FILM

Join Alamo Drafthouse West Oaks for Graveyard Shift: THE FRIGHTENERS & DEAD ALIVE. Welcome to the Graveyard Shift — where night owls come together to enjoy some of the best horror movies ever made. From the classics to unknown gems, every month the Alamo Drafthouse will pick out a favorite from the vault for your enjoyment. The Graveyard Shift isn’t just a simple screening, though — it’s an event. Once a month we’ll bring you games, giveaways and surprises of all shapes and sizes. If you’re a horror fan living in Houston, the third Saturday of the month is reserved for the Graveyard Shift.

This month: THE FRIGHTENERS / DEAD ALIVE Double Feature

This month marks the 10th anniversary of Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Ten years ago, the man who had previously brought the world BAD TASTE and MEET THE FEEBLES proved he could handle big-budgeted epic adventure films as well as anybody. While it's nice to see Jackson get the respect and acclaim he deserves, I imagine I'm not alone in wishing he'd consider revisiting the genre he cut his teeth in — goofy horror films. That's why this month we're screening two of Peter Jackson's best horror-comedies: THE FRIGHTENERS and DEAD ALIVE.

THE FRIGHTENERS is a 1996 comedy horror starring Michael J. Fox as Frank, a paranormal investigator who uses his unique ability to talk to ghosts as a way to make some money on the side by asking his ectoplasm-endowed friends to haunt houses so that he can then exorcise the spirits for a paycheck. Things turn scary, though, when Frank runs into a deadly ghost who doesn't want to play by Frank's rules. Initially conceived as a feature-film spin-off of the HBO "Tales from the Crypt" series, THE FRIGHTENERS is a pitch-black comedy with some truly outstanding special effects. We'll be screening the Director's Cut of the film in a high-definition digital presentation.

DEAD ALIVE (or BRAINDEAD depending on what continent you grew up on) is probably the goriest horror comedy ever conceived. A 1992 New Zealand film, the film offered Peter Jackson a chance to go wild with his imagination and wild he went. Full of baby zombies, Sumatran Rat-Monkys, blood-soaked lawnmowers and more, this is a movie that needs to be seen to be believed. That's why we're screening the film from a 35mm print! You'll get gore-soaked carnage as only a gleefully deranged Peter Jackson can deliver.

Between films, we'll have games, giveaways and more so don't miss out on this one event to rule them all.