LOGAN – As it has done in recent years, Utah Theatre in downtown Logan will celebrate the fast-approaching Halloween holiday with a month-long festival of animated and live action spooky films during October.
Once again, the scary film fest will climax with late-night movie presentations of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Oct. 25, 30 and 31.
For a change of pace, the October festival will lead off with the Joe Dante comedy Gremlins on Wednesday, Oct. 1 and Friday, Oct. 3.
Released in 1984, Gremlins is a black comedy written by Chris Columbus that draws on legends of mythical mischievous creatures that were alleged to cause malfunctions in aircraft going back to World War II. The story follows Billy Peltzer, who receives Gizmo as a pet, who then spawns more of his kind that evolve into the titular imp-like monsters.
The film stars Zack Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton and Howie Mandel as the voice of Gizmo.
Forty years ago, the violence in Gremlins caused the Motion Picture Association of America to create the new category of PG-13. But don’t worry — the film doesn’t contain anything that your kids haven’t seen a million times on television streaming services since then.
Since one good turn deserves another, the Utah Theatre will follow-up with a screening of the sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch on Saturday, Oct. 4.
Next up will be the off-beat Nightmare Before Christmas, an animated feature directed by Tim Burton, on Monday, Oct 7. Yes, it’s really a Christmas movie, but so is Gremlins for that matter. And don’t get me started on whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie; we haven’t got all day.
Nightmare Before Christmas tells the story of Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween who stumbles onto Christmas and proceeds to take over the holiday.
To get firmly back on track, no Halloween film fest would be complete without The Night of the Living Dead, the granddaddy of all zombie movies.
Filmed in grainy black and white with a meager budget by auteur George A. Romero, The Night of the Living Dead continues to provide chills to modern audiences with its story of seven people trapped in a rural farmhouse under assault by reanimated corpses.
The 1968 film will be screened one-time only on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
Just for laughs, the Utah Theatre will present Young Frankenstein on Friday, Oct. 10 and again on Saturday, Oct. 11.
A parody of the classic horror story directed by funnyman Mel Brooks, the 1974 film stars Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman and Teri Garr, with Peter Boyle as the monster.
In a long string of comedic films, Young Frankenstein is one of Brooks’ best.
While it’s screening films of a lighter vein, the Utah Theatre will also present E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the beloved 1982 film directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Henry Thomas and the adorable Drew Barrymore, the science-fiction movie tells the story of a boy who befriends an alien child stranded on Earth.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial will be shown on Monday, Oct. 13 and Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Reaching way back into its vault for a silent film, the Utah Theatre will screen the 1922 classic Nosferatu on Friday, Oct. 17.
A prime example of early German expressionist horror, Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. Stoker’s heirs sued the movie’s producers and a court ruled that all copies of the film should be destroyed.
Like a vampire not properly staked, however, Nosferatu lives on in bootleg copies. The film will be accompanied by Mike Ohman on the Utah Theatre’s mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ.
Since no Halloween film fest will ever be complete without something from horror master Stephen King, the theater will also present the 2017 adaptation of King’s novel IT that same night starting at 10 p.m.
Reversing course again, the Utah Theatre screens a double feature of the comic films Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice on Saturday, Oct. 18.
Both the original 1988 film and its more recent sequel star Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse, a sleazy bio-exoricist summoned to chase new residents from a haunted house.
The cast of the critically acclaimed original film included Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis and Winona Rider.
You’d think that a Walt Disney animated movie would be out of place in this Halloween rogue’s gallery, but Coco fits right in.
The 2017 film follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who is accidentally transported to the Land of the Dead where he seeks the help of his deceased musician great-great-grandfather to return him to his family and reverse their ban on music.
Coco will be screened at the Utah Theatre on Monday, Oct. 20.
If human horrors weren’t bad enough, how do you feel about creepy, crawly spiders?
Arachnophobia is a 1990 horror comedy starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman.
The film follows a small California town that becomes invaded by a deadly spider species and the town’s residents’ struggles against them to avert an ecologic crisis.
Arachnophobia will be screened on Tuesday, Oct. 21 and Wednesday, Oct. 22.
The classic film that started the whole slasher genre, Halloween, will also be screened at 10 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24.
The 1978 independent film by director John Carpenter launched the career of scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis as the teenage babysitter being stalked by the escaped mental patient Michael Myers, who just happens to be slightly “unkillable.”
For a bit of comic relief, the animated feature Monster House will be screened by the Utah Theatre as a free movie at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25.
The plot revolves around a neighborhood being terrorized by a sentient haunted house during the Halloween season.
Monster House stars the voices of well-known actors Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Jon Heder and Kathleen Turner.
That same night, the theater will present the first of three screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at 10 p.m.
That 1975 cult classic – which made Tim Curry a star and the exposure (lots of it, if you know what I mean) didn’t hurt the careers of Susan Sarandon or Barry Bostwick either — is decidedly for adults only, of course.
Another Halloween classic Hocus Pocus will be shown on Monday, Oct. 27.
Hocus Pocus follows a villainous comedic trio of witches played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy who come back to life on Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts.
The Disney film was a box office bomb on initial release in 1993, but has since achieved cult status as a cheerful alternative to darker Halloween movies.
Speaking of Halloween alternatives, next up is Twilight on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
For those of you that have been living on the moon since 2008, The Twilight Saga is the first of a series of romance fantasies that started the whole sexy, teenage vampire craze that eventually gave birth to TV shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.
While waiting breathlessly for the fast approaching holiday, the Utah Theatre will screen Corpse Bride on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
The 2005 film is another stop-motion-animated Gothic fantasy musical (boy, that’s a mouthful) from Tim Burton, following up on the success of Nightmare Before Christmas.
On Thursday, Oct. 30, the theater will screen a double-feature of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 starting at 7 p.m.
The original Ghostbusters was a wildly popular 1984 comedy directed by Ivan Reitman starring Saturday Night Live veterans Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd as well as Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis.
The success of that film led to the sequel Ghostbusters 2, which is nowhere as good as the original, but what do you expect from a double feature?
At midnight on Oct. 30 and 31, the Utah Theatre will present its traditional Halloween film fest finale with screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
All show times for the Halloween film festival at the Utah Theatre will be 7 p.m. unless otherwise specified.
The Utah Theatre is located at 18 West Center Street in downtown Logan.