Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 31 October 2025 - 6 November 2024

Happy Halloween! It's weird to have it on a Friday because you don't really have new spooky stuff for November, and the studios seem paralyzed as well.

• Boston Common gets a Halloween double feature of Hallow Road & Vincent Must Die; the former is short and the latter has been kicking around for a bit (I didn't love it at Fantasia in 2023), so it's worth putting them together. Thriller Violent Ends opens at South Bay.
  
  British animated family-friendly Frankenstein story Stitch Head opened Wednesday at Boston Common and Arsenal Yards and also plays Fresh Pond, Assembly Row, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Anniversary, starring Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler, also opened Wednesday at Boston Common.
  
  The KPop Demon Hunters sing-along shows are back Friday to Sunday at the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common (including XL), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill. Yeah, AMC and Netflix are co-operating for the first time since Glass Onion, but apparently not for any other fall releases (yet). Sinners re-releases at Boston Common (Imax Laser), South Bay (Imax Xenon), and Assembly Row (Imax Laser).
  
  Jordan's Furniture has the Imax re-issue of Back to the Future through Sunday; it's also playing all week at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row, but oddly is only showing up on their apps and not Fandango right now.
  
  Bugonia adds the Somerville (35mm), West Newton, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, Chestnut Hill to the Coolidge and Boston Common. The Mastermind adds the Capitol to the Coolidge & Boston Common.
  
  Rocky Horror plays Boston Common Friday (no cast) and Saturday (Full Body). The Twilight series at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards finishes with Eclipse on Friday, Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Saturday, and Breaking Dawn Part 2 on Sunday. Boston Common has Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Saturday afternoon & Wednesday evening (have they been running these for weeks?). K-Pop concert J-Hope: Hope on the Stage plays Monday at Boston Common (Imax Laser), Assembly Row (Imax Laser); Mary J. Blige: For My Fans plays Boston Common, South Bay Wednesday. There are early-access screenings of Sentimental Value at Boston Common, Kendall Square on Tuesday and Predator: Badlands at Boston Common (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), South Bay (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (CWX) on Wednesday. The director's cut of Rocky IV plays Boston Common Wednesday. Thursday early shows include a livestreamed Q&A for Die My Love (the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row); an Imax "fan event" for Predator: Badlands (Boston Common, Assembly Row).
• The second Richard Linklater showbiz movie in as many weeks opens with Nouvelle Vague playing The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, West Newton ahead of its Netflix; this one is in French and covers the production of Breathless. A Thursday screening at the Coolidge also includes a discussion with Ericka Knudson, whose Nouvelle Femmes examines the French New Wave from the perspective of its women.
  
  Also opening at the Coolidge, Boston Common is It Was Just an Accident, the new one from Jafar Panahi which actually looks like a solid thriller about ordinary people seeking revenge on government torturers rather than a gimmick to poke a finger in the eye of the government that legally banned him from making films.
  
  Slasher midnights at the Coolidge culminate with John Carpenter's Halloween on Halloween (Friday) and the Rob Zombie sequel Halloween II on 35mm Saturday; both include 35mm short "Mr. Static" as part of the pre-show. There's a special Panorama show of Fairyland with original author Alysia Abbott on Saturday afternoon, while director Nirmal Chander visits on Sunday with his film 6-A Akash Ganga, which examines musician Annapurna Devi's decision to retire and not teach successors through the words of student nityanand Haldipur. Crispin Hellion Glover visits on Monday for a speaking/signing/performance event, and then Noirvember begins with In a Lonely Place on 35mm Tuesday, with Alex Kittle leading discussion afterward. Thursday has Au hasard Balthazar as the Big Screen Classic (I believe director Robert Bresson is a character in Nouvelle Vague) and Donnie Darko as the late-ish Cult Classic.
• The big event for Indian cinema this week is a re-release of RRR director S.S. Rajamouli's Baahubali, edited into a four-hour "epic" cut. It's at Apple Fresh Pond (in Telugu & Hindi), Boston Common (Telugu including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street (Telugu), the Seaport (Telugu Saturday & Wednesday), South Bay (Telugu). Also opening are Tamil-language thriller Aaryan, about a writer who announces his plans to commit the perfect crime, at Fresh Pond; Malayalam-language horror film Diés Iraé at Fresh Pond; Telugu-language action movie Mass Jathara at Fresh Pond; and Hindi-language drama The Taj Story at Fresh Pond. Hindi-language vampire comedy/adventure Thamma continues at Fresh Pond.
  
  Anime blockbuster Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc loses a few premium screens but continues at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema 2D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), and Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), in both subtitled and dubbed shows across most formats/locations. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, continues at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
• The Brattle Theatre wraps "Halloweek" with a 35mm print of Bram Stoker's Dracula for the Friday Film Matinee. After that, the second leg of IFFBoston's Fall Focus stretches out to basically a whole week with Palestine 36 and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery on Friday; Resurrection, The Love That Remains, Train Dreams, and Sirāt on Saturday; Kontinental '25, A Poet, La Grazia, and Left-Handed Girl on Sunday; Rental Family and No Other Choice on Monday; Is This Thing On? Tuesday; and late addition The Testament of Ann Lee on Wednesday.
• The Seaport Alamo has 1984's The Return of Godzilla Monday to Wednesday (presumably waiting for the KPop Demon Hunters to vacate the screen). Pee-Wee's Big Adventure plays Friday & Thursday; The Goonies is on Tuesday.
• The Capitol Theatre has Capitol 100 screenings of Psycho & Phantasm as a Halloween double feature on Friday, A Hard Day's Night on Saturday, and Love Story on Thursday.
  
  In addition to picking up Bugonia on a 35mm print The Somerville Theatre wraps the Halloween Hullaballoo with Rocky Horror in 35mm with Teseract on Friday (sold out, though). They've also got Warren Miller's Sno-Ciety Wednesday & Thursday.
• The Museum of Science has Coco on the Omnimax screen for Halloween & Day of the Dead on Friday & Saturday, and a Spanish-language screening of "Superhuman Bodies" ("Cuerpo Sobrehumano") on Saturday afternoon.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has Sinners on Friday, The Chords of Change from Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary/Shorts Competition on Saturday, The Thomas Crown Affair in the "Cosy Mysteries" series on Sunday, and a free screening of Nouvelle Vague on Thursday.
• The Harvard Film Archive has one last big push (other than a rescheduled screening) for the Mikio Naruse series: Ginza Cosmetics Friday evening, The Song Lantern later Friday night, Learn from Experience Part I and Part II on Saturday night (separate admissions, I think), The Road I Travel with You & Avalanche Sunday evening (one admission for the short-ish features), The Girl in the Rumor Monday evening, and A Woman's Place later Monday night. All are on 35mm film. Sunday afternoon, they show Hong Sang-soo's Our Sunhi.
• The Regent Theatre has Dalai Lama documentary Wisdom of Happiness Sunday afternoon.
• WBUR's CitySpace is host to short film "All the Empty Rooms" on Monday, with director Josha Seftel and CBS reporter/subject Steve Hartman on-hand as part of a panel discussion afterward.
• Landmark Kendall Square starts a short John Hughes Retro Replay series with Sixteen Candles on Tuesday.
• Boston Jewish Film begins their annual festival on Wenesday with The Most Precious of Cargoes - an animated film by Michel Hazanavicius - at the Coolidge on Wednesday; Hazanavicius has pre-recorded an intro and star Dominique Blanc will be present afterward. On Thursday, they move to the Brattle for the annual "FreshFlix" Short Film Competition, and West Newton for Charles Grodin: Rebel with a Cause, and there's another week and a half after that.
• The Lexington Venue has Blue Moon and Springsteen all week but Monday and the KPop Demon Hunters during the weekend. There's also free screenings of Curse of the Demon on Saturday and "The Red Balloon" on Sunday, the latter including new short film "Pop" from local filmmakers Kate Fitzgerald and Darlene Allen, who will be there for a Q&A. Horror movie Don't Answer plays Tuesday, with star (and local!) Jack Amsler on hand for a Q&A.
  
  The West Newton Cinema has the KPop Demon Hunters through Sunday and picks up Bugonia and Nouvelle Vague. They also hold over Blue Moon, Frankenstein, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, The Mastermind, and Eleanor the Great. The Lego Movie plays Tuesday afternoon (with the sequel next week). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone also plays Tuesday (no indication on the site that this is going to be a thing) and has documentary Spreadsheet Champions on Wednesday, with a panel discussion including the creators of VisiCalc.
  
  Cinema Salem appears to be taking the actual night of Halloween off (I imagine folks have other options in Salem!), but has a busy weekend otherwise with The Blob (Saturday/Sunday), Bugonia (Saturday/Sunday), Hocus Pocus (Saturday/Sunday), Carpenter's Halloween (Saturday/Sunday), The Exorcist (Saturday), and Universal Monsters: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, and Frankenstein Saturday; The Mummy, The Wolf Man, and The Bride of Frankenstein Sunday. No listings for the regular Wednesday shows.
  
  Out at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, they open thriller Self-Help and have 3D matinees of ParaNorman all week.

Is Wake Up Dead Man going to have tickets when I show up? Maybe I'll wait. There's a bit of catching up to do - looks like Blue Moon isn't hanging around - and I don't think Return of Godzilla is part of the Somerville's Godzillathon next weekend. Probably do Nouvelle Vague, Resurrection and Baahubali and then see what there's time for in between.

(Follow me on my Letterboxd page to see if I follow through)