GF Theatre Plus Halloween Films, Both Spooky and Campy

It is a busy Halloween weekend in downtown Grand Forks, with live theatre and special theme-appropriate movies, as well as the usual nightclub scene and current Hollywood product.

Central High School’s fall play “Never Been Kissed” runs this Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30, with a 2 pm Sunday matinee.
UND’s production of “South Pacific” finishes its dress rehearsals this weekend and plays all next week at 7:30 pm in Burtness Theatre on the UND campus, plus a 2 pm matinee on Saturday, Nov. 8th.

The annual audience-participation screening of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” (which also ran last weekend) shows again this Friday and Saturday midnights at the Empire Arts Center (doors opening at 11:30 pm).

Not quite so scary is the classic “The Wizard of Oz,” which the Empire is showing Saturday at 1 and 4 pm as a benefit for the Altru cancer center.

This year there is also a four-film horror festival scheduled at the River Cinema 12 just across the river in East Grand Forks.

The campy musical fun of “Rocky Horror” always draws an enthusiastic crowd, and that’s a good thing. Without the fervent participation of all the costumed audience members, Jim Sharman’s 1975 film version of the musical horror parody is merely an uneven, moderately amusing piece of kitsch, interesting mainly for the early appearances of Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick, and for Tim Curry’s flamboyant performance.

Horror films are always more effective on a big screen with an audience than on home video. The films assembled by the River Cinema for Halloween are all past releases of varying appeal. Interestingly, they can be attended for separate $3 admissions or purchased as a festival of all four films for $10.

Two are relatively recent (and not particularly successful) horror films: “Darkness Falls” (2003) and Wes Craven’s “presentation” of “Dracula 2000” (2000).

The other two are William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning 1973 supernatural frightfest, “The Exorcist” and Stanley Kubrick’s chilling and atmospheric reworking of Stephen King’s “The Shining” (1980). This selection is a good illustration of the adage “older is better.”

“Darkness Falls” was originally entitled “Tooth Fairy,” and its PG-13 rated thrills will likely satisfy a certain audience but may come off as cheesy camp to others.

Wes Craven did not direct but served as one of the executive producers for “Dracula 2000,” which as its title implies, updates the classic vampire tale, besides bringing part of it to the United States (no doubt inspired by Anne Rice’s New Orleans-based vampire novels). “Dracula 2000” boasts veteran actor Christopher Plummer as Van Helsing. Playing the famous undead count is none other than Gerard Butler, who later went on to play the Phantom in the movie of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Phantom of the Opera,” Beowulf in “Beowulf & Grendel,” and Spartan King Leonidas in the hit sword-and-sandal flick “300.”

“The Exorcist” is one of the defining horror films of the 20th century, nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, and winning two (screenplay and sound). It has terrified countless viewers around the world, although it often suffers from excruciatingly slow pacing and an overwhelmingly serious sense of self-importance. Also, Linda Blair’s demonically possessed little girl might be a bit over the top and elicit more nervous chuckles than screams these days. Nevertheless the film contains some genuinely creepy moments, disturbing makeup, striking cinematography, and impressive use of audio.

“The Shining” is another iconic horror thriller from the past 30 years. Again we have a very leisurely pace, especially during its first half, but Kubrick’s slow, deliberate approach is more moodily unsettling than off-putting. The basic premise of the mental strain caused by being isolated in the middle of a quiet, lonely winter perhaps has even stronger resonance with people from North Dakota and Minnesota. Of course Jack Nicholson is at his best when he goes insane, a truly immortal moment from American cinema.

For those who’d rather stay home Halloween night, “The Shining” is also available on a superb-looking Blu Ray disc, but it might be more fun to find one of Universal Home Video’s “Legacy” DVD collections. Then stay up the whole night with a bunch of the classic 1930s-40s sequels and variations on “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,” “The Mummy,” “The Invisible Man,” “The Wolf Man,” or the 1950s “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” series. Some spookier classics on DVD can be found in the Val Lewton box set, with the disturbing and surprisingly modern “The Seventh Victim” (1943) probably the best choice.

On the other hand, with election day so close to Halloween, it might be more unsettling to spend the weekend with a bunch of movies like “All the King’s Men” (1949), “The Best Man” (1964), “Advise and Consent” (1962), “Meet John Doe” (1940), “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939), “Gabriel Over the White House” (1933), “Washington Merry-Go-Round” (1932), “The Last Hurrah” (1958), and “The Candidate” (1972).

In a somewhat lighter but no less incisive vein would be the more recent “Wag the Dog” (1997) and “Bullworth” (1998), along with the timeless “Hail the Conquering Hero” (1944), “The Great McGinty” (1940), and “The Dark Horse” (1932), and maybe the off-beat musical comedy “The Phantom President” (1932). Also be sure to dig out the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes DVD Golden Collections (volumes 1 and 3, respectively) to find “Ballot Box Bunny” (1951) and “Daffy Duck for President” (2004).