Factoid:Admission for all SPC films shown in the Student Center auditorium is $2 for students and children 18 and under, $3 for the general public.

Movies starring Mel Gibson, Jack Nicholson and Steve Martin as well as many other stars will headline the latest film festival this week sponsored by the Student Programming Council, but moviegoers should not anticipate the stars’ latest blockbusters.

Instead, the films committee is screening five lesser-known movies during its first Cult Film Festival, which ends Saturday.

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Movies that have been shown this week in the Student Center include “Shaft” on Monday, “Pink Floyd:The Wall,” shown Tuesday and Wednesday, and tonight will be “Mad Max:Beyond Thunderdome” at 7 p.m.

The weekend line-up will include two showings of “Little Shop of Horrors” on Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and a special showing of “The Shining” at 8 p.m. outdoors on the hill in front of Pulliam Hall.

SPC Films Director Marty Davis said the movies were chosen primarily through student surveys, but there were no strict guidelines designating a movie as a cult classic.

“It doesn’t have to come from any specific genre,” Davis said. “It is just something that has caused a lot of people to come together and provide a subculture around it.

“They are generally older movies that give people a time to associate themselves with the movie. Like when somebody says ‘Here’s Johnny!’ everyone knows what you’re talking about.”

“The Shining” will be shown on a rented screen at the south side of Pulliam Hall, the first time SPC has shown a movie outside.

“That’s a really good idea,” said Debbie Climo, a freshman in theater from Nashville, Tenn. “It reminds me of movies in the park.”

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Climo said she has seen most of the movies several times since she was young but was still eager to attend the showing of “Pink Floyd:The Wall,” despite the fact she had a paper due the following day.

Her friend Marina Smelyansky, a freshman in theater from Buffalo Grove, said she had never seen any of the movies before but would have attended had she known about the festival. She said the outdoor viewing of “The Shining” sounded different and would provide a good climate for watching the scary movie.

Davis said it will probably be cold and urged students to bring blankets and dress for the weather.

He said that the festival, if successful, might become an annual event, depending on student reaction, as part of an initiative to offer alternatives to the blockbuster films shown in major theaters.

“It’s just a week of cult movies geared toward giving the students and the people of Carbondale a way to see movies that they never would usually see in a theater,” he said.

“In order to better service everybody, we should try to encompass people’s interests and work toward bringing things everybody wants to see.”

Reporter Valerie N. Donnals can be reached at [email protected]