Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby.
For movie fans, October is the month to catch up on new horror films and re-watch the classics. Vancouver theatres are stepping up with screenings of some of the most frightening fright flicks ever made, along with a couple that are played (mostly) for laughs.
Here’s a list of where and what you can see in Vancouver for Halloween. The only thing missing? A screening of last year’s hilarious New Zealand vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. Come on, you guys!
The Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway) – The East Vancouver movie house presents a slew of edge-of-your-seat horror flicks, as well as a camp classic. On Oct. 29, you can catch Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) and, for a laugh, Troll 2, the latter in Hecklevision (“hecklevision” allows audience members to share their snarky thoughts on-screen as the film, in this case a low-budget 1990 B-movie that has become a cult classic, unspools). On Oct. 30, the theatre ups the ante with a midnight screening of The Exorcist, recently selected by paste.com as the best horror movie streaming on (American) Netflix. And, on Halloween night, you can catch The Shining, Halloween and/or From Dusk Till Dawn.
Watch out for the trolls! A scene from Troll 2.
Cinematheque (1131 Howe St.) – On Oct. 30 and 31, Vancouver’s downtown arthouse presents a 1968-themed evening. The two movies from that year include Barbarella, the campy sci-fi flick starring Jane Fonda, and Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski’s classic starring Mia Farrow.
Jane Fonda in Barbarella.
Vancity (1181 Seymour St.) – The theatre’s imaginatively curated selection of Oct. 31 films includes a matinee (4 p.m.) screening of Little Shop of Horrors followed by a documentary, The Creeping Garden before returning to the theatre’s regular programming with The Assassin, a new Chinese film running through ’til Nov. 9. But things get back to scary with a 10 p.m. showing of They Live, John Carpenter’s 1988 action-horror film starring former wrestler Roddy Piper, who passed away earlier this year. (The Creeping Garden and Little Shop of Horrors are also showing at the theatre Oct. 30.)
