Cinematic Titanic Riffs on THE ASTRAL FACTOR Saturday at The St. Charles Family Arena

CINEMATIC TITANIC is the live movie riffing show from the creator and original cast of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 and they’re bringing their show to St. Louis this Saturday October 12th for what they’re calling their ‘Farewell Tour’ which I guess means this is the last time you’ll be able to see these guys riff on movies. Like MST3K, the show was created by Joel Hodgson and features the same team that first brought the Peabody award winning cult-classic series to life: Trace Beaulieu (Crow, Dr. Forrester), J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo, Dr. Erhardt), Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank), and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester), Cinematic Titanic continues the tradition of riffing on ‘the unfathomable’, ‘the horribly great’, and the just plain ‘cheesy’ movies from the past.

Four years ago when Cinematic Titanic came to the St. Louis area’s St. Charles Family Arena, they riffed on the deliciously riffable 1964 gem SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS. The next year they chose a 1968 Kaiju I was unfamiliar with called WAR OF THE INSECTS (aka GENOCIDE) but it was indeed worthy of their patented scorn. Last year, it was the Tura Satana/Ted Mikels 1973 babes and bullets opus THE DOLL SQUAD. This Saturday, October 12th at the St. Charles Family Arena, I’m thrilled to report that the movie that Joel and the guys will be ripping is the 1976 badsterpiece THE ASTRAL FACTOR .

THE ASTRAL FACTOR tells of Roger, a mentally ill prisoner, who manages to make himself invisible through some sort of diabolic meditation and escapes. This makes it all the more easy for him to practice his macabre hobby of killing beauty queens. The ‘Invisible Strangler” goes after celebrity women who had testified against him. The police, having learned he was into reading mystical books in prison, for some reason contact a para psychological institute. The institute thinks perhaps the strangler is killing women by astrally projecting himself. In reality, he’s merely strangling them while he is invisible (and naked). He nearly gets caught when, to reach one woman, he has to don a scuba suit to get out to her boat. It’s more interesting when he manages to strangle a woman in front of many witnesses simply because they don’t realize what is going on. Does Roger abuse his power to spy on them naked ladies before killing them? Find out this weekend at the Family Arena!

THE ASTRAL FACTOR was originally titled THE INVISIBLE STRANGLER which makes sense since it’s about,….well…. an Invisible Strangler! But somewhere along the way, the title was changed to THE ASTRAL FACTOR (it was released on VHS in the ‘80s under both titles – apparently it was also released on DVD as 976-EVIL pt 2: THE ASTRAL FACTOR which made even less sense). THE ASTRAL FACTOR has a great ‘70s cast: perennial TV-Movie actor Robert Foxworth with a manfro, Elka Somer in a bikini, Sue Lyon (who played LOLITA for Stanley Kubrick 14 years earlier) in a wordless role as an early victim, Stephanie Powers in a mink coat and Farrah hair, Marianna Hill (Fredo’s blonde wife in GODFATHER 2), and Cesare Danova (The Mayor in ANIMAL HOUSE). Roger the killer is played by the one and only Frank Ashmore (yeah, I’ve never heard of him either).

THE ASTRAL FACTOR is considered to be a rather pathetic movie with poor dialog, poor music, poor acting, and dime-store effects. In other words, a perfect movie for a night out with the Cinematic Titanic gang!

It’s this Saturday October 12th at the St. Charles Family Arena. Doors open at 6:30 and the show begins at 7:30. Ticket prices range from $35 to $50 and all ticket info can be found at The Family Arena site HERE

http://familyarena.com/index.php