Macabra is a living dead girl who just wants to have some (B-grade) fun.
“I was engaged, once,” she muses, a skull goblet in her lace-gloved hand. “He bought me a huge tombstone.”
Fans of 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' will recognise the winning formula. Our horror hostess – in this case, the darkly glittering Macabra – introduces a film of dubious quality. Tonight’s selection (21 February) is 1944 crime horror 'Voodoo Man', a bizarre, 60-minute bonanza starring ghoulish great Bela Lugosi.
Each night, Macabra is joined on stage by a changing panel of comedians. Led by her dark sense of humour, they provide witty commentary that serves to make a terrible film side-splitting fun.
As this evening’s film rolls, Michael Wheatley (host of Adelaide Fringe variety shows 'Red Light Confidential' and 'Burlesque Idol') and Circus Avalon’s Nikolas Strubbe join Macabra, good-naturedly riffing on every nonsensical plot point, every appallingly sexist remark and every repeated shot of a loveable halfwit banging un-rhythmically at a bongo drum.
'B-Movie Bash' is 75 minutes of affectionate, laugh-out-loud moments at the expense of enjoyably atrocious cinema, with a side serve of Macabra’s death-driven humour.
Luckily, she changes the reel every three nights, which means that keen bean boys and ghouls can return to her gloomy getaway again and again throughout the festival season for something a little morbidly different.
'B-Movie Bash' continues as part of Adelaide Fringe until 12 March.
