Nitehawk Cinema presents a special screening of Bennett Miller’s documentary THE CRUISE as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s NYFF Opening Acts series.

Q&A following the screening with director Bennett Miller and Eugene Hernandez, Deputy Director of the Film Society.

Whether you’re an auteurist, a completist, or simply an enthusiast, NYFF Opening Acts takes you deep into the back catalogs of today’s foremost talents to whet your appetite with a sampling of past triumph from these luminaries. So before you see Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher (also director of Moneyball and Capote) at the 52nd New York Film Festival, (September 26–October 12), watch his compelling documentary The Cruise. His 1998 film chronicles the humorously irreverent and painful reflections of Timothy “Speed” Levitch, an eccentric New York City tour bus guide with an archive of beautifully distorted information about the city.

For more information on the series and the New York Film Festival visit Filmlinc.com!

Spoons, Toons & Booze Halloween Special

Your Favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons + Booze & Free Cereal + a Special Menu of Halloween Themed Episodes!

Do you miss your childhood Saturday mornings of waking up early to gorge on cereal and cartoons? If so, Secret Formula has the ultimate brunch for the kid in you…Spoons, Toons & Booze! We’ve got all your favorite Saturday morning cartoons, delicious cocktails and a free all you can eat sugar cereal bar, not to mention Nitehawk Cinema’s excellent brunch menu.

Lock your doors and turn off the lights because in the full moon of October we’re turning into Spoons, Toons & Boo! with a special menu of Halloween themed episodes of all your favorite Saturday morning (and weekday afternoon) cartoon series featuring witches, monsters, ghosts, trick or treating, werewolves and vampires, haunted houses, candy and more spooky fun. Even our cereal bar is haunted with special Halloween themed cereals! Plus…

– Over 80 cartoon series from the 1930’s through the 90’s and YOU get to choose what we watch!

– Dress up in your Halloween costume for the Costume Contest! Extra points if you’re dressed as a cartoon or cereal character.

– Free all you can eat cereal bar filled with all the sugary, marshmallowy, fruity, chocolaty cereal you crave! Soy and regular milk available.

– Special Halloween cereal menu featuring Booberry, Count Chocula, Frankenberry and more spooky cereals.

– Candy and Cereal Shots to spike your cereal bowl with!

– White Russian menu including “The Sonny”, a White Russian topped with Cocoa Puffs, and The Complete Breakfast – Cinnamon Toast Crunch infused rum, Bailey’s Irish Cream, iced coffee ($8).

– Compete in contests to choose which cartoons we watch and win prizes from Nitehawk Cinema!

Nitehawk’s LIVE SOUND CINEMA presents a special one-nite pre-Halloween screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film THE LODGER with a live score by MORRICONE YOUTH!

A Jack-the-Ripper type murderer called “The Avenger” is terrorizing London by targeting young blond women. How Hitchcockian! At the same time of these attacks, a mysterious man takes a room at the a family-owned boarding house and strikes up a relationship with the proprietor’s pretty blonde daughter. To thicken the plot, she’s engaged to a policeman hot on the trail of “The Avenger” who thinks her Lodger lover is the serial killer! Part of the restored newly restored “Hitchcock Nine” by the British Film Institute, The Lodger is considered the “first true Hitchcock film” and is, obviously, a thrilling way to kick start your Halloween.

Morricone Youth is a New York City band formed in 1999 dedicated to performing and recording old film and television soundtrack and library production music.

Nitehawk goes back to COLLEGE with our special one-weekend screening of ANIMAL HOUSE!

The ultimate frat house fracas, the John Landis directed/Harold Ramis penned Animal House hits Nitehawk’s screen for one weekend only. Showing you what happens when National Lampoons brings you a story about a group of 1960s college students try to save their Delta Tau Chi Fraternity. So come out and root for the slobs as they go after that pesky dean and… kill a horse in the process.

Nitehawk’s annual all-night horror movie screening on Halloween is back with a series of horrifying sequels!

Like all good monsters who return from the grave, Nitehawk is bringing back its all-night horror movie marathon with The Return of…A Nite to Dismember! Starting at midnight on Halloween we will celebrate our second year by presenting only the very best in horror film sequels: Evil Dead II, The Bride of Frankenstein, Friday the 13th: Part 2, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, and Return of the Living Dead. There will also be horror shorts, inspired montages, giveaways, trivia, and a costume contest plus breakfast in the morning. Hosted by Fangoria’s Sam Zimmerman and Nitehawk’s Kris King!

RSVP to Flavorpill to get a bag of tricks-and-treats at the event! (note: you’ll still need to buy a ticket)

Forget trick-or-treating, spend the nite with us!

FILMS (in order of screening)…

EVIL DEAD II (Sam Raimi, 1987) – 35mm
A parody to director Sam Raimi’s original feature, Evil Dead II is a comedic take on a lone survivor (the estimable Bruce Campbell) and a group of strangers who fight the undead released after reading the Necronomicon.

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (James Whale, 1935) – DCP
Widely considered to be one of the best movie sequels in cinema, James Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein introduces Dr. Pretorius who tries to get Dr. Frankenstein back into the human-making business in order to make a wife for the beloved Karloff monster.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART 2 (Steve Miner, 1981) – Digital
A new set irresponsible, sex-crazed camp counsellors are back at a camp near Crystal Lake and so is the killer…it’s not Mrs. Voorhees but the indestructible Jason!

DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (Terence Fisher, 1966)  – Digital
Though technically the third in the Hammer Dracula series, Dracula: Prince of Darkness is the second film featuring the iconic Christopher Lee as Dracula as he seduces a group of four unsuspecting castle visitors.

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (Dan O’Bannon, 1985) – Digital
The dead are back…Return of the Living Dead features a group of scientists who accidentally release poisonous gas that reanimates the dead, eventually turning most everyone into zombies who crave BRAINS!

Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Adrian Grenier, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt

Andy (Anne Hathaway) is a recent college graduate with big dreams. Upon landing a job at prestigious Runway magazine, she finds herself the assistant to diabolical editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Andy questions her ability to survive her grim tour as Miranda’s whipping girl without getting scorched.

Starring: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, Diahnne Abbott

Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is a failure in life but a celebrity in his own mind, hosting an imaginary talk show in his mother’s basement. When he meets actual talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), he’s convinced it will provide his big break, but Langford isn’t interested in the would-be comedian. Undaunted, Pupkin effectively stalks Langford — and when that doesn’t work, he kidnaps him, offering his release in exchange for a guest spot on Langford’s show.

Starring: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel

What’s in the basket? Well, it certainly isn’t a bushel of kittens. When country kid Duane Bradley arrives in New York with only his mysterious basket, he peaks the curiosity of everyone he meets and this intrigue kills. It actually contains his deformed siamese twin whom he’s on a pack to kill all those who considered him inhuman when born. Duh! As always, a lady comes into the picture and complicates things while the freak twin escapes to wreak havoc on, well, everyone. Basket Case is low budget and high gore, just how we like it.

Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale

H.P. Lovecraft’s writings can be difficult to adapt to the big screen but this 1985 horror-comedy film, based on the story “Herbert West – Reanimator”, is by far one of the best…and the most entertaining. Brilliant but strange medical student Herbert West starts some trouble when he brings his professor (Hans Gruber, not from Die Hard) back from the dead. This, naturally, complicates things for everybody but particularly for one fellow med student and his girlfriend. Sure this is a comedy in this cult favorite but there’s gore a-plenty!

Halloween season can officially begin with Nitehawk’s screening of the maddest story ever told…SPIDER BABY!

Jack Hill’s Spider Baby is an absolute horror classic about the Merrye family who have a rare recessive gene that turns them into cannibals after a certain age. Save for the occasional murderous mishap, all is managed just fine by the family butler who takes care of the children and the older cannibals housed in the basement until distant relatives come in to inquire about the estate. Although in black and white, Spider Baby is full of colorful characters like the silently expressive Ralph Merrye (Sid Haig), the greedy Emily Howe (Carol Ohm), and the concerned caretaker Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.). But it’s the young mischievous Merrye daughters who truly steal the show with their distorted grown-up behavior, vocal hatred of people, and the deadly game of playing spider.

Part of Nitehawk’s FINAL GIRL October program.