Since the movie is rated R, the film club's student founders--freshmen Patty Lovelace, 14, and Jill Goguen, 15--had to get permission from their parents to see it.

The girls are lining up future screenings with the help of faculty adviser Terry Montelibano. Since all three are avid film fans with diverse tastes, the club's lineup should prove eclectic.

"We're going to have to watch a couple cult movies," Patty says. "We have to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

"No, we don't," Jill counters. "Everyone's seen it already."

"Part of this club is to endlessly debate movies," says Montelibano, whose idea of a cult classic is heavier on the classic than the cult. She says she'd like to screen Ang Lee's family drama, The Ice Storm, as well as Ran, Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of King Lear.

Montelibano says watching literary classics come to life on screen helps her students connect to the text the movies are based on.

"Movie references are good when you teach because you can keep them interested," she adds. "It's easier to get them to read the book after seeing the movie."

Sometimes the reverse is true.

"I want to see The DaVinci Code because I read the book," Patty says.

With less contemporary works, however, the girls agree that a visual reference helps them understand the literature. When they were studying Homer's Odyssey in their English class, their teacher screened O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers' film loosely based on the epic poem. The girls say the modern retelling made Ulysses' adventures more accessible.

Outside the classroom, Jill's and Patty's tastes run more toward movies with memorable visuals, as well as the directors who develop these visions.

"I'm obsessed with Tim Burton," Patty says. "I like his style and the twist he puts on everything."

"I like the surreal world he makes," Jill says, citing movies such as Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood.

Jill says she likes the work of another director who goes for maximum, if gory, visual impact.

"Rob Zombie's not that bad," she says of the writer, director and star of the slasher flicks The Devil's Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses.

This is high praise from Jill, who doesn't have a lot of good things to say about the film industry.

"A lot of movies coming out now suck," she says. "It's becoming less about cinema and more about remakes."

Jill cites the recent television miniseries The Poseidon Adventure as a prime example of a remake gone bad.

"It's my favorite movie ever," she says of the original '70s disaster flick, in which a cruise ship is capsized by a hurricane. In the TV version, terrorists take over the ship.

"I watched an hour of it and wanted to retch," Jill says.

Montelibano says she appreciates that the young film fans' opinions go beyond thumbs-up or down.

"What's unique about these students is their ability to talk almost as adults about film," she adds. "They can talk in the abstract and avoid the banal, and that's why it's fun for me."

Besides the Monday afternoon screenings on campus, the club's organizers plan to take "field trips" to see first-run independent movies. These outings may include a screening at the Cinequest film festival being held in downtown San Jose this month.