Through numerous sequels and countless slasher knock-offs, not to mention the recent Rob Zombie “reimagining,” John Carpenter’s Halloween is still the best of its kind, a suggestive and genuinely frightening horror film that’s worth the grisly flotsam left in its wake. After stabbing his sister to death as a young boy, the remorseless Michael Myers spent years in a mental institution under the supervision of psychiatrist Donald Pleasence, waiting patiently for a chance to return to his hometown. Assigned to babysit two kids on Halloween night, Jamie Lee Curtis is the only person standing between the killer and the town’s many horny teenagers. Defusing the tension somewhat here is Master Pancake Theater’s cadre of expert hecklers, who will be joined for this special performance by one of the originators of the genre, Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer Mary Jo Pehl.

Sam Raimi began his relentlessly inventive Evil Dead series in 1981, establishing the modern blueprint for young filmmakers with tiny budgets, clever ideas, and little interest in art for art’s sake. The plan: Make a grubby genre picture and load it up with ironic humor and excessive style. Raimi blew a stack of Hollywood money on the third installment, 1993’s Army Of Darkness, a good-natured but half-baked homage to Ray Harryhausen. The now-iconic Bruce Campbell stars as a dim retail clerk who’s sucked back into the medieval era with only a chainsaw and a shotgun as defense against the battalion of skeletal demons that plague him. It’s the least of the series, but it appeals to the sort of cultists who prefer their love objects to be deeply flawed, the better to celebrate their own offbeat taste. They should be out in full force for this quote-along, which provides the opportunity to shout lines like “This is my boomstick!” along with a theater full of fanboys.

Nothing is better — or worse, depending on who you ask — than gratuitous pop star Christmas albums, especially when blaring out of the Alamo’s surround sound speakers and accompanied by silly music videos.read more at austin360.com