Starring: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laila Costa
The stress of parenthood is seemingly too much for Reed (Christopher Abbott), who, as a soul-cleansing ritual, meticulously plans the perfect murder. But as his plan unfolds, he realizes that meticulous planning has nothing to do with execution as Reed’s cat-and-mouse game quickly becomes a visually arresting, strange, S&M-infused battle between he and a mysterious call girl named Jackie (Mia Wasikowska).
Based on Ryū Murakami’s novel, Nicolas Pesce’s sophomore film (the follow-up to his 2016 black-and-white shocker THE EYES OF MY MOTHER) is a remarkably unusual experience, infused with colorful visuals and an intoxicating score. An Argento/De Palma homage hidden behind the facade of a dark comedy about stabbing, PIERCING cements Pesce as one of the boldest and brightest new directors in the genre.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah, M. Emmet Walsh
Part of our recipe book series NITEHAWK CINEMA PRESENTS. Show your ticket at the bar after the movie to buy a copy of the book for only $20!
This is the The Final Cut version of the film, released on the 25th anniversary in 2007
In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to kill a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.
Introduced by author Chris Nashawaty, whose book The Future Was Now will be available for purchase after the screening.
Starring: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Burgess Meredith, Mickey Rooney
Made on a lavish budget by Otto Preminger and featuring an all-star cast that includes Groucho Marx in his last screen appearance, SKIDOO is a comic tale that blends gangster melodrama with the 1960s’ psychedelia.
Tony Banks is a reformed mob hit man who runs an honest car wash with his wife Flo. The first of their many troubles begins when their daughter gets involved with a hippie. Next, ex-mob boss God calls up and says that he wants Tony to ice “Blue Chips” Packard before he testifies in court. The trouble is that Packard is in prison. At first Tony refuses, but when God orders Tony’s best friend shot, he changes his mind and is sent to prison where he is to cozy up to Packard and kill him. But all bets are off after Tony accidentally ingests LSD and goes on a hallucinatory head trip that results in his decision not to kill Packard. Instead, he plans an elaborate escape that lands them into even bigger, more crazy trouble.
Starring: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Cary Elwes
Based on Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel, this film from Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter James Victor Hart offers a full-blooded portrait of the immortal Transylvanian vampire. The major departure from Stoker is one of motivation as Count Dracula is motivated more by romance than by bloodlust. He punctures the necks as a means of avenging the death of his wife in the 15th century, and when he comes to London, it is specifically to meet heroine Mina Harker, the living image of his late wife.
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis
When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.
Starring: Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard
40th anniversary screening. Co-hosted by writer Abbey Bender.
Slinking through the streets of New Orleans with a score by Giorgio Moroder and theme song from David Bowie, Cat People is a gooey, sultry exercise in style directed by Paul Schrader. Nastassja Kinski stars as Irena, a woman reuniting with her brother Paul (Malcolm McDowell), whom she was separated from as a child. After only hinting at what their parents were like, Paul disappears just as a murderous black leopard terrorizes the town. Captured and caged by zoologist Oliver (John Heard), the leopard has a mysterious hold on Irena, who in turn enchants Oliver. Irena is resistant as something stirs within her, something she’s known may have been kept hidden all along…
Keep track of the erotic thriller tropes with your Nitehawk Diaries Bingo card!
Starring: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Joe Belcher
Two American college students are on a walking tour of Britain and are attacked by a werewolf. One is killed, the other is mauled. The werewolf is killed but reverts to its human form, and the local townspeople are unwilling to acknowledge its existence. The surviving student begins to have nightmares of hunting on four feet, but then finds that his friend and other recent victims appear to him, demanding that he commit suicide to release them from their curse.
Starring: Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Arno Jürging, Dalila Di Lazzaro
In Serbia, Baron Frankenstein lives with the Baroness and their two children. He dreams of a super-race, returning Serbia to its grand connections to ancient Greece. In his laboratory, assisted by Otto, he builds a desirable female body, but needs a male who will be super-body and super-lover. He thinks he has found just the right brain to go with a body he’s built, but he’s made an error, taking the head of an asexual ascetic. Meanwhile, the Baroness has her lusts, and she fastens on Nicholas, a friend of the dead lad. Can the Baron pull off his grand plan? He brings the two zombies together to mate. Meanwhile, Nicholas tries to free his dead friend. What about the Baron’s children?
Starring: Ben Dickey, Alia Shawkat, Josh Hamilton, Charlie Sexton
BLAZE is inspired by the life of Blaze Foley, the unsung songwriting legend of the Texas outlaw music movement that spawned the likes of Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. The film weaves together three different periods of time, braiding re-imagined versions of Blaze’s past, present and future. The different strands explore his love affair with Sybil Rosen; his last, dark night on earth; and the impact of his songs and his death had on his fans, friends, and foes. The braided storyline terminates in a bittersweet ending that acknowledges Blaze’s profound highs and lows, as well as the impressions he made on the people who shared his journey.
