This looks to be the week of double features and George Romero movies in the bay area... and that's fine by me! The Castro and Roxie Theatres are both celebrating the man who fathered the modern day zombie by showing several of his films throughout the week and it looks like there are more in store as well. The Castro is also playing an explorative double feature on Wednesday with Annihilation and Stalker. Not to be upstaged, the Roxie presents a William Friedkin double feature on Tuesday night consisting of The Devil and Father Amorth and the director's cut of The Exorcist. I've heard that the former of these two has actual footage of an exorcism, which is why I have my tickets already.
The end of this week highlights a special event going on at the 4 Star Theatre, which I'll take any excuse to visit. But this Friday, the IFC Midnight presented film Lowlife will be opening at the 4 Star, and it will be accompanied by several guests, who will be attending each screening (throughout the weekend too) and will be on hand for a Q&A after each show. This blackened comedy has been getting a great response from audiences so far, come out and see why!
The end of this week highlights a special event going on at the 4 Star Theatre, which I'll take any excuse to visit. But this Friday, the IFC Midnight presented film Lowlife will be opening at the 4 Star, and it will be accompanied by several guests, who will be attending each screening (throughout the weekend too) and will be on hand for a Q&A after each show. This blackened comedy has been getting a great response from audiences so far, come out and see why!
IFC Midnight Presents
Lowlife (2018)
Opens Friday 27th (1hr 36min)
Comedy/ Crime/ Drama (IMDB)
What happens when you throw together a fallen Mexican wrestler with serious rage issues, a just-out-of-prison ex-con with a regrettable face tattoo, and a recovering junkie motel owner in search of a kidney? That's the premise of the berserk, blood-spattered, and wickedly entertaining feature debut from Ryan Prows. Set amidst the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, Lowlife zigzags back and forth in time as it charts how fate-and a ruthless crime boss-connects three down-and-out reprobates mixed up in an organ harvesting scheme that goes from bad to worse to off-the-rails insane. Careening from savagely funny to just plain savage to unexpectedly heartfelt, this audacious thriller serves up nonstop adrenaline alongside hard-hitting commentary about the state of contemporary America.
Terror Tuesday
Tuesday 24th @ 9:45pm (1hr 28min)
Comedy/ Fantasy/ Horror (IMDB)
In an effort to avoid spending time with her father and his creepy new lover, young Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) resolves to visit her aunt's remote mansion. With six of her closest friends in tow, including the musically inclined Melody (Eriko Tanaka) and the geeky Prof (Ai Matsubara), Gorgeous arrives at the estate, where supernatural events occur almost immediately. A severed head takes flight, household appliances come to life and a portrait of a cat seems to contain an evil spirit.
Double Feature
Annihilation (2018)
Wednesday 25th @ 6:30pm (2hrs)
Adventure/ Drama/ Fantasy (IMDB)
Based on Jeff VanderMeer's best-selling Southern Reach Trilogy, Annihilation stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny and Oscar Isaac. It was written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, 28 Days Later).
-with-
Stalker (1979)
Wednesday 25th @ 8:40pm (2hrs 43min)
Drama/ Sci-Fi (IMDB)
Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, an allegorical science fiction film like his earlier Solaris, was adapted from the novel Picnic by the Roadside by brothers Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky. The film follows three men -- the Scientist (Nikolai Grinko), the Writer (Anatoliy Solonitsyn), and the Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) -- as they travel through a mysterious and forbidden territory in the Russian wilderness called the "Zone." In the Zone, nothing is what it seems. Objects change places, the landscape shifts and rearranges itself. It seems as if an unknown intelligence is actively thwarting any attempt to penetrate its borders. In the Zone, there is said to be a bunker, and in the bunker: a magical room which has the power to make wishes come true. The Stalker is the hired guide for the journey who has, through repeated visits to the Zone, become accustomed to its complex traps, pitfalls, and subtle distortions.
Double Romero
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Friday 27th @ 7:30pm (1hr 36min)
Horror (IMDB)
There is panic throughout the nation as the dead suddenly come back to life. The film follows a group of characters who barricade themselves in an old farmhouse in an attempt to remain safe from these flesh eating monsters.
-with-
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Friday 27th @ 9:20pm (2hrs 7min)
Action/ Horror/ Sci-Fi (Rotten Tomatoes)
Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
By George!
Monday 23rd @ 7pm (1hr 40min)
Horror/ Drama
Frustrated with her uncommunicative husband and distant daughter, a suburban housewife seeks solace in witchcraft.
William Friedkin Double Feature
Tuesday 24th @ 7pm @1hr 8min)
Documentary (IMDB)
Years after he changed the landscape of American filmmaking with 1973's THE EXORCIST, director, co-writer and legendary storyteller William Friedkin moves from fiction to fact with his new documentary, THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH. What began as a brief conversation between Friedkin and Father Gabrielle Amorth - the head Exorcist for the Diocese of Rome for over 30 years - as two professionals who knew of each other's work soon transformed into an once-in-a- lifetime opportunity, as Amorth agreed Friedkin could film an exorcism ceremony. It would be the ninth exorcism for a painfully afflicted woman, Cristina (a pseudonym), who had already been under Father Amorth's care - and it would be filmed by Friedkin alone, with no other crew allowed, no light other than the natural light in the room and a small digital camera-and-mic unit that could capture the ritual and its revelations. Combining the startling and singular footage from Cristina's exorcism with interviews from priests and psychologists, neurosurgeons and non-believers, Friedkin guides us on a journey into the twilight world between the boundaries of what we know and what we don't with a singular and startling guide in the form of the urbane, charming and self-deprecatingly funny Father Amorth, a man who laughs in the face of the Devil both figuratively and literally. Combining Friedkin's past memories and present observations with archival footage and new interviews - as well as also presenting what may be the only real exorcism ceremony captured on film - THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH is a startling and surprising story of the religion, the ritual and the real-world victims involved in possession and exorcism.
-with-
Tuesday 24th @ 8:10pm (2hrs 12min)
Horror (IMDB)
A bona fide cultural phenomenon, when THE EXORCIST first released into theaters, all hell broke loose. Adapted from the novel by William Peter Blatty and nominated for 10 Academy Awards, this story of a little girl possessed by the demon and the priests who are charged with saving her soul, is considered by many to be the scariest movie of all time. This Extended Directors Cut adds 10 minutes of previously unseen footage, trimmed from the original release and digitally enhanced Chris Newman’s Oscar-winning sound work.
Director's Cut
Thursday 26th @ 7pm & 915pm (1hr 40min)
Animation
Animation
The influence of surrealism extended far beyond its initial origins of Bunuel and Dali- even our cartoon pals took on a few unusual and not-all-together real escapades. A crazed collection surreal animations from 1908 thru the ’50s and beyond – all projected from 16mm film!
Double Feature
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th @ 7:30pm (1hr 32min)
Crime/ Drama/ Noir (IMDB)
Adapted by James Agee from a novel by Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter represented legendary actor Charles Laughton's only film directing effort. Combining stark realism with Germanic expressionism, the movie is a brilliant good-and-evil parable, with "good" represented by a couple of farm kids and a pious old lady, and "evil" literally in the hands of a posturing psychopath. Imprisoned with thief Ben Harper (Peter Graves), phony preacher Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) learns that Ben has hidden a huge sum of money somewhere near his home. Upon his release, the murderously misogynistic Powell insinuates himself into Ben's home, eventually marrying his widow Willa (Shelley Winters). Eventually all that stands between Powell and the money are Ben's son (Billy Chapin) and daughter (Sally Jane Bruce), who take refuge in a home for abandoned children presided over by the indomitable, scripture-quoting Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish). The war of wills between Mitchum and Gish is the heart of the film's final third, a masterful blend of horror and lyricism. Laughton's tight, disciplined direction is superb -- and all the more impressive when one realizes that he intensely disliked all child actors. The music by Walter Schumann and the cinematography of Stanley Cortez are every bit as brilliant as the contributions by Laughton and Agee. Overlooked on its first release, The Night of the Hunter is now regarded as a classic. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
-with-
The Window (1949)
Wednesday 25th @ Thursday 26th @ 6:05pm & 915pm (1hr 13min)
Drama/ Noir/ Thriller (IMDB)
In this melodrama, Bobby Driscoll stars as a young boy prone to fibs. Thus, no one believes Driscoll when he claims to have seen a murder in a neighboring apartment. No one, that is, except the killers. With no help from his parents or the law, Driscoll must save himself.
Double Feature
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Friday 27th @ 7:30pm (2hrs)
Action/ Romance/ Thriller (IMDB)
Fourteen scriptwriters spent five years toiling over a movie adaptation of war correspondent Vincent Sheehan's Personal History before producer Walter Wanger brought the property to the screen as Foreign Correspondent. What emerged was approximately 2 parts Sheehan and 8 parts director Alfred Hitchcock--and what's wrong with that? Joel McCrea stars as an American journalist sent by his newspaper to cover the volatile war scene in Europe in the years 1938 to 1940. He has barely arrived in Holland before he witnesses the assassination of Dutch diplomat Albert Basserman: at least, that's what he thinks he sees.
-with-
The 39 Steps (1935)
Friday 18th @ 7:30pm (1hr 27 min)
Mystery/ Thriller (IMDB)
A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent. But when the agent is killed and he stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring trying to steal top secret information.
This double feature also plays all weekend
-Huntress
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