There is an argument to be made that documentary is cinema in its most vital and pressing form; no other genre is able to create change or save lives as immediately or directly. The GlobeDocs Film Festival, which kicked off at the Coolidge Corner Theatre this week and moves to The Brattle Theatre for the weekend, is the Boston area’s only festival devoted exclusively to the form – and given the state of the world in 2024, we’ve rarely needed it so badly. The party moves to The Brattle on Friday with the festival’s centerpiece selection, Asif Kapadia’s “2073,” a rare documentary-science fiction that places actor Samantha Morton in a hypothetical dystopian vision of our nation’s future, visualized through actual footage of our dystopian present. Saturday brings together a wide range of subjects, from drug rehabilitation efforts in Worcester (Lisa Olivieri’s “Recovery City”) to a bizarre online phishing scandal (“Whatever It Takes”) to the wild life of homemaking icon Martha Stewart (“Martha”). Sunday closes out the festival with a pair of self-evidently relevant features: closing night selection “Zurawski v Texas,” about the post-Roe chaos that has enveloped that state, and “Separation,” from legendary filmmaker (and Cambridge native) Errol Morris. “Separation,” about the horrific human rights abuses under the Donald Trump presidential administration, made headlines this month when NBC announced it would hold on airing it until after the election.
Of course, this being Halloween week, there is no shortage of options for those who prefer their frights more fantastical. In anticipation of an upcoming remake from horror maestro Robert Eggers, moviegoers will have a choice of screenings of F.W. Murnau’s silent vampire classic “Nosferatu” (1922) accompanied by a radically different soundtracks. On Saturday, the Somerville Theatre will present a midnight screening of the film synced to selections from rock band Radiohead’s ethereal twin masterpieces “Kid A” and “Amnesiac.” On Wednesday, Count Orlok and his minions will grace the screen of The Brattle with a live musical accompaniment by the Andrew Alden Ensemble. In either case, you will easily understand why “Nosferatu” remains revered more than a century later: between Murnau’s haunting, expressionistic visuals and the unforgettably feral performance of lead actor Max Schreck, the film takes on the air of a truly malevolent nightmare on screen. (If, on the other hand, you’ve seen “Nosferatu” a million times, you may want to check out the new restoration of Roland West’s 1920 silent comic mystery “The Bat,” with live musical accompaniment by the inimitable Jeff Rapsis!)
It wouldn’t be Halloween at the Somerville without an installment of its annual Halloween Hullabaloo program, and this year brings four ace double features from the great genre curator Julia Marchese. Sunday brings Frank Henenlotter’s grindhouse classic “Basket Case” (1982) – a must for anyone who dug the grotesque finale of this year’s “The Substance” – paired with the wild kiddie-horror favorite “The Gate” (1987). Monday brings together two all-timer ’80s zom-coms, the fractured frat house comedy “Night of the Creeps” (1986) and the post-apocalyptic valley girl epic “Night of the Comet” (1984). Those who prefer “spoopy” to scary might want to swing by on Tuesday for the ever-beloved “Beetlejuice” (1988) and Frank Oz’s musical version of “Little Shop of Horrors” (1986), the latter surely of interest to those who caught the original this month during the Brattle’s Roger Corman retrospective. The series closes Tuesday with the twin big bangs of the slasher flick boom: John Carpenter’s original “Halloween” (1978), which really does need to be seen on the big screen to appreciate all of Carpenter’s nearly subliminal background touches, and the franchise-launching “Friday the 13th”(1980). You may be too old to trick-or-treat, but the selections here are nearly as good as gorging yourself on a yearly candy haul.
Not to be outdone, The Brattle will celebrate the holiday with its own traditional screenings. On Monday, catch a 35 mm screening of Masaki Kobayashi’s classic folk-horror anthology film “Kwaidan” (1964), bringing together four lavishly shot adaptations of traditional Japanese ghost stories. Then, on Monday and Tuesday, be sure to catch the annual screenings of Sam Raimi’s deathless splatter-comedy classic “Evil Dead II” (1987). Essentially a stand-alone film rather than a sequel (Raimi was unable to include footage from the original, so he instead shot an abridged 10-minute remake as a prologue), “Evil Dead II” is perhaps the perfect party movie for Halloween, mixing gallons of blood and genuinely spooky imagery with a madcap sense of anything-goes humor, as embodied by Raimi’s rubber-faced, seemingly indestructible leading man Bruce Campbell. If you’ve never seen it – or if you’ve seen it only at home – believe me when I say that it’s just about the most fun you can have on Halloween, especially at The Brattle’s reliably raucous screenings. It is, in a word, groovy.
If you’re looking for an excuse to dress up on Halloween proper, head to the Somerville for its yearly screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975) with a live shadowcast performance by the Teseracte Players. Volumes can be, and have been, written about the enduring phenomenon that is “Rocky Horror,” the ne plus ultra of midnight movies (though this screening is at the more merciful hour of 8 p.m.) with an audience participation element that has become inseparable from the film itself, and which served as a giant leap forward for queer and trans issues in the mainstream American consciousness nearly 50 years ago. Others can surely write about all of that more adroitly than I can, but what I can say is that the movie itself, from its infectious glam rock soundtrack to its iconic performance from Tim Curry as “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank-N-Furter, is simply a deliriously fun work of 1970s excess. If you’ve never seen it on the big screen, this is your perfect opportunity – just be careful about who you let know that you’re a “virgin.”
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.