Bad movies are an art form unto themselves, and range from senseless mega-budget drivel ("Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen") to earnest, basement-level productions that should never have seen the light of a film projector (the oeuvres of Ed Wood).

Then there's "The Room," the Beethoven's Fifth of bad movies. Written, directed and produced by Tommy Wiseau, the film rightfully has earned its rep as the "worst movie ever" and has been wowing midnight audiences for years with its sheer ineptitude and total disregard for the art of filmmaking.

The Oaks Theater in Oakmont will screen the film Saturday night at 10.

Programming director Nathan Faustyn of Burton Theatre in Detroit has been itching to book the movie since the one-screen movie house opened last year, but he wanted to give the theater time to find its audience first. When he finally landed the film and got the poster in his hand, he says, "It was the funniest, most satisfying moment I've had at the Burton. This is it, we've got 'The Room!' "

The San Francisco-set R-rated melodrama has been known to inspire that sort of excitement in people. It tells the story of the sordid love triangle between Johnny (Mr. Wiseau), his fiancee, Lisa (Juliette Danielle), and his best friend Mark (Greg Sestero).

But the plot is secondary to the utter randomness, gaping plot holes and laughable continuity errors that make "The Room" a modern symphony of terrible. The film plays out like a study of human interaction from someone who has never interacted with a human being.

The sex scenes -- there are many -- are cringe-worthy in their unsexiness, making the average late-night skinemax excursion look like "From Here to Eternity." There are bizarre tonal shifts and plot threads that are left hanging in the wind; one character's announcement that she has cancer is quickly brushed aside and never re-addressed, while another character's encounter with an angry drug dealer hits a narrative dead end. At one point, several characters dress in tuxedos and play football in the street for no apparent reason whatsoever.

"It's almost un-overhype-able how brilliant it is, and how cluelessly awful it is," says PJ Jacokes, a "Room" fan (he's seen it roughly a dozen times) and the owner of the Go Comedy! Improv Theater in Ferndale, Mich. He says he bought the DVD for everybody on his Christmas list last year. "It's a masterpiece of poor dialogue, non-acting and editing mistakes. It's How Not to Make a Film 101."

The story of how "The Room" came to be only adds to its intrigue. Mr. Wiseau, who won't talk about his background, reportedly financed the $6 million film by importing leather jackets from Korea. The film opened in L.A. in 2003 with Mr. Wiseau declaring his Tennessee Williams-like intentions, but they -- and the movie -- landed with a thud. Still, a "Room" billboard remained perched high above Highland Avenue, and the film eventually gained a second life as a cult sensation, with midnight audiences reveling in its sensational badness.

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