Scary Movies 3
Walter Reade Theatre, 70 Lincoln Plz., nr. 65th St.; 212-875-5600
The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s third annual festival of scary movies has a mix of highbrow and lowbrow, new and old, local and international. The 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead is required viewing if you’ve never seen it in a theater, but also check out the New York premiere of 100 Feet, a hand-wringing tale of a woman haunted by the spirit of her sadistic husband.
When: October 12–22
Eulogy for a Vampire
Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St., nr Fifth Ave.; 212-255-8800
This 2009 indie-horror film has a mysterious stranger arriving at an isolated monastery, seducing its residents, and leading them down a path of unimaginable violence. A bonus: bloodthirsty monks on a killing spree that even Dan Brown would root for.
When: Opens October 23
Midnight Screenings
Landmark Sunshine Cinema, 143 E. Houston St., nr Eldridge St..; 212-358-7709
Pre-Pattinson, there was Jason Patric and his band of original vampire heartthrobs in The Lost Boys. The following weekend, Freddy is back to finish the job in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, the third installment of Wes Craven’s frightfest, which finds the remaining Elm Street kids imprisoned and sedated in a mental hospital.
When: October 23–24; October 30–31
Edgar Allan Poe Adaptations
Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave., at 2nd St.; 212-505-5181
See Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Basil Rathbone in B-movie director Roger Corman’s critically acclaimed cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. The four-day retrospective begins Wednesday with insanity, live burials, and one creepy old New England manse in House of Usher. Also playing, The Pittsburgh Trilogy, a trio by Stan Brakhage that turns the documentary lens on the stuff real-life nightmares are made of, like the inside workings of a morgue.
When: October 28–31
Halloween Double Feature: Theater of Blood and Scream of Fear!
Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St., nr Sixth Ave.; 212-727-8110
If the torture porn of the Saw films isn’t your idea of great cinema, consider these less-bloody relics from another era. The greatest draw of 1973’s Theater of Blood is Vincent Price as a vindictive actor bringing the circle of London theater critics to gruesome ends. Scream of Fear, a 1961 British thriller, has been compared to Hitchcock’s Psycho.
When: October 30–November 5
Sleepwalkers
BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave., at Flatbush Ave., Ft. Greene, Brooklyn; 718-636-4100
Stephen King’s fantastically gory 1992 tale follows a mother and son who transform into bloodthirsty, catlike creatures to feed on the blood of virgins.
When: October 30