stills of the animation look beautiful.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Directed by James Cameron
Screening March 29
Tickets here

I’m going to say it here: Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) is a better movie than The Terminator (1984). The arc of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) alone from the scared mother of the messiah of the first to the badass warrior of the second is so inspired, especially when the film grounds the arc in the knowledge of how she and her son have had to live in the years between the films. Arnold Schwarznegger has more to do in this film playing a jailbroken T-800 who has been sent back in time to save Sarah and John from another, more advanced Terminator, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick in his breakout role).

There’s a lot here about the institutionalization of difficult women, the hubris of humanity, the seeming inevitability of the conflict between technology and humanity, and some just really wonderful visual storytelling. The film is also credited as one of the most influential sci-fi films in the transition from practical effects to computer-generated imagery, for better or worse, and in its action sequences.

The Running Man
Directed by Paul Michael Glaser
Screening March 29
Tickets here

The organizers of the Sci-Phi film festival definitely know how to maximize their lineup: the observant reader will notice that there are a couple of actor-oriented double features. Released just a few years prior to Terminator 2, The Running Man (1987) also features Schwarznegger as Captain Ben Richards, a former cop framed for a state sponsored murder who is forced to compete on a popular reality TV series where incarcerated criminals can earn their freedom by surviving being hunted. Loosely based on a Stephen King novel of the same name from 1981, The Running Man is not one I have seen before, but the themes of state sponsored violence as entertainment are a sci-fi staple. The film will be shown on a 35mm print courtesy of Exhumed Films.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Directed by Leonard Nimoy
Screening March 30
Tickets here

As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I’m thrilled that I get to see my first non-Kelvinverse film in the movie theater. After the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)—which I plan on watching prior to this screening—the Enterprise crew is at a low point, having lost Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and are facing the decommission of the ship. Dr. McCoy (DeForrest Kelley) begins to suffer from mysterious symptoms that indicate that Spock may have transferred his spirit to the doctor before his death. Kirk (William Shatner) and friends must defy Starfleet orders and steal the ship to go find their missing first officer.

Star Trek III is Nimoy’s first feature directorial credit, and he would go on to direct the film after that, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). Both films, but especially Star Trek III, have been re-evaluated by Trek fans in my lifetime as two of the best of the film series, especially when considered as a loose trilogy with The Wrath of Khan. The film will be preceded by a special screening of a surprise episode from Star Trek: The Original Series, the identity of which has been hotly debated amongst myself and my roommates who will be joining me for the screening.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Directed by Philip Kaufman
Screening March 30
Tickets here

I’m a fan of the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (dir. Don Siegal), so I’ve somewhat unconsciously resisted seeking this “requel” out. However, I am a fan of Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy (see the above entry for Star Trek III). Plus, I need to see the source of the infamous image of Donald Sutherland pointing and screaming! The film takes place in San Francisco and follows two health inspectors as they realize that the people around them are slowly being replaced by imposters. The first film has a lot to say about homogeny, McCarthyism, and the destructive nature of paranoia, so it will be interesting to see how those themes translate into a ‘70s context.

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