What's Playing? Your Guide To The Movies Showing at Indie Theaters Around LA

Once again, this weekend is packed with great screenings in vintage movie theaters across Los Angeles.

Here are some highlights from what's playing around town, with something for everybody ...

For the prom queens

Carrie

The Vista

May 3 and 4 @ 12 a.m.

Tickets are $15, more details here.

Synopsis: If you have a taste for terror, take Carrie to the prom at this midnight screening. This flick, directed by Brian De Palma and written by Stephen King, is still a thrill to see on film. When sheltered Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) defies her domineering, religious mother (Piper Laurie) by going to the prom, her classmates try to humiliate her, and all hell breaks loose.

You’ll like this if … you’ve enjoyed other De Palma thrillers like Blow Out, Stephen King classics like The Shining, or other films about the terror of being a teen girl like Mean Girls (2004).

For May The 4th

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum

May 4 @ 11 a.m.

Tickets are $10, more details here.

Synopsis: May the Fourth be with you at this afternoon screening of the finale of the original Star Wars trilogy! Return of the Jedi picks up with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) trapped in carbonite, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) reeling from discovering his true father … space battles, incredible sound, visual effects and Ewoks ensue.

You’ll like this if … I mean… it’s Star Wars.

For the Kurosawa curious

High and Low

New Beverly Cinema

May 4 @ 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $13, more details here.

Synopsis: In this Japanese domestic drama and police procedural, Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is a wealthy executive whose family becomes the target of kidnappers. He must decide — use a vast sum of money to complete a corporate buyout, or pay the ransom of a young boy? It’s a race-against-time thriller directed by the incomparable Akira Kurosawa.

You’ll like this if …You’re into other Kurosawa films like Seven Samurai, procedural films like David Fincher’s Zodiac, or domestic thrillers that also critique class and society like Parasite.

For the horror lovers

Prince of Darkness

American Cinematheque at Los Feliz 3

May 4 @ 10 p.m.

Tickets are $8 for members, $13 for general admission, more details here.

Synopsis: Have a night out in Los Feliz and then tuck into this vintage theater for a classic from the master of horror, John Carpenter. This is a classic “oops, we released Satan” flick — when a group of graduate students and scientists spend the night in an abandoned church with an ancient, ominous canister, it doesn’t take long for things to get goopy and bloody.

You’ll like this if … you dig other Carpenter classics like The Thing or Halloween, or you loved watching grad students tempt death in Flatliners (1990).

For the rock n' roll fanatics

Phantom of the Paradise

Vidiots

May 5 @ 7 p.m.

Tickets are $12, more details here.

This screening is sold out online but there will be stand-by tickets available at the box office 30 minutes before the show.

Synopsis: He sold his soul for rock n’ roll! It’s another Brian De Palma flick, but this time, the horror is rooted in the evils of the music industry. Singer-songwriter Winslow Leech (William Finley) is double crossed by music producer Swan (Paul Williams), and disfigured in an accident. Without his music, his voice, or the girl he hoped would sing his songs (Jessica Harper), he vows revenge on rock venue The Paradise. A rock movie musical with songs penned by the legendary Paul Williams AND a visit from him in person at Vidiots, it’s worth braving the stand-by line for this.

You’ll like this if … you’re into other rock musicals from the time like Rocky Horror Picture Show, or Paul Williams songs like those in The Muppet Movie, or if you just want to see the movie that inspired Daft Punk.