For the aficionado of dark themes, October in Louisville contains an embarrassment of riches. You can choose from a variety of live horror film scores, ranging from a night at Kentucky Center with the Louisville Orchestra interpreting Nosferatu, to one-man band Scotchamo taking on early Spanish director Segundo de Chomon’s surrealist works. There are live, close readings of Frankenstein at Locust Grove, and an intimate adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe aboard the Belle of Louisville. And in addition to all these multi-media works are several film screenings celebrating our horror history, including some seldom seen arthouse films at the Speed Cinema.
At the Speed Cinema
$12/$8 for Speed members
www.speedmuseum.org
Horror films are not to everyone’s taste, and they have a rep among the uninitiated as being hateful and often, dumb. But for the viewer who is seeking out a well-rounded horror film education, one must include, alongside “Friday the 13th” and “Psycho,” these arthouse favorites playing at the Speed. Each film is rich in design and execution, each with its own unique style to be savored, and each is an unforgettable, haunting film experience.
Ganja & Hess
October 25 & 26
The revolutionary “Ganja & Hess” is Bill Gunn’s 1973 vampire film, a butchered version of which was distributed for years, but shown here restored to the director’s original vision by the Museum of Modern Art. It features Duane Jones of “Night of the Living Dead” fame as anthropologist Hess, who is stabbed with an ancient dagger that makes him thirsty for blood, and immortal. It’s a sly entry in the blaxploitation genre and a unique vampire film, as well as an early example of truly independent cinema. Gunn is less interested in plot mechanics than he is in ideas, and creates an impressionistic and moody singular film.
Nosferatu the Vampyre
October 26 & 27
Werner Herzog only made one straight up horror film, and it is a remake of fellow German director F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” which is itself an adaptation of “Dracula.” Leaning into Klaus Kinski’s ratlike like appearance and manners, this film presents a vampire devoid of sexual appeal, and a world that is at first lush, and slowly drained of life as Nosferatu takes center stage and the characters succumb to tragedy. The beauty of the film, and there is a lot of beauty in the darkness, is best represented in the German Expressionist callback of Isabelle Adjani’s wide, liner caked eyes and flowing white gowns. Robert Egger’s much anticipated “Nosferatu” is set to arrive on Christmas Day, so this is a perfect opportunity to get prepared for that gift.
Possession
Thursday, October 31
While Adjani’s career is full of intense, heart-rending performances, it is her performance in “Possession” that is her pièce de résistance. This highly personal film from Polish director Andrzej Żuławski is a classic of body and cosmic horror, and the pinnacle of the divorce film. It follows the dissolution of a marriage between a professional spy (Sam Neil) and his equally secretive wife, played by Adjani. As her behavior becomes more and more erratic, his surveillance also builds, until finally he finds out more than he wants to know. It is a nightmare film that must be seen and processed. It is also a perfect Halloween night capper for the viewer who is looking to be challenged.
Screams of Silent Cinema
October 27
Headliners Music Hall
$12
I am on record for loving silent film, as well as short films, and the only thing I love more is silent short films with a live score. For one night only at Headliner’s Music Hall, Louisville will have a chance to see three different musical acts perform live, accompanying a wide range of surrealistic classics rarely seen in town.
This night of music and film features gems like James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber’s 1928 dreamscape adaption of Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Fall of the House of Usher” set to the psychedelic and ambient loop work of artist Moonwatcher. Follow that up with Louisville’s own lo-fi one-man band Scotchamo bringing music to the work of surrealist filmmaker pioneer Segundo de Chomon, whose early special effects and camera trickery has influenced countless movies since. Strange Blue Juju, featuring members of Death Itself, sets an abridged 1911 Italian version of Dante’s “Inferno” to a gothic score, providing an immersive tour of hell in this the first feature length film from Italy.
Screams of Silent Cinema is on a mini regional tour, performing at interesting spots like the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati. Featuring six short films and one abridged feature, this is a celebration of film history blended with experimental live music, all designed to celebrate the season.
This article appears in Oct 23 – Nov 5, 2024.