Friday, October 14, 2011
Film Twelve Hours of Terror! Belcourt Announces Halloween Horror Marathon Oct. 30
Posted by Jim Ridley on Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 7:13 AM
For years, Nashville gorehounds have asked the burning question: Why doesn't Music City have its own Halloween horror-movie marathon? Here's the answer: the first-ever Hellcourt Halloween Spectacular — 12 solid hours of gut-munching, bone-crunching, flesh-ripping, blood-dripping terror, starting noon Sunday, Oct. 30 at The Belcourt.
With horror host Dr. Gangrene as master of cemeteries, er, ceremonies, this spookshow co-presented by the Scene offers a seven-film smorgasbord of cult faves, gruesome rediscoveries and jaw-dropping obscurities — all for just one $15 ticket (with one bottomless tub of popcorn for any individual in full costume).
Below, we've got the entire lineup. Above, let the brilliant acting, Shakespearean dialogue and cutting-edge hairstyles of the unforgettable Lady Terminator start your weekend on a high note.
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS
Dir. Fred Dekker, USA, 1986, 88min, R, 35mm
“The good news is, your dates are here. The bad news is … they’re dead!” Alien slugs, ax murderers, exploding heads, UFOs, topless coeds, characters named Raimi and Cronenberg, and John Carpenter stock player Tom Atkins as the Han Solo of hard-boiled zombie slayers — why, it’s as if The Monster Squad director Fred Dekker boiled the ’80s down to a bouillon cube in his awesome 1986 debut, now celebrating its 25th anniversary. Say, is that a busload of reanimated frat boys? Get the flamethrower!
1:45 p.m.
ABBY
Dir. William Girdler, USA, 1974, 89min, R, 16mm
From William Girdler, director of Three on a Meathook, Grizzly and the immortal The Manitou, comes the movie that tells the world, “Never rub a well-endowed African burial idol, lest a Nigerian sex demon fly to Louisville and possess a newlywed marriage counselor.” Warner Bros. lowered the boom on Girdler’s blaxploitation Exorcist rip-off faster than you can say “copyright infringement,” but this insane 1974 spectacle rises from its crypt for a riot of shower scenes, sick shocks, and the cinema’s most erotic chicken-fixing scene. See William “Blacula” Marshall perform a disco exorcism!
3:30 p.m.
ANGUISH (Angustia)
Dir. Bigas Luna, Spain, 1987, 89min, R, 35mm
A hypnotic spiral into madness, this meta-nightmare offers up a boxed narrative of murder and mayhem at the movies. He wants eyes — the man on the screen. He wants eyes — the man sitting behind you. “If for any reason you lose control or feel that your mind is leaving your body...” The horror doesn't stop at the screen in sleazemeister turned arthouse auteur Luna’s inventive masterpiece. With Zelda Rubinstein (Poltergeist) and Michael Lerner (Barton Fink).
5:15 p.m.
ZOMBIE (Zombi 2/The Dead Are Among Us/Zombie: We Are Going To Eat You)
Dir. Lucio Fulci, Italy, 1979, 91min, Unrated, 35mm
Who'd win in a fight between a zombie and a shark? Who'd win in a fight between the eyes of Prince's mom from Purple Rain and big, splintery pieces of wood? Why are the dead trying to eat the living? Find out this and more in this splatterpiece from Lucio "I Bet You've Never Seen This Before" Fulci, palmed off in Italy as a sequel to Dawn of the Dead but now justifiably infamous on its own.
Special thanks to Blue Underground, whose new digital restoration of Zombie hits home video this month.
7 p.m.
SQUIRM
Dir. Jeff Lieberman, USA, 1976, 92min, PG, 35mm
The Citizen Kane of electrified worm movies! Count Stephen King and Diamanda Galas among the fans of this unheralded gross-out classic (which MST3K sabotaged by cutting it all to hell). When a power line falls in a Georgia swamp, it turns millions of ugly, hungry sandworms into slimy man-eaters — and you only wish they were CGI! Squeamish about worms in your bathtub? Even (ulp!) worms in your egg cream? Oh yeah — director Lieberman (Blue Sunshine) goes there and beyond, dishing some of the Seventies’ most memorably disgusting scares. Not to mention the classic catchphrase: “You gonna be the worm face!”
LADY TERMINATOR (Pembasalan Ratu Pantai Selatan)
Dir. H. Tjut Djalil, Indonesia, 1989, 82min, R, 35mm
First time in Nashville! The most fun you might ever have with your eyes open, this mind-blowing Indonesian hodgepodge is just like The Terminator — if Sarah Connor had serious ’80s mall hair, her saviors were a pack of high-fiving mullet-heads, and Arnold Schwarzenegger were replaced by a laser-spewing South Seas sorceress with a killer vagina! One of the most beloved cult discoveries of recent years, it’s proof you don’t have to wait up ‘til midnight to see a midnight movie.
10:30 p.m.
THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
Dir. Dan O'Bannon, USA, 1985, 91min, R, 35mm
"Do you ever wonder about all the different ways of dying?" Writer/director Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Lifeforce) sure has. O’Bannon takes the George A. Romero milieu and gives it a punk rock makeover in this ’80s favorite. With an unfortunate collision between some teens out for kicks, a military accident, and a slow night at the medical supply warehouse, we’ve got a ravenous bunch of the living dead overrunning Louisville on the hunt for brains.
...Special bonus screening on Halloween Night...
Mon, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. (separate ticket):
HALLOWEEN
Dir. John Carpenter, USA, 1978, 91min, 35mm
Possibly the most influential horror film ever made, this masterpiece of visual unease remains the textbook example of how you do it right. The terror is all in foreground/background shifts, and it's simply impossible to conceive of a world without it (or, to lesser extents, the seven sequels and reboot/sequel that followed). Jamie Lee Curtis became immortal with this role, and Donald Pleasence and PJ Soles bring their A-Game in this classic tale of The Shape versus The Babysitter. As archetypal as a Greek tragedy in modern culture, with a relentless (and enduring) score and a gleeful willingness to mess with your sense of safety. Halloween is the night Michael Myers came home to Haddonfield, Illinois, and streets will run red...
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