2016: Retro Screenings

I'm fortunate enough to live near several theaters that often feature retro screenings, and more often than not, the screenings are from actual film prints. Here are the 12 I saw in 2016:


-THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999). Screened in 35mm at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February, it's the first time I sat through the film in its entirety since seeing it in 1999. I still think the documentary CURSE OF THE BLAIR WITCH is better, but I did enjoy the main film after all these years, and for some reason didn't get dizzy this time.


-MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973). Screened in 35mm at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn. Such a great, underrated film with latent Lovecraftian undertones. I missed its early 80s re-release as DEAD PEOPLE so was happy to finally catch it on the big screen. As a bonus, legendary Times Square film distributor Terry Levene stopped by for an informative q&a session.



-DERANGED (1974) Screened in 35mm at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn. It was a cut print as the infamous "skull/brain scoop" scene was missing, but the wonderfully scratchy celluloid was still a treat, and with this audience, some parts I never found funny became hilarious.


-GINGER SNAPS (2000) Screened in 35mm at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn. It was my first time seeing this highly praised werewolf film and I loved it. No idea how I've been missing it all these years.


-I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (1970) Screened digitally from a 4K restoration at the Landmark Sunshine in NYC. Maybe I'm getting old but I didn't see the difference between this version and the DVD edition Fangoria had released several years ago, but it was still nice to see this splatter classic on the Sunshine's big screen.


-HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986) Screened digitally from a 4K restoration at the Landmark Sunshine in NYC. This "30th Anniversary Screening" looked and sounded great, but those of us who attended the second night were promised an appearance by the director, yet he bailed and claimed he had only agreed to a q&a the first night (although his own Facebook page said otherwise). Still a great film but a shitty move by the director.


-LOVE ME DEADLY (1972) Screened digitally at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn. Everything about this film is just so insane you have to love it, even in this tiny 35-seat theater with only 6 of us in attendance. Years before Germany assaulted the world with NEKROMANTIK, this American necrophilia epic, while nowhere near as graphic, is three times as crazy on several levels.


-HAWK JONES (1986) Screened from VHS at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn. Who would've thought an 80s kid's video would make a great midnight movie? Hawk Jones is basically a kiddie blaxploitation film, full of laughs and countless unintentionally inappropriate situations.


-CAGED HEAT (1974) Screened in 35mm at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn. Director Jonathan Demme's debut feature isn't as graphic as the flood of women in prison films to come, but it's one of the best. Demme even dropped by for a q&a session.


-FASCINATION (1979) Screened digitally at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn. I was thrilled to finally see a Jean Rollin film in a theater, and star Brigitte LaHaie looked even more beautiful on the big screen. A fantastic take on the vampire mythos, with blood addicted socialites dealing with criminals who invade their secluded mansion. It's as classy as it sounds...


-CANNIBAL FEROX (1981) Screened in 35mm at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn. With Eli Roth's THE GREEN INFERNO still fresh in everyone's minds, we were all blown away while revisiting CANNIBAL FEROX: it seems Roth not only paid homage to third world cannibal films, but completely ripped this one off! A gut-munching good time.



-BLOOD FEAST (1963) In 35mm at both the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn and The International House in Philadelphia. I had the absolute privilege of seeing the world's first gore film twice this year, first at an HG Lewis marathon in Philly (unfortunately I couldn't stay for the other 4 films that screened, but I met Lewis for the second time, and just a short while before he passed away), and again at the Nitehawk in Brooklyn. 70 minutes of pure, genre-changing mayhem that never gets old...