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Five Days of Film Fright
Day 3: Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Scary Movie” series
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It’s backkkkk. For the fourth consecutive year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center brings us the “Scary Movies” series. Don’t let the lack of a creative title scare you away, there are some truly terrifying films on this year’s schedule. (Also, I love writing about horror movies because it gives me a chance to write sentences like, “Everything was going fine—until it stopped going fine.” SUSPENSE!) And, because the Film Society chose which movies to show and they’re awesome, there’s an even mix of premieres, classics and, best of all, rarities. Below, we rank the films based on how terrifying their premises are, beginning with the least scary.
The Creeping Flesh (1973)
Sunday, October 31, 4 p.m.
Premise: Peter Cushing is seeking a cure for evil, Christopher Lee is seeking a cure for insanity. Campy fun horror.
Dead of Night (1945)
Saturday, October 30, 2 p.m.
Premise: The original Twilight Zone, complete with stories about talking dummies.
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)
Friday, October 29, 4:30 p.m./Sunday, October 31, 6 p.m.
Premise: Anthology of stories about “lycanthropy, vampirism, killer vegetation, voodoo and disembodied hands.” Plus, the original Dr. Horrible: Dr. Terror.
Messiah of Evil (1973)
Sunday, October 31, 2 p.m.
Premise: A woman searches for her estranged father in a tiny coastal ghost town—literally.
The Mutations a.k.a. The Freakmaker (1974)
Wednesday, October 27, 4:30 p.m./Friday, October 29, 6:30 p.m.
Premise: A mad scientist and his deformed sidekick (Doctor Who‘s Tom Baker!) kidnap a group of medical college students, who become “subjects of strange genetic experiments involving plant DNA.”
Black Death (2010)
Saturday, October 30, 8:30 p.m.
Premise: Period adventure, religious allegory and gothic horror, all about the bubonic plague. Plus, some necromancy.
Triangle (2009)
Saturday, October 30, 6:15 p.m.
Premise: Survivors of a capsized yacht take refuge on an ominous-looking cruise liner—then things getting really scary.
Carrie (1976)
Saturday, October 30, 4:15 p.m.
Premise: If you need to know the premise of Carrie, you’re probably not attending a horror film festival the day before Halloween…
The Loved Ones (2009)
Sunday, October 31, 8 p.m.
Premise: Prom night horror story, described as Muriel’s Wedding meets The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Village of Shadows (Le Village des Ombres) (2010)
Friday, October 29, 8:30 p.m.
Premise: A group of twentysomethings take a weekend trip to the mysterious village of Rouiflec (don’t bother Google’ing it), where three of them soon vanish.
Stake Land (2010)
Wednesday, October 27, 8:30 p.m.
Premise: It’s like The Road or Mad Max…but with vampires described as “truly grotesque, feral quasi-zombies.”
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Wednesday, October 27, 6:30 p.m./Thursday, October 28, 5 p.m.
Premise: A classic: “Four brave souls accept the offer to spend one week at Hell House, the ‘Mount Everest’ of haunted houses in this ‘Mount Everest’ of haunted-house movies.”
Hellraiser (1987)
Thursday, October 28, 7 p.m.
Premise: Pinhead, who’s more terrifying than Jason and Freddy combined, leads a group of fetishistic demons.
The Clinic (2010)
Thursday, October 28, 9 p.m.
Premise: Road trip. Couple. Sketchy motel. Man leaves pregant wife to look for food. Abduction. Woman’s belly sewn closed. No baby. Terrifying.