I’m not convinced the special wasn’t ultimately written and directed by a sentient bag of cocaine. — Nathan Rabin
The worst two hours of televisions ever. — David Hofsted
The reviews are in — and have been in since 1978 — for the Star Wars Holiday Special. It’s not good. “It’s absolutely insane,” says Chad Barton, co-owner of Black Lodge. “It is just a weird nightmare fuel.” No one in the cast seems to want to be there, Carrie Fisher admitted she was high on coke, the plot is bizarre, Bea Arthur randomly appears, the list goes on.
And yet the Black Lodge is dedicating the entire evening tonight to the special. Naturally. And it’ll be in the vein of a Rocky Horror Picture Show viewing, complete with singing, shouting, and throwing things. Again, naturally.
“I’m a huge Star Wars fan,” Barton says. “And I watched this a really long time ago and was super horrified by it, but also really intrigued by it because it’s very strange. And a lot of people don’t know about it. … It’s kind of a fun way for Star Wars fans to come together and enjoy something in a very kind of silly way. And I always thought that it was weird that there’s a lot of other things of a similar ilk that get kind of a sort of reverence and this doesn’t get that. Even George Lucas said that if he could, he would destroy every copy of this that ever existed. And we think, No, you shouldn’t destroy a copy of this because it happened and it’s insane that it actually happened. Yeah, we want to celebrate it.”
This will be the third time the Lodge screens the film. The first go-around drew about 100 people, and last year “did about the same or a little better.” “It’s a nice off-kilter holiday experience that you can have,” Barton says. “We have our own callbacks and prop bags.”
At one point in the film, the wookies take over the screen, except there are no subtitles. “You have no idea what they’re saying,” Barton says. “And so we went in and added subtitles for the wookies and kind of created a story for them, and it changes every year. So it’s not the same experience every time you come back from year to year.”
For the event, the Lodge will have Star Wars-themed dishes and cocktails. “It’s kind of a surprise. But we generally try to like work within the constraints of whatever the Star Wars universe has,” Barton says of the menu. “And then a couple of cocktails to go along with it. As we say, you’re going to need the cocktails to get through it because it’s pretty bad. You need to be drunk while you’re watching.”
The screening, which kicks off at 7 p.m., is free to attend, but donations to Lodge are welcome. Prop bags will be for sale for $5.
The Lodge also has a slew of holiday-related screenings to get you in the spirit before the 25th, including Sunday’s All-Day Christmas Comedy Movie Brunch (A Charlie Brown Christmas, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, The Santa Clause, Jingle All the Way, and Home Alone) and the Holiday Action Double Feature: Die Hard & Batman Returns. Keep up with Black Lodge’s upcoming events here.
3rd Annual Interactive Star Wars Holiday Special Screening, Friday, December 15, 7 p.m., free.