OKLAHOMA CITY — October, surely, is the biggest and most anticipated movie-watching month of the year.
The summer blockbuster slate can fall flat, the winter awards season can be too pretentious and artsy for some, and when temperatures brighten up in the springtime, people would rather be outside than in a theater or on the couch.
But practically everyone loves a Halloween horror marathon in October.
Of course, not every movie watched and loved in the early October days of autumn has to be horror (and even one of the entries here is definitely not.) But the fun and frights of the genre do lend themselves to the communal gatherings and raucous packed screenings that we’re all clamoring for at this point each year.
So if you’re looking to fill your October nights with some creepy classics, some goofy gore, or some unhinged, interactive ridiculousness, OKC theaters have you covered all month long.
‘The Lost Boys’ – White Rabbit – Tuesday, October 8th
One of the scene’s newest developing hotspots is White Rabbit in the Farmers Market area downtown, doing coffee during the day and full bar all night, with small-scale concerts, movie screenings, and whatever else tickles their fancy and brings people out.
And for the spot’s very first October, that means holiday-perfect horror movies every Tuesday night all month long.
Next up is the 80s’ most immortal vampire/teen movie/romance, “The Lost Boys,” with all its bloody, New Wave angst, its legendary rock soundtrack, and of course, cinema history’s greatest shirtless, saxophone-wailing beefcake.
It’s fun, wacky, self-serious and dramatic in parts and riotously goofy in others, and it went a long way toward officially launching “the Coreys” (Haim and Feldman) into the kid-star stratosphere.
It’s easily one of the decade’s best and bloodiest vampire movies, and might just be the perfect example of how fun 80s Hollywood horror could be.
And if you really want to recapture that timeless feeling of staying up late and watching “The Lost Boys” as a kid, you’re in luck. White Rabbit offers chocolate chip cookies and milk to all hours of the night.
For more info, follow @whiterabbit_okc on Instagram.
‘The Room’ 20th Anniversary Celebration w/ Greg Sestero – Rodeo Cinema Stockyards – Thursday, October 17th
2003’s legendarily awful “The Room” isn’t a horror movie per se, but it does perfectly capture the DIY spirit and insanity of the best low-budget indie horror flicks.
And it is horrifically bad.
But that also makes it uproariously fun to watch with a packed audience, and to scream the ridiculous lines back at the screen and interact in all the ways that diehards that developed over the past two decades.
And all of that is significantly more fun when the film’s Mark himself, the great Greg Sestero, is in house and playing along.
I’ve chatted with Sestero a couple of times in recent years, and not only is he a huge fan of Rodeo Cinema and of OKC in general, but he’s also a horror hound that loves talking – and making – creatively weird indie horror fare.
You’ll want to be in the theater when he rolls back through to celebrate twenty years of one of the best-worst movies of all time.
Plus, in perfect Halloween fashion, they’re encouraging costumes. So get dressed to the nines and start practicing your best “Oh hi, Mark.”
For tickets and more information, visit rodeocinema.org.
‘Suspiria’ – Rodeo Cinema Film Row – Wednesday, October 23rd
So maybe instead of all the fun and laughs of 80s horror and b-movie trash, you’re wanting to settle in for something genuinely creepy and legitimately terrifying.
Well, it’s still difficult to beat this most undying offering from Italian surrealist-horror maestro Dario Argento.
This 1977 horror classic spins the story of an American dancer aspiring to the grandest ballet stages and her descent into a morbidly supernatural European dance academy controlled from the shadows by increasingly dark, murderous forces.
Like all of Argento’s greatest output, the frights are less jumpy and light on the outright gore, but are loaded with disturbing scenes, cerebral scares, and nightmarish scenarios that get under your skin and into your head in some horrific ways.
And it also features the horrifying “razor wire” scene, still one of the most painful, uncomfortable, and shiver-inducing pieces of bodily horror imagery just in concept alone.
For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit rodeocinema.org.
‘The Birds’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – Saturday, October 26th
If 70s Argento isn’t quite classic enough for you, then you need some Hitchcock for your Halloween.
Just in case you haven’t had your fill of the great Alfred Hitchcock after OKCMOA’s season-long Edith Head film series – which featured a number of timeless films from the “master of suspense” – the museum will be screening perhaps his greatest straight-up horror offering just in time for the haunted holiday.
It’s difficult to think of a film more instrumental to the epic, disaster-horror genre than Hitch’s “The Birds,” the tale of a group trapped in an avian apocalypse after the birds of the world finally turn on mankind.
Even after more than half a century, it still holds up in its thrills and the simple, chilling imagery of its thousands of feathered killers darkening the sky.
And come on, what would the Halloween season be without at least one Hitchcock viewing?
For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit okcmoa.com.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.