Plan 9 From Outer Space

Opening:

BIG GRANDPA—Johnny Knoxville tours the country dressed as an 86-year-old in another attempt to wring some money out of the Jackass concept. Directed by Jeff Tremaine. Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Transit Drive-In

CONCUSSION—Lesbian drama starring Sons of Anarchy’s Robin Weigert and Maggie Siff. Directed by Stacie Passon. Amherst

THE COUNSELOR—Cormac McCarthy wrote the script for this drama starring Michael Fassbender as a Texas lawyer who gets in over his head when he decides to “invest” in a drug deal. With Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. Directed by Ridley Scott (Prometheus). Reviewed this issue. Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

INEQUALITY FOR ALL—Adapting his bestselling book Aftershock, former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich explores the disappearance of the American middle class and proposes ways to fix our damaged economy. Directed by Jacob Kornbluth (Haiku Tunnel). See related article here. Eastern Hills

WADJDA—A Saudi girl (Waad Mohammed) tries to find a way to buy a bicycle in a culture that is more concerned with having her take a place as a wife. Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour. Reviewed this issue. Amherst, Eastern Hills

ETC:

CONTRACORRIENTE (UNDERTOW, 2010)—In this ghost story set on the Peruvian seaside, a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions. Directed by Javier Fuentes León. Thurs 10/31/13 5 pm Canisius College, Student Center/Regis North

DEAD MAN (1995)— Jim Jarmusch’s meditation on America and death may be his masterpiece. Johnny Depp stars as an Eastern accountant who travels west in 1876 for a job, only to meet his fate with the help of a Native American (Gary Farmer) who thinks he is the reincarnation of the poet William Blake. With an improvised guitar score by Neil Young and plenty of odd cameos, including Iggy Pop, Robert Mitchum, and Crispin Glover. Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminar. Market Arcade

DRY BONES—Locally produced horror comedy starring Michael O’Hear as a man revisiting the family house where the monster that lived under his childhood bed awaits him. Co-starring Debbie Rochon, John Renna, and Paul McGinnis. Directed by Greg Lamberson. Screening Room

HOMEGROWN HORROR WEEKEND—Two programs of short and feature horror films produced by Hamburg’s Deftone Studios. New Angola

THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959)—Vincent Price bets his guests $10,000 they can’t spend the night in his haunted house in William Castle’s camp classic, presented here in the original “Emergo!” process. Presented by the Buffalo International Film Festival. Sun 7pm. Lancaster Opera House, 21 Central Avenue, Lancaster

MICKEY ONE (1965)—Hallwalls’ Jazz Noir 2 series continues with Warren Beatty as a nightclub comic on the run from the mob. Score by Eddie Sauter and Stan Getz. Directed by Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde). Hallwalls.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)—The shocking no-budget verisimilitude of George Romero’s original zombie film is just as effective as it was when it first leaked into drive-ins a quarter century ago, as long as you can see it with an audience not intent on making a joke of it. Angola Screening Room, Screening Room

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)—Ed Wood’s best remembered film is hardly the “worst movie ever made,” but it is one of the most entertaining bad ones. The fun lies not in the story about aliens intent on destroying Earth but from the cardboard sets, stock footage, and overripe acting from an assortment of Hollywood wannabes (padded out with a few minutes of left-over footage of Bela Lugosi, shot just before his death). Screening Room

POLTERGEIST (1982)—JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson call on the magic munchkin to help get their kid out of the TV set in Tobe Hooper’s (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) attempt at a mainstream horror movie. Aurora, Hamburg Palace, Transit Drive-In

EL REGRESO (THE RETURN, Costa Rica 2011)—A man is forced to deal with the ghosts of his past when he pays a visit to his home in Costa Rico after a decade spent abroad. Directed by Hernán Jiménez. Part of the Ibero-American Film Festival. Thu Oct 24 5pm. Canisius College, Student Center/Conference Room SC 205

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1976)—Becaue it just wouldn’t be Halloween without it. Aurora, Hamburg Palace, Lockport Palace, Riviera

THE SHINING (1980)—Stanley Kubricks’s remake of Last Year at Marienbad, sort of. Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Scatman Crothers. Transit Drive-In

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)—Mel Brooks’ parody of classic Universal monster movies is probably his best film. If you can’t laugh at Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and his monster (Peter Boyle) doing a soft-shoe to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” there’s no hope for you. Screening Room

ZOMBIE KIDS—Premiere of a short film directed by 13-year-old Hope Muehlbauer. Screening Room