8 Horror Movie Throwbacks Hitting the Bay Area Big Screen in October

We checked far and wide to find the local theaters celebrating October in horror movie style! Here are the best bets from Oakland’s New Parkway, to Alamo Drafthouse, to the farther reaching Balboa Theatre, which had a number of great horror movies for the younger crowd. The list includes some true classics, double features at the Castro Theatre (check out their website for the full list of combos), and an impressive marathon showing of the entire Nightmare on Elm Street collection which equals seven films and a double-digit number of hours watching scary movies. Clearly, not for the weak at heart.

Full list below!

Popcorn for Breakfast: Saturday Morning Cartoons
Wake up a little early to go back in time with these old school Saturday morning styled cartoons. Ghosts, goblins, devils and other Halloween daredevils are set to take center stage. Also don’t forget your friend, Casper & Betty Boop. Introduce a youngin’ to some old school (pre CG!) cartoons.

Paranorman
This Laika film is a must for families and stop motion animation fans. Between the adorable characters, detailed sets, and free popcorn, it will be hard to be cranky about waking up a little early on a Saturday.

The Nightmare on Elm Street Marathon
Freddy Krueger & Wes Craven fans are in for a treat. Almo is a doing a watch-til-your-eyeballs-bleed marathon featuring seven chapters of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Red Bull & coffee provided. Also, according to the website – if you state for the whole marathon you’ll go home with a little something to remember the night by (hopefully, they don’t just mean insomnia).

Homemade Horror Hallow-Rama
If B movies are an A+ in your book, then you might dig this night. What you’re signing up for is 90 minutes of trash-horror at its finest (or worse, depending on your tastes). This double-header from the D.I.Y. fringes features FOLIES MEURTRIERES, an ultra-violent, drone-core slasher, followed by THE HOOK OF WOODLAND HEIGHTS, an urban-legend chaos-machine that somehow makes the killing of children and chihuahuas feel wholesome because of its hometown comradery.

The Exorcist & Poltergeist
Here are two movies that will make you never want to answer the door for any Girl Scout aged solicitors ever again. And babysitting? Forget about it! Catch this classic double header at the Castro Theatre.

Shaun of the Dead
As Alamo puts it, “This is just one of those movies that’s too difficult to shut up throughout, and since you’re going to at least be mouthing your favorite words to yourself anyway we figured it was only proper to give it the Drafthouse’s Movie Party treatment…They’ll provide inflatable cricket bats so you can smack your neighbor every time Shaun smacks a zombie on screen, all while enjoying delicious pints-just like the guys on screen! ”

Natural Born Killers
I really debated whether this should go on this list—it’s not exactly a Halloween horror movie BUT it is pretty creepy and gorey. It’s also not that often that an opportunity to see this rough & tumble romance hit the big screens—it’d be a shame to miss the love affair directed by Oliver Stone, written by Quentin Tarantino.

Creep Show
Creep Show covers an anthology of five terrifying tales, based on the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s. This cheeky, bone-chilling blast-from-the-past is a good time and scary if you’re about 10 years old and younger.

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