Civic Theatre's Late Night Horror Film Series Begins this Weekend

Civic Theatre of Allentown's Late Night Horror Film Series debuts this weekend with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." All screenings will be held at Civic's historic, and appropriately creepy, 19th Street on consecutive Saturdays at 11:30 pm.

The Featured Films:

Psycho -Saturday, October 12th - Rated R, 1 hour and 49

From its first scene, in which an unmarried couple balances pleasure and guilt in a lunchtime liaison in a cheap hotel, Psycho announced that it was taking the audience to places it had never been before. Marion Crane, a woman who decides to leave her job and relationship in search for a start to a new life, stops for the night at the Bates Motel. This is where she meets a nervous but personable innkeeper Norman Bates, who cheerfully mentions that she's the first guest in weeks, before he regales her with curious stories about his mother. In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock was already famous as the screen's master of suspense when he released Psycho and forever changed the shape and tone of the screen thriller.

The Shining - Saturday, October 19th - Rated R, 1 hour and 59 minutes

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- or, rather, a homicidal boy in Stanley Kubrick's eerie 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel, The Shining. With wife Wendy and psychic son Danny in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance takes a job as the winter caretaker at the opulently ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel. Frightened by her husband's behavior and Danny's visit to the forbidding Room 237, Wendy soon discovers what Jack has really been doing in his study all day, and what the hotel has done to Jack.

Night of the Living Dead - Saturday, October 26 - Rated R, 1 hour and 30 minutes

When unexpected radiation raises the dead, a microcosm of Average America has to battle flesh-eating zombies in George A. Romero's landmark cheapie horror film, Night of the Living Dead (1968). Nothing holds the key to salvation, whether it's family, love, or law. Topping off the existential dread is Romero's then-extreme use of gore, as zombies nibble on limbs and viscera. However cheesy the film may look, few horror movies reach a conclusion as desolately unsettling.

Rosemary's Baby - Saturday, November 2 - Rated R, 2 hours and 16 minutes

In Roman Polanski's first American film, Rosemary's Baby (1968), a young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish RoseMary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents. Polanski's camerawork and Richard Sylbert's production design transform the realistic setting into a sinister projection of Rosemary's fears, chillingly locating supernatural horror in the familiar by leaving the most grotesque frights to the viewer's imagination.

The Exorcist - Saturday, November 9

In The Exorcist (1973), an actress visiting Washington DC notices that her 14-year-old daughter Regan (Linda Blair) is acting strangely. Suddenly prone to fits and bizarre behavior, Regan is so out of control that her mother calls in a young priest who becomes convinced that the girl is possessed by the Devil. Her only hope: an exorcism. But the priest's foe proves to be no run-of-the-mill demon, and soon both the priest and the girl head for a showdown with the devil where all their souls are at stake.

Civic Theatre of Allentown is proud to offer the best of independent, foreign, art house and documentary cinema to the Lehigh Valley. More information regarding Civic's film schedules can be obtained by visiting www.CivicTheatre.com or by calling Civic's MovieLine at610.432.0888. Civic's Theatre 514 is directly across the street from Civic's 19th Street Theatre at 527 N 19th Street in Allentown. Free parking for patrons is available along Liberty and Allen Streets and in the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot at 19th and Liberty (after the bank is closed). Ticket Pricing: General Admission: $9.00; Seniors $7.00; Students $7.00; Civic Members $5.00

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