More and more theaters lately have screened movies in immersive “4DX” experiences, jostling hapless moviegoers’ seats and spraying them with water and air in time with the movie. For an experience equally immersive, but far more mellow, how about watching a movie about human-eating plants surrounded by real (and hopefully tame) foliage? On Thursday, the Somerville Cine-Club returns to the Somerville Community Growing Center for a free, outdoor screening of Roger Corman’s “The Little Shop of Horrors” (1960). While viewers used to the razzle-dazzle of the musical remake might be taken aback by Corman’s low-budget original (legend has it Corman shot the film in two days on sets left over from his previous film), it remains a delightfully ghoulish black comedy, complete with a cameo by a very young Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient. If you find yourself jonesing for even more Jack, head to the Somerville Theatre on Wednesday for a 35 mm double feature of “The Witches of Eastwick” (1987) and “Wolf” (1994)!
We are between legs of Independent Film Festival Boston’s Fall Focus series, but those looking for more previews of the season’s best can return to The Brattle Theatre for this year’s GlobeDocs Festival. Presented by our sister city’s paper of record, GlobeDocs returns to The Brattle with nine new features and a selection of locally produced shorts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of this year’s selections are political in nature, with a special emphasis on crusading journalists: Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Love+War,” about Pulitzer-winning war photographer Lynsey Addario (screening Friday); Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ “Cover-Up,” about investigative reporter Seymour Hersh (screening Saturday); Bao Nguyen’s “The Stringer,” about the search for the photographer behind the infamous Vietnam War “Napalm Girl” image (the festival’s centerpiece selection, screening Saturday); and the closing night selection, Ivy Meeropol’s “Ask E. Jean,” about the venerated author – and Trump adversary – E. Jean Carroll. I would also be remiss if I did not cite Kely Maloney’s “Keytar Bear,” about the beloved local street performer, which screens as part of the local shorts block on Sunday. As always, all screenings are followed by Q&As with the filmmakers and/or subjects; for a complete lineup, check out the official GlobeDocs website.
The Harvard Film Archive’s salute to Portuguese filmmaker Marta Mateus reaches its crescendo this weekend, as the director visits the HFA for Q&As following both of her feature films to date. “Fire of Wind” (2024), screening Saturday, tells a story of vineyard workers who enter a sort of dream space in defiance of their cruel overseer. Similarly, “Barbs, Wastelands” (2017), which screens Monday, brings a lyrical touch to a story of generations of political struggle. Mateus uses nonprofessional actors and lush location photography to bring specificity to her political narratives. The result is altogether unique – as is the opportunity to see this filmmaker present her work in person.
As the clock ticks closer to Halloween, spooky-minded moviegoers have no shortage of viewing options. The Landmark Kendall Square Cinema continues its “October Frights” series with a trio of eerie selections: Tom Savini’s remake of the zombie classic “Night of the Living Dead” (1990, screening Sunday and Monday), starring the late Tony Todd and the director’s signature ooey-gooey special effects; Gore Verbinski’s English-language remake of the Japanese horror classic “The Ring” (2002, screening Tuesday), considered by many to be superior to the original; and Danny Boyle’s massively influential zombie feature “28 Days Later” (2002, screening Wednesday) for those whose appetites have been whet by Boyle’s recent sequel. The Somerville Theatre, meanwhile, has the creepy-kid classic “The Omen” (1976) on Monday, and a horror-comedy double feature of “Ghostbusters” (1984) and “Re-Animator” (1985) on Tuesday – the former projected on 70 mm, the latter on 35 mm.
Then there’s The Brattle, with not one but two of the most fascinating horror programs of the season. First up, The Brattle teams with Goethe-Institut Boston and the German Film Office to present the self-explanatory series “Wild, Weird and Bloody: German Vampires of the ’70s.” Monday brings Hans W. Geißendörfer’s antifascist parable “Jonathan” (1970), about a vampiric aristocrat who sends his minions after his village’s student protesters, and Franz Josef Gottlieb’s Euro-sleaze favorite “Lady Dracula” (1977), followed by Ulli Lommel’s arthouse horror classic “Tenderness of the Wolves” (1973) on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, The Brattle presents a triple feature celebrating the 10th anniversary of the beloved all-horror platform Shudder with some of the streamer’s most celebrated original productions: Issa López’s coming-of-age fable “Tigers Are Not Afraid” (2017), which took the Audience Award at that year’s Boston Underground Film Festival; last year’s folk-horror favorite “Oddity” (2024); and Panos Cosmatos’ hallucinatory “Mandy” (2018), in which Nicolas Cage delivers perhaps the most Nicolas Cage performance of his career. Even if you’re too old to trick or treat, our local cinemas will deliver the sugar rush you’re looking for.
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.
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