Watch 'Nosferatu' with live music accompaniment at Alamo Drafthouse
Freaky films: Must-see horror series this Halloween season
A roundup of scary movies, cult classics, bizarre ephemera and spooky series in the borough this month
Horror movies and Halloween go together like serial killers and slow-walking, like your last nerve and the final jump scare, like car engines dying at the worst possible moment. And this year’s batch of local screenings and film series is shaping up to be spooktacular.
First off, there’s a murderers’ row of new horror blockbusters, most of which happen to be remakes –– the second “Nun,” the eighth “Exorcist,” the 10th “Saw” (you’ve probably noticed the disturbing ads while descending the stairs of your local subway station).
But look out for a host of certified creepy classics and indie debuts showing in Brooklyn’s most iconic cinemas, now through the end of the month.
To help guide you through a terrifying array of options, we decided to take off our “Scream” masks to curate a list of the best creepy, grotesque, unearthly, sinister, demented, hellish, spine-chilling, hair-raising movie screenings across the borough.
From rare fringe theater one-offs to monthlong series, these screenings are fully devoted to the spooky season. Proceed, if you dare.
Film Noir Cinema’s Shock-A-Go-Go Film Festival
Attached to a cozy library of film memorabilia at 122 Meserole Avenue is Greenpoint’s Film Noir Cinema, a 54-seat cinema that, under the direction and expertise of cinefile owner Will Malitek, specializes in exploitative, cult, controversial (and sometimes pornographic) way-under-the-radar films, many of which are included in the theater’s Shock-A-Go-Go Film Festival, running between October 18 and 22.
Have you heard of “Duck! The Carbine High Massacre”? Or “Bloodsucking Freaks”? How about “Raw Force”? “Tromeo & Juliet”? Well, neither have we. These are just a few of the 20 intriguing features included in the vintage horror fest. Their trailers alone are wild.
If you lack the fortitude for a full festival pass, which costs $158, just swing by for a strange night out or, if you’re truly daring, pop in for Film Noir Mondays, where you and your date will have no clue what you’re about to see –– good luck!
Spectacle Theater’s ‘Collage Horreur’ series
Speaking of fringe theaters, Spectacle is a hidden volunteer-run 35-seat gem at 124 South Third Street in Williamsburg that favors eclectic deep cuts over blockbuster hits..
Nearing Halloween, the quirky little cinema devotes time to scary obscurities via its monthlong Collage Horreur series, a mix of contemporary experimental horror films, it says, “reanimate, reuse and remix found materials to summon novel sensations and dreadful meta-epiphanies from the genre.”
If you like your horror with a dash of media manipulation, Spectacle will deliver.
On the menu are Péter Lichter and Bori Máté’s “The Philosophy of Horror” (October 18, 28), which abstracts a book of film theory with hand-painted decayed 35 mm film strips of the first two “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies; Aristotelis Maragkos’ “The Time Keepers of Eternity” (October 21, 26), a meta creation made up of found film from a 1995 miniseries series; and Charlie Shackleton’s “Fear Itself” (October 17, 27), a visual tour of the horror genre that spans a century. All of the above promise to entertain while educating about the craft.
On Friday the 13th, the local found-sound DJ duo Vampyrates will be spinning tunes starting at midnight (so, technically October 14) into the wee hours, accompanied by “video music, stolen treasures and unburied graves, detournèd objects & cultural corpses.”
Finally, on Halloween night, at 10 p.m., Spectacle will play a one-time surprise screening of an early 1990s cult splatter “masterpiece.” The theater is remastering the old VHS for this final spin.
In the words of Spectacle, “get ready for a head exploding bloodbath!”
The Invincible Czars play horror scores live at Alamo Drafthouse
It’s not every day that you can see a concert and a film at the same time. Turns out a proper music score is the true puppet master of suspense, able to control the impact of each jump scare, each slow build, each desperate chase.
Enter Invincible Czars, an acclaimed cinematic experimental rock band that performs “for music nerds, horror/sci-fi fans, comic book geeks, lovers of cartoons and humor and anyone with a complicated relationship with heavy metal and classical music.”
The Czars will appear at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse at 445 Albee Square West, providing live soundtracks to 100-year-old feature-length silent horror films, including “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (October 16) and “Nosferatu” (October 16 and 17).
The scores will include a blend of traditional and modern-day instrumentation, based in part on the musical traditions native to each film’s geographical setting — i.e., Romania. Pop off the train in Downtown Brooklyn and hear the five-piece musical wizards bring fresh blood to these old-school freak-filled masterpieces.
Skyline Drive-In NYC’s Weekend Horror With a View
Who doesn’t love a drive-in?
Seeing a film on the big screen against a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline is a unique experience, even in chilly October. If you don’t have a car, don’t fret. At Greenpoint’s Skyline Drive-In NYC, walk-in and bike-in moviegoers are welcome to wrap themselves in blankets and post up in reclining chairs provided by the theater.
The scenic outdoor cinema, located at 1 Oak St. on the edge of the East River, is playing horror flicks almost every weekend this month, including “Friday the 13th” (October 13), “It” (October 14), “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (October 20) and “Halloween” (October 29).
If you pull up to the spot and can’t handle the horror, just stick around with the Swifties and cleanse your palette with The “Eras Tour” documentary, playing every night.
Nitehawk Cinema’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
Returning for its eighth year, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival will spotlight a delectable lineup of sought-after indie films that push the boundaries of the horror genre.
The fest kicked off at Nitehawk’s Prospect Park location on October 12 with a screening of “Kill Your Lover,” Alix Austin and Keir Siewert’s new movie about a man who mutates into a contagious monster after his girlfriend tries to break off their toxic relationship. Relatable!
The majority of the festival — 25 features and four world premiers in all — will be shown at Nitehawk’s Williamsburg location from now through October 19, comprising films Brooklyn Horror has categorized under subgenres including Head Trip, Dark Matter, Home Invasion, Slayed, Fear In Focus: Japan and, of course, Staff Picks.
If that sounds like your cup of arsenic tea, come for Paul Duane’s previously sold-out Irish folk horror “All You Need Is Death,” stay for Robert Morgan’s powerfully bleak demon-struggle “Stopmotion,” and linger for a free screening of Lindsey Anderson Beer’s “Pet Sematary: Bloodlines” on October 16 at 7 p.m.
Festival passes have been sold out for some time, but you can still purchase individual tickets to whichever showings most intrigue you.
Order a horror-inspired cocktail and some grub while you watch, if you can stomach it.
