Our city's art movie houses and outdoor film series lead the way in innovative double features and strange film series. A whole week devoted to a single obscure director or a type of comedy that only stars clowns that ride unicycles? Bet a theater here has covered it.
We're still waiting, though, for the summer-winter horror mash-up. Scary snow flicks, where isolation and cold reign, would make a fine and fearsome pairing for the summer frighties.
Which pretty much all deal with water and woods. The most prominent example is "Jaws," a summer blockbuster with a summer feel and a movie that usually gets play around the Fourth of July each year. (Not surprising, since the plot plays out over an everybody-in-the-ocean Fourth of July weekend.)
American Cinematheque is screening this soaky slice of summer horror at The Egyptian, along with a few other what's-in-the-water flicks, over the holiday weekend.
"Jaws" kicks things off -- er, swims things off? -- on Friday, July 5. "Piranha," "Alligator," "Tintorera: Killer Shark," and "Blue Water" play that night or later in the weekend, along with "Grizzly," which, nope, is not a water movie, but water-adjacent.
If you prefer your summer H20 flicks to be of the sweeter, starrier variety, hang tight: a double features starring the lovely Esther Williams is coming up later in the month at the Aero Theatre as well as "Storm Surfers: 3D."
We love the cinema-style cool-off, it is true, especially after this last heat wave. But, seriously, theater owners, you need to get on that winter-summer horror-o-thon. Or, to make it a little trickier, an autumn-spring horror series? Are there even any movies that qualify there?
Some cinephile smartie surely knows.
Photo Credit: Universal Pictures