“Be afraid. Be very afraid.” The tag line from David Cronenberg’s 1986 film The Fly has become a little very cliched by now but it applies well to the Mayfair Theatre‘s schedule in October.
The Glebe Old Ottawa South theatre will celebrate Halloween all month long with some of the very best in gruesome, gory, thrilling and just plain old scary cinema. If you’re a fan of the genre you may as well plant a tent near the Mayfair right now. Even if you haven’t quite warmed up to stories about vampires, zombies, werewolves, disgusting mutants, invincible serial killers, re-animated corpses and the devil this may just be your chance to get properly acquainted with the cast of characters who inhabit these films.
The Mayfair’s horror offerings this month really run the historical (and thematic) gamut. Silent classics like Nosferatu and The Phantom of the Opera will play with live musical accompaniment. The early Universal monster classics like Frankenstein and Dracula have also made the cut. There will also be a healthy dose of modern classics by masters of the genre: Wes Craven, John Capenter, David Cronenberg, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci.
If that wasn’t enough there are also a few contemporary films on offer. These include the Ottawa premieres of the Norwegian film Dead Snow (with Nazi zombies!) and Chan-wook Park‘s vampire movie Thirst.
To top things off, the night of All Hallow’s Eve will have not one, not even two, but three screenings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show! The film inspires crowd participation at its very finest. Going to a screening is one of the best things you can do on Halloween.
To make things easier for all the horror aficionados in Ottawa I’ve included the time and date for all of the Mayfair’s horror screenings in October after the jump.
Friday Oct. 2
Eraserhead @ 23:30 (This may not fit into some people’s definition of horror but David Lynch’s first film is one of the creepiest ever made)
Saturday Oct. 3
Carrie @ 23:45 (The first ever film adaptation of a Stephen King novel and still one of the best)
Monday Oct. 5 (Two Cronenberg classics that night)
The Dead Zone @ 19:00
The Fly @ 21:15
Tuesday Oct. 6
Shaun of the Dead @ 19:00 (Zombies and dry sticky British humour. What more could you want?)
Friday Oct. 9
Dead Snow @ 21:30 (The Ottawa premiere of this Norwegian film with zombies of the Nazi variety)
Deep Red @ 23:30 (One of Dario Argento’s early Italian horror masterpieces)
Saturday Oct. 10
Dead Snow @ 21:30
Monday Oct. 12 (Two lesser known films by horror maestro Wes Craven)
The Serpent and the Rainbow @ 19:00
Shocker @ 21:10
Wednesday Oct. 14
Dead Snow @ 21:10
Thursday Oct. 15
Dead Snow @ 21:10
Friday Oct. 16
The Phantom of the Opera @ 19:00 (The silent classic will have musical accompaniment from the great local band Kingdom Shore)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari @ 21:00 (One of the most influential German expressionistic films gets a live soundtrack by Mike Dubue and the Hilotrons)
Thirst @ 23:00 (A South Korean spin on the vampire genre by acclaimed director Chan-wook Park)
Saturday Oct. 17
The Addams Family @ 15:00 (Not really a horror film but it has enough ghoulish ambiance to qualify on this list)
The Addams Family @ 17:00
Thirst @ 21:10
Sunday Oct. 18
The Addams Family @ 15:00
The Addams Family @ 17:00
Thirst @ 21:30
Monday Oct. 19
An American Werewolf in London @ 19:00 (A rare film that provides equal parts laughs and scares. It has great make-up effects to boot)
The Thing @ 21:00 (This may very well be my favourite horror film of all time. Everything about this movie is as close to perfect as you can get in the genre)
Tuesday Oct. 20
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (Probably the third best in the series after the original and Part 3: The Dream Warriors)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (The series was getting stale by this point. It’s still far better than a lot of the Friday the 13th movies)
Wednesday Oct. 21
Thirst @ 21:10
Thursday Oct. 22
Thirst @ 21:10
Friday Oct. 23
Faust @ 19:00 (This is an F.W. Murnau silent classic that will have live music by the Ottawa band The Flaps)
Nosferatu @ 21:30 (Another Murnau horror classic with live music by the Hilotrons)
Zombie @ 23:55 (Also known as Zombi 2, if you want to see some zombie vs. shark action this is the movie for you!)
Saturday Oct. 24
District 9 @ 21:10 (One of the best science fiction films this decade puts some horror elements to good use)
Zombie @ 23:30
Sunday Oct. 25
District 9 @ 21:10
Monday Oct. 26
Prince of Darkness @ 21:10 (John Carpenter brings Satan to the 1980s)
Wednesday Oct. 28
District 9 @21:55
Thursday Oct. 29
District 9 @ 21:55
Friday Oct. 30
Halloween (The classic slasher film that went beyond Psycho to the next level in terror)
Halloween II (Picks up exactly where part 1 left off as Michael Myers is once again after Laurie Strode )
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (The black sheep in the series has nothing to do with the previous films. It doesn’t even feature Michael Myers)
Halloween! Saturday Oct. 31
Dracula @ 13:45 (The Universal monster film that defined Dracula in popular culture)
Frankenstein @ 17:30 (The definitive Frankenstein movie. It’s alive!)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show @ 19:00 (This cult classic re-defined crowd participation for a motion picture. A must-see on Halloween)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show @ 21:20
The Rocky Horror Picture Show @ 23:45
A great collection of films. Wow. Can’t wait for Eraserhead, American Werewolf in London, and others. Love the Mayfair.
However, it is NOT in the Glebe.