Waverly Midnights

“In France, I’m an auteur. In Germany, I’m a film-maker. In the UK, I’m a horror-director. In the US, I’m a bum.” – John Carpenter

“America doesn’t have so many great directors to spare that it can afford to let John Carpenter fall through the cracks… Carpenter stands completely and utterly alone as the last genre filmmaker in America… He is also the widescreen master of contemporary cinema… [Carpenter] makes films that are often more acutely intelligent than anything his less constrained contemporaries can manage.” – Kent Jones

Our tribute to one of the great contemporary American filmmakers, focusing on several of his overlooked and rarely screened gems. All shows free for Auteur-level members!

The Thing

Friday, September 14 - Saturday, September 15, 2012
High-definition digital projection (DCP) "John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic THE THING is, like Whiteout, a thriller set in a US base... more...

Village of the Damned

Friday, January 27 - Saturday, January 28, 2012
35mm print "John Carpenter's best horror film in a long while is one scarifying trip down memory lane. This is a knowing remake of the spooky 1960 English film featuring demonic platinum-blond... more...

Christine

Friday, February 3 - Saturday, February 4, 2012
35mm print "CHRISTINE is, of course, utterly ridiculous. But I enjoyed it anyway. The movies have a love affair with cars, and at some dumb elemental level we enjoy seeing chases and... more...

They Live

Friday, December 14 - Saturday, December 15, 2012
35mm print "Absurdly neglected... What a shock it was (and still is!) to see Reagan’s America confronted head-on in a low-rent sci-fi epic staring Rowdy Roddy Piper. The premise of THEY... more...

Big Trouble in Little China

Friday, May 18 - Saturday, May 19, 2012
35mm print "'Ready, Jack?' asks Kurt Russell's Chinese buddy before another fraught round of mayhem beneath the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown. 'I was born ready', comes back the... more...

Escape From L.A.

Friday, March 9 - Saturday, March 10, 2012
35mm print "John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM L.A. is a go-for-broke action extravaganza that satirizes the genre at the same time it's exploiting it. It's a dark vision of a post-apocalyptic... more...

Starman

Friday, March 16 - Saturday, March 17, 2012
35mm print "The starman of the title is a ball of glowing light. He, or it, has traveled to Earth in response to the invitation from Voyager, but of course the Air Force treats the spacecraft... more...

Vampires

Friday, March 23 - Saturday, March 24, 2012
35mm print "Derived from John Steakley's novel Vampire$, it pitches Vatican-backed vampire slayer Jack Crow (James Woods), his portly sidekick Tony Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and... more...

Prince of Darkness

Friday, March 30 - Saturday, March 31, 2012
35mm print "Carpenter's first low-budget horror pic for some time. Summoned to an abandoned church by a frightened priest (Donald Pleasence), Prof Birack finds a basement shrine dominated... more...

Assault on Precinct 13

Friday, April 6 - Saturday, April 7, 2012
35mm print "Carpenter's second feature borrows the conventions of protagonists in jeopardy from Night of the Living Dead to produce one of the most effective exploitation movies... more...