Our movies calendar returns with low-budget spookiness in Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead and new Micro-Wave Cinema. Plus, Ace in the Hole.
Wednesday
Carnival of Souls (7:00p — Bos Meadery)
Undercutting Night of the Living Dead by six years and $80,0000 (more on that later), Herk Harvey’s Salt Lake oddity is steeped in loneliness and the horrors of solitude. Candace Hilligoss is visited by a mysterious, pale-faced apparition (Harvey himself) during a late night drive and from there begins experiencing strange phenomena with herself and with others, most of whom think she’s gone insane. The reappearance of Harvey’s apparition doesn’t help things, although Hilligoss as a professional organist is right up there with mortician and groundskeeper for careers that are just asking for it. (FREE admission.)
Sand Storm (7:00p — MMoCA Auditorium)
When a Bedouin man (Haitham Omari) takes a second wife, his first wife (Ruba Blal-Asfour) is not exactly ecstatic at the thought of being the older of two spouses; she’s also getting undermined by their daughter (Lamis Ammar), who’s taken it upon herself to have a boyfriend. The setting of Sand Storm threatens conservative strictures but leaves any critique of Eastern stuffiness to ultimately play second-fiddle to its characters, preferring the complex outcomes its loaded family dynamics hint at. ($7 or FREE for MMoCA members.)
Thursday
Mulholland Dr. (6:00p — Central Library, Rm 302)
Ostensibly the story of an aspiring actor (Naomi Watts) desperate to find her big break in Hollywood, Mulholland Dr. raises more questions than it answers — and then everything turns in on itself. Among the finest of Lynch’s works, this turn-of-the-century takedown of the Hollywood Dream Factory maintains a sublime balance of arthouse opacity and inviting mystique via Lynchian essentials likes strange boxes, jumbled identities, and a face one never hopes to see outside of a dream. (FREE admission.)
All freakin’ weekend
The Birth of a Nation (Sundance, AMC Star)
The national conversation about Nate Parker’s adaptation of Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion has transformed so much in the eight months since its premiere at Sundance. Prematurely hailed as a “Best Picture” contender after its ecstatic reception in Utah, Parker’s one-man show (Parker also stars as Turner himself) resonated with many as a full-bodied cultural pushback against cop violence and the nonsense of “All Lives Matter,” and Fox Searchlight’s record-setting acquisition only reinforced the zeitgeist. And then news (re)surfaced about Parker and fellow Penn State student Jean Celestin’s sexual assault case of a classmate that allegedly led to the victim’s suicide. Whether one sees artistic merit in The Birth of a Nation or reduces it to a slick allegory of one man’s troubled and now documented history with others seems still up for debate. (Showtimes and admission vary.)
Friday
Night of the Living Dead (10:00p, 12:10a — Marcus Point)
The exact origins of zombie representation in pop culture are all over the place, but make no mistake: George A. Romero’s game changer simultaneously kickstarted its director’s career while introducing pop culture at large to the walking dead. Such a lasting impression is indebted to Romero’s thrifty special effects, using processed meats for flesh and chocolate syrup for blood. There’s also the stone cold seriousness of it all, which infamously traumatized unsuspecting audiences in 1968 and children who knew nothing of PG-13 ratings. ($5.)
Saturday
Metropolis (7:00p — Capitol Theater)
The Overture’s “Duck Soup Cinema” turns 30 this year, and the silent film program will celebrate its milestone with a five-show season up, from the traditional three. Fritz Lang’s chiaroscuro epic is the first. ($10.)
Sunday
Ace in the Hole (2:00p — Chazen Art Museum)
Floundering at a New Mexico paper, Kirk Douglas works his way back to a top outlet by manipulating the story and circumstances of a man trapped in a cave. Cynical to the bone, Billy Wilder surprised just about everyone with Ace in the Hole and bear in mind, this is from the guy who basically called Tinsel Town a soul-sucking enterprise just a year prior, so that’s saying something. Then again, Ace in the Hole is now so well-regarded it frequently ranks among enthusiasts’ top choices in the Criterion Collection. That’s also saying something. (FREE admission.)
collective: unconscious (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Madison’s micro-budget film series has a pair of screenings this month primed for Oct (with “Halloween Shorts” set for Oct 30), and this week’s collection of shorts features five directors interpreting one another’s dreams. The resulting subject matter is a melting pot of sleepy logic and absurd scenarios, like if Death incarnate hosted a television show or what a classroom “Volcano Drill” might look like. A Skype Q&A will follow with featured director Frances Bodomo, whom Wisconsin Film Festival attendees may remember for her spacey Civil Rights allegory Afronauts. (FREE admission.)