By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Terror as seen through the video lens is the focus of a screening series at one of New York’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas this month, featuring a number of modern classics. Read on for the full details.
The Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens series runs January 24-31 at the Yonkers Drafthouse (2548 Central Park Avenue). Based on Caetlin Benson-Allott’s book of the same title, and programmed by Benson-Allott and Justin LaLiberty, it features a number of films that are rarely shown on the big screen. The theme is explained in this synopsis of the book: “Since the mid-1980s, U.S. audiences have watched the majority of movies they see on a video platform… KILLER TAPES AND SHATTERED SCREENS examines how prerecorded video reframes the premises and promises of motion picture spectatorship. But instead of offering a history of video technology or reception, Caetlin Benson-Allott analyzes how the movies themselves understand and represent the symbiosis of platform and spectator. Through case studies and close readings that blend industry history with apparatus theory, psychoanalysis with platform studies, and production history with postmodern philosophy, KILLER TAPES AND SHATTERED SCREENS unearths a genealogy of post-cinematic spectatorship in horror movies, thrillers, and other exploitation genres.”
The schedule is as follows:
- Kevin Smith’s CLERKS: Wednesday, January 24 at 7 p.m.
- André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde and Rémy Belvaux’s MAN BITES DOG (35mm screening): Wednesday, January 24 at 9:30 p.m., with Benson-Allott in person
- Matt Reeves’ CLOVERFIELD: Thursday, January 25 at 7:30 p.m.
- John Erick Dowdle’s THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES: Thursday, January 25 at 9:30 p.m., with Benson-Allott in person
- Sean S. Cunningham’s FRIDAY THE 13TH: Friday, January 26 at 7:15 p.m., with Benson-Allott in person
- Ti West’s THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (35mm screening): Friday, January 26 at 10 p.m., with Benson-Allott in person
- Gore Verbinski’s THE RING (35mm screening): Monday, January 29 at 7:30 p.m.
- Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s [REC]: Tuesday, January 30 at 7 p.m.
- Ruggero Deodato’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST: Tuesday, January 30 at 9:30 p.m.
- Jeff Lieberman’s REMOTE CONTROL (35mm screening): Wednesday, January 31 at 7:30 p.m., with Lieberman and actress Deborah Goodrich in person
- Gary Cohen’s VIDEO VIOLENCE: Wednesday, January 31 at 10 p.m.
For more info and to order tickets, click here. And for still more horror about the act of seeing, yours truly is hosting a 40th-anniversary showing of Irvin Kershner’s THE EYES OF LAURA MARS, co-scripted by John Carpenter, in a new restoration this Thursday, January 11 at 7:30 p.m.; get tickets here.
