OKLAHOMA CITY – It’s late October and the time has finally come to face your fears, uncover your eyes, and strap in for some of that good grisly, gory horror fare that defines the Halloween season.
For a lot of people, the autumn time and its defining fall holiday are all about cosplay and candy, but for film fanatics, Halloween means horror movies and horror movies mean blood, beasts, and bone-crushing scares.
And as we all know, horror movies are always better on the big screen with a packed house. It’s just a fact.
So with the thriller night fast approaching, OKC theaters are offering a handful of harrowing horror selections to bring out the gorehound hordes and feed your bloodlust with some legendary monster mainstays.
‘Day of the Dead’ – Rodeo Cinema – October 25th
I’m declaring right now: George Romero’s 1985 bunker-trapped, military paranoia classic “Day of the Dead” is the best zombie movie ever made, full stop.
That might sound like hyperbole, but for my money, there’s never been another stab at the undead genre that better captures the creeping, brain-battering boredom and slow-settling paranoia of being trapped in one fortified area beset on all sides by a murderous, mindless mob.
And that’s because after his seminal “Night of the Living Dead” and dark anti-consumerist satire “Dawn of the Dead,” Romero had no interest in once again rehashing the opening moments and days of the zombie disaster, instead focusing on a group that’s lived under the threat for years.
This loose grouping of science-minded researchers, blue collar maintenance crew, and chest-beating, gun-toting soldiers is rapidly devolving into a powder keg as they’re crammed into an underground bunker where everyone is increasingly losing their minds and societal niceties as an army of hungry, decomposing, once-human monsters waits at the perimeter.
“Day of the Dead” still boasts the best all-practical zombie gore ever filmed (thanks largely to some very real viscera brought in from butchers and meat markets) but the film’s real legacy is the firmness and unfortunate timelessness of its statement.
This was Romero commenting on the global rise of hyper-masculine violence and militant authoritarianism in the 1980s, making it clear that the threat inside in the bunker is quickly becoming greater than the zombies waiting outside. And that’s all because the zombies can work together toward a common goal, but the human survivors are doomed to fall to infighting, suspicion, and prejudice.
Sound familiar?
For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit rodeocinema.org.
‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ – Harkins Bricktown – October 28th
After OKCMOA’s presentation of “Megadoc” – chronicling the making of iconoclastic director Francis Ford Coppola’s divisive and misunderstood “Megalopolis” – audiences can treat themselves to yet another divisive and misunderstood Coppola epic on the big screen with his lavish 1992 take on “Dracula.”
As beloved for Gary Oldman’s iconic and chameleonic turn as the titular vampire lord as it is derided for Keanu Reeves’ lost, overreaching attempt at a Victorian English accent and demeanor as the appropriately wooden Jonathon Harker, what the film should actually be remembered for is its sheer bold creativity.
Coppola’s film is a love letter to the earliest days of horror cinema, insisting on all of the eye-popping visual effects and fantastical gags – including independently moving shadows, monsters transforming into rats, and smoke billowing in reverse – all being accomplished in-camera without the aid of computer graphics.
It’s over-the-top, operatic, joyfully ridiculous, and more than a little cheesy, which is all to say that it’s every bit as great as most of the other classics of the horror genre.
Plus, the opening prologue alone features some of Oldman’s greatest to-the-rafters acting ever on screen.
For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit harkins.com.
‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – October 30th & 31st
It’s safe to say that when director and future horror legend Tobe Hooper was making the dirt-covered, micro-budget bloodbath that is “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” in the early 70’s, the last place he probably expected it to be shown was in a revered fine arts institution.
And yet, here we are.
Hooper’s schlocky, gruesome tale of a group of teenagers that stumble haplessly onto a family of psycho murderers – including the hulking, skin-wearing, chainsaw-wielding Leatherface – is now preserved in the Library of Congress for its cultural and historical significance.
That might seem ridiculous, but it’s true. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” helped to define everything from 20th century American horror and the slasher genre itself to the capabilities of independent cinema and even to the cultural penetration and mass media appeal of teen-centric storytelling.
But the reason it still holds up surprisingly well is because of its budget-necessitated home video/documentary look and its odd, uncomfortable, slow-burn editing that leaves the audience always tensing up in anticipation of the next hammer to the head or chainsaw to the back.
It’s a testament to the single greatest truth of low-budget, B-horror cinema: no amount of money or intention can ever capture the spirit and fun of what a bunch of young, hungry aspiring filmmaker friends can pull off.
So yeah. It’s art.
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 is our Arts and Entertainment Editor. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for 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.
