WELCOME TO RETROFANTASMA!

A monthly film series of double-features dedicated to bringing classic horror movies back to the big screen in 35mm! Created in 1998, RETROFANTASMA has developed a large dedicated audience of horror movie enthusiasts whose desire to see their favorite terror flicks is matched only by their willingness to cheer at the screen.

From John Carpenter to Dario Argento to Lucio Fulci, this diverse film series offers it's audience a joyful jolt of terror and nostalgia. You'll likely find yourself screaming and applauding in the same breath. Before long, you'll be joining the thousands of people who have whispered in the dark to their friends, "Did you ever see the one where....?" Much like the infamous midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The RETROFANTASMA Film Series is pure devilish fun for anyone who loves the mysterious.


Walter Hill’s THE WARRIORS
(US, R, 1979, 93 min.)
Friday, May 24th
7:00 p.m.



A battle of gigantic proportions is looming in the neon underground of New York City. The armies of the night number 100,000.  They outnumber the police five-to-one.  And tonight they're after the Warriors---a street gang blamed unfairly for a rival gang leader's death.
Link to movie trailer
Link to IMDb listing



Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
(US, R, 1984, 91 min.)
Friday, May 24th
Begins 15 minutes after the end of The Warriors



And here he is, phantom fiend Freddy Krueger in all his razor-fingered infamy. Wes Craven (Scream) directs this trendsetting first in the slasher-hit series. The premise is simple: Freddy (Robert Englund) homicidally haunts the sleep of Elm Street teens. The results are terrifying and mind-blowingly innovative.
Link to movie trailer
Link to IMDb listing

What Jim says…
It's been more than a decade since we last screened A Nightmare on Elm Street.  The reason I've waited so long has nothing to do with Freddy Krueger or his reputation as one of the greatest horror villains of all time.  In fact, those are the downsides.  The problem with Elm Street is that everyone is so familiar with the story (and all those sequels plus the remake) that it's hard to judge whether anyone's much interested in seeing it on the big screen again.  To pull in an audience, you've got to program something entirely different to double bill against Elm Street, and not just more of the bloody same.  That's why Hellraiser or They Live aren't gonna cut it here.  For a time, I considered Michael Mann's Manhunter.  When somebody suggested The Warriors for an altogether different series, I instinctively knew I was onto something.  Here's a popular and often-requested thriller with similar dark themes but without the stigmatic familiarity of the first.  By pairing The Warriors with Elm Street, I've (hopefully) broadened the audience appeal without compromising either film's intensity.



Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER
(US, R, 1973, 105 min.)
Friday, June 7th
7:00 p.m.



Clint Eastwood’s second directorial effort is a revenge tale with supernatural echoes. “Damn you to hell,” curses a town marshal as he’s lashed to death by grinning killers.  Along comes Eastwood, another man with no name, but this stranger is no wandering gunman but quite possibly an Old Testament Angel of Vengeance summoned by the dying man.
Link to movie trailer
Link to IMDb listing


Delmer Daves’ 3:10 TO YUMA
(US, NR, 1957, 92 min.)
Friday, June 7th
Begins 15 minutes after the end of High Plains Drifter



Adapted from an Elmore Leonard story, this tense Western thriller is boiled down to its essential elements: a charming and cunning criminal, an initially reluctant hero whose courage and resolution hardens along the way, and a waiting game that pits them in a battle of wills and wits.  Glenn portrays a ruthless killer with polite manners and an honorable streak.
Link to movie trailer
Link to IMDb listing


What Jim says…
If there was ever a double feature at Retrofantasma Classics that made me want to light a celebratory cigar after programming it, this is the one.  It's a measure of how far this series has evolved that we started with 50s creepy creatures and a few Vincent Price flicks and now find ourselves with this: the first all-Western double feature to screen at Retrofantasma.  It's also a testament to the ever-broadening tastes of Retro audiences that we find ourselves here at all.  I dunno, perhaps I'm being over-analytical.  Replace the guns with butcher knives and you've essentially still got a bunch of guys trying to kill each other, except on horseback.  Come to think about it, a lot of Westerns share the same characteristics of horror movies: good versus evil, revenge, and that final showdown.  Originally, I'd programmed Eastwood's Play Misty For Me with High Plains Drifter.  It seemed like a good idea, but when I learned that Sony Pictures had struck an all-new print of Yuma, I instinctively knew a better double feature was in the making.



Tobe Hooper’s POLTERGEIST
(US, PG, 1982, 114 min.)
Friday, June 21st
7:00 p.m.



Steven Spielberg co-wrote Poltergeist, which taps into primal, childlike fears of monsters under the bed, sinister clown faces, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. At first, some of the odd happenings in the house are kind of funny and amusing, but they grow creepier until the film climaxes in a terrifying special-effects extravaganza when 5-year-old Carole Anne is kidnapped and held hostage in another dimension.
Link to movie trailer
Link to IMDb listing



THE BOOGENS
(US, R, 1981, 96 min.)
Friday, June 21st
Begins 15 minutes after the end of Poltergeist



In a small town near Denver, two young men explore a long-abandoned mine. When one the men is discovered missing, his friends begin a search that leads them to horrifying consequences. They're all unaware of the evil that's been unleashed and soon, one by one, a monster that no one has seen snatches up the townspeople.
Link to movie trailer
Link to IMDb listing

What Jim says…
Are you a horror film geek like me?  If you glanced at this double feature and a soul-rattling sensation didn't rip through your body, then you're probably not.  You've never heard of The Boogens and are likely here to watch the latest Judi Dench/Mira Sorvino mash-up, and that's fine.  (Really. Enjoy your movie.) The reaction of a true horror film geek, however, goes something like this: "Oh look, they're showing Poltergeist.  I've always liked that movie but I've probably seen it on TV a thous---OH MY GOD!  AM I HALLUCINATING!?  THEY'RE SHOWING THE BOOGENS!  What's the date?  Oh no, that's my grandmother's 82nd birthday.  Well, I'm just gonna hafta go on Craigslist and send that old girl some flowers! THE BOOGENS, BABY!"  It is a well-known fact that true horror film geeks cannot actually read The Boogens without immediately saying it three times in their heads.  This has been proven by scientists.  Boogens, boogens, boogens.  I think it's because we're all still secretly children and the word sounds a lot like boogers.


 
   
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