Sharknado screening - complete with flying sharks!

Some people may call me a poser - but I've got to say flying sharks in a tornado deserve to be seen. These aren't your ordinary sharks in a funnel cloud either. These sharks fly through windows, climb a rope, attack a helicopter, and are particularly susceptible to jumping directly into their mouth holding a chainsaw. Add in some random glue of a story involving a family torn apart by a man's unstoppable need to help those around him, Tara Reid and a bus full of school kids and you've got yourselves a night at the movies. Well ... Actually a night spent in front of the TV if you were one of the more typical viewers of the pop culture phenom Sharknado. But I've never wanted to be typical and neither apparently have the good people of SIFF. Their should've been born in the carny era Uptown Theater programmer Clinton McClung brought Sharknado to the big screen Saturday night. Complete with actual flying sharks and a piñata contest (complete with a chainsaw). For reals...

"Pics or it didn't happen," you say? Well feast your eyes on this gallery (or this copy in Picasa) to experience what attendees did last night. Or for the lazy just scroll down past the jump to see lower resolution snapshots below. To answer your questions in order

• Yes ... Those are remote controlled flying sharks. 
• Yes ... Audience members were given the chance to flying them before the screening. 
• Yes ... They prowled the theater occasionally getting in front of the projector and casting a menacing shadow during the film. 
• And yes, I'm not actually sure how Clinton is getting them down (I'm picturing a BB gun, lasso, or a giant butterfly net - or maybe more flying sharks, what could go wrong ...). 

Ok, ok - I'm not saying Sharknado is going to be the cult film of the ages. It lacks the raw earnestness that makes Miami Connection or Fateful Findings horribly wonderful. But as high concept ridiculousness it delivered. Frankly, I didn't see the incredibly dumb but deeply satisfying last twist coming. Plus I learned that in case of a tornado throwing bombs into it can only help and is remarkably safe. So it's educational as well as a hella good time. 

It seemed the audience I saw it with last night couldn't have agreed more. And I'm assuming all of them weren't like the couple in front of me who were hedging their bets while on the entrance line via a flask and a smoked substance that has only been legal in Washington state since the last election. Well, probably at least 1/3 of them weren't like that.

Enough of my yammering. Photos below. Huge thanks to Clinton and SIFF for a great evening out which I sorely needed this week. Oh, and to Clinton for letting me believe that the flying sharks were actually my idea from an earlier tweet. ;-)

If you want your own flying shark to repeat this experience in the privacy of your home, this company shockingly will sell them to almost anyone it seems.

Sometimes a movie hits a bit too close to home

Clinton McClung (center) supervises two audience members controlling the flying sharks