The week before Halloween is a tumultuous time for a lot of us: the constant stress of making a final costume decision and losing weight before the inevitable candy binge tends to haunt many of our spirits. However, for many of the film-series-going crowd, the Halloween holiday is secondary to another, semester-long festival, one that entails far more stress than just choosing a scary outfit: Thesis Filmmaking Season! Yep, the lovely period of early call-times, battles with unruly c-stands, and of course, pizza for every meal. There’s really nothing like it. Be you a producer struggling to secure location, an AD practicing his authoritarian on-set bellow, or a simple PA eager to learn the ropes, thesis season is a reason for all to pitch in and celebrate.
Speaking from personal experience, however, this is a holiday much scarier than Halloween—it can invade every fiber of your being. It can possess your mind and body. It can control your dreams. But worst of all, people—it can cause you to not attend the Wesleyan Film Series. So all of you delirious DPs and exhausted ACs, come forget your troubles and seek solace in the new film series calendar. It’s a line-up so strong it will soothe your sore-from-equipment-carrying muscles and relieve that oh-my-god-we’re-losing-daylight stress that constantly clouds your mind. After all that hard work, you deserve it.
Winter’s Bone
TOMORROW, 10/27, 8PM, $5
2010. USA. Debra Granik. With Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes. 100 min.
Hands down, one of the most gripping films of the year—a work that needs no multiple dream layers and 2.5-hour running time to tell an amazing, effective story. Granik manages to imbue a Deliverance-esque sense of Podunk backwoods doom and shadowy noir-influenced stylings of Blood Simple into a film that as a result seems neither derivative nor off-putting. A breakout performance from the stoic yet sweet Lawrence seals the deal—Winter’s Bone is a lesson in economic, precise visual storytelling.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
THURSDAY, 10/28, 8PM, FREE
2003. USA. Dir. Marcus Nispel. With Jessica Biel, R. Lee Ermey. 98 min.
Blood. Chainsaws. Jessica. Biel. A far cry (in the best way possible) from the original, this gory romp is at once a throwback to slasher film glory days and a neat addition into the modern torture-porn canon. You’ll be screaming, sweating, and salivating until the last minute. Executive Producers will stick around for a Q&A and live chainsaw-murder demonstration after the film.
The Shining
FRIDAY, 10/29, 8PM, $5
1980. USA. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. With Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall. 142 min.
I personally feel silly trying to explain the genius of this movie. If you don’t know why you should come see it, please bury your head in your hands for a few minutes and feel ashamed. After that, you wimp, collect yourself and come to the goddamn movie.
House of Wax
SATURDAY, 10/30, 8PM, FREE
1953. USA. André de Toth. With Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy. 88 min.
Vincent Price is to the classic horror film as Dr. J is to the slam dunk. Since most of us were too young to witness the flying afro-ed baller tomahawk the roundball in person, we might as well see Price in his petrifying prime. This film—originally exhibited in 3-D (ah how history repeats itself)—tells the tale of a crazed wax sculptor who builds a museum as a morbid shrine to his murder victims. Round out “Halloweek” with this camp-horror classic.
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