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John Landis knows a thing or two about movie monsters. He's written & directed creature classics An American Werewolf in London & Michael Jackson's Thriller, and distilled decades of knowledge into a new book, Monsters in the Movies. To promote the book, the Egyptian has given the mad doctor Landis free rein to unleash black & white terrors to feast on your fears all weekend long.
Thursday, the Monsters in the Movies series presents a rare 1930s double of Island of Lost Souls (a Charles Laughton-led adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau) & Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the first horror movie to ever win an Oscar). John Landis will appear in person to introduce the films & series. Friday, music soothes the savage beasts, as another John (Leguizamo) appears for a 10th anniversary screening of Moulin Rouge! Saturday, bring your best bolts for a dead man's party of Karloff classics: Frankenstein (the scariest 80 year old in cinema), Bride of Frankenstein (arguably Hollywood's first horror-comedy) & Son of Frankenstein (co-starring fellow legend Bela Lugosi). Sunday, the bodies return to the ground, but the spirit remains with horror-house films The Innocents & The Haunting.
Film Calendar favorite Werner Herzog has technically directed only one horror film, a 1978 adaptation of Nosferatu. That being said, his work shares the monster movie's fascination with nature run amok & mankind's frantic strive to survive amid deadly chaos. Hope you're well rested from last weekend's 12-hour marathon at the New Beverly, because the Goethe-Institut's Wernerfest! runs from noon to midnight Saturday. It's about to get grisly, man.
The line-up presents a perfect primer on Herzog's career, balancing documentary shorts & feature films. The documentary side spans 40 years, from his very first short (1962's Herakles) through the aughts, including Little Dieter Needs to Fly (later adapted into Christian Bale-led Rescue Dawn) & Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (which is exactly what it sounds like). Features include the aforementioned Nosferatu & Aguirre: The Wrath of God (starring cult actor Klaus Kinski, Herzog's mad muse & "best fiend"), with even more to come. The best part? $10 for the whole day.
Full list appears below. See you at the movies!
All Week
The Autobiography Of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
Benda Bilili! (2010) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
A Bird of the Air (2011) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Blackthorn (2011) (The Landmark) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Dirty Girl (2011) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Dr. Love (2011) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
The Help (2011) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
How I Got Lost (2009) (Downtown Independent)
Machine Gun Preacher (2011) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
The Mill and the Cross (2011) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
My Afternoons With Margueritte (2010) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
Rascals (2011) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
Senna (2010) (Lammle's BLVD)
The Swell Season (2011) (Downtown Independent)
Toast (2010) (Nuart Theatre)
Where Soldiers Are Born (2011) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
The Women on the Sixth Floor (2010) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Royal Theatre) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Thursday 10/6
Dirty Girl (2011) (sneak preview w/ director Abe Sylvia) (Melnitz Movies)
Drive (2011) (Arclight Hollywood) (Arclight Sherman Oaks) (21+ show)
An Evening With John Lithgow (Aero Theatre)
Halloween II (1981) / A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) / Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Friday Night Frights Presents Franchise Thursdays)
Island of Lost Souls (1932) / Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) (w/ John Landis) (Egyptian Theatre) (John Landis Presents Monsters in the Movies)
Jose & Pilar (2011) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
Moneyball (2011) (Arclight Beach Cities) (21+ show)
Open Screen (Echo Park Film Center)
The Set-Up (1949) / Fat City (1972) (New Beverly Cinema)
The Woman (2011) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Yoga Is (2011) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Friday 10/7
Daughters of the Dust (1991) / Four Women (1975) (w/ filmmaker Julie Dash & actors Tommy Redmond Hicks & Bahni Turpin) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema)
Francis in the Haunted House (1956) (Old Town Music Hall)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) (w/ producer Nigel Sinclair) (Melnitz Movies)
Georgio Moroder's Metropolis (1927/1984) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence (2010) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
Moulin Rouge (2001) (w/ John Leguizamo) (Egyptian Theatre)
The Sentimental Engine Slayer (2010) (Downtown Independent)
Serpico (1973) / 12 Angry Men (1957) (Aero Theatre) (Mad as Hell: Sidney Lumet's Cinema of Fighting Back)
Shaun of the Dead (2004) (Regency Academy) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
Stop Motion Magazine Film Festival (Echo Park Film Center)
The Woman (2011) (sneak preview) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Saturday 10/8
Army of Darkness (1992) (Long Beach Cinematheque) (Downtown Drive-In)
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2011) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Bush Mama (1975/1979) (w/ filmmaker Bernard Nicolas) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema)
Carlos Montes Benefit (Echo Park Film Center)
The Doors (1991) (w/ Doors drummer John Densmore) (Aero Theatre)
The Forgotten Space (2010) (free premiere) (LACMA)
Francis in the Haunted House (1956) (Old Town Music Hall)
Frankenstein (1931) / Bride of Frankenstein (1935) / Son of Frankenstein (1939) (Egyptian Theatre) (John Landis Presents Monsters in the Movies)
Georgio Moroder's Metropolis (1927/1984) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence (2010) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
The Mill and the Cross (2011) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Live Shadowcast Midnight Show) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Insanity Midnight Show) (South Coast Village Regency Theaters)
Spirits of Rebellion: Black Film at UCLA (2011) (w/ filmmaker Zeinabu irene Davis) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema)
Wernerfest! (w/ refreshments & Werner Herzog) (Goethe-Institut)
Young Frankenstein (1974) (Devil's Night Drive In)
Sunday 10/9
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2011) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Dream States: The Avant-Garde of the 1940s and 1950s (Los Angeles Filmforum) (Egyptian Theatre)
Filmmaker Panel (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema)
Francis in the Haunted House (1956) (Old Town Music Hall)
Georgio Moroder's Metropolis (1927/1984) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
The Hitcher (1986) (w/ screenwriter Eric Red) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Up From the Depths: Rare Horror)
In Cold Blood (1967) (The Bay Theatre)
The Innocents (1961) / The Haunting (1963) (Egyptian Theatre) (John Landis Presents Monsters in the Movies)
The Mill and the Cross (2011) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Network (1976) / The Pawnbroker (1965) (Aero Theatre) (Mad as Hell: Sidney Lumet's Cinema of Fighting Back)
Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space (1981) / Shorts (w/ filmmakers) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema)
