Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
Based on the short story The Greatest Gift, Frank Capra’s annual holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life has a somewhat bleak undertone that morphs into a celebration of being alive during the most wonderful time of the year. After businessman George Bailey wishes that he’s never been born, an angel is sent down to Earth to make George’s wish come true. It’s only until then that George can realize how many lives he’s changed and impacted and how different the world would be if he had never been there.
Nitehawk opens the vault of horror with a film that puts a little spirit into the holidays, the Amicus anthology TALES FROM THE CRYPT.
A 35mm presentation.
Tales From the Crypt adapts five stories from the EC archives (though, only two are actually Tales from the Crypt titles), all told through the frame of the Crypt Keeper telling five unfortunate souls their inevitable, grizzly fates. Hailing from all sorts of wretched walks of life (and, notably, all from privileged lifestyles), the film’s stars—including Joan Collins, Ian Hendry, Robin Phillips, Richard Greene and Nigel Patrick—have run-ins with a variety of ghoulies who teach them all harsh life lessons by brutally murdering them. And while the creepiest Santa imagery you’ll ever see is in the first segment, “And All Through the House”, there’s an Xmas spirit of redemption in all of them.
Read our blog post about TALES FROM THE CRYPT by clicking here!
Part of Nitehawk’s December NITEHAWK HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR series!
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Robert Conrad, Martin Mull
Workaholic Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) wants to make things up to his son, Jamie (Jake Lloyd), and wife, Liz (Rita Wilson). He promises to get Jamie the hottest toy of the season, Turbo-Man — even though it’s Christmas Eve and the toy is practically sold out. As Langston hunts down the elusive gift, he runs into mailman Myron (Sinbad), another father on the same quest. With the clock winding down, Langston’s moral code is tested as he starts to learn the real meaning of Christmas.
Starring: Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen
This film is guaranteed to deliver that holiday spirit for all those dreaming of a white Christmas! Singers Bob Wallace and Phil Davis (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) join sister act Betty and Judy Haynes (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) to perform a Christmas show in rural Vermont. There, they run into Gen. Waverly, the boys’ commander in World War II, who, they learn, is having financial difficulties; his quaint country inn is failing because there’s not a snowflake in site! So what’s the foursome to do but plan a yuletide miracle via a fun-filled musical extravaganza that’s sure to put Waverly and his business in the black!
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy
What happens when you combine the comic genius of Eddie Murphy with Dan Aykroyd and director John Landis? You get a timeless comedy classic laced with sidesplitting, satiric humor. Murphy stars as a small-time con artist who gets a chance to switch lives with Aykroyd’s big-time stock market maven. But their reversal of fortunes is just a cruel joke perpetrated by two bored mega-rich brothers as part of an idle bet. When the truth comes out, the consequences are sheer comedy gold!
Starring: Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong, Moon So-ri, Kim Tae-ri, Lee Yong-nyeo
From Park Chan-wook, the celebrated director of Old Boy, Lady Vengeance, and Stoker, comes a ravishing new crime drama. Park presents a gripping and sensual tale of two women – a young Japanese Lady living on a secluded estate, and a Korean woman who is hired to serve as her new handmaiden, but is secretly plotting with a conman to defraud her of a large inheritance. Inspired by the novel Fingersmith by British author Sarah Waters, The Handmaiden borrows the most dynamic elements of its source material and combines it with Park Chan-wook’s singular vision to create an unforgettable viewing experience.
For the Christmas edition of the KEVIN GEEKS OUT show, comedian Kevin Maher and his guests look at their favorite Holiday Specials, from the obvious to the obscure. This two-hour video variety show will stuff your stocking memorable moments from movies and tv specials.
NOTE: this is an all-new Kevin Geeks Out, not an encore of the 2015 Christmas show.
Guests include:
Erin Farrell (cinephile, video editor)
Wendy Mays (host, PET CINEMATARY podcast)
Paul Murphy (filmmaker, RED OBSESSION)
Steve Flack (tv editor and trivia champion)
In partnership with Flying Dog Brewery, Nitehawk’s BOOZE & BOOKS goes on a psychedelic journey with FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.
BOOZE: with each ticket audience members get two Flying Dog Brewery beers
BOOKS: based on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1971)
Things start of weird and weirder when Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp doing a spot-on impression of Hunter S. Thompson) and Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro at his heavyweight best) take a mescaline-fulled road trip to Las Vegas. Copious amounts of illegal drugs are consumed, hallucinations projected, and a sequence of oddballs met, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas brings Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo journalism onto the big screen. While Raoul and Dr. Gonzo languish in their drug-induced haze they do have philosophical musings about chasing the American dream and questioning the failure of the counter-culture revolution.
Nitehawk’s CRIME series extends into November as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of John Huston’s classic THE MALTESE FALCON.
Nominated for three Academy Awards, including “Best Picture,” The Maltese Falcon is the film noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart as tough San Francisco private detective Sam Spade. The film details this classic story of Spade’s involvement with a deadly band of international thieves who will lie, double-cross, and murder to obtain a small, jewel-encrusted statue known as the Maltese Falcon.Spade’s (Bogart) partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan), accepts a job protecting a young woman (Mary Astor). Neither Spade nor Archer believe the woman or the story she tells them, but they do believe her money. Then, when Archer is murdered, Spade’s search for the killer drags him in the web of lies and death spun by the desperate people seeking the now-famous statue.
Nitehawk’s LOCAL COLOR presents midnite screening of Sundance discovery THE EYES OF MY MOTHER in December!
A young, lonely woman is consumed by her deepest and darkest desires after tragedy strikes her quiet country life.
In their secluded farmhouse, a mother, formerly a surgeon in Portugal, teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor horrifyingly shatters the idyll of Francisca’s family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl, but also awakening some unique curiosities. Though she clings to her increasingly reticent father, Francisca’s loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a distinctly dark form.
