Have a Horror Movie for Halloween!
The Chester Fritz Library will be hosting a movie double feature on Monday, October 21! Come at 7:00 PM for Hocus Pocus, Disney’s campy comedy of Salem witches resurrected on Halloween night. Then stick around or show up at 9:00 PM for The Nightmare Before Christmas, the stop-motion animated classic about the misguided attempt by Halloween monsters to celebrate Christmas. Whether you attend or not, we have plenty of horror movies in our collection to keep you spooked through Halloween night!
A mother (Nancy Kelly) begins to suspect that her seemingly angelic daughter, Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack), may be responsible for the death of one of her elementary school classmates. As Rhoda remains happily unconcerned and untraumatized by the boy’s passing, Mrs. Penmark wonders what is to be done about her girl. (1956, dir. Mervyn LeRoy, 129 minutes)
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
A serial killer is on the loose in Rome, and American tourist Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is helpless to stop the latest attack, being trapped behind a locked door. Unable to leave the country until the killer is caught, Sam and his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall) decide to pursue their own investigation into the murder spree, even if doing so puts them in danger. (1970, dir. Dario Argento, 96 minutes)
Five college students (Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManicor, Betsy Baker, & Theresa Tilly) take a vacation to a remote cabin in the woods. When they find a Sumerian spellbook and archeological records in the basement, they unwittingly awaken demonic forces that will stop at nothing to possess or kill them all before the night is over. (1981, dir. Sam Raimi, 85 minutes)
Years after an American-led research project dumps liters of formaldehyde into the Han River, a monster emerges from the waters to ravage Seoul. Hapless Gang-du (Song Kang-ho) is working at his father’s food stand along the river when his daughter Hyun-seo (Go Ah-sung) is swallowed whole. The government announces the monster is the host of a dangerous virus and orders a quarantine. But when Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo, he bands together with his father (Byun Hee-bong), his bullish younger brother (Park Hae-il), and archery champion sister (Bae Doo-na) to pull off a rescue mission. (2006, dir. Bong Joon-ho, 119 minutes)
Covered by bandages and dark glasses, a mysterious scientist (Claude Rains) arrives at a small English village and attempts to hide his amazing discovery of an invisibility serum. He soon realizes, however, that the same drug is slowly driving him insane and compels him to commit escalating acts of violent mischief and terror. Adapted from the H.G. Wells novel and featuring groundbreaking special effects by John P. Fulton. (1933, dir. James Whale, 70 minutes)
Years ago, a mob of angry parents immolated an acquitted serial killer named Fred Kreuger. Now Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and her friends (Johnny Depp, Amanda Wyss, and Nick Corri)– all teenage children of the arsonists– have nightmares of a disfigured man with a clawed glove (Robert Englund). And when this man kills someone in their dreams, they die in real life. (1984, dir. Wes Craven, 91 minutes)
A former sailor (Masao Inoue) takes responsibility for his wife’s (Yoshie Nakagawa) descent into madness and finds work at a psychiatric hospital in the hopes of aiding her recovery. As he spends more time at the asylum, he begin sharing the patients’ delusions. This avant-garde work of early Japanese cinema boasts the influence of the anti-naturalist Shinkankakuha literary clique and screenwriting contributions from Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. (1926, dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa, 71 minutes)
“Scanners” are psychics who can manipulate and sense other people’s bodily functions. The defense firm ConSec has initiated a project to enlist as many of the world’s 237 Scanners as possible and use them for their own ends. One powerful scanner, Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside), intends to start a war against ConSec and use his powers for personal enrichment, so the company’s leading psychic expert (Patrick McGoohan) sends another powerful scanner (Stephen Lack) after him. (1981, dir. David Cronenberg, 103 minutes)
A twelve-man Antarctic research team encounter a lone sled dog in the frozen wastes being pursued by a crazed Norwegian. Unbeknownst to them, the dog is host to an alien being that can imitate the appearance of those it kills and assimilates. Helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) takes charge as the men struggle to determine who among them have been infected by the hostile creature. (1982, dir. John Carpenter, 109 minutes).
Handymen Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) plan to leave the isolated desert village of Perfection, Nevada until they discover several of the town’s few residents have either been killed or gone missing. With the help of geologist Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter), they connect the attacks to large prehistoric carnivorous worms, which can only be slain if the remaining townspeople band together. (1990, dir. Ron Underwood, 96 minutes)
A trio of criminals (Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, and Jack Weston) track down a lost doll loaded with heroin to the apartment of a blind woman, Susy (Audrey Hepburn). Susy, unaware of the doll’s contents, is pressured to reveal its location, but when she realizes the strange men in her apartment may be trying to murder her, she turns out the lights to turn the tables on the home invaders. (1967, dir. Terence Young, 108 minutes)
Devout Christian policeman Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is summoned to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. While conducting his search, Sgt. Howie is increasingly revolted by the superstitious and erotic behavior of the island’s community, who belong to a pagan cult led by the charismatic Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). With the villagers uncooperative– sometimes denying the girl ever existed– Sgt. Howie suspects they have something sinister planned for the upcoming May Day celebration. (1973, dir. Robin Hardy, 88 minutes)
