At midnight Saturday, "Galaxy of Terror," a low-budget science-fiction horror flick starring Robert Englund and Sid Haig, was scheduled to premiere during the second week of the Trash Film Orgy. Unfortunately, an arson fire in the basement of the Crest Theater canceled the showing .
 

The fire didn't cause any real damage to the theater, but smoke alarms activated the sprinkler system and the auditorium and lobby were soaked.
 

“Apparently some jacka** arsonist decided to set the basement bathroom on fire and triggered the sprinkler system and caused a whole bunch of trouble,” said Christy Savage, one of Trash Film Orgy’s managers. “Nobody’s dead or anything like that and the theater will probably be back in business by tomorrow, but the fire marshal has declared that we are shut down for the rest of the evening.”
 

“I am totally bummed,” said Sara Paredes-Baumgartner. “I’ve been looking forward to this all month.”
 

Not only was the movie set to play at midnight, Haig was going to sign autographs and participate in a question-and-answer session afterward. He still was on hand for photos and autographs but was noticeably grumpy about the change of plans.
 

“It just sucks that we don’t get to see the beautiful print of the movie we had or anything like that, but we’ll persevere and we’ll be back next week with 'Cry-Baby,' so that should be a lot of fun,” Savage said.
 

Haig, who was promoting the release of "Galaxy of Terror" on Blu-ray and DVD, joked that his favorite scene in the film is one of his own: “Of course it has to be one that I’m in. What do you think we’re here for? Actually it’s [the scene]when I basically kill myself … At one point I just really get kind of wacked out and I see my crystals that have now regenerated. I try to recover them and they wind up stabbing me and I cut off my own arm … yes, it’s gory.”
 

Younger readers might know Haig from his work with director Rob Zombie in "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003) and "The Devil’s Rejects" (2005), in which Haig played Captain Spaulding, a filthy, homicidal clown.
 

“It was fun [to play Captain Spaulding],” he explained. “He was just so out there that I just had to kind of wind up and go for it … I had a great time working with Rob Zombie – and Sheri [Moon Zombie].”
 

Haig also is well known for his cameo work on Quentin Tarantino’s "Jackie Brown," which pays homage to the blaxploitation films of the '70s such as "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown."
 

“It was amazing to work with Quentin. We had known one another for a while before that happened and he knew I was tired of doing stupid heavies and just pointing guns in people’s faces and stuff because that’s stupid. And so he called me one day, and I still don’t know how he got my phone number. ... It’s like you’re Quentin Tarantino. It’s like you’re the CIA … He said to me, ‘I know you don’t want to do that kind of stuff any more. I’ve written a part for you. You will play it. It goes on such and such a day and I won’t take no for an answer.’ So I said, ‘OK boss.’ The guy’s amazing. For the day that I was on that film, he recited almost every line from every movie that I was ever in. The guy’s a true, true, enthusiast.”
 

Even though the evening was essentially a disaster for Haig and the TFO gang, they made the best of it, remaining outside the Crest to answer questions and to explain to each fan who showed up what had happened.
 

“It’s a tragedy for sure,” said Stephanie Hyden. “I was looking forward to seeing 'Galaxy of Terror.' Especially when you have a special guest, it’s just heartbreaking to not be able to do the full show.”
 

Of the perpetrator of the fire, Haig had this to say: “It’s just a punk thing to do. This is the physical manifestation of flamers on the Internet. You know, they’re just there to trash people? And this guy, he just wanted to make everybody’s night miserable and set a fire in the bathroom. The guy’s an idiot. I’d like his phone number and his address to go pay him a visit.”