The Castro's Midnites for Maniacs

There's a fine line between the popular "bad movie" nights you'll see in any town, where old films are the butt of verbal tomatoes . . . and the more subtle showcases like Midnites for Maniacs, where an old film is dusted off and genuinely appreciated for its warts.

Midnites for Maniacs, with host Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, shines a cinematic light on personal favorites, maybe even the films you hate to love -- the ones that don't win Oscars, the ones like Return to Oz, showing this Friday at the Castro Theatre. It's part of the "Freaky Fantasy Films of the 1980s" movie night.

I like the Ficks approach because it speaks to the idea of outsider versus insider. Where insider is hopelessly jaded and cliquish, outsider isn't afraid to embrace even a traditionally unhip work of art on its own merits.

This Friday, August 8, Ficks hosts a three-film Midnites for Maniacs show at the Castro. The flicks: Return to Oz, Beetlejuice, and Meet the Feebles.

Midnites for Maniacs insists on 35mm prints and each film has its own set of genre or era-specific trailers as openers. See all three films for just 10 bucks.

• Castro Theatre Schedule
• Midnites for Maniacs Website