It's pumpkin-gutting season. The nip of fall is in the air. Candy corn is ripe on the stalk. And cheesy horror movies fill screens with tales of those who transgress the taboos of society and meet macabre fates.
The object is thrills, not moral instruction, but every generation enjoys one or two innovative horror movies that transcend the genre, offering more than a few nervous jumps and a night of bad dreams. Movies like Nosferatu (1922), The Birds (1963), Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973) and The Blair Witch Project (1999).
The other end of the horror movie spectrum is equally enjoyable — campy, tongue-in-cheek romps through zombie land — the kind of horrible old movies the late Dr. Paul Bearer (a.k.a. Dick Bennick) used to show every Saturday afternoon on WTOG-44's Creature Feature.
Two separate Movies in the Park nights run through October on both sides of the Bay, each screening horror classics and B-grade favorites. Old Hyde Park Village begins by screening Ghostbusters (1984) in its fountain area at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16, and the City of Dunedin shows Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) in Pioneer Park at dusk Oct. 17.
Perhaps the best reason to attend either event is to avoid something scarier than paying $8 per ticket at a commercial movie theater.
At both parks, you can bring blankets, snacks and the kids. Pre-screening entertainment is also provided. At Old Hyde Park Village, there's free popcorn, music by Mix 100.7 and giveaways from sponsors like the Weekly Planet. At Pioneer Park, oldies band The Classics performs sound-alike pop covers, but you probably don't want giveaways from the City of Dunedin's co-sponsors, which include Moss-Feaster Funeral Home.
As for the movie selection for these events, it's impeccable.
Ghostbusters is timeless. Bill Murray and the film's co-writers Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis star as Columbia University colleagues who've lost their posts due to budget cuts and are forced to eke (or perhaps eek!) out livings ridding New York City of gooey paranormal pests. Work is slow until they discover Sigourney Weaver's apartment is a gateway to hell. Fright factor: nil. Bill Murray's ironic responses to situations and deadpan one-liners account for all the good lines, like "He slimed me."
The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is, in a word, disturbing. Large seedpods — found in basements, car trunks and greenhouses — are replicating and replacing human beings, insidiously taking over an entire community as a small-town doctor (McCarthy) helplessly tries to combat the threat. An obvious theme is alien dehumanization, but more politicized interpretations recognize its commentary on the harm and paranoia of McCarthyism.
Enjoy the movies and in the words of Dr. Paul Bearer, as he signed off every week, "I'll be lurking for you."
Old Hyde Park Village is located at Swann and Rome avenues near Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa. For more info, call 813-251-3500.
Pioneer Park is located at the corner of Main Street and Douglas Avenue in downtown Dunedin. For more info, call 727-298-3213.
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2003.