CAMPFIRE TALES
dir. William Cooke, Paul Talbot, 1991
United States. 86 min.
In English.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 5 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 7:30 PM
Once Upon a Time…You’re Dead
A grizzled derelict tells a quartet of horror tales to a trio of young campers.
Not to be confused with the 1997 anthology film also titled CAMPFIRE TALES, this original edition stars the infamous Gunnar Hansen as the grizzled derelict in question telling scary stories to the three teens he finds gathered around a campfire.
Each tale is prompted by something one of the teens does – oh you have a knife? How about a hook-handed killer story? Is that weed you’re about to smoke? Get ready for the only body-horror anti-weed story you’ve ever heard – and while the pacing is a little wonky (as it frequently is in anthology movies), Gunnar’s presence and some ingenious practical effects are more than enough to make this worth any horror freaks while.
CRYPTIC PLASM
dir. Brian Paulin, 2015
United States. 80 min.
In English.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 – MIDNIGHT
Absorb the plasm…
The story is about David Gates, a cryptozoologist who is hired to film his investigations. One of them being a mysterious town where all of its inhabitants have vanished without a trace. David uncovers far more than he anticipated and puts his own life at risk. Afterwards David begins to feel the bizarre effects from the town within his own biology. Meanwhile he is sent by his investor to film an exorcism. Something that is completely outside of his expertise. Already suffering from unnatural symptoms, David, who is now reluctantly in the presence of pure evil, fears that multiple inhuman forces are tearing him apart from inside.
Cryptic Plasm takes the tired ‘ghost hunter reality show encounters actual ghost’ premise and turns it on its ear. When a cryptozoologist is hired by a sleazy TV producer to film his research into the paranormal, we’re treated to a series of escalating close encounters of the spooky kind, including a swamp monster, a ghost town, and one of the worst exorcisms this programmer has ever seen, all culminating in an otherworldly gore soaked climax that has to be seen to be believed.
Brian Paulin has been cranking out homemade bloody epics from the Massachusetts area since the mid 90s, and his love of the craft is evident in every frame. The effects work is truly fantastic, working with his limitations to create something truly nightmarish and memorable in a sea of shot-on-DV crud.
RICHARD LAYMON’S IN THE DARK
dir. Clifton Holmes, 2000
United States. 106 min.
In English.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 7:30 PM
Play a game with only one rule … keep playing
*NEW YORK PREMIERE*
We are very excited to screen this never-officially-released adaptation of the never before-or-since adapted Richard Laymon novel, IN THE DARK.
The novel follows librarian Jane, who finds a note one day from the unseen and unheard ‘Master of Games’, daring her to complete increasingly more drastic challenges for money as she gets drawn further into the perverse world of the game.
Laymon’s writing typically leaned toward the extreme and the splatter, but Clifton’s adaptation focuses on the discomfort of what goes unseen, steeping us in Jane’s mundane world as she sinks deeper into the game, seemingly unable to stop herself, and brilliantly tapping into the human impulse to find out what happens if we go just a little further. IN THE DARK feels like an art-house slow burn SAW without the on screen torture.
Spectacle is proud to present this early oughts lost gem – you won’t regret catching this on the big screen!
THE LAKE
(บึง/กาฬ)
dir. Lee Thongkham, 2022
105 mins. Thailand.
In Thai with English subtitles.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 5 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30 – 7:30 PM followed by remote Q+A with filmmaker Lee Thongkham!
(This event is $10.)
As part of our annual Halloween programming, Spectacle is thrilled to offer a limited engagement of Lee Thongkham’s giant kaiju thriller THE LAKE (never before shown on the big screen in New York City.)
A young girl finds an egg near a lake in Bueng Kan (“black marsh”), near the northernmost part of Thailand facing the Mekong River. Not long after she’s brought the egg back to her home village, an amphibious monster over thirty feet tall emerges, terrorizing the town in search of its young. Designed by SFX maestro Jordu Schell (of NEMESIS, STARSHIP TROOPERS, Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES, CLOVERFIELD and many many others), this monster is a triumph of combined practical and computer-generated effects, hulking and menacing like a shapeshifting mutant dinosaur. Cut off from the rest of the outside world, the residents of Bueng Kan must band together to stop the carnage before it’s too late.
Visceral, moody and drenched in darkness, THE LAKE foregoes the slow-burn exposition of more traditional monster movies. It’s a kaiju lover’s feast of a film, equally indebted to Godzilla and Gamera as to Spielberg’s original JURASSIC PARK. In an interview with PopHorror, director Lee Thongkham emphasized THE LAKE as a loving homage to the creature feature as well as “a story about religion, the human spirit, and science… But most importantly, it’s about finding one another through the chaos that one does not understand.”
LAURIN
(aka LAURIN: A JOURNEY INTO DEATH)
dir. Robert Sigl, 1989
83 mins. Germany.
In (dubbed) English.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 5 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 – 7:30 PM followed by remote Q+A with filmmaker Robert Sigl!
(This event is $10.)
GET YOUR REGULAR TICKETS!
GET YOUR Q&A TICKETS!
Robert Sigl’s debut feature LAURIN takes place in a small port town in Germany at the turn of the 20th century, where children have begun to go missing. After her pregnant mother is murdered, nine year old Laurin (Dóra Szinetár) must contend with visions both dreamlike and nightmarish – and laced with possible clues towards the mystery encircling the village.
Made when Sigl was just 25 years old, LAURIN is a gothic fairy tale of ethereal beauty, evenly evoking Fritz Lang’s M., Victor Erice’s SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and Richard Blackburn’s LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL. Shot on location in Hungary and heavy on ambience (abetted greatly by the work of cinematographer Nyika Jancsó, son of Miklos), the film barely qualifies as horror; it’s more of a gothic fairy tale, ruminating on innocence lost, suppression of sexuality and the concentric nature of abuse handed down across generations.
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
dir. Jack Bender. 1985.
United States. 94 mins.
In English.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 7:30 PM
It’s Halloween night in Pitchford Cove, Massachusetts. When five high school friends accidentally summon an undead army, the teens must rectify their mistake and save the town before the midnight hour.
An early effort by legendary TV producer and director Jack Bender (LOST, UNDER THE DOME, MR MERCEDES), THE MIDNIGHT HOUR is a bewitching comedy horror with incredible production value, by TV standards. Criminally underseen and effortlessly nostalgic, THE MIDNIGHT HOUR is the perfect movie for Halloween.
PIN
dir. Sandor Stern. 1988.
Canada. 104 mins.
In English.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 5 PM – FEATURING REMOTE Q&A WITH DIRECTOR SANDOR STERN AND AUTHOR ANDREW NEIDERMAN – THIS EVENT IS $10
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 – 7:30 PM
GET YOUR Q&A TICKETS!
GET YOUR TICKETS!
Leon, a troubled child, befriends his father’s lifesized medical dummy, Pin. Leon’s reality crumbles following the death of his parents, and his obsession with Pin takes a dangerous turn.
The best way to describe PIN is by its full title, ‘PIN: A PLASTIC NIGHTMARE.’ Although the film might seem like a classic killer doll movie, à la PUPPET MASTER (1989), the true terror of PIN comes from within. Pin explores themes of childhood trauma, authoritarian parenting and object attachment in this emotionally driven psychological horror.
For one night only, join us on October 22nd for a remote Q&A with director Sandor Stern and author Andrew Neiderman!
PLAYROOM
dir. Manny Coto, 1990
United Kingdom. 90 min.
In English.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 7:30 PM
“Where the terror is child’s play”
An archaeologist is haunted by a nightmare in which his family is murdered.
The debut feature of director Manny Coto (DR. GIGGLES, STAR KID), PLAYROOM follows the increasingly unhinged Chris (played by Christopher McDonald aka Shooter McGavin in a rare leading-man role) as he revisits the archaeology site in search of a mythological place his father was looking for before he was killed.
Is it his imagination, or is something supernatural at work?! Will unaddressed childhood trauma come to a happy conclusion?! Only one way to find out!
Also features niche 90’s child actor Aron Eisenberg (PUPPETMASTER III, HOUSE III, AMITYVILLE: THE EVIL ESCAPES) and the dinosaur pajamas from DON’T PANIC. Don’t miss this!
Sidenote: googling this title pulls up some late-movie moments that are best experienced ice cold, so avoid that if you can!
RED SPIRIT LAKE
dir. Charles Pinion, 1993
United States. 69 min.
In English.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 – MIDNIGHT
After a vengeful sorceress is tortured and killed by a corrupt industrialist looking to harness the spectral powers of Red Spirit Lake, her niece arrives in snow covered Angel Falls to settle her aunt’s estate.
Not for the faint of heart (almost every content warning applies – no animals harmed though!) and borderline actively repellent, it’s a fever dream of a movie that lands somewhere between a snuff film and Picnic at Hanging Rock, featuring aliens, angels, witches, nymphs, 80s workouts, nude galavanting in the snow, Victorian flashbacks and a killer soundtrack featuring Cop Shoot Cop, Lydia Lunch, Clint Ruin and The Lunachicks.
Special thanks to Saturn’s Core Video
TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE
dir. Chester Novell Turner, 1987
United States. 62 min.
In English.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 11 PM
3 Tales of Evil Beyond Belief
A woman reads two spooky tales to the ghost of her dead son, Bobby: the first, about a poor family who takes drastic measures to allot more food to their members; the second, about a pair of adversarial brothers and what happens when one of them dies and the other attempts to humiliate his corpse.
The follow up to Black Devil Doll from Hell, Chester Novell Turner’s Tales from the Quadead Zone has achieved a deserved cult status over the years as one of the more unsettling and esoteric horror anthologies ever assembled (some video stores refused to carry the tape because they were so uncomfortable with its lo-fi nightmare aesthetics).
Legends aside, the lean 62 minute run time packs in a breathtaking amount of creativity and ingenuity – including one of the best anthology theme songs this programmer has ever heard. The hand crafted effects and props, occasionally inaudible dialogue, warped tracking, and messy rotoscoping all combine to create a transportive, chaotic stew of SOV derangement that miraculously manages to pack an emotional punch as well.
TIME OF MOULTING
dir. Sabrina Mertens, 2020
Germany. 82 min.
In German with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 10 PM
In 1970s West Germany, young Stephanie (Zelda Espenschied) lives with her emotionally stunted parents, sequestered from life outside their cluttered home. Her father oscillates between ignoring and denigrating her, while her unstable mother’s cloying affection may actually be the most sinister thing happening within their walls. Discouraged from playing with the neighborhood children, Stephanie’s only friend is her own imagination, which absorbs every decrepit family “heirloom” in the house, from the grandfather’s old butcher’s tools to her grandmother’s dentures. Years later, the curious little girl has matured into a cold, frightening young woman (Miriam Schiweck) whose oppressive surroundings cultivated in her a disturbing erotic life. She is an animal growing up in captivity, unable to molt.