'Tis the season for horror!
Besides partying in costumes, one of the best parts about the weeks leading up to Halloween is seeing scary movies on the big screen. There's just something more exciting about experiencing a horror film with a large group of people in a theater or drive-in. This October, Austin has some of the most terrifying movies ever made playing around town. With that said, DON'T MISS THESE HORROR MOVIE SCREENINGS! We picked a few classics and a few oddities. For even more Halloween-related happenings in Austin, click here.
Paramount Theatre
Tue Oct 8.
A note from Robert Rodriguez:
"I’m so looking forward to re-introducing THE FACULTY at my favorite theater, the Paramount. I first introduced the film there 24 years ago for a special Austin premiere on December 16, 1998."
"A modest initial success turned bonafide cult classic, THE FACULTY was the rare teen sci-fi film to be released on Christmas Day. While obvious popcorn flicks typically arrive mid-summer or spooky season, nothing about THE FACULTY could ever be typical.
Filmed mostly at night in Austin, Lockhart, San Marcos, and Dallas, the story is less interested in Friday Night Lights and more interested in Friday night shadows. Not another teen movie, THE FACULTY is a shapeshifting thrill ride filled with chimeras and doubles that mirrors the chaos and confusion of the American high school experience." - Paramount Theatre
Sat Oct 22.
"In a horror film, usually you can reason your way out of befalling a similar demise as the characters on screen. It’s how we all sleep at night after watching THE RING or THE EXORCIST. We’re not going to watch the haunted VHS tape and demonic possession is … probably not real? But in Bryan Bertino’s 2008 feature-film debut, James and Kristen (played by scream queen Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) do everything right except for being home, and it’s hard for us to reason our way out of doing that." - Paramount Theatre
Sat Oct 22.
"If '80s horror comedy has a Mount Rushmore, there can be little doubt that one of its four severed heads belongs to the gory miracle of Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR. While there is certainly a cinematic lineage of Lovecraft-inspired horror, you’d be hard-pressed to find another film based on a pulpy quick paycheck the author himself disowned. Plucking this farcical Dr. Frankenstein riff from the past and reviving him in a modern morgue, Gordon creates a body horror romp for the ages." - Paramount Theatre
Sun Oct 23.
"What do you get when you cross Stephen King, one of the greatest horror authors of all time, with Stanley Kubrick, one of the most lauded directors in cinema history? Unsurprisingly, you get the "2001 of horror movies," a film epic in scope, accentuated by the very latest filmmaking technology and some very off-the-beaten-path choices for a major studio film." - Paramount Theatre
Sun Oct 23.
"By combining some of the dream logic he picked up during his philosophy studies with real-life stories about people who suffered disturbing nightmares before dying in their sleep, Craven set this ingenious slasher apart from all the others. Of course, he was helped immensely by Robert Englund's dazzling performance as the wickedly chatty Freddy Krueger, who made it impossible for money-mad executives to resist making a series of increasingly outrageous sequels. This is the stuff that dreams are made of." - Paramount Theatre
Austin Film Society
Various showtimes.
"A mysterious countess seeks more than blood from her visitors in Jesús Franco’s surrealist lesbian vampire classic. The most well-known of Franco’s more than 200 films and perhaps the greatest showcase for his early muse, Soledad Miranda, VAMPYROS LESBOS also features an equally iconic psychedelic lounge score that became an unlikely chart hit in the 90s." - Austin Film Society
Wed Oct 19 & Fri Oct 21.
"During the early ’70s, as censorship began to slacken on movie screens around the world, Hammer Films, the leading purveyor of gothic horror films, began to add copious quantities of sex and violence to their productions. This one, which pretty much states its intent in its title, is a very wild entry in the cycle, in which the debauched nobleman Henry Jekyll (Ralph Bates) transmogrifies into the libertine Sister Hyde (Martine Beswick)." - Austin Film Society
Sat Oct 22 & Wed Oct 26.
" Another bloody, sexy Gothic Horror production from Hammer Films. This is an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “The Jewel of Seven Stars” and features the patented intense colors and absurdly anachronistic mod fashions that we have come to expect from the era of “Hammer Glamour.” - Austin Film Society
Fri Oct 28, Sat Oct 29, & Tues, Nov 1.
" Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel is a veritable shock machine, crammed with memorable set pieces in its story of an outcast teenager (Sissy Spacek), possessed of strange powers, and her religious fanatic mother (Piper Laurie). With memorable support from Nancy Allen, John Travolta, and William Katt." - Austin Film Society
Alamo Drafthouse
Various Showtimes | Alamo Drafthouse.
Originally produced for the London stage in 1973, THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW was Richard O'Brien's musical tribute to B-movies, sci-fi, 50s rock, and Hammer Horror, as filtered through the transgressive and camp attitudes rock opera and punk. Now one of the most beloved and enduring camp classics of all time, ROCKY HORROR is still shown in theaters across the country and has become a cultural phenomenon that is a unique and unforgettable experience for all patrons.
Sun Oct 2.
"FRIGHT NIGHT is everything you want from a movie that features a vampire wearing a white turtleneck. When total hunk Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) moves into the neighborhood, his next door neighbor Charlie Brewster suspects that something is wrong. This is probably because Charlie sees Dandrige turn into a vampire. Charlie and their girlfriend Amy enlist the help of TV horror host Roddy McDowall to take Dandrige down and save the world. BUT CAN THEY DO IT?!" - Alamo Drafthouse
Sat Oct 15 & Sun Oct 16.
"Heavily influenced by slashers of the late '70s/'80s, SCREAM single-handedly ushered in the return of the popular horror subgenre, which many considered dead and buried. By taking a meta approach to the standard “rules” (the virginal final girl, the bait and switch with the killer's identity, etc.)" - Alamo Drafthouse
Sat Oct 22 & Wed Oct 26.
"Wes Craven's 1984 horror film took the slasher movie and made it something other. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET inspires dread in the way that it plays with the audience's perceptions of illusion and reality, leaving us ever unsure if what we're witnessing is the dream of a frightened teenager or their very real and gruesome death." - Alamo Drafthouse
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Tues Oct 25.
" We’d love to tell you the name of this week’s HORRIFYING HORROR MYSTERY MOVIE. But we can’t. Because then we wouldn’t be able to play it. Trust us when we say that this movie was meant to be seen in a theater filled with goop-lusting subhumanoids (that’s us) who demand nothing less than 1001% fun . . . and gallons upon gallons of hyperactive, undead splatter. Do not miss." - Alamo Drafthouse
Mon Oct 31.
Alamo Drafthouse is proud to present the return of an annual Halloween tradition – Invincible Czars’ live score for NOSFERATU. Since 2006, the Austin-based band has been performing well-crafted and critically acclaimed original silent film scores for THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, Lon Chaney’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, John Barrymore’s DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE, Lillian Gish’s THE WIND, and so many others.
Blue Star Lite Drive-In
Several showings (special haunted forest experience)
Strange things begin to occur as a tiny California coastal town prepares to commemorate its centenary. Inanimate objects spring eerily to life; Rev. Malone (Hal Holbrook) stumbles upon a dark secret about the town's founding; radio announcer Stevie (Adrienne Barbeau) witnesses a mystical fire; and hitchhiker Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis) discovers the mutilated corpse of a fisherman. Then a mysterious iridescent fog descends upon the village, and more people start to die.
Sat Oct 1. haunted forest experience
New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest — within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately — animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears as another becomes seemingly possessed by an evil spirit. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, family members accuse teenage daughter Thomasin of witchcraft, charges she adamantly denies. As circumstances grow more treacherous, each family member's faith, loyalty, and love become tested in shocking and unforgettable ways
Several showings.
Meg Penny is a cheerleader out on her first date with one of the football players, Paul Taylor. It doesn't go very well. Before they get where they're going, an old vagrant runs out in front of Paul's car, screaming in terror. The old man is closely followed by Brian Flagg, the local teen rebel, complete with long hair, a black leather jacket, a motorcycle, and a tough-guy attitude. Paul blames Brian for chasing the old man, but after the threesome takes him to the doctor's office, it becomes clear the vagrant had more to worry about than some young tough. He was screaming because of the acid-like substance on his hand - a substance that spreads over his body and eventually consumes him. Soon, the growing red blob, which sprouts tentacles to attack its victims, becomes a menace to the small town of Abbeville, Colorado
Wed Oct 19 & Fri Oct 21.
When teenagers Mike (Grant Cramer) and Debbie (Suzanne Snyder) see a comet crash outside their sleepy small town, they investigate and discover a pack of murderous aliens who look very much like circus clowns. They try to warn the local authorities, but everyone assumes their story is a prank. Meanwhile, the clowns set about harvesting and eating as many people as they can. It's not until they kidnap Debbie that Mike decides it's up to him to stop the clowns' bloody rampage.
Violet Crown Cinema
Mon Oct 31.
On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being transferred for a court date, a 21-year-old Michael Myers steals a car and escapes Smith's Grove. He returns to his quiet hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, where he looks for his next victims.
Thur Oct 13.
"A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.
At only 23 years old, Don Coscarelli wrote, produced, directed, shot and edited his magnum opus -- one that’s truly withstood the test of time, and has influenced many successive generations of filmmakers. Phantasm deftly mixes gothic horror, sci-fi, surrealism and a killer prog rock score together in a grief-ridden adolescent fever dream that horror fans have never stopped worshipping." - Violet Crown Cinema
Thur Oct 18.
"Hell hath no fury as a prom queen scorned. When Brent rejects Lola's invitation to the prom, he becomes the victim of her twisted revenge. Now, the only guest at Lola's terrifying and demented prom, he must fight to survive what could be his final dance." - Violet Crown Cinema
Thur Oct 20.
"A mysterious drifter known as Brayker (William Sadler) possesses the last of seven ancient keys that hold the power to stop the forces of darkness and protect all humanity from ultimate evil. But the human race is safe only so long as Brayker can evade the demonic Collector (Billy Zane) who has gathered the other six keys.
In his obsessive quest for the key, the Collector rallies an army of ghastly cadavers against Brayker and the inhabitants of a run-down hotel. Armed with automatic weapons, sacred blood, and sadistic humor, Brayker and the strong-willed Jeryline (Jada Pinkett-Smith) must lead the other guests in a gruesome battle against the Collector and his evil horde of ghouls." - Violet Crown Cinema
Tue Oct 25.
Five interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: An everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband; and a mean old man meets his match with a demonic, supernatural trick-or-treater.
What's your favorite horror screening this Halloween season?
