If you were getting ready to take over the galaxy, what would you wear? Jamey Racer II wore car mats and a pleather shower curtain.
Racer, an X-ray technician at Sacred Heart Medical Center, made the costume to play space villain Lord Vexor in “Spidertron,” a science-fiction comedy put together by a group mostly consisting of University students. The car mats were his armor, while the shower curtain – which he folded, riveted to a belt and connected with a chain – functioned as his cape.
“It didn’t look much like a shower curtain to begin with,” Racer said. “Who has a pleather shower curtain?”
Carter Soles, who is currently pursuing his doctorate in film studies, produced and directed the movie. He was inspired by “The Gamers: Dorkness Rising,” a movie about role-playing gamers made by students in Tacoma, Wash.
“It’s this totally, low- or no-budget filmmaking, but it’s a delightful little film,” said Soles, a self-proclaimed “Star Trekker” who realized he could do the same thing as long as he had people willing to participate.
Soles rounded up a group of 13 – Fleem Productions, named for the sound the movie’s guns make – who wrote, shot, edited and acted in “Spidertron.” The movie is centered around an unlucky group whose spacecraft crashed on Spidertron, a planet run by Lord Vexor and his militia.
Using borrowed equipment, the group filmed “Spidertron” over five months in Allen Hall; Fall Creek, a camping area about 20 miles southeast of Eugene; Skinner’s Butte; Little Belknap Crater, near the town of Sisters; and a crew member’s apartment.
“It’s great camaraderie built around the fact that, what the hell are we doing in the middle of nowhere shooting this crazy nonsensical film?” said Soles, who also had a small role as a soldier. “It’s the height of absurdity, but it was so fun.”
After more than a year of post-production work, “Spidertron” premiered earlier this month at Bijou Art Cinemas.
Racer expected “Spidertron” to be “badtastic” – “so awful you laugh at it” – but couldn’t have predicted the large audience’s overwhelmingly positive reaction.
“I was kind of hoping it would be that way – that’s what I daydreamed about – but as we got closer to the actual release, I wondered if maybe it’d just be 12 of us there, laughing at the screen,” said Emily West Afanador, a University graduate student who played Ambassador Kaalin.
“I was

just expecting to go out with the gang and have a fun summer, pretending to make a movie in the middle of the desert,” she said. “I didn’t realize how big a deal it’d turn out to be.”
Afanador and Kom Kunyosying, a University doctoral student, are currently planning Fleem’s next project: “The Tale of Persephone,” a modern and local adaptation of a Greek myth.
Persephone was the beautiful daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the earth. When Hades, the god of the dead, kidnapped Persephone, Demeter became depressed and let the crops die. Because people were starving, Zeus, the king of the gods, struck a deal with Hades, in which Persephone would spend six months of every year on earth and six in the underworld. Demeter became sad every time her daughter left, creating the seasons.
Soles said his experience with “Spidertron” taught him a lot more about the behind-the-scenes aspect of film, which is valuable for his career goal: teaching film studies at the university level.
“I was blown away,” he said. “I had no idea when we started it’d be that great. It has its flaws – many of them – but at any rate, I’m very pleased with it.
“It was fun to do… and if nothing else, it’s entertaining.”
In addition to “The Tale of Persephone,” Fleem Productions is also working on “Spidertron 2: Electric Boogaloo,” a rock musical.
The Bijou will screen “Spidertron” again at the end of March, though the exact date has not yet been decided.
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