Every week on Cinebuds sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors, Kristopher Pollard from Milwaukee Film and Radio Milwaukee’s Dori Zori review movies, tell you which ones are showing in our city and talk with the people who help bring them to the big screen.
Witches. Historically, they’re misunderstood scapegoats. But from a storytelling perspective, they can be straight-up awful.
That’s the crux of Milwaukee Film’s currently running Halloween series, “All of Them Witches,” which focuses primarily on the titular characters doing terrible things — from mouse transformations to literal damnation — to people who usually don’t deserve it.
Dori and Kpolly take their patented (and delightful) skewed approach to this episode, starting with a spirited discussion about “threat mastery” and how watching someone go through something awful is actually a way for you to avoid such situations in your own life. Would this be more helpful for a scenario like finding a parking space in a chaotic downtown environment? Perhaps. But in the unlikely event you expect to be unfairly cast into the pits of hell in the future, Milwaukee Film’s series could come in handy.
Our dynamic duo also digs into the remaining movies playing this month, share some of their own Halloween media rituals, flash back to 1960s cult horror and debate the benefits of wearing a costume to the theater.
‘All of Them Witches’ schedule
Drag Me to Hell
Oct. 16-17
Oriental Theatre
After denying a woman the extension she needs to keep her home, loan officer Christine Brown sees her once-promising life take a startling turn for the worse. Christine is convinced she's been cursed by a Gypsy, but her boyfriend is skeptical. Her only hope seems to lie in a psychic who claims he can help her lift the curse and keep her soul from being dragged straight to hell.
Ken Russell's The Devils
Oct. 16-22
Downer Theatre
An enduring masterpiece of cinema starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, Ken Russell’s The Devils is a prescient epic of obsession and corruption, and a defining work of art from a seminal filmmaker. This is the uncut and unfiltered theatrical experience that Russell always envisioned, and the first time the film will be presented restored and in 4K.
Viy
Oct. 22-23
Oriental Theatre
A seminary student on monastery holiday kills an old witch in a remote village. The hag then transforms into a beautiful young woman whose dying wish is for him to watch over her wake for three nights. With terrors occurring and his faith waning, he reads prayers on the overnight watch and tries to survive the supernatural encounters.
The Craft
Oct. 24, 29
Oriental Theatre
A Catholic school newcomer falls in with a clique of teen witches who wield their powers against all who dare to cross them — be they teachers, rivals or meddlesome parents.
The Witches
Oct. 30-31
Oriental Theatre
While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother Helga, a young boy named Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches as they reveal a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When they discover the eavesdropper, the witches test the formula on Luke, who must fight back with the help of Helga and hotel manager Mr. Stringer.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Oct. 30-31
Oriental Theatre
After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital clutching the year's most popular Halloween mask, Dr. Daniel Challis sets out to investigate the strange events and finds himself thrust into a nightmarish conspiracy.
