Movie of the Week – The Hound of the Baskervilles
If you’re a fan of horror movies, Dublin is the place to be this week. The main event of course is the Irish Film Institute’s annual Horrorthon, showcasing classics of the genre along with premieres of brand new fright flicks. This year, tribute is being paid to two recently departed genre legends. The great actor Christopher Lee is remembered with screenings of his Hammer movies The Hound of the Baskervilles and Dracula AD 1972. The late director Wes Craven has three movies screening – Scream, The People Under the Stairs and The Serpent and the Rainbow. Cult director Richard Stanley will be in attendance with his features Dust Devil and Hardware playing, along with a programme of his shorts. There’s also a chance to catch the under-rated sequel Exorcist III on the big screen.
The Green Inferno
Among the many movies receiving Irish premieres are Eli Roth’s cannibal flick The Green Inferno, werewolf thriller Howl, heavy metal horror hybrid Deathgasm, lesbian love story with a twist Mania, and the anthology Tales of Halloween. For the full schedule, visit ifi.ie/horrorthon.
Blade
Not to be outdone, the Lighthouse also plays host to a bunch of genre flicks. A season of ’90s vampire movies, in association with the Bram Stoker Festival, features the likes of Blade, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Later in the week you can catch The Silence of the Lambs and The Blair Witch Project. Visit lighthousecinema.ie for more details.
Being There
If you need a break from all the gore, Sunday afternoon at the IFI sees a double bill of Peter Sellers classics – Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War comedy Doctor Strangelove and Hal Ashby’s brilliant Being There.
The Last Witch Hunter
A mainstream horror release, of a sort, is The Last Witch Hunter, which stars Vin Diesel as an immortal witch hunter battling witches in modern day New York. And yes, it is as bad as it sounds.
Mississippi Grind
Gambling drama Mississippi Grind is basically a poor man’s version of the ’70s Robert Altman masterpiece California Split, but it’s not without merit, featuring a great performance from Ben Mendelsohn.
By Eric Hillis
