New film club shows dark flicks

There's a new film society debuting on campus -- but it won't be showing Forrest Gump anytime soon. College seniors Andy Deemer and Josh Beisler were frustrated with the conventional movies screened by the Penn Film Society. So the two foreign film buffs decided to establish their own forum, which they named Threat Theatre, as an alternative to the Film Society. "We were sick of the mainstream mindset and the low-quality projection of the Penn Film Society," said Deemer. But the pair is not in competition with the other club, emphasized Beisler. Threat Theatre has an "entirely separate appeal to an entirely different taste," he said. Indeed, Threat Theatre's first two films shown last night in Stiteler Hall could hardly be called run-of-the-mill. The first, a Hong Kong movie called Naked Killer, tells the story of lesbian assassins who murder men indiscriminately. A Japanese film entitled Tetsuo II: Body Hammer was the second feature of the twin bill. In his welcoming speech to the audience of more than 100, Beisler said he is looking for off-the-wall flicks for Threat Theatre's repertoire. "What we want to do is show flashy, violent, sex-crazed films -- [ones you] can't get in a video store anywhere," he said. While the first showing was free, there will be a minimal charge in the future to cover expenses, Deemer said. The movies were mainly advertised on an Internet newsgroup, Deemer explained. A friend of graduate student Jenny Ni found out about Threat Theatre over e-mail and forwarded the information to her. "I haven't seen any movies about a lesbian," Ni said. "I'm from China, and I'm wondering how they describe it. I'm just very curious." Threat Theatre will be screening first-run foreign films on a bi-weekly basis. According to Beisler, the next showing will be a Peter Jackson double bill. Jackson is the director of last year's Heavenly Creatures, which tells the story of two friends who plot to kill one of their mothers.