Troll 2 (dir: Claudio Fragasso, 1990, cert 18)
Celebrate Halloween in the company of one of the worst films ever made, bathe in its crippling ineptitude as actors are forced to deliver lines in the pigeon English they were written by dictatorially deluded Italian director, Claudio Fragasso. “Are you nuts? You trying to turn me into a homo?” Great fun despite the appalling effects, plywood acting and crass dialogue, it just might turn you into a plant if you’re not careful.
Wed 31 Oct 7pm at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £5 macbirmingham.co.uk

Scream (dir: Wes Craven, 1996, cert 18) + introduction
It takes a special kind of genius to invent a genre and then reinvent it in spectacular fashion decades later. That’s what the sadly departed Wes Craven did with Scream. The director of the vicious revenge thriller Last house on the Left (1972), a film that came with the now legendary tag line ‘just keep repeating it’s only a movie’, turned the whole genre upside down with the existential and rampantly self-referential Scream. Disembowelling your star actress in the opening scene was a master stroke.  Remember kids; if you don’t want to be murdered then don’t have sex. The film will be preceded by a talk from Dr Cat lester, Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Wed 31 Oct 2pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £10.50 www.theelectric.co.uk

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (dir: Terence Fisher, 1966, cert 18) + wine tasting
Classic Hammer Horror with Christopher Lee in the titular role, reprising the part he played for Hammer in 1958, as the suave and terrifying vampire. Lee famously doesn’t speak throughout, claiming he refused to due to the poor script, but his screen presence is darkly powerful. Enjoy the Count’s range of sinister hissing whilst sipping on a specially selected range of wines curated by Tony Elvin.
Wed 31 Oct 8pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £24 www.theelectric.co.uk

Party Monster (dir: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, 2003, cert 18) + after party
Macaulay Culkin stars as the notorious king of the club kids Michael Alig, in this biographical tale of drugs, prostitution and murder. Alig’s life was not a pretty one and whilst Culkin’s performance in the lead role is notable, he merely reflects the hollow narcissism of a desperate character, producing a somewhat soulless film. However, there is no denying the extravagant neon joy of the clubbing scenes, come dressed to impress as CineQ host a unique Halloween party.
Wed 31 Oct 7pm at Centrala, Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley St, Birmingham B5 5RT Free www.eventbrite.com

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (dir: John S. Robertson, 1920, cert U) + live score
The great John Barrymore stars as the kind hearted doctor who unleashes his terrible dark side after consuming a steaming potion wrought from his own brilliant mind. The classic of silent cinema will be accompanied by Nigel Ogden on the Town Hall’s stunning organ.
Wed 31 Oct 7.30pm at Town Hall, Victoria Square, Birmingham B3 3DQ £15 www.thsh.co.uk

The Shining (dir: Stanley Kubrick, 1980, cert 15)
Kubrick’s punishing methods drew incredibly raw performances from Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, with Duvall in particular suffering at the hands of the director’s will and becoming ill for months afterwards with stress, the emotional pressure the actors endured is palpable. Revered by critics and hated by the source novel’s author Stephen King, The Shining is one of the best psychological horror films ever made with Jack’s descent into murderous ‘here’s Johnny’ madness as unsettling as it is iconic.
Thu 1 Nov 5.30pm at Lighthouse, Chubb Bldg, Fryer St, Wolverhampton WV1 1HT £8.40 light-house.co.uk

Watership Down (dir: Martin Rosen, 1978, cert U)
Rosen’s animated adaptation of Richard Adams’ starkly prescient novel is one of the most terrifying children’s films ever made. Moving, touching and powerful, its tale of the grim destruction of nature by nefarious human overlords is as potent today as it was four decades ago. Part of the ongoing Anim18 Festival running across the country.
Fri 2 Nov 11am at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £5 macbirmingham.co.uk

Frankenstein (dir: James Whale, 1931, cert 18)
It’s always a source of great pride for us that the director of the most iconic screen monster ever created is from Dudley, you really should go and see the statue in his honour at Castle Gate. The unforgettable sight of Boris Karloff’s monster stomping around in murderously heartbreaking confusion is one of cinema’s most renown visions, an essential part of film history. It’s Alive. The Oak House Museum will be laying on themed cocktails throughout.
Fri 2 Nov 6.30pm at Oak House, Oak Rd, West Bromwich B70 8HJ £5 www.sandwell.gov.uk

Invisible Britain (dir: Paul Sng; Nathan Hannawin, 2015, cert 15) + director’s Q&A, Book Launch. 
Screening as part of the Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience book launch, the documentary follows The Sleaford Mods on tour in the run up to the 2015 general election whilst focussing on the biting effects of austerity. The grim parallels with the worst of the Thatcher years are painfully unmistakable but the voices heard in the film offer hope. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Paul Sng, photographer Laura Dicken, photographers Andrew Jackson and Inès Elsa Dalal, plus Myles Evans-Reid and Aysha Iqbal, whose stories and portraits appear in the book.
Sun 4 Nov 4pm at Centrala, Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley St, Birmingham B5 5RT Free centrala-space.org.uk

Festival of Terror
Ten days of horror themed events with an inventive array of screenings featuring classics, previews, Q&A’s, trading, music and parties. Opening things up are local movie obsessed electronica boys Agents of Evolution, who will tear through a set of John Carpenter inspired noise before a screening of the great man’s classic, The Thing. Check out previews of new UK horror films with post screening Q&A’s, The Snarling and Pumpkins in addition to classics such as Hellraiser, Halloween and The Exorcist. Things are rounded off nicely with a Rocky Horror Halloween Party at The Custard Factory featuring the film, live music, DJs, street food and some outrageous costumes hopefully. Check out the full schedule here.
Fri 26 Oct to Sat 3 Nov at The Mockingbird, The Custard Factory, Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA www.festivalofterror.co.uk