Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 24 October 2025 - 30 October 2024

For my money, it's the peak of "streamers flood indie theaters for two months because they crave awards-based legitimacy" season!

• The most obvious example? Guillermo del Toro's new Frankenstein, featuring Oscar Isaac as Victor and Jacob Elordi as the Creature, is playing The Coolidge Corner Theatre on 35mm for most shows (check for screen #1) It's also playing at WEst Newton, Kendall Square (part of the October Netflix 4-pack), and the Seaport. By all accounts, both one of the most faithful adaptations and one of del Toro's best!
  
  Also on 35mm at the Coolidge (for all shows on screen #2) is Bugonia, the new from Yorgos Lanthimos. It's an adaptation of Jang Joon-hwan's Save the Green Planet!, with Jesse Plemons as the man who believes the Earth is being invaded by aliens and that an executive played by Emma Stone is one of them. It also plays Boston Common.
  
  From another streamer, sort of (MUBI plays nice with theaters, but the streaming site is their backbone) is The Mastermind, the new one from Kelly Reichardt starring Josh O'Connor as a carpenter turned art thief in 1970s Massachusetts Also at West Newton and Boston Common.
  
  Spooky stuff at the Coolidge includes Rocky Horror at midnight on Friday, the 24-hour 35mm Halloween Marathon at midnight Saturday (kicking off with The Creature from the Black Lagoon in likely-anaglyph 3D and An American Werewolf in London, but you won't know the next nine hours until they run), plus A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night on Sunday afternoon, The Substance on Tuesday, the 2021 Candyman remake with a half hour of shorts by Manual Cinema (whose work is featured in the film and whose The 4th Witch opens at ArtsEmerson the next night), Elvria: Mistress of the Dark for Rewind! (with after-party) Thursday, and then Scary Movie later that night for the cult classic. There's also a kid's show of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Saturday morning, Ed Wood (with Ingrid Stobbe seminar) Monday, and a sold-out preview of It Was Just an Accident also on Monday.
• Regretting You stars Mckenna Grace as a teenager whose mother (Allison Williams) had her when she was roughly her daughter's age, now getting involved with the cutest boy in school just before a fatal auto accident rocks their entire extended family. Director Josh Boone directed The Fault in Our Stars and it's from a novel by Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us). Opening at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  More male-and-boomer coded is Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, with Jeremy Allen White playing The Boss as he conceives/records Nebraska when Born in the USA seems to be going a bit too well. It opens at Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax through Sunday), West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby CInema), Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill. Apropos of nothing, Gaby Hoffman is in this and The Mastermind, despite it seeming like a decade since I've seen her in anything.
  
  Crowdfunded horror movie Shelby Oaks stars Sarah Dunn as a woman looking for her long-lost sister and possibly discovering a monster from their childhood. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Extremely fun queer zombie movie Queens of the Dead, which looks at drag night at a gay bar during the outbreak, plays Boston Common. Katy O'Brian stars and George Romero's daughter Tina directs.
  
  Sundance film Last Days has director Justin Lin going back to his indie roots after 15 years being mostly in the Fast & Furious business, featuring Sky Yang as a missionary attempting to convert the residents of a remote island while authorities try to present it from ending in disaster. It's at Causeway Street.
  
  Platform releases starting out at Boston Common this weekend before opening wider include Blue Moon, with Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, trying to get through former partner Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott) having the biggest hit of his career without him (also at the Capitol, Lexington Venue, and West Newton); Bugonia, and The Mastermind.
  
  British animated family-friendly Frankenstein story Stitch Head has preview shows at Boston Common and Arsenal Yards on Sunday afternoon before opening Wednesday.
  
  Also opening Wednesday at Boston Common: thriller Anniversary, starring Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler.
  
  K-Pop concert/doc TWICE: One in a Mill10n plays Boston Common and Assembly Row Saturday/Sunday, while G-Dragon: Ubermensch plays Boston Common Wednesday/Thursday and Assembly Row Wednesday (Imax Laser); Depeche Mode: M plays Boston Common/South Bay/Assembly Row Tuesday (Imax Laser) to Thursday (regular DCP those days). Arsenal Yards has Carpenter's Halloween Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday. A remastered ParaNorman plays Boston Common (RealD 3D) Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday, South Bay (RealD 3D) Saturday; There's a mystery preview Monday at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row, and a non-mystery preview of Nuremberg with live-streamed Q&A at South Bay on Monday; Violent Ends also has a preview on Tuesday. Terrifier plays Boston Common Wednesday. The Twilight movies plays Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, starting Wednesday with the original and New Mon on Thursday, and continuing into the weekend.
• The trailers for Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc have been interesting, as they seem to be trying to sell it separately to folks who didn't know Chainsaw Man was a really popular manga & anime and to big fans. Either way, it gets a big opening, playing at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), and Assembly Row (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), in both subtitled and dubbed shows across most formats/locations. The last big anime hit, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, continues at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  The big guns opened for Diwali last week, but Apple Fresh Pond opened Hindi-language romance Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat on Tuesday with little early fanfare, as did Hindi-language vampire comedy/adventure Thamma (also at Boston Common). Bengladeshi action movie NeelChokro (aka Neel Charkra) plays Saturday & Sunda afternoons, and RRR director S.S. Rajamouli's blockbuster 2-parter Baahubali has been edited into one four-hour "epic" cut playing (at least) Thursday and next Friday in both Telugu and Hindi at Fresh Pond and playing Boston Common in Hindi on Wednesday (Imax Laser), and opening there and South Bay in Telugu on Thursday (including Dolby Cinema at Boston Common).
  
  Tamil-language comedy Dude continues at Fresh Pond; Telugu-language drama K-Ramp continues at Causeway Street; Telugu-language romance Telusu Kada is held over at Causeway Street; Kannada-language adventure Kantara A Legend: Chapter 1 continues at Causeway Street.
  
  Chinese drama Sound of Silence continues at South Bay.
• The Brattle Theatre opens the weekend with Gods and Monsters on 35mm for the Friday Film Matinee, and then jumps into the GlobeDocs Film Festival, with a full slate of feature documentaries (and a local shorts program Sunday morning), all with filmmaker Q&A moderated by Boston Globe journalists.
  
  After that, they begin "Halloweek", which includes German vampires of the 1970s with Jonathan and Lady Dracula on Monday, and Tenderness of the Wolves on Tuesday; a free Elements of Cinema show of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors on Tuesday; a Shudder Triple Feature of Tigers Are Not Afraid, Oddity, and Mandy on Wednesday; and The Crow on Thursday. That's the late show, because Thursday also begins the second leg of IFFBoston's Fall Focus with The Secret Agent.
• The Seaport Alamo has Rocky Horror on Friday, The Lost Boys on Saturday, a Fleischer Halloween Party on Sunday, 28 Days Later on Monday, and Day of the Dead '85 on Tuesday.
• The Capitol Theatre hosts The Arlington International Film Festival on two screens from Friday to Sunday, and pick back up on Capitol 100 screenings (and get spooky) with The Pit and the Pendulum on Thursday.
  
  The Somerville Theatre has One Battle After Another on 70mm Saturday & Sunday afternoon, and return to Halloween Hullaballoo activities with The Omen on Monday, a double feature of Ghostbusters on 70mm film and Re-Animator on 35mm Tuesday, a 35mm double feature of The Witches of Eastwick & Wolf on Wednesday, and another 35mm twin bill of Copycat & The Silence of the Lambs on Thursday.
• The Museum of Science has Can I Get a Witness? with filmmaker Q&A as part of The Boston Asian American Film Festival on Friday Tron: Ares on Saturday.
  
  BAAFF also has virtual programming available through Sunday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has The Boston Palestine Film Festival shows of A State of Passion on Friday and Happy Holidays on Sunday. The Museum kicks off the Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary/Shorts Competition with One of Those Days When Hemme Dies on Thursday.
• The Harvard Film ArchiveIs a bit less frantic this weekend, but still trying to make up for a little lost time. On Friday, they have two more by Mikio Naruse on 35mm film - Older Brother, Younger Sister at 7pm and Hit and Run at 9pm. Marta Mateus visits with her new film, Fire of Wind, on Saturday and a previous work, "Barbs, Wastelands", on Monday, playing with Manoel de Oliveira's "Bread". Later that evening, the Archive has rescheduled her third curated program, anchored by Robert Bresson's The Trial of Joan of Arc and also including shorts "En rachâchant" and "Saute ma ville". In between, on Sunday, they have I Accuse! on 35mm film as part of "Gore Vidal Goes to the Movies" in the afternoon and Hong Sangsoo's The Woman Who Ran in the evening.
• The Regent Theatre has music documentary Life on the Other Planet on Friday night, with an opening live performance by The Nervous Eaters, one of the bands featured. On Wednesday, they have the Girl Winter Film Tour, six short films of women in winter sports.
• Landmark Kendall Square has Halloween-y Retro replays including the director's cut of Tom Savini's 1990 Night of the Living Dead (Sunday/Monday), the American The Ring (Tuesday), and 28 Days Later (Wednesday).
• Movies at MIT has Rocky Horror in 26-100 on Friday with gag bags on sale and Full Body Cast accompanying (they will, as usual, be at Boston Common on Saturday). Remember to give them a head's up if you're not part of the MIT community.
• Last outdoor movie of the year? Joe's Free Films has Halloweentown on the Rose Kennedy Greenway Friday evening.
• The Lexington Venue has Blue Moon and Springsteen all week but Monday. There's also a free Saturday morning show of Quatermass and the Pit, plus documentary Four Winters with director Julia Mintz on Sunday afternoon.
  
  The West Newton Cinema celebrates what would be Jack Lemmon's 100th birthday with his children and grandchildren this weekend, with Days of Wine and Roses on Friday, The Apartment with post-film reception Saturday afternoon, the Lemmon clan in attendance for Some Like It Hot Saturday evening, and The Odd Couple on Sunday afternoon, introduced by Lemmon's son Chris and Walter Matthau's son Charlie (via Zoom) They also open Blue Moon, Frankenstein, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, and The Mastermind, also keeping Orwell: 2+2=5, Fairyland, A House of Dynamite, and Eleanor the Great. Hotel Transylvania plays Sunday morning, while documentary Death & Taxes plays Tuesday with posto-ffilm discussion.
  
  So much Halloween at Cinema Salem:Black Phone 2 (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday), Ginger Snaps (Friday Night Light), The Lost Boys (Friday to Sunday), Halloween (Friday/Saturday/Wednesday/Thursday), Hocus Pocus (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday), 28 Days Later (Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday), The Exorcist (Sunday), and Universal Monsters: Frankenstein Friday, Bride of Frankenstein Friday, Dracula Friday/Saturday, The Mummy Sunday,. The Blob is the Wednesday Classic plus a Werido Wednesday show.
  
  Out at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, they've got Dream Eater, an "Eli Roth Presents" found footage movie with a filmmaker documenting her boyfriend's violent sleepwalking.

Man, that's a lot, and not a super-obvious place to fit Frankenstein and Bugonia in while they're on 35mm (although I suspect that will be a few weeks at the Coolidge), plus The Mastermind, Last Days, and maybe Blue Moon as potential short-timers, plus at least The Witches of Eastwick among the rep.

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