ECCENTRIC CINEMA

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)

Saturday, October 3, 9:30 pm

The only cannibal film to have a permanent spot in the Museum of Modern Art, Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece is still shredding audiences’ nerves over fifty years later. This sunbaked nightmare about a group of hippies falling prey to a trio of meat-loving psychos has lost none of its power to terrify. Presented in a 50th anniversary restoration. Starring Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul Partain, Teri McMinn, William Vail, Edwin Neil, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface.

A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)

Saturday, October 10, 9:30 pm

Presented in a new 4K restoration by Severin Films. Mario Bava helped create the slasher framework with this 1971 tale of unscrupulous creeps who are picked off one by one as they battle for control of a wealthy countess’ estate. This is Bava stripped down, forced to work with a tiny budget and short shooting schedule. Though it lacks the lush coloring one associates with filmmaker, the picture makes up for it with sheer madness and brutality. The murder set pieces proved to be so shocking and powerful that the makers of Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part 2 flat out ripped Bava off. If you’ve seen either of those films, you’ll recognize certain sequences in A Bay of Blood. The plagiarism is crazy. Each patron will be given a reproduction of the barf bags handed out to American audiences in the ‘70s when the film was renamed Carnage.

THE ROOM (2003)

Second Saturday of every month
Saturday, October 10, 9:45 pm

Johnny is a successful banker who lives happily in a San Francisco townhouse with his fiancée, Lisa. One day, inexplicably, she gets bored with him and decides to seduce his best friend, Mark. From there, nothing will be the same again.

If you have not experienced The Room at the Drexel, you don’t know what you’re missing. The loyal fans have created their own live experience à la The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They’re always excited to indoctrinate newbies into the cult of Wiseau. A Drexel tradition for 16 years, The Room is a gonzo masterpiece. (2003, dir. Tommy Wiseau)

THE EXORCIST (1973)

Saturday, October 17, 9:30 pm

William Friedkin’s horror hit had audiences lined up for blocks in freezing weather when it opened the day after Christmas in 1973. People were passing out, vomiting, and being taken away in ambulances from the shock of what they witnessed on the big screen. While it might not provoke such extreme reactions fifty-two years later, The Exorcist remains a frightening, merciless picture that will disturb even the most hardened atheist. Starring Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, and Linda Blair as Regan, the adorable young girl who winds up possessed by something calling itself “Captain Howdy”.

FLESHEATER (1988)

Saturday, October 24, 9:30 pm

Twenty years after his appearance as the “Cemetery Zombie” in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Bill Hinzman decided to make a loose follow-up written, produced, directed and starring himself. While it doesn’t match the genius of Romero’s film, Hinzman’s Flesheater is splatter schlock that knows its audience is just looking for some laughs and gnarly zombie attack sequences. After a farmer accidentally unleashes him from his grave, Hinzman’s ghoul roams the chilly Pennsylvania countryside, gnawing on dingbat college kids who are celebrating Halloween. With every bite the zombie horde grows, forcing the townsfolk to take up arms and send these creatures to hell.

DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

Saturday, October 31, 9:30 pm

Celebrate Halloween with us as we screen Geroge Romero’s 1985 classic gut-muncher. The dead walk the earth. All hope seems lost. A small band of survivors have taken refuge in an underground missile bunker. The scientists are desperately looking for a cure. The military personnel assigned to protect them are growing angry and resentful. As the two groups battle each other, the zombie menace outside is growing stronger, hungry for new flesh. Critics dismissed the film when it was released, viewing it as a major step down from Dawn of the Dead. Audiences didn’t appreciate it either, finding it to be too despairing and claustrophobic. Time has been kind to the film. Romero’s cynicism of humanity’s ability to cooperate in the face of destruction feels more honest now than it did forty years ago.