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S L A S H E R S
SNEAK PREVIEWS
It’s always a challenge to pick that perfect horror film for Halloween night. Hoping to get the most narrative for your nickel, you might opt for the 1982 anthology film Creepshow. It’s not a bad choice at all — this cinematic compendium of frights might be the precise treat on Halloween night. Like the act of trick-or-treating itself, if at first not satisfied with your booty at one doorstep for the night, an anthology film asks you to be patient, because the night could be full of surprises. Instead of sugary, waxed candy corn at one doorstep, perhaps you’ll find a full-size 3 Musketeers chocolate bar at the next.
Alternatively, you might opt for John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher classic Halloween. Starring one of the genre’s most recognizable villains, it too isn’t a poor choice but may be a little too obvious for Halloween night, clad as it is in the trappings of foreboding anonymity, of merciless doggedness, of invulnerability.
Imagine, then, that you’ve spent the evening doling out candy to trick-or-treaters, and they’ve retreated to their homes to take stock of their treasures. Perhaps you’ve spent the night serving adult beverages to raucous costumed adults, and they’ve ambled away — they will likely resemble zombies at work tomorrow.
However you’ve spent Halloween, it’s now time to settle in for some spooky cinema before the coffin is finally closed on this holiday.
But don’t forget: Halloween doesn’t officially conclude until midnight, so before you blow out the candle in your Jack-O-Lantern, cozy up to any of the sinister films featured under this banner – Check Your Pulse … NOW! – across the Pickwick’s marquee.
Because you’re in luck: the Pickwick has curated a single film from some of the most popular subgenres of horror, letting you know precisely when the horror might finally relent, allowing you the “best night’s sleep” that you’re likely to have in your condition.
There are horrific motion pictures here with humor, heart, humanity, and horrid gore.
There’s a little bit (and pieces) for everyone. Any one of these films could be the perfect fit for you this Halloween night – the perfect costume to crawl into, so to speak, as you finish your annual creepy night of carousing.
Simply select any of these mortifying films, press PLAY at the precise time when you’re instructed to do so, and you’ll soon be met with the final bone-chilling moments of Halloween as the clock strikes midnight – just as the ghosts & goblins retreat to their graves for another year – and just as you’re invited to sleep soundly (or unsoundly), having survived another Night of the Dead.
But choose wisely … and never accuse the Pickwick Drive-In of never having told you to do so …
SYNOPSIS
d. Christopher Landon | dp. Laurie Rose | s. Michael Kennedy & Christopher Landon | 2020 | R | 102 minutes
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It hasn’t been easy being 17-year-old Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) lately. She’s barely getting by in high school. She hasn’t finished mourning the death of her father. She longs for Booker Strode (Uriah Shelton), just lockers away from her at school. And she hopes that her mother (Katie Finneran) will actually let her go away to Boston for college next year.
But when Millie becomes the target of the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn) and is body-swapped with the killer in an unanticipated midnight ceremony, she’ll have a harder time being a serial killer in broad daylight. Now, only Millie and her family & friends can reverse the transformation before more lives are lost and before the soulful swap becomes permanent for the rest of Millie’s life.
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This is why Freaky (2020) is important to Halloween ...
The best Halloweens – at least for me – were those in which I got lost behind the mask. Behind the mask was where I could be someone other than myself, and only Halloween night allowed me to do it.
One year, I dressed up as a nondescript G.I. Joe hero. And – door to door, upon accepting my handful of candy – I saluted the adult at that doorstep and demanded – Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket-style – that they drop and give me thirty. When they stared at me awkwardly, I reminded them in harsh, authoritative tones of their commitment to this nation’s people, to the country, and to democracy.
My mother received more than one phone call that year before the end of the night.
Some time later, I went as the Angel of Death — a skull mask, a black robe, a sharp scythe in my bony grip. Even then, I became lost in the part. I walked in absolute silence, glaring awkwardly at passersby as I made my way down the sidewalk.
As a proxy for discussion, I’d printed business cards that I passed out to other kids as we crossed paths. These cards read:
This could be the best (and last) night of your life.
Have you put all of your affairs in order? MetLife can help.
You won’t need a costume if you intend on going as a corpse for Halloween next year.
You never should have taken that candy from that stranger. I’ll see you soon.
And – again – parent phone calls ensued that night, but those phone calls only encouraged me — on Halloween — to become something other than myself. Or, at the very least, the myself that existed for the other 364 days of the year.
Universal Pictures’ Freaky allows for the same sort of role play.
Body-swapped into the intimidating figure of a serial killer, timid Millie is able to overcome a number of the day-to-day anxieties that haunt her as a high school teen. “I felt oddly empowered being in this body,” Millie – no longer looking less like an effectual teemage girl and more like an aggressive, unmasked serial killer – tells Booker. “Like – like – invincible … or kind of badass.” This body swap inspires Millie to behave differently than she ever would have in her own skin, and if she’s ever able to return to her own body and maintain this sense of agency that she’s discovered – the audience is here for it.
I have to imagine the possibility is just as likely on the first day of school, when a child arrives with brand new, fresh clothes, prepared for the new year. Someone hit the reset button, and it’s going to be a better year than before. It must be like a number of people across the world — applying lipstick or deciding to never apply it again — so that they might finally take ownership of themselves.
For me, it was dressing up like a G.I. Joe hero for Halloween – taking my mother’s eyeliner and drawing stubble on my face, chewing a toothpick between my teeth. For just one night, I was tougher than usual. And that night taught me how to be tougher, with or without a toothpick and some eyeliner. I can’t confidently write that I was necessarily a Great American Hero when I arrived at school the next day, but Halloween was certainly basic training for me.
In this way, Freaky is simply about identity, about understanding who you are — accepting it — and then making some re-calibrations so that you can be the person that you want to be.
Just know that there will be bloodshed along the way or something close to it.
And just do it before midnight.
After midnight, the curse can’t be reversed.
After that, it’s too late.
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WHEN TO PRESS PLAY
10:33 p.m.
Oh, but there’s a surprise waiting for you here, because there are still 15 more minutes (including the credits) of Freaky before things resolve. That’s just enough time to determine if Millie will survive high school, recover from the loss of her father, get the guy, and ensure that she’s going away to school next year. That also leaves just enough time to determine if the film sets itself up for a sequel.
Freaky, isn’t it?
So, let’s get real.
Horror films have always been the RC Cola of soda, but who is anyone to tell you what you can or cannot dig? The Pickwick Drive-In asks you to embrace your love of film (however horrifying it may be), and simply. Do. You.
Donning a mask is the easiest step to enjoying Halloween. But casting aside that mask is also a fundamentally important step in enjoying life.
Happy Halloween!
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Late-Night at the Pickwick Drive-In 
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