The Secret Cinema [1968], Mercury Men Attack on Earth [2026], The House In The Middle [1954], Why Study Home Economics? [1955], and The Haunted Lamp

 This night was a series of shorts so let's go through them quickly!

The Secret Cinema is a short film that is basically proto-Truman Show. A woman named Jane finds out that she life is being made into a multi-part movie series and that she's being manipulated by her boyfriend, boss, coworker, and therapist to make the show more interesting. She ends up in an asylum with the implication that the therapist is going to turn the camera on the coworker next.

The acting was camp but didn't exactly feel like it was always supposed to be.

Spoon Rating: 3

The highlight of the night was Mercury Men Attack on Earth a film that was more than half AI and completely the vision of a man who looks and acts like Tommy Wiseau but with the eye for direction and effects of Neil Breen. Truly a valuable discovery for us. The film is just: aliens try to take over Earth and this one dude in India saves the world. Also, it's overly racist, poorly dubbed and written, and again, mostly AI. Nonstop what. A must watch.

Spoon Rating: 9
 

This 1950s propaganda film insists that if you keep your house clean, well painted, and attractive, it will literally save your property if it is attacked by nuclear weapons. I guess those tests in the Arizona desert don't lie. I mean, you'll be toast but at least your house will still be standing on its completely uninhabitable land, right? 

Spoon Rating: 5
 

While on the topic of 1950s conservatism, let us ask why we should study home economics? While this movie does try ever so slightly to not push gender roles and a prescribed future, the answer really does boil down to "you will be married with kids one day so you should learn this stuff and your mom only has so much time to teach you." The unfortunate thing is, the majority of the lessons described in the video actually would be valuable for both men and women to learn just to exist as responsible humans one day and it seems like most parents don't bother to or don't know how to teach them.

Spoon Rating: 2

The final, very short film which I don't have a photo for was just a quick and intentionally silly horror film that looked like a student film. No shade to the makers. It was neither bad nor good.