Honest Abe slaughters every bloodsucking, pale hide in “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter”
By Simon Isham–
So you feel like going to the movies on a Friday night. When you get there, you’ll need a ticket, which costs about $8 these days. You might want some popcorn and a drink, which is an extra $15. You could pay $23 to see a movie. Or you could go to the Floyd Theater, located right on campus in the Student Activities Center.
The Floyd operates as what’s called a second-run theater, which means that they can start playing a film after it’s finished its cycle in a standard theater but before it comes out on DVD. This means they typically get new movies two months after they’ve been released. One movie that has recently generated a lot of buzz both on and off campus is “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” which the Floyd has secured for the month of October.
The biggest myth about the Floyd is that it only operates for students and faculty. The fact is that it is also a proud community theater. In fact, it is the nearest cinema to several of Louisville’s neighborhoods, including Iroquois, Shively, Schnitzelburg and Old Louisville. The Floyd makes cinema accessible to everyone in the area, with a hugely discounted student ticket price of $1.50 and a general admission price of $3. Concessions are also reduced, with popcorn costing just 75¢ and a drink, candy and popcorn combo for only $2.
The Floyd plays movies every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with screenings beginning at 5 p.m.and 8 p.m. On Thursday, the Film Committee of the Student Activities Board tries to screen an enriching art house film or an old favorite. For the Friday and Saturday showings, the committee chooses a more mainstream selection.
“The Breakfast Club” c. 1985
This Thursday, they’ve chosen “The Breakfast Club.” In case you haven’t seen it, the synopsis: “Five high school students, all different stereotypes, meet in detention, where they pour their hearts out to each other, and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought.” The Friday and Saturday flick is “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” in which “Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers vampires are planning to take over the U.S. He makes it his mission to eliminate them.”
On the last Friday of every month, the Floyd screens a cult classic at midnight. This month, that film is “Jurassic Park.” “If you see a golf cart, decorated like a Jeep driving around campus and tossing out dinosaurs, that’s us. That’s how we advertise,” joked film committee chair Susan Lewellyn. “We might not do that—it’s still in the works—but I really want to. It’d be awesome!”
For students who are interested in getting involved with the film committee, Lewellyn says that the easiest way is to join the Facebook group. “That way, you can keep up-to-date on everything going on here and make your own suggestions. Another way is to attend our regular meetings at 2 p.m. every Friday in the SAC in 303A. That’s where we pick the films. Finally, in early October, we’re holding a recruitment event called Tour de Floyd, so be on the lookout for that.”
