Outdoor Film Fests De-Mellow and Macabre-Up

Think a flick under the stars is all laughs and fun? Not in October, nope.

Rumply picnic blankets, twinkly stars and easy-breezy chitchat.

These are three components that come pretty standard to all of our region's summertime film festivals. The livin' is mellow -- so mellow you want to spell livin' instead of living -- and there's music and evening breezes and shared bags of chips and maybe a pre-film grass nap.

But an October film festival is edgier. The romcoms and swaggering adventure roustabouts have been scuttled for really scary movies, movies that'll put you on the edge of that comfy picnic blanket for an hour or two.

And, nope, Street Food Cinema and Eat|See|Hear -- which is now Eat|See|Hear|Scream! for its October run -- will not unfurl as grandly or as longly as they do in the warmer months. But they'll come packing a peculiar and tingling punch believe it.

Street Food Cinema is going with three frighties over three select nights. "Psycho" is up on Oct. 12 at LA State Historic Park, "Nightmare on Elm Street" Kruegers into Exposition Park on Oct. 19, and "Scream" is the Halloween treat on Oct. 31 (that's also at Exposition Park).

Eat|See|Hear|Scream! takes to downtown on Saturday, Oct. 12, and it brings with it one of the all-out SoCal creepy classics of the '80s, and maybe ever: "Poltergeist." We know, it is beloved scare flick, but we'd also argue that it is a wonderfully weird LA picture, too. Scares in the suburbs? That's done a lot now, but "Poltergeist" was one of the first.

A few gems follow "Poltergeist" down the October road: "Ghostbusters" on Oct. 19 in Pasadena and "The Shining" at LA State Historic Park on Oct. 26.

The Scene

Want to find new things to do in Los Angeles? The Scene's lifestyle stories have you covered. Here's your go-to source on where the fun is across SoCal and for the weekend.

Inventors assemble: ‘City of STEM + LA Maker Faire' boasts oodles of free activities

Social Nature, a Descanso Gardens pop-up, will offer sips and snacks this spring and summer

Danny may not be here, Mrs. Torrance, but plenty of eating options will be: Food trucks will be on hand at both to-dos, the better to wing- and/or pizza- and or taco-up film goers.

Again, this is not summer, easy, soft, carefree days. An outdoor film festival can bring the goosebumps, too, and not just from the occasional blast of chilly air that blows through whatever park or alfresco space you're watching the film in.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us