Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 1 October 2021 - 7 October 2021

Everything that's being crammed into the next few months is kind of crazy - it's not like October is usually a dead period, exactly, but it kind of feels like all those freighters stretched out in a line for miles off the coast of California, all wanting a week or two on the Imax screens before the end of the year.

• Next in line on that count is Venom: Let There Be Carnage, with Tom Hardy returning as the host to Marvel's Spider-Man-villain-turned-anti-hero-not-necessarily-connected-to-Spider-Man-for-the-movies, Woody Harrelson as a serial killer who gets his own symbiote, and Andy Serkis of all people directing the mayhem in a movie that will hopefully be as thoroughly bug-nuts as its predecessor. It's at The Capitol, Fresh Pond, Kendall Square, Boston Common (including Imax/Dolby Cinema/3D), Fenway (including 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax/Dolby Cinema), South Bay (including Imax/Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), the Embassy, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The week also gives audiences The Addams Family 2, a second animated feature which has the oddball family of the title heading out for vacation. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  I'm mildly curious as to how many folks will see The Many Saints of Newark in theaters; Warner's decision to do simultaneous digital releases this year has tanked everything but Godzilla vs. Kong, and this prequel to The Sopranos with James Gandolfini's son Michael playing young Tony (but mostly focusing on those around him) might be something people figure belongs on TV in the first place. It's at The Somerville Theatre, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, the Embassy, Chestnut Hill, and on HBOMax.
  
  Universal is finally doing the thing that I figure they should be doing every Halloween - a theatrical double feature of the classic 1931 versions of Dracula and Frankenstein, which are so tight as to only take up two and a half hours between them - albeit as a Fathom presentation which plays Fenway, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Saturday. Studio Ghibli-fest comes a bit late this year, but starts with Spirited Away at Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, and Assembly Row, in English on Sunday/Wednesday and Japanese on Monday. After We Fell gets an encore at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Monday, while No Time to Die gets special early access screenings on Wednesday at Boston Common (Imax), Assembly Row (Imax) - before the regular early screenings on Thursday and next Friday's "release date". There's also 40th Anniversary screening of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead on Thursday at South Bay and Assembly Row.
  
  AMC Boston Common also has "Thrills & Chills Surprise Screenings" on Friday and Wednesday; they're $5, which isn't a huge amount to risk, I guess. They also have Skyfall and Casino Royale for those wanting to psyche themselves up for the new Bond, and Rocky Horror Saturday night - not sure if that's just-for-Halloween, or if it's back to being an every week thing.
• Over at The Brattle Theatre, they offer up the latest by two guys at opposite ends of Asian cinema. The main offering, Days, is the latest from Taiwanese "slow cinema" auteur Tsai Ming-Liang and follows the connection between two solitary men in Bangkok; if nothing else, it looks gorgeous. It gets the main times, with Prisoners of the Ghostland mostly getting late shows as befits a collaboration between director Sion Sono and star Nicolas Cage, with a fun supporting cast including Sofia Boutella and Tak Sakaguchi accompanying Cage's mercenary on a rescue mission in Samurai Town.
  
  Neither plays Monday, as that's The DocYard's night. This week, they offer A Night of Knowing Nothing, with director Payal Kapadia dialing in afterward to discuss her film interpreting and expanding upon a set of love letters found at a film school. Note that it is not being offered on The Brattlite (passholders are getting a separate email as to how to see it), but last week's selection of Her Socialist Smile is, along with Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), What We Left Unfinished and Witches of the Orient.
• Telugu-language thriller Republic opens at Apple Fresh Pond and Arsenal Yards, starring Sai Tej and directed by Deva Katta. Love Story, also in Telugu, sticks around at Fresh Pond, Kendall Square, and Fenway.
  
  Fresh Pond also picks up something called Witch Hunt, which posits a present day where witchcraft is real but also illegal, and follows one teenager helping others escape to Mexico. They've also got While We Sleep for matinees from Saturday to Wednesday (maybe Thursday), in which the investigation of a sleep disorder leads to an exorcism.
• It's a surprisingly big opening for TItane, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes but is still the new film from Julia Ducournau, whose Raw was not for the squeamish, and whose new one promises similar intensity even if the plot is apparently more a sci-fi mystery about a missing child mysteriously returned after ten years. It's at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and the Embassy.
  
  The Coolidge switches up their After Midnite shows with The Phantom of the Paradise on Friday and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday, although musical horror-kitsch won't be the theme for the whole month. Sunday's Masked Matinee is The Many Saints of Newark, the 35mm Big Screen Classic on Monday is GoodFellas (not quite done with Scorcese yet!), and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is also on film for Wes World on Tuesday.
• On top of the wider releases, Landmark Theatres Kendall Square picks up Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster, a documentary from Thomas Harrison that I suspect delivers what it says on the box. On Wednesday, they open Fever Dream, a Peruvian film in which a woman remembers a mystery on her deathbed.
• The Regent Theatre in Arlington has their final show of the Manhattan Short Film Festival 2021 program on Sunday.
• This week's Bright Lights presentation is A Glitch in the Matrix; it will be available for 24 hours starting at 7pm Wednesday, with director Rodney Ascher and subject Paul Gude talking about the film (and likely the theory that our world is a simulation in general) via Zoom on Thursday evening.
• The Boston Latino International Film Festival is online via ArtsEmerson's platform for its second weekend Sunday 3 October, adding Missing in Brooks County, My Darling Supermarket, and On the Divide for the second weekend.
  
  The Taiwan Film Festival of Boston has a full day at Boston Common on Saturday - Andre and His Olive Tree, My Missing Valentine, "My Way", Dear Tenant, "Mrs. Lin - The Retouching Lady", and The Great Buddha+ - and then has Heavy Craving, Turning 18, and See You White House available for 48 hours starting at noon on Sunday.
  
  The second annual Nightstream virtual fest kicks on Thursday, brought to you in part by the good folks at The Boston Underground Film Festival.
• The West Newton Cinema is open all week, playing The Many Saints of Newark, Dear Evan Hansen, The Card Counter, The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Friday/Sunday/Monday/Tuesday), Cry Macho (Friday-Sunday), Shang-Chi, and Summer of Soul (Sunday/Monday/Wednesday).
  
  The Lexington Venue is still Friday-Sunday with Dear Evan Hansen and The Card Counter.
• Cinema Salem has Venom 2 and Shang-ChiFriday to Sunday, and has given the Friday night series a name ("Night Lights") with this week's entry Night of the Creeps. They also host The Salem Horror Fest from Friday to Sunday, and will be playing the Spanish-language version of Dracula on Monday.
  
  The Luna Theater has Prisoners of the Ghostland on Friday and Saturday, She Freak on Saturday (including a masked matinee), Cryptozoo on Saturday and Thursday, Beetlejuice on Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday.
• The Harvard Film Archive will be offering virtual programs starting next weekend. Theater rentals are available at Kendall Square, The Embassy, West Newton, the Capitol, The Venue, and many of the multiplexes.

I'm on vacation for a few days, although I may wind up seeing a movie or two in the evenings, before heading home for The Days, Ghostland, and maybe Venom in 3D.