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Ski Party

Starring: Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Deborah Walley

Hit the slopes of hilarity with THE DEUCE this December, for a SKI PARTY with all the “ski-nicks and ski-chicks” at Times Square’s Lyric Theatre – where it opened on October 22, 1965… on a double bill with SERGEANT DEADHEAD (also starring Frankie Avalon!)!

“Beach Movie” bozos Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman are college besties who find that their feeble attempts at dating are falling flat with the girls… so they decide to become some themselves – donning dresses and tresses in a desperate attempt to sneak a peek at the feminine psyche during a school ski trip! And while they’re learning nothing about what the girls want in a guy, the BMOC uber-hunk “somehow” develops the hots for “lady” Dwayne!

It’s powder-puffs in the powder as the Beach-Blanket-Bingo crowd take their bikinis to the snowy slopes for a surreal swirl of sight-gags, slapstick, stupid stunts and lo-fi special-effects in Sun Valley! Hijinks and high-jumps! Lesley Gore go-go-ing on a school bus!! James Brown and The Famous Flames as a cardigan’d singing ski-patrol! With genre-fave Dick Miller taking a turn as a taxi-cab driver, and a pesky yodeling polar bear that keeps randomly popping up?!?

Sandwiched right in the middle of AIP’s twelve “official” Beach Party movies – and the second of FIVE released in 1965 alone (!) – SKI PARTY hits a high point of strange for the series, playing with what had already become a standard formula for the films and seemingly adhering to no sense of logic… with enough energy and youthful exuberance to keep it all on track, just before the series took its decidedly “downhill” turn… (get it??)

Bliss

Starring: Dora Madison, Tru Collins, Rhys Wakefield, Jeremy Gardner, Graham Skipper, George Wendt

A brilliant painter facing the worst creative block of her life turns to anything she can to complete her masterpiece, spiraling into a hallucinatory hellscape of drugs, sex, and murder in the sleazy underbelly of Los Angeles.

Bell, Book and Candle

Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Ernie Kovacs

John Van Druten’s stage comedy Bell, Book and Candle starred Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer on Broadway. The 1958 filmed version stars James Stewart and Kim Novak, fresh from their successful teaming in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Novak plays Gillian Holroyd, a genuine, bonafide witch. Falling in love with publisher Sheperd Henderson (Stewart), Gillian casts a spell on him, obliging him to dump his fiancee and rush to her side. All of this goes against the grain of Gillian’s mentor Mrs. De Pass (Hermione Gingold), who does her best to counterract the love spell. Meanwhile, Gillian’s wacky warlock brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon) courts disaster by coauthoring a book on black magic with pompous, bibulous novelist Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs).

Witchfinder General (aka The Conqueror Worm)

Starring: Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Rupert Davies, Patrick Wymark, Wilfrid Brambell

A disturbing tale of evil set during the English Civil War. When Matthew Hopkins is appointed Witchfinder General by the Puritans under Cromwell, he is empowered to travel the countryside with his henchmen and collect a fee for each witch from whom he extracts a confession – a policy which is exploited to the full.

Harpoon

Starring: Christopher Gray, Emily Tyra, Munro Chambers

New York premiere

Rivalries, dark secrets and sexual tension emerge when three best friends find themselves stranded on a yacht in the middle of the ocean desperate for survival. With plenty of alcohol and very little food and water, emotions run high and their delusions become a reality. As the days stretch on and death seems inevitable, their terrifying truths float to the surface.

Parasite

Starring: Kang-ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong Jo

Bong Joon Ho brings his singular mastery home to Korea in this pitch-black modern fairytale.

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity.

Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks.

By turns darkly hilarious and heart-wrenching, Parasite showcases a modern master at the top of his game.

Olivia

Starring: Edwige Feuillère, Simone Simon, Yvonne de Bray, Suzanne Dehelly, Marie-Claire Olivia, Marina de Berg

Neglected for almost 70 years, Olivia is a remarkable work by one of France’s groundbreaking female filmmakers, Jacqueline Audry. It is set in a 19th century boarding school for girls, a space somewhat reminiscent of Hitchcock’s Rebecca. While not addressing lesbianism directly, it is the story of the two mistresses of the house, their competition for the affections of their students, and the students’ discovery of the dangerous game of love and attraction.

Tigers Are Not Afraid

Starring: Paola Lara, Juan Ramón López, Hanssel Casillas

A haunting horror fairy tale set against the backdrop of Mexico’s devastating drug wars, Tigers Are Not Afraid follows a group of orphaned children armed with three magical wishes, running from the ghosts that haunt them and the cartel that murdered their parents. Filmmaker Issa López creates a world that recalls the early films of Guillermo del Toro, imbued with her own gritty urban spin on magical realism to conjure a wholly unique experience that audiences will not soon forget.

Nightmare Sisters

Starring: Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer

Three prim and proper sorority sisters undergo startling changes when a succubus shows up and turns them into voluptuous vixens with insatiable sex drives. Fortunately, the fraternity next door is filled with handsome hunks.

Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary

Can you believe it’s been 20 years since Freaks and Geeks premiered? Nitehawk Cinema sure can’t. In honor of this momentous anniversary, we are proud to screen the full-length version of Brent Hodge’s Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary. This documentary explores all that went into making one of the most critically acclaimed television shows of all time that tragically only lasted one unforgettable season. Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, Busy Phillips, James Franco, Martin Starr and many more revisit the show that launched all of their now explosive careers.

Our preshow will present never before seen footage only available from the archives of Freaks and Geeks writers and producers personal collections.

Sit back and enjoy all that was Parisian night suits, drum solos, and a healthy dose of teenage angst.