October Means Horror For Los Angeles

As some of you know, I program a horror movie series called Friday Night Frights at The Cinefamily theater in Los Angeles. And every year the theater goes a little mad with horror in October, cramming in a horde of films and climaxing at the end of the month with a Halloween party. This year is no exception! Here are the highlights…

* Of the myriad of amazing shows in October, the one that I’m most personally excited for is our Oct 20th screening of Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs, which I’m co-presenting with Ryan Turek of ShockTillYouDrop. Why am I so excited? Because we’ll be sitting down with writer-director Wes Craven after the film to talk about his odd-ball creation. The show has nearly sold out, only days after it went up on the calendar, so if you’re interested in attending I’d stop reading right now and grab your tickets: get ’em here!

* The heroes over at Scream Factory are keeping things classy by co-presenting a series of Vincent Price weekend matinees, including The Haunted Palace (which has the distinction of being cinema’s first H.P. Lovecraft adaption), and culminating in Price’s most vicious performance in Witchfinder General.

* Not unlike the surviving heroine of a slasher film, the much beleaguered All the Boys Love Mandy Lane has made it to see the dawn, finally arriving on the big screen! On Oct 9th we’ll be screening the film with director Jonathon Levin (Warm Bodies, 50/50) and cast on hand for a Q&A, followed by an after party including food and booze sponsored by FEARnet!

* But the centerpiece of the month is The United States of Horror, a road-trip themed midnight movie marathon contest: “UNITED STATES OF HORROR” WATCH-A-THON CONTEST! Who among you thinks they have what it takes to sit through 30 midnights in a row of our cross-country death trip? Who will arrive alive at the finish line, after sojourning across the highways of hell on Route 666?? We’re talking to you, sucka! Here’s your chance to prove your mettle, and become King (or Queen) of the Damaged Brains. Whomever sits through the highest number of fully completed United States of Horror screenings this October and becomes 1ST PLACE WINNER will receive the chance to guest-program an upcoming Cinefamily midnight movie!

We did the same contest last year, and had originally thought,”What kind of lunatic would actually see all 30 films?” As it turned out, nearly 30 lunatics tied for first place — and yes, all of those people got to program a midnight movie; they made some great choices. So come test your mettle, starting tomorrow night!

Here is the US of HORROR line-up:

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