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VAMPYRE WEEKEND
Oct. 30 - Nov. 1
Could the very idea of an evil so base as vampirism represent a kind of contagion? Few gothic fantasies have enjoyed such enduring popularity. The vampire has scarcely gone out of style since Bram Stoker synthesized several macabre strands of history and folklore in his novel Dracula a little over a century ago.
Even so, it seems like vampires are everywhere right now, on our TV screens, in the bookstores, and in the movie theatres. Strikingly, the aristocratic Transylvanian count is out. Today's vampire is a more likely a mixed-up youth, confused and conflicted about his carnal appetites, dangerous addictions and predisposition for the dark. Do these semi-sympathetic modern day demons have something to tell us about our own murky desires?
Come spend Hallowe'en weekend with like-minded ghouls and geeks and find out for yourself. That is, if you dare...
Vampyre Weekend 6-Pack Film Pass
Pick any seven films in our series for a discount rate of $35. Passes available for purchase at Box Office only (not online). VIFC Membership required.
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One of the most highly acclaimed films of the last few years, this superb drama mixes moments of supreme subtlety and grace with searing schlock and horror. Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a lonely 12 year old whose new best friend knows tricks he can scarcely dream of...
"Let the Right One In is a children's film, but you wouldn't want your child to see it. It's a horror film, but the gruesome splatter is the least of its scares. And it's a love story, but the prepubescent kind where sex is a distant idea and loneliness a shared reality. A wicked trick, a cinematic treat, this is some Halloween offering." - Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
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More than anyone, Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) rebooted the image of the vampire with this down and dirty take on an itinerant band of murderous misfits (including Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton), lost rebels who haunt the highway looking for rednecks to suck on...
"A subtle study of the seductiveness of evil and a terrifying ride to the edge of darkness." - Nigel Floyd, Time Out Film Guide.
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In a career of no little daring and eccentricity, Nicolas Cage has never gone further than this deranged, cockroach-munching portrait of an officious yuppie who goes off the deep end after a nibble on the neck. As Pauline Kael noted, "Cage starts over the top and just keeps going… Amazing."
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THE HUNGER
Fri Oct 30 // midnight
Dir: Tony Scott //1983 USA // 97 min // DVD. Starring: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Dan Hedaya.
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Bela Lugosi's dead – just don't tell immortals Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie. Tony Scott's first film doesn't make much sense, but still exerts a stylish frigid eroticism and what the French call "sang-froid"...
"Reeks with chic" – New York Times.
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Zombiemeister Romero tried to bury Dracula once and for all in this deeply-felt portrait of a mentally-disturbed Pittsburgh teenager (John Amplas) who prowls the neighbourhood with hypodermic needles and safety razors...
"The most thoroughgoing and sophisticated re-examination of the vampire figure yet" – Kim Newman, Nightmare Movies.
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Hallowe'en in New York City. Rocked by the death of his father and drowning his sorrows after the end of a relationship, Sam (Fessenden) meets darkly sexy Anna (Meredith Snaider), a night owl with a biting fetish. By the time he realizes she's bad, he's hooked...
"Sad and haunting... Fessenden is a talent to watch." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
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RABID
Sat Oct 31 // 10:20 pm, Sun Nov 1 // 7:15 pm
Dir: David Cronenberg // 1977 Canada // 91 min // DVD
BUY TICKETS
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A one-woman epidemic, the late Marilyn Chambers suffers experimental plastic surgery after a motorcycle accident and develops an all-consuming craving for human blood – which she taps through a phallic barb in her armpit. Cronenberg lays waste to the citizenry of Montreal with typically clinical detachment.
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VAMPYR
Sat Oct 31 // midnight
Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer // 1932 Fr-Ger // 72 min // DVD
BUY TICKETS
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The first sound film by the great Carl Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc), this is a one of the strangest and most beguiling films in the entire horror canon. Presented here in a newly restored digital version, this extraordinarily intense contribution to the cinema of the fantastic is photographed in an eerie half-light, caught between the real world and the surreal. Dreyer himself called it a "waking dream"...
"Dreyer's most radical film – maybe one of my dozen favourite movies." – J Hoberman, Village Voice
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Introduced by film historian Rick Schmidlin (Greed; Touch of Evil)
One of the most injurious "lost" films, London After Midnight was the first Hollywood vampire movie and the most successful of the esteemed collaborations between director Tod Browning and actor Lon Chaney – "the man of a thousand faces". A murder mystery that plays on the supernatural spectre of the vampire (Chaney's make up job is unforgettable), the last remaining print of the film was destroyed in a fire in 1965. Rick Schmidlin's award-winning reconstruction draws on film stills and Browning's original screenplay.
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Browning's quasi-remake of London After Midnight has an all-star cast (Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Jean Hersholt, Elizabeth Allan), other-worldly photography (by James Wong Howe) and an outrageous ending.
"If you're the heir to a rich aunt with a heart condition, take her to this!" one contemporary critic advised.
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Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead) is esteemed anthropologist Dr Hess Jones. When his assistant (played by writer-director Gunn) kills himself, Hess drinks his blood and hangs his body in the freezer. Then the widow, Ganja (Marlene Clark), arrives on his doorstep.
In this rare screening of the restored director's cut (a full half-hour longer than the re-edited linear version that played blaxploitation double-bills in the 70s), Bill Gunn's cult film emerges as a singular and hypnotic meditation on addiction, one of the key movies of its era.
"One of the most unique and poignant tales of horror to be told... a movie all film lovers should see, and film students should learn from." - Tim Doogan, The Digital Bits
"Stunning and complex" - Manthia Diawara and Phyllis Klotman, Jump Cut |
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Call the FILM INFO LINE: 604.683.FILM (3456) for the latest info and listings. Tickets can be purchased in advance on-line at www.vifc.org or in person 30 minutes before showtime.
Adult tickets: $10 (Double Bill - $13)
Student/Senior $8 (Double Bill - $11)
Matinees $8
As a registered non-profit society, the VIFC screens films that have not always been seen by the BC Film Classification Board. Under BC law, any person wishing to see these unclassified films must belong to the VIFC Society and be 19 years or older. Valid for one year based on the date of purchase, the VIFC basic membership cost is $2.00.
For More Membership Information go to http://www.vifc.org/membership.html.
Vancity Theatre is located at 1181 Seymour St. (at Davie)
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