It is the season of undead film franchises. You can catch plenty of reboots and movie series in which they had to swap out the lead actor after a decade of sequels. While some series recycle the first film鈥檚 formula, others break the mold.
A pioneering example mentioned by listener Austin Simons is 鈥淏ride of Frankenstein鈥� (1935), which carries on the timeline from the original 1931 鈥淔rankenstein鈥� while switching the focus from the doctor to the monster. Nick Knittel called in from Durham to highlight how 鈥淒octor Sleep鈥� (2019) uses a jump in chronology in addition to a perspective shift to bring a new life to the iconic setting of Stanley Kubrick鈥檚 鈥淭he Shining鈥� (1980). Other studios rely on an expansive cinematic universe to generate fodder for follow-up plotlines. Listeners also shared their thoughts about series like 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� and 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings,鈥� which inspired fans to write sequels and spin-offs themselves.
Host Frank Stasio discusses listeners鈥� picks with film experts and. Gordon co-directed , is a film professor at North Carolina State University and a public scholar at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Boyes is the film curator for the North Carolina Museum of Art and the curator of the Moviediva series at The Carolina Theatre of Durham.
Halloween screenings across North Carolina:
- (Winston-Salem, outdoors) - "It", "The Goonies", "The Blair Witch Project" and "Nightmare on Elm Street"
- (Winston-Salem, outdoors) - "Ghostbusters" and "Hotel Transylvania"
- (Durham, outdoors) - "Ghostbusters" and "Gremlins"
- (Henderson, outdoors) - "Doctor Sleep"
- (Lexington, outdoors) - "Don't Look Back"
- (Wilmington, indoors and socially distanced) - "Night of The Living Dead" and "Rocky Horror Picture Show"
- (Waynesville, indoors and socially distanced) - "The Empty Man"
