ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

This Week in ATLRetro is the bee’s knees! Come see all the swell shenanigans we’ve dug up just for you!

Monday, January 21

Make your way to the Atlanta History Center and celebrate the life of MLK with their Martin Luther King, Jr. Day special programming including a screening of Frederick Lewis’ documentary PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR: BEYOND THE MASK (2017) at 1pm, and free admission. Get rocked with U.S. Bombs and Total Chaos at The Earl! Make your way to the Red Light Café for a night with Harlem River Noise! Get really retro and journey back 220 million years to when massive pterosaurs ruled the skies with Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s newest Giant Screen film, FLYING MONSTERS 3D, through June 1! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with Larry Griffith!

Tuesday, January 22

Swing on by the Cobb Energy Centre for a night with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox! Get folksy with Laura Gibson and Takenobu at The Earl! Eddie’s Attic dishes out a night of rockin’ roots with Sarah Potenza! Get your Israeli jazz rock fusion fix with Marbin at Smith’s Olde Bar! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with DJ Quasi Mandisco’s Little 5 Points Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Blues it up with Matt Pendrick at Blind Willies! Get down with J.T. Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, January 23

Emory Cinematheque continues their “History of Color Films” series with a screening of John Murray Anderson’s KING OF JAZZ (1930) at 7:30pm! Get rockin’ with Sash the Bash at the Dixie Tavern in Marietta! Get intergalactic make your way to Studio Movie Grill’s (Alpharetta/Duluth/Marietta) screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) at 7:15pm! Jazz it up with Jane Monheit at City Winery! Spend the night with Stout at Eddie’s Attic! Make your way to Terminal West for a night with Amen Dunes! Get down at the Fox Theatre with Toni Braxton! The Star Bar eighties it up during their ‘80s Dance Party with DJ Kahle! The Highlander rocks out with their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday! Join the [REDACTED] Film Club, a free weekly film screening (different monthly themes) hosted by Videodrome and Patina Pictures, and catch a super secret screening at the Georgia Beer Garden at 7pm, through April 24 [January’s theme – Party Like it’s 1999]! Make your way to SCADShow for THE FABRIC OF MY LIFE performance and book signing by Tziporah Salamon at 6pm! Catch a Flashback Cinema screening of Alfonso Cuaron’s HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (2004) at theatres across Atlanta [Northlake Festival Movie Tavern (Tucker); GTC Merchant’s Walk Cinemas (Marietta); Movie Tavern at Horizon Village (Suwannee); and The Springs Cinema & Taphouse (Sandy Springs)]! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! It’s a night of Honky-Tonk Karaoke with Andrea Colburn & Mud Moseley at The Star Bar! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern for a rockin’ night of blues with the Tyler Neal Band! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! Boogie down with Art Holliday at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Blind Willies gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, January 24

Spend the night with Jake Lat Botz at Smith’s Olde Bar! Garage rock it up and get to Beer & Lounging at the Clermont Lounge with Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah, The Tenders and Black Cat Rising! Get groovy with Groove Moose and The Aquaducks at Aisle 5!  Make your way to City Winery for a night with Shawn Colvin! Swing on by the Cobb Energy Centre for The Chinese Acrobats of Hebei! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Pat Reedy, Andrea Colburn & Mud Moseley and Pat Byrne! Get rocked at The Star Bar with The Warsaw Clinic, Wet Jeans, Post Hunk and Fine Lines! Spend the night with Crash Test Dummies at the Variety Playhouse! Bluegrass it up with Magic Beans and Kitchen Dwellers at Vinyl! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for The Candybox Revue’s Burlesque Karaoke! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes and some killer island cocktails! Boogie down with The Juke Joint Dukes at Blind Willies! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, January 25

Get traumatized and HORROR-fied this weekend as the Days of the Dead Convention kills it at the Sheraton Atlanta hotel for three days of ghastly gore-filled events, running through Jan. 27! You won’t want to miss monstrous retro celebrity guests Clive Barker (HELLRAISER; CANDYMAN; NIGHT BREED); Doug Bradley (HELLRAISER); Tsutomu Kitagawa (GODZILLA: MILLENNIUM SERIES); Bin Furuya (ULTRAMAN); John Amplas (DAWN OF THE DEAD; CREEPSHOW); Skeet Ulrich (SCREAM); PJ Soles (HALLOWEEN); Edward Furlong (TERMINATOR III: JUDGEMENT DAY), Tony Todd (CANDYMAN), Kathy Najimy (HOCUS POCUS); masked menace Kane Hodder of FRIDAY THE 13TH fame; Reels of the Dead: Red Track; and so much more! So, get your fill of the blood-bath that is, Days of the Dead!

Turn back time with Cher and boogie down at the Infinite Energy Arena! Get experimental with That 1 Guy at the Masquerade! Folk rock it up with Shawn Mullins at The Vista Room! Get your outlaw country fix with Shooter Jennings at Venkman’s! Zoso pays tribute to Led Zeppelin at the Variety Playhouse! Pulp Atlanta presents Neil Diamond’s PSYCHO: THE MUSICAL, through Feb. 9! Rev it up with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & The PsychoDevilles at Smokin’ Cues in Stockbridge! Catch a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ FORREST GUMP (1994) at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre at 8pm! Funk it up with Jeff Bradshaw & Friends, Glenn Lewis and N’DAMBI at City Winery! Folk rock it up with Liz Cooper & The Stampede at The Earl! Spend the night with Caroline Herring at Eddie’s Attic! Jazz it up with Emrah Kotan at the Red Light Café! Spend the night with Jim Brickman at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Funk it up with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe at Terminal West! Or get the funk with Bird City Revolutionaries at Tin Roof Cantina! Get the blues with The Rib Shack Lady & The Atlanta Horns at the Northside Tavern! Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials get down at Blind Willies! Get down with Big C at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Time-Warp it up at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, January 26

It’s Day 2 to get spooked at the Days of the Dead Convention at the Sheraton Atlanta! Get your blood curdling fill of monsters galore with hellacious panels, the Etheria Film Fest with Stacy Pippi, celebrating the best women directed genre film at 3pm; one hell-bent horrorific after party with Kool Kats The Casket Creatures and ELZIG, and a midnight screening of Kool Kat James Bickert’s AMAZON HOT BOX (2018)!

Get down with Smokey Robinson at the Fox Theatre! Folk rock it up with Shawn Mullins at The Vista Room! Zoso pays tribute to Led Zeppelin at the Variety Playhouse! The REMakes pay tribute to R.E.M. at Venkman’s, and stick around for the Time Warp Orchestra! Haunt on down to Amsterdam Atlanta for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s COFFIN CLASSICS: Goth Industrial Darkwave Music Video Night featuring Goth, dark 80s and more! Rock out at 529 with Clashinista (The Clash tribute) and Straw Polly! Get your old-school funk fix with Lettuce at Center Stage! Spend the night with Peabo Bryson at City Winery! Bluegrass it up with Monroe Crossing at the Crimson Moon Café! Hair of the Dog dishes out a night of foot stompin’ blues rockin’ Cajun tunes at Jekyll Brewing! Get down with the Randall Bramblett Band at the Red Clay Theatre! The Moonlighters Jazz Band dishes out jazzy tunes from the ‘30s-‘50s at the Red Light Café! Kool Kats The Head rock out at Smith’s Olde Bar! Americana it up with Koe Wetzel at Terminal West! Experience folk legend Arlo Guthrie at the Buckhead Theatre! Get the blues with The Rib Shack Lady & The Atlanta Horns and Bill Sheffield at the Northside Tavern! Get the Dixie blues with Seminole Jackson at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! Spend the night with The Empress of Soul, Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willies! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ Kwasi Mandisco transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, January 27

It’s Day 3 and your last chance to experience the rockin’ blood and horror fest, the Days of the Dead Convention! Geek it up at the Atlanta Comic Convention at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center, from 11am – 5pm! Get down to The Vista Room for Papa J’s Funky Blues Revue! TCM Presents a special 80th Anniversary screening of Victor Fleming’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) at theatres across Atlanta [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford); Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; and Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville)]! Get your tail to The Earl for Tag Team Goes to Hawaii and W8ing4UFOs! Upright bass it up with Scott Mulvahill at Eddie’s Attic! Get down with Papa J’s Funky Blues Revue at The Vista Room! Catch a Flashback Cinema screening of Jonathan Lynn’s MY COUSIN VINNY (1992) at theatres across Atlanta [Northlake Festival Movie Tavern (Tucker); GTC Merchant’s Walk Cinemas (Marietta); Movie Tavern at Horizon Village (Suwannee); and The Springs Cinema & Taphouse (Sandy Springs)]! Frankie’s Blues Mission gets down at Blind Willies! Funk it up with Risky Biscuit at Tin Roof Cantina! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner! Or blues it up with Fat Back Deluxe at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Pulp Atlanta presents Neil Diamond’s PSYCHO: THE MUSICAL, through Feb. 9!

The Aurora Theatre presents A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2, through Feb. 10!

The Alliance Theatre presents EVER AFTER, through Feb. 17!

Get really retro and journey back 220 million years to when massive pterosaurs ruled the skies with Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s newest Giant Screen film, FLYING MONSTERS 3D, through June 1!

ATL CRAFT presents a magical occult Movie Night every second Friday of every month!

My Parents’ Basement goes old-school with their monthly Pinball Tournament, every first Wednesday of the month!

Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay, getting nerdy the first Monday of every month!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm! 

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

The Highlander rocks out with their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday!

Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction! event, every Monday!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

This haunted holiday season is alive and kicking as the Buried Alive Film Festival (BAFF) kills it with another year! BAFF is brought to you by Festival Director, Kool Kat Blake Myers and Event Director, Kool Kat Luke Godfrey and a helluva team of mad scientists working behind the scenes. Gore it up with five blood-filled days (November 14-18) of film terror, including 7 features, 59 short independent horror films from around the globe, and four extra special events, bringing its sinister shenanigans for a third year to 7 Stages Theatre in Little Five Points.

BAFF kicks off Wed. Nov. 14, at 8pm, with the ever-popular BAFF Sinema Challenge, giving local filmmakers the opportunity to bring to life a horror film in 13 days. Production starts on November 1 and films are screened on the festival’s opening night. The contest is judged by co-creator and exclusive programmer for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) weekly late-night cult movie showcase TCM Underground, Kool Kat Millie De Chirico and “Archer” animation director and Atlanta-based filmmaker, Marcus Rosentrater.

Thursday night kicks off with Shorts Program 1: For the Love of the Undertaker, which includes Kool Kat Dayna Noffke’s TEASER (USA) where death is a dance; Tyler Macri’s creaturific short WHAT COMES FROM A SWAMP (USA); Ilja Rautsi’s horror comedy where a woman must survive a horde of men’s frail egos in HELSINKI MAINSPLAINING MASSACRE (Finland); Daniel Stankler’s SHOULD YOU MEET A LADY IN A DARKENED WOOD (UK) and so many more! The Opening Night Feature is Joe Baden’s psychological weirdness, THE GOD INSIDE MY EAR (2017) featuring our Kool Kat of the Week William Tokarsky (interview coming soon) screening at 9pm, preceded by the short film BAGHEAD (UK), directed by Alberto Corredor Marina.

Tricks ‘n’ treats abound as Friday brings you Shorts Program 2: Bury Me with My Favorite Films, which includes Lorene Yavo’s animated supernatural short COUNT YOUR CURSES (Belgium); Kate Dolen’s cheap thrill(er) CATCALLS (Ireland); Joshua Long’s award-winning POST MORTEM MARY (Australia) and more!  Stick around for the 8pm Feature, Jason Trost’s THE FP2: BEATS OF RAGE (USA) for a bloody good time! And of course no respectable horror film festival would be complete without screening a few horror classics, and ATLRetro loves all the special events chosen this year, including a special screening of Carl Boese and Paul Wegener’s THE GOLEM (1920) with a live soundtrack by Atlanta-based jazz group Samadha, followed by a special midnight grind-house screening of Kool Kat James Bickert’s AMAZON HOT BOX (USA), preceded by Jill Gevargizian’s sinister short, 42 COUNTS (USA).

The heads just keep rolling as Saturday brings you Shorts Program 3: It’s Never Too Early to Start Digging Graves including Marinah Janello’s ENTROPIA (USA), a search for beauty at all costs; WIHFF co-director Sam Kolesnik’s award-winning MAMA’S BOY (USA); Fredrik S. Hanna’s crime-laden ROSALINA (Norway) and more followed by a 4pm Feature, Marc Martinez Jordan’s twisted film FRAMED (Spain), preceded by Guillem Dols’ short PSYCHO KINO (Spain). At 6pm, BAFF gets wickedly weird as they team up with The Eyeslicer, featuring shorts by Kool Kat Brian Lonano (CROW HAND (2014)/GWILLIAM’S TIPS FOR TURNING TRICKS INTO TREATS) and more! At 8pm get ready for another hellacious Feature with Ujicha’s torturous VIOLENCE VOYAGER (Japan), preceded by Laura Sparks’ short MADDER ISLE! And to top off the evening, BAFF offers a special treat with a screening of Joel Schumacher’s cult classic, THE LOST BOYS (1987), hosted by Atlanta’s award-winning Blast Off Burlesque, who will stage one of their signature TabooLaLa events including a performance inspired by the film before the screening! Last but not least is a midnight screening of local Tony Reams’ (et al) DEAD BY MIDNIGHT (USA).

For those early birds, Sunday kicks off with an encore presentation of Carl Boese and Paul Wegener’s THE GOLEM (1920) with a live soundtrack by Atlanta-based jazz group Samadha, followed by a 2pm Feature documentary, SURVIVAL OF THE FILM FREAKS (USA), where Directors Bill Fulkerson and Kyle Kuchta explore the phenomenon of cult film and film fanatics, preceded by Anthony Cousins’ short THE BLOODY BALLAD OF SQUIRT REYNOLDS (USA). Shorts Program 4: Why Bury Good Meat?! Vampires, Zombies and Cannibals. Humans Taste So Good! promises a monstrous good time with screenings of Dayna Noffke’s GENTLEWOMAN’S GUIDE TO DOMESTICITY (USA); Felipe M. Guerra’s MRS. OLDINA GOES SHOPPING (Brazil); Pete Tompkies’ ONCE BITTEN (UK); Sam Kolesnik’s FRIENDSGIVING (USA) and more! And last but not least, BAFF presents the World Premiere of Todd Sheets’ CLOWNADO (USA) at 6pm as the Closing Feature, preceded by Brian Lonano’s BFF GIRLS (USA)!

The 7 Stages Theatre is located at 1105 Euclid Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307. Individual program block tickets are $12, and five-day festival passes are just $120.

For more information and the complete Buried Alive Film Festival schedule, visit the website here. And view the official BAFF bumper here.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Come see what’s shakin’ in ATLRetro This Week!

Monday, November 5

Rock on down to The Earl for a night with the Smoking Popes, The Pink Spiders and Amuse! Goth it up with The Birthday Massacre, Julien-K and Ghost Fader at the Variety Playhouse! The Plaza Theatre giallos it up with screenings of Dario Argento’s THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970) through Nov. 7!  Groove on down to City Winery for a night with Bumpin the Mango! Landmark Midtown Art Cinema screens James Crump’s documentary ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970: SEX, FASHION & DISCO (2018), through Nov. 8! Get revved and tune into Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley’s Psychobilly Freakout Radio broadcasting on Garage 71 at 8pm! Blues it up with Bill Sheffield at Blind Willie’s! Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction event every Monday! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, November 6

Videodrome and The Plaza Theater head into the shadows with a NOIRVEMBER screening of Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING (1956) at 7pm! And stick around for a bloody fantastic time with a screening of Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA (1977), through Nov. 8! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their new Classics Series with a screening of Steven Spielberg’s INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984) at 7pm! Make your way to 529 for a night with Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer, Myke Johns and Ben Trickey! Get jazzy at Center Stage with Allen Sloan and Nick Waterhouse! Or get heavy and rock out at The Earl with King Buffalo, Dead Now and the Mathis Hunter Band! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with DJ Quasi Mandisco’s Little 5 Points Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Blues it up with the Crosstown Allstars at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Ramble on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with the Redstone Ramblers! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, November 7

Emory Cinematheque kills it with their “Hitchcock/Hitchcockian” series with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) at 7:30pm! Or get intergalactic at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) at 2:30pm/7:30pm, or catch a screening at The Springs Cinema & Taphouse at 6:40pm! Boogie down with Billy F. Gibbons and Benton Blount at the Variety Playhouse! Honky-tonk on down to The Earl for Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Hunger Anthem and Reconciler! Folk it up with the Fruit Bats and Vetiver at Eddie’s Attic! Sludge on down to Heaven at the Masquerade for a rockin’ night with High on Fire, Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust and Haunt! Get freaky and make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with the Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow Revue! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! Spend the night with Robyn Hitchcock (Soft Boys) and Max Putnam at City Winery! Catch a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ FORREST GUMP (1994) at Cobb CineBistro at 7pm! It’s a night of Honky-Tonk Karaoke with Andrea Colburn & Mud Moseley at The Star Bar! Make your way to the Studio Movie Grill’s (Alpharetta/Duluth/Marietta) screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) at 7:15pm! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets down with Frankie’s Blues Mission! The Cazanovas host a Blues Jam at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern for a rockin’ night of blues with the Tyler Neal Band! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, November 8

Honky-tonk on down to the Clermont Lounge for a night with Kool Kat Spike Fullerton and Ghost Riders Car Club! Or spend the night with Brian Wilson at the Fox Theatre! Celebrate 20 years of The Dude with a screening of the Coen Brothers’ THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) at The Plaza Theater at 7pm! Get your Americana fix with Will Hoge and Ryan Culwell at City Winery! Or spend the night with Darden Smith at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out at The Highlander with DJ Howiestein and Mister Wilson’s Over the Edge Record Party! Stomp on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons and Danny Hutchins! Folk it up with Davin McCoy at Solis Two Porsche Drive! Spend the night with Robert Earl Keen and Adam Wright at the Variety Playhouse! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes with Coast Guard and some killer island cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Make your way to Blind Willie’s for a night with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, November 9

New wave it up with The Swimming Pool Q’s at The Vista Room! Get rocked at the Drunken Unicorn with Bad Spell, Twisty Cats, The Minks and Black Cat Rising! Hot Licks & Rhetoric pay tribute to Steely Dan at Jimmy’s Tequila & Carnes! Peter Bogdanovich’s documentary THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION (2018) opens at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema! The Los Lonely Boys roots rock it up at City Winery! Spend the night with Adrian Legg at the Crimson Moon Café! Get down with Patrick Davis & His Midnight Choir at Eddie’s Attic! Or get country-westerned with The Vaudevillains at the Red Light Café! Jam it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with the Affected Phamily Band! The Gordon Vernick Quartet jazz it up at Solis Two Porsche Drive! Slightly Stoopid get psychedelic at the Tabernacle! Get rocked ‘60s/’70s-style with The Rainmen and Penny Western at Tin Roof Cantina! Get folksy with River Whyless and Takenobu at Vinyl! Jazz it up at Park Tavern with YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND, a musical cabaret featuring Lynn Loosier! The Theatre Project presents SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN at the Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre, through Nov. 11! Get grindin’ with Courtney Daly at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Wild Wing Café in Dunwoody! Debbie Bond gets the blues at the Northside Tavern! Blind Willie’s gets down with Selwyn Birchwood! Time-Warp it up at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, November 10

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema celebrates Buster Keaton with double-bill matinee screenings of his SHERLOCK JR (1924) and SEVEN CHANCES (1925) at 11am! Explore death in the avant garde tradition of the European salon and café philos at Death Café #50 at the Historic Oakland Cemetery at 3pm! Gypsy jazz it up with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet at Eddie’s Attic! Rock on down to Avondale Towne Cinema for a Pink Floyd Jam! Gary Brewer & The Kentucky Ramblers bluegrass it up at the Crimson Moon Café! Get some soul with Emily King at the Variety Playhouse! Spend the night with Neon Queen at The Vista Room! Back N Black pay tribute to AC/DC at Wild Wing Café in Dunwoody! Rock out at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre as the Georgia Players Guild pays tribute to the songs of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Creedence Clearwater Revival! Catch a screening of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) at Venkman’s at 10am! Jazz it up at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center with Spyro Gyra! Get countrified with Craig Morgan at City Winery! Get the blues with Kerry Hill at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get down with Lola and Bill Sheffield at the Northside Tavern! Sandra Hall & The Shadows get down at Blind Willie’s! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ Kwasi Mandisco transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, November 11

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their Buster Keaton matinees with a screening of his THE GENERAL (1926) at 11am! Ragtime it up with Tray Dahl & the Jugtime Ragband at The Vista Room! Corey Henry & The Funk Apostles funk it up at Terminal West! TCM Big Screen Classics presents a 30th Anniversary screening of John McTiernan’s DIE HARD (1988) at theaters across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta); Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; and AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)]! Esme Patterson and Rose Hotel get folksy at The Earl! Support your local artists at the Historic Oakland Cemetery with the Bell Tower Boutique: A Pop-Up Shop from 11am – 5pm! Get some blues ‘n’ southern soul with Thunder Gypsy at Park Tavern! Catch a screening of James William Guercio’s ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE (1973) at The Plaza Theater! Get your ‘80s Latin pop fix with Amanda Miguel and Diego Verdaguer at the Buckhead Theatre! Get rootsy with Reckless Kelly at City Winery! Or get down to your Texas roots with Lee Roy Parnell at Crimson Moon Café! Spend the night with Mutlu and Suzy Jones at Eddie’s Attic! Get the blues with Garrett Collins at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get funky with Wanyama at the Red Light Café! Or funk it up with Risky Biscuit at Tin Roof Cantina! Make your way to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Franklin J. Schaffner’s PATTON (1970) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 10! (LAST CHANCE!)

Be the Headless Horseman’s next victim and get your bones chilled at Serenbe Playhouse’s thrilling presentation of their immersive spooky attraction and show, THE SLEEPY HOLLOW EXPERIENCE, haunting through Nov. 11! (LAST CHANCE!)

13 Stories Haunted House gores it up for another haunted season in Newnan, through Nov. 11! (LAST CHANCE!)

The Michael C. Carlos Museum exhibits Chimera: Andy Warhol through the 1980s, through Nov. 25!

Get revved and tune into Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley’s Psychobilly Freakout Radio broadcasting on Garage 71 at 8pm, every Monday through Dec. 31!

ATL CRAFT presents a magical occult Movie Night every second Friday of every month!

My Parents’ Basement goes old-school with their monthly Pinball Tournament, every first Wednesday of the month!

Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay, getting nerdy the first Monday of every month!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm! 

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

The Highlander rocks out with their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday!

Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction! event, every Monday!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Forget the horrorific daily grind and take a peek at what we have in store for you killer kool kiddies! Let ATLRetro fill you with a week’s worth of swingin’ good times; from vintage, fuzzed out rock ‘n’ roll to bloody fangtastic films to steamy burlesque to classic cinema galore! It’ll be a bloody good time, so get out and get Retro!

Monday, October 29

Raise a rockin’ ruckus at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema with one-time screening of Tabbert Fiiller’s documentary on Johnny Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) THE PUBLIC IMAGE IS ROTTEN (2018) at 7pm! Videodrome and Patina Pictures haunt it up at Joystick Gamebar with a screening of Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE (1988), followed by a Séance Dance Party! Dead men tell no tales, or so they say, but the Aurora Theatre begs to differ. Creep on down and see during their Lawrenceville GA Ghost Tours at 7:30pm. Stone Mountain Park gets ghastly one last night with A Tour of Southern Ghosts! Unleash ancient evil spirits with George Reinblatt’s EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL hosted by the Newnan Theatre Company! Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 4! Get hellacious and creep on down to Six Flags’ Fright Fest and experience Kool Kat Shane Morton’s spooktacular haunted house, Madeline Mendoza’s Casa De Meurte at 5pm!  Get terrified at Sinister Suites Haunted Hotel in Griffin, GA, spooking every day through Oct. 31! Make your way to Lithia Springs for Containment Haunted House, a multi-media immersive theatrical horror experience, terrifying through Nov. 3! 13 Stories Haunted House gores it up for another haunted season in Newnan, through Nov. 11! Folklore Haunted House in Acworth haunts through Nov. 3! The Plaza Theater hosts a special UNICEF event with a screening of Brian De Palma’s CARRIE (1976) at 7pm, and screens John Carpenter’s THE FOG (1980), through Nov. 1! Get revved and tune into Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley’s Psychobilly Freakout Radio broadcasting on Garage 71 at 8pm! Get bewitched with screenings of Kenny Ortega’s HOCUS POCUS (1993) at theatres across Atlanta [AMC North Dekalb Mall 16; AMC Phipps Plaza 14; AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); AMC Northpoint Mall 12 (Alpharetta); and AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw)], through Oct. 31! Or Halloween it up with a screenings of Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) at theatres across Atlanta [Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; Regal Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Regal Georgian Stadium 14; Regal Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford); Regal McDonough Stadium 16; and Regal Perimeter Pointe 10], through Oct. 31! GKids presents a Studio Ghibli Fest 2018 screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! Make your way to the Red Light Café for a night with Tablao Flamenco! Blues it up with John Paul Barry at Blind Willie’s! Spend an acoustic evening with John Hiatt at City Winery! Hillbilly it up with The Hooten Hallers at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction event every Monday! Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta) gets bewitched with David Yates’ HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Pt. 2 (2011) at 7:30pm! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And get the blues with Larry Griffith at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Tuesday, October 30

Return of the Fifty Foot Film Festival invades The Plaza Theater, with our Kool Kat of the Week Debbie Hess! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their new Classics Series with a screening of Arthur Hiller’s THE IN-LAWS (1979) at 7pm! The Collective at Concourse presents their Movies on the Green screening of Kenny Ortega’s HOCUS POCUS (1993) at 6:30pm! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema spooks it up with The Hallowscreening, A Festival of Six Shorts! The Fox Theatre kills it with their 6th Annual Ghost Tours offering haunted historical accounts by William Fox! Creep on down to the Aurora Theatre and experience their Lawrenceville GA Ghost Tours at 7:30pm. Get hellacious and creep on down to Six Flags’ Fright Fest and experience Kool Kat Shane Morton’s spooktacular haunted house, Madeline Mendoza’s Casa De Meurte at 5pm! A little blood splatter never hurt ya, so trek on down to Carrolton, GA for a night of haunted hillbillies ‘n’ dead rednecks at Camp Blood! Niki Nuke’m and her boo-ly-Q pals shake a sinister tail feather with The BOO-doir: A Halloween Show at the Red Light Café! Boogie down to City Winery for a night with Humble Pie! GKids presents a Studio Ghibli Fest 2018 screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with DJ Quasi Mandisco’s Little 5 Points Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Get down with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Make your way to Blind Willie’s for a night with Steve Cunningham! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, October 31

IT IS FINALLY HERE! Get mischievous all you miscreants, spooks and ghouls! Pull out your ghastly costumes and get spooky and see what gory galas Retro Atlanta has in store for you, and don’t forget to check out our Haunted & Hellacious Halloween Guide 2018! Spook it up at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980) at 2:30pm/7:30pm, or catch a screening at The Springs Cinema & Taphouse at 2:50pm/7:45pm! Get ghastly with a screening of Tobe Hooper’s POLTERGEIST (1982) at Cobb CineBistro at 7pm! Get sinister for All Hallows Eve with one helluva rockin’ season across ATLRetro! Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin performs the live score to SUSPIRIA at The Earl (Oct. 31)! Do Halloween in style at City Winery as Elton Dan & The Rocket Band pay tribute to the piano master (Oct. 31)! Emory Cinematheque kills it with their “Hitchcock/Hitchcockian” series with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO (1958) at 7:30pm! WUSSY MAG is witchin’ at The Plaza Theater with a screening of Andrew Fleming’s THE CRAFT (1996), and you won’t want to miss a special 40th Anniversary screening of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978) at 10:30pm! Time Warp with a screening of Jim Sharmon’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at theatres across Atlanta [AMC North Dekalb Mall 16; AMC Phipps Plaza 14; and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! BOOgie down at the Krog Street Market’s Monster Prom Halloween Party! Creep on down to the Aurora Theatre and experience their Lawrenceville GA Ghost Tours at 7:30pm. The Wren’s Nest haunts with The Edgar Allan Poe Experience, an immersive theatrical event! Get hellacious and creep on down to Six Flags’ Fright Fest and experience Kool Kat Shane Morton’s spooktacular haunted house, Madeline Mendoza’s Casa De Meurte at 5pm! A little blood splatter never hurt ya, so trek on down to Carrolton, GA for a night of haunted hillbillies ‘n’ dead rednecks at Camp Blood! You won’t want to miss what’s brewing at Arches Brewing’s 1st Annual Halloween Art Show! Or make your way to the Healium Center’s HELLium: Interactive Halloween Art Show! Be the Headless Horseman’s next victim and get your bones chilled at Serenbe Playhouse’s thrilling presentation of their immersive spooky attraction and show, THE SLEEPY HOLLOW EXPERIENCE, haunting through Nov. 11! It’s a night of Honky-Tonk Karaoke with Andrea Colburn & Mud Moseley at The Star Bar! Spend the night with Freddie at the Studio Movie Grill’s (Alpharetta/Duluth/Marietta) screening of Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) at 7:15pm! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! Get blood-thirsty with screenings of Tommy Lee Wallace’s HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982) and more at Noni’s Bar & Deli during their Cinema Paradiso film event starting at 10pm! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets the blues with Art Holliday! Get some soul with Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires up a night of acoustic blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, November 1

Celebrate the dearly departed at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club’s L5P All Souls Altar Celebration at 7:30pm! The spooky season isn’t over just yet boils and ghouls! Haunt on down to the Historic Oakland Cemetery for their Grave Diggers Event: BOOze After Dark, featuring tricks, treats, tours and more! Have a helluva bloody time at The Plaza Theater as Cineprov riffs Joe Chappelle’s HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995) at 7:30pm! Madlife State & Studios does the Time Warp with a screening of Jim Sharmon’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at 8pm! Criminal Records dishes out a night of neoclassical dark wave with their Dead Can Dance Listening Party at 8pm! Get funkadelic with The Groove Orient and Jacks River Band at Aisle 5! Folk it up with Tyler Ramsey at The Earl! Or get folksy with Lucy Wainwright Roche at Eddie’s Attic! Groove on down to Venkman’s for a night with Yacht Rock Revue! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes and some killer island cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Make your way to Blind Willie’s for a night with The Shadows! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, November 2

Rockabilly it up with the Dex Romweber Duo and Andrea Colburn & Mud Moseley at Avondale Towne Cinema! Get funky with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at the Variety Playhouse! Blues it up with Paul Nelson at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get your ‘70s europunk fix with GG King at The Earl! Garage rock it up with Slothrust at the Masquerade! Get the blues with Randall Bramblett & the Megablaster Horns at The Vista Room! Stomp on down to the Northside Tavern for a night with Coy Bowles! Blind Willie’s gets down with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows! Time-Warp it up at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, November 3

Avante-garde it up with Kool Kat Andy Ditzler and Film Love Atlanta as he curates and hosts The Velvet Underground: A Cinematic Tribute at the Michael C. Carlos Museum (film screenings at 8pm, with exhibition viewing of Chimera: Andy Warhol through the 1980s from 7-8pm)! Creep on down to the Atlanta Oddities & Curiosities Expo at the Atlanta Expo Center NORTH, from 11am – 6pm! Shock rock it up with Gwar at the Masquerade! Spook on down to the Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in Powder Springs for Stranger Things Tours & a Nighttime Corn Maze! Rock out at 529 with Pylon Reenactment Society and Peter Holsapple! Get smokin’ and bluegrass it up with some spicy vittles at Chomp & Stomp 2018, raisin’ a ruckus with the Porch Bottom Boys, the Georgia Mountain String Band, the West King String Band, Smokey’s Farmland Band, the Jeff Mosier Band, The Plate Scrapers, Evan Stepp & The Piners, Slim Chance & The Convicts, W8ING4UFOs, Aubryn, Rodeo Twister and more! Lobsters of Rock kill it and pay tribute to the B-52s at The Corner Pub’s 14th Annual Buttapalooza! Make your way to The Earl for a night with Drew Beskin, Cicada Rhythm, Nikki & The Phantom Callers, and Wirelight! The Rialto Center for the Arts presents Mashup of the Maestros with Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Mayer! Get your ‘70s-era pop disco fix with the Susi French Connection at The Vista Room! Skank on down to The Highlander for a night with Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley and the Southern Ska Syndicate, The Taj Motel Trio and The Breaknecks! Groove on down to Venkman’s for a night with The Dirty Doors! Get countrified with Vince Gill at the Fox Theatre! Funk it up for night two with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at the Variety Playhouse! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night with The Last Tycoon and Mermaid Motor Lounge! The Andy Browne Troupe along with Anthony DeCurtis bring you the music of Lou Reed at the Red Clay Theatre! Spend the night with The Presmanes Brothers at the Red Light Café! Get the old-school blues with Albert White at the Northside Tavern! The Blues Stotts Festival invades Blind Willie’s featuring rockin’ tunes by Rae & The Royal Peacocks, The Breeze Kings, Barrelhouse Bob Page and Frankie’s Blues Mission! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ Kwasi Mandisco transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, November 4

Bump in the Night Ghoulesque presents Inferno A’ Go-Go at the Red Light Café! Harvest Moon presents the music of Neil Young at Venkman’s! Get intergalactic at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Get terrified at Sinister Suites Haunted Hotel in Griffin, GA, spooking through Oct. 31! (LAST CHANCE!)

Make your way to Lithia Springs for Containment Haunted House, a multi-media immersive theatrical horror experience, terrifying through Nov. 3! (LAST CHANCE!)

Folklore Haunted House in Acworth haunts through Nov. 3! (LAST CHANCE!)

Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 4! (LAST CHANCE!)

Be the Headless Horseman’s next victim and get your bones chilled at Serenbe Playhouse’s thrilling presentation of their immersive spooky attraction and show, THE SLEEPY HOLLOW EXPERIENCE, haunting through Nov. 11!

13 Stories Haunted House gores it up for another haunted season in Newnan, through Nov. 11!

The Michael C. Carlos Museum exhibits Chimera: Andy Warhol through the 1980s, through Nov. 25!

Get revved and tune into Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley’s Psychobilly Freakout Radio broadcasting on Garage 71 at 8pm, every Monday through Dec. 31!

ATL CRAFT presents a magical occult Movie Night every second Friday of every month!

My Parents’ Basement goes old-school with their monthly Pinball Tournament, every first Wednesday of the month!

Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay, getting nerdy the first Monday of every month!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm! 

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

The Highlander rocks out with their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday!

Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction! event, every Monday!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Calling all you ghastly guys and ghouls! Come see why we think you should raise hell in ATLRetro this Halloween season!

1. HEAD ROLLING TUNES. Get sinister for All Hallows Eve with one helluva rockin’ season across ATLRetro! Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin performs SUSPIRIA at The Earl (Oct. 31)! Get hell-bent and Halloween Bash it up with The Fabulous Thrillbillys, ELZIG, AM Gold and more at The Star Bar (Oct. 27)! Have a hellacious good time at Sweetwater Bar & Grill in Duluth and get haunted with Kool Kats The Casket Creatures, Freakshow Sinema and Never Fall (Oct. 27)! Get rocked at The Vista Room with their Halloween Throwdown featuring Runnin’ Down a Dream (Tom Petty tribute) and Rolling Thunder (Bob Dylan tribute) (Oct. 27)! Get ready to BOOgie during Gareth Asher’s Halloween Party at Tin Roof Cantina (Oct. 27)! Do Halloween in style at City Winery as Elton Dan & The Rocket Band pay tribute to the piano master (Oct. 31)!

2. FANGTASTIC FILMS. Emory Cinematheque delivers a special treat with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO (1958) (Oct. 31)! Get horrorfied at The Plaza Theater with screenings of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) (Oct. 27); Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE (1988) (Oct. 27), Tom Holland’s CHILD’S PLAY (1988) (Oct. 28) and Andrew Fleming’s THE CRAFT (1996) (Oct. 31)! And don’t forget that the Return of the Fifty Foot Film Festival invades The Plaza, with our Kool Kat of the Week Debbie Hess (Oct. 30)! Spook on down to Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18 for a screening of Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) (Oct. 27)! Get bewitched with screenings of Kenny Ortega’s HOCUS POCUS (1993) at theatres across Atlanta [AMC North Dekalb Mall 16; AMC Phipps Plaza 14; AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Northpoint Mall 12 (Alpharetta)] (Oct. 27 & 28), and at The Collective at Concourse at 6:30pm (Oct. 30)! Have a haunted Halloween at Battle & Brew’s screenings of Bill Menendez’ IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN CHARLIE BROWN (1966), Andrew Fleming’s THE CRAFT (1996) and Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) starting at 5pm (Oct. 27)! Time Warp on down to theatres across Atlanta for a screening of Jim Sharmon’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) [AMC North Dekalb Mall 16; AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)] (Oct. 27)! Haunt on down to The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for a screening of Roland West’s silent classic THE MONSTER (1925) featuring Lon Cheney, with a live accompaniment by Kool Kat Ron Carter at 3pm (Oct. 28)! Spook it up at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980) at 2:30pm/7:30pm (Oct. 28)! Spook on down to the Syncrhonicity Theatre for the final haunting day of the Atlanta Horror Film Festival 2018 (Oct. 27)! Joystick Gamebar, Videodrome and Patina Pictures haunt it up with a screening of Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE (1988), followed by a Séance Dance Party (Oct. 29)! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema spooks it up with The Hallowscreening, A Festival of Six Shorts (Oct. 30)! Noni’s Bar & Deli screen’s Tommy Lee Wallace’s HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982) (Oct. 31)!

3. PARTY WITH THE DEAD. Spook it up at Scarendipity 2018 with Kool Kat Roxie Roz and more (Oct. 27)! Something wicked this way comes to Skyline Park Atlanta at Ponce City Market during their Haunted Heights Halloween Party (Oct. 27)! Tromp on down to Virginia Highlands for their Halloween in the Highlands Block Party from 6pm-2am (Oct. 27)! Make your way to Live! At the Battery Atlanta for a Freak Show Halloween (Oct. 27)! Rock on down to the Center Stage for their 9th Annual Boos & Brews Halloween Party (Oct. 27)! BOOgie down at the Krog Street Market’s Monster Prom Halloween Party (Oct. 31)! Put on those dancin’ shoes and groove like a ghoul ‘90s/’00-style at The Basement as they get down during their ‘90s-‘00s Halloween Dance Party (10/27)! Eighties it up and party down Halloween-style with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch with Denim Arcade at Buzzy’s Grille in Kennesaw!  (Oct. 27)!

4. TERRORIFIC TOURS. Get ghastly during the Historic Oakland Cemetery’s annual Capturing the Spirit of Oakland Ghost Tours, featuring music, a fortune teller and more! Come on out and tiptoe through the graves, make a few new spirited friends and hear the hallowed tales of some of their eternal residents, through Oct. 28! The Fox Theatre dishes out a spooktacular time as they haunt it up during their annual Fox Theatre Ghost Tours, chilling your bones through Oct. 30! Dead men tell no tales, or so they say, but the Aurora Theatre begs to differ. Creep on down and see during their Lawrenceville GA Ghost Tours, through Oct. 31. Stone Mountain Park gets ghastly with A Tour of Southern Ghosts, through Oct. 29!

5. GOTHIC, GHASTLY & VICTORIAN. Get monstrous and boogie down with Kool Kat VJ Anthony during his Coffin Classics: Halloween Prom at Amsterdam Atlanta featuring Goth, dark 80s and more (Oct. 27)! Gear up for the Atlanta Steampunk Expo: Victorian Nightmares haunting through Oct. 28!

6. HORRIFYING HIKES & HAUNTS. Nightmares are what this season’s all about! Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 4! Get hellacious and creep on down to Six Flags’ Fright Fest and experience Kool Kat Shane Morton’s spooktacular haunted house, Madeline Mendoza’s Casa De Meurte, weekends through Oct. 31!  Spook on down to the Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in Powder Springs for Stranger Things Tours & a Nighttime Corn Maze, through Nov. 3! The Fernbank Museum of Natural History hosts their Woodland Spirits outdoor experience, so haunt on down WildWoods for a Ghastly Gathering (Oct. 28)! Get terrified at Sinister Suites Haunted Hotel in Griffin, GA, spooking through Oct. 31! A little blood splatter never hurt ya, so trek on down to Carrolton, GA for a helluva lot of haunted hillbillies ‘n’ dead rednecks at Camp Blood, horrifying through Oct. 31! Make your way to Lithia Springs for Containment Haunted House, a multi-media immersive theatrical horror experience, terrifying through Nov. 3! 13 Stories Haunted House gores it up for another haunted season in Newnan! And get freaked at Folklore Haunted House in Acworth, haunting through Nov. 3!

7. THRILLING & CHILLING GHOST STORIES, THEATRICS, FESTIVALS, ART & PARADES. Have some spooky fun at Lake Claire Landtrust with Scary Fireside Stories for Halloween (Oct. 27)! Spook on down toKavarna for Hauntings & Howls: Twisted Tales that Will Give You the Creeps, featuring readings by John Carr, Jyll Thomas, Winston Ward,Stephanie Roman, Steven Williams and John Carroll (Oct. 27)! The Wren’s Nest haunts with The Edgar Allan Poe Experience, an immersive theatrical event, through Oct. 31! Have a witchin’ weekend during ATL Craft’s Samhain Soiree, through Oct. 28! You won’t want to miss what’s brewing at Arches Brewing’s 1st Annual Halloween Art Show (Oct. 31)! Or make your way to the Healium Center’s HELLium: Interactive Halloween Art Show (Oct. 31)! Unleash ancient evil spirits with George Reinblatt’s EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL hosted by the Newnan Theatre Company, killing it through Oct. 29! Get bewitched at Atlanta Symphony Hall with their Halloween at Hogwarts event at 1:30pm/3pm (Oct. 28)! Hang with your favorite band of specters at the Center for Puppetry Arts as The Ghastly Dreadfuls bring you creepy tales, frightful songs and devilish dances (Oct. 27)! Be the Headless Horseman’s next victim and get your bones chilled at Serenbe Playhouse’s thrilling presentation of their immersive spooky attraction and show, THE SLEEPY HOLLOW EXPERIENCE, haunting through Nov. 11! Make your way to the Atlanta History Center for the Day of the Dead Festival featuring traditional dance, crafts, authentic Mexican food and more (Oct. 28)!

8. TRICKS, TREATS & A WITCHIN’ GOOD TIME.Bring the kiddies and get spooky with dinos at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History during their Dinosaur Trick or Treat event (Oct. 27)! Get weird ‘n’ geeky during My Parents’ Basement’s October Bizarre Bazaar, from 12p – 6p (Oct. 28)! Get ghoulish and make your way to Halloween at Krog Street Market, with trick-or-treating and costume contests (Oct. 31)! Make your way to the Atlanta Zoo for their annual Boo at the Zoo event, running through Oct. 28!

9. BOOLESQUE. Niki Nuke’m and her boo-ly-Q pals shake a sinister tail feather with The BOO-doir: A Halloween Show at the Red Light Café (Oct. 30)!

10. UNHOLY & UNDEAD.ATL Collective delivers an evening of rotting flesh as they raise the dead with their performance of Michael Jackson’s Halloween classic, “Thriller” at Aisle 5 (10/27)! Spend the weekend with the undead during Walker Stalker Con at the Georgia World Congress Center through Oct. 28!

Director/Screenwriter Philip Gelatt.

Indie horror movies typically don’t get theatrical runs, but THEY REMAIN (2018), opening at the Plaza Theatre on Friday March 9 at 9:30 p.m., is that rarer bird in that it’s arriving with some serious critical buzz from media outlets as The Daily Beast and The New York Times. It’s based on the novella –30– by Laird Barron, an author at the head of the pack of a mounting Weird literary movement that’s been steadily creeping onto the little and big screens from TRUE DETECTIVE to ANNIHILATION (2018, in theaters now), adapted from the best-selling novel by Jeff VanderMeer. And even its leads, really its two characters, are risk-taking—a black man (William Jackson Harper of  THE GOOD PLACE TV series) and a woman (Rebecca Henderson, APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR [2014] ).

The plot is simple and increasingly unsettling. Keith and Jessica, who once were romantically involved,  are assigned to investigate some strange animal behavior on land which once was the stomping ground of a Manson-style family cult. Isolated together in a compound reminiscent of PHASE IV (1974)—yes, there’s some eerie insect action, too—their sanity seems to be increasingly on edge. A festival circuit hit, THEY REMAIN premiered at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon last October to a packed house and thunderous applause.

We caught up with THEY REMAIN Director/Screenwriter Philip Gelatt, no stranger to intelligent Sci-Fi Weird with the film EUROPA REPORT (2013) also under his belt, to find out more.

ATLRetro: What’s the secret origin story behind THEY REMAIN? Why did you want to adapt -30- and how did the project get off the ground?

Philip Gelatt: The secret origin story is basically that at the time I optioned the story, I was coming off the back of a string of failed screenplays. Things I’d written for producers who then just abandoned the projects and generally treated both the material and my work on it with a kind of Hollywood-ish disrespect. So I was feeling a bit pissed off, I guess. Both at screenwriting as a pursuit and craft, and at the industry as a whole.

So I went looking for something that I could do that would let me break all of my most hated rules of screenwriting. I also wanted something that fit my intrinsic tastes, which are a bit esoteric and cantankerous. -30- fit that bill perfectly. It’s a Weird story and a weird story. It’s elliptical and ambiguous and difficult, in the best way. I read the story a few times, just to be sure that I really wanted to try to tackle it. Then I sent it over to the producers who had worked with me on my first feature,THE BLEEDING HOUSE (2011). They read it and immediately saw the potential in it. And things just moved from there.

William Jackson Harper in THEY REMAIN (2018).

What were your greatest challenges in getting THEY REMAIN to the screen? Fundraising is always difficult for filmmakers, but was it harder raising funding for a Weird horror film?

We had myriad challenges, as almost all films of any level do. And yeah, fundraising was one of them. We sent the script out to various financiers, almost all of them passed. The typical story, y’know. In that process, we got responses that asked for the script to be changed in order to fit a more standard horror film. But to do that would have been to remove the very things that make it special and those notes didn’t come with a guarantee of financing. I was lucky in that the lead producers on the film had a bit of money; we were hoping we could get the budget up higher by bringing outside financiers on, but, in the end, we weren’t able to and we had to shoot with what we knew we had.

Can you talk a little about casting the film and working with William Jackson Harper and Rebecca Henderson? 

Absolutely. I don’t like the auditioning process. I find it awkward and un-useful. It feels like you’re bringing actors in and putting them in front of a firing squad and I hate that.  So, instead, I had prospective actors read the script and then I brought them in to have a conversation about the material and the characters. Ultimately, what I was looking for was people that had strongly engaged with the script, people who had ideas about the story, and people with whom I thought I could collaborate closely.

Filmmaking, despite what auteur theory might lead a person to think, really is all about choosing the right collaborators. Especially on this budget level. You need people you get along with and people who will challenge you and people who are dedicated to the film. Auditioning won’t let you see if an actor can be those things.

We cast both Will and Rebecca through that process. I then made the rather bold—and potentially stupid—decision to not really rehearse prior to shooting. My thinking was basically that by dropping the actors in on day one and just going, it would put them in the same mindset as the characters. Rehearsals would have given them a chance to grow comfortable with the material and each other… I figured better to try to keep it a little more raw than that.

I can’t say enough great things about both them. They handled every weird twist of that script with absolute professionalism.

Jessica (Rebecca Henderson) leans over Keith (William Jackson Harper) in THEY REMAIN (2018)

The film’s visuals are key to building the mounting set of dread, so it works upon the audience as much as the characters. Can you talk a little about the look you wanted to achieve, connecting ambiance and lighting with mood, and cinematographer Sean Kirby, who has a strong background in documentary filmmaking?

 This is, above everything else, a film about a certain mood and tone. The idea was to place the audience in the same position as the characters, so that as the film progressed they were grappling with the same frustrations and the same growing sense of dread.

There was a running visual idea that shots should always be slightly off. Sean called it “leaving room for the other in the frame.” Often that meant framing such that the human character is minimized or off center or, occasionally, almost completely hidden.

One of my favorite moments in the film comes fairly early, it is a shot with tree in focus in the middle of frame and, in the near distance behind it, out of focus, Keith is sitting and watching. It’s a rather long shot. We never rack-focus to Keith or highlight that he’s there. But he is. That to me is the essence of the film: you’re being asked to look closer.

Sound also is integral to the effect. What instructions did you give composer Tom Keohane and how did you both collaborate?

Tom and I worked pretty closely throughout the whole process of the film beginning in pre-production. I had him read the script and the story and compose music just based on those. This was before we’d shot anything. I wanted his initial musical response to the story. And some of that music lasted all the way to the final cut. It certainly helped inform the way editing process.

In terms of the actual scoring process once the film was shot, we had pretty long conversations about what might or might not work. For a time, we were trying a sound that was almost like Vangelis’s work on Blade Runner (1982). Very science-fiction and very big.

We pursued that awhile but ended up finding that it was misleading… it made the film feel too much like it was going to end up having robots or spaceships or something. And of course, it doesn’t have those things. So we pulled back and started investigating sonic textures for interior spaces and exterior spaces, and musical themes for each of the characters in the film. So much of the film is off-screen; we thought it was important to have certain musical cues as to what unseen element might be at play in any given moment. I’m very happy with how it turned out. For those interested, Tom will be putting the soundtrack up on Bandcamp.

The domed compound in THEY REMAIN (2018).

Film and the written word are different media with different demands and strengths. The original story was set in a California desert, but you’ve re-set it to the woods—both of which can be very isolating locales. Some readers may wonder about the reason why you made this shift?  

 The basic reason we shifted it is a very boring one: budget. We knew pretty early that we weren’t going to be able to mount a production in the high desert. And we also knew that we had access to a sizable piece of land in upstate New York.

At first, I was a bit disappointed that we needed to make that change. I certainly started out picturing the story in the desert. But once I’d spent some time on the land where we were going to shoot, I got used to the idea and even started seeing some of the advantages in it in terms of color. A lot more hues and tones in the forest than the desert. And Sean and I did our damnedest to make that forest feel as strange and isolating as we possibly could.

Horror film is known for its jump-cuts and sudden scares, but THEY REMAIN’s horror is embedded in subtle unsettling moments. Do you have a favorite—or one that has been particularly gratifying to see the audience response to, without giving away too many spoilers?

 Oh I’m pretty proud of a lot of moments in the film. I’ll list a few.

There are two times in the film that Keith wakes up and finds Jessica standing next to his bed. The first time it happens is one of my favorite moments in the film. Her performance there gives me chills.

Speaking of Jessica, the careful viewer will notice that she looks directly into the camera a few times over the course of the film. It’s quick but I think, even if you don’t pick up on it consciously, you do register that something strange has just happened.

Then there are a few sound details that I love. Early in the film, there’s a moment where we cut to black. And then the sound of two knocks brings us out of the black and into a new scene. That knocking sound is, of course, the sound of knocking on the hatch, something that becomes significant later in the film.

Interwoven, ominous details like that are the thing I most wanted to play with in constructing this film.

Maybe we’re a little partial because we know artist Jeanne D’Angelo’s work, but that’s also one hell of a movie poster—leaves surrounding a voyeuristic eye. Did you make suggestions to Jeanne, or how did that evolve?

 I love Jeanne’s work so much. Like with Tom, I actually approached Jeanne before we shot the film and hired her to do a piece of concept art that featured the skull and the horn and the forest.

So when the film was completed, she seemed like the obvious person to approach about doing a poster. I don’t remember making initial suggestions to her; instead she started doing sketches with her ideas for how it might look. And eventually we settled on the leaves and the eye and subtle details.

That poster feels so much like the film to me. She did an amazing job.

How do you feel about a theatrical release? Was it always a goal, or did you think this was just going to be festival circuit to DVD/streaming—the usual fate of many indie horror films?

 It was always the goal. Sean shot the film to be seen big. And I wanted to make a movie that would benefit from the theater-going experience where viewers aren’t so tempted to check their phones or computers or get distracted. It’s a film in which you’re supposed to get lost… much easier to do that in a theater. I’m so grateful that we’re getting even a limited theatrical release.

The genuinely Weird movie is a rarity. What are a few Weird films that inspired you or are personal favorites and why?

 I have a tendency to detect The Weird in the nooks and crannies of films that might not be commonly seen that way. So, for example, I believe THE SHINING (1980) to be a Weird film. Yes, it’s a haunted house film, but the ways in which the details of the story don’t add up, the way in which it frustrates interpretation, the psychology of it… those things feel deeply Weird to me.

I think Polanski’s film THE TENANT (1976) is a Weird film in the way it plays with identity and indulges in a very unsettling sense of the surreal. There’s no cosmicism in it but Polanski does kind of construct a twisted pantheon of god-like humans who destroy his character’s life. And then there’s the matter of the hieroglyphics on the bathroom wall…

Oh and here’s another outside-the-box pick: Peter Greenaway’s THE DRAUGHTSMAN’S CONTRACT (1982). It’s a movie I adore… and on its face it is basically a period piece murder mystery. But there is also this living statue that haunts the edges of the frames, never really acknowledged by any of the characters.

Is there any question no one has asked you yet about THEY REMAIN that you’re surprised by or would particularly love to answer? And what is the answer?

 Hmmm… to their credit, people have avoided asking me questions like “what does the film mean?” Or “what’s real in the film?” Of course, I think it’d be really boring of me to answer those questions. Engaging with those things is part of the fun of the film. Which is my roundabout way of saying: this is the type of film that should leave you a little perplexed. My hope is that it will spark debate about just what has happened and just what it might all mean.

What’s next for you as a filmmaker?

In terms of what I’m going to direct next, I have two projects that I’m developing currently. But I’m not sure when—or even if—either one of them will come to fruition. I have been doing a good deal of screenwriting for other directors recently. Mostly science-fiction material. Nothing I’m allowed to say much about but keep your eyes peeled.

I’ve also been working on a hand-animated, rotoscoped, psychedelic, sword and sorcery fantasy film. It’s titled THE SPINE OF NIGHT. I co-directed that with the lead animator on the project, Morgan King.

We shot the live action bits of it years ago and since then a team of animators has been working hard on it. It should, finally, be completed sometime late this year. That’s one for fans of FIRE & ICE (1983), HEAVY METAL (both the magazine and the film) and old school Conan. It is a really distinctive and amazing project and I can’t wait for it to get out there.

All photos courtesy of Philip Gelatt and used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

ATLRetro is the Kat’s meow this ho-ho holiday season! If you’re lookin’ for a thrill and the weather’s got you down, get off that couch, put on your dancin’ shoes and live la vida Retro!

Monday, December 4

Rock out with The Mike Dillon Band at Aisle 5! Get poetic and catch a screening of Peter Weir’s DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get folksy with Fairshake & Friends at the Red Light Café! Get old-timey at Avondale Towne Cinema with their Folk Roots event! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!

Tuesday, December 5

Spend the night with Sailor and Lula at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema’s screening of David Lynch’s WILD AT HEART (1990) during their “A Dish Best Served Cold” Classics Series at 7pm! Hilarity ensues with the Griswolds during Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s screening of Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) as part of their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Make your way to City Winery for a night with David Crosby & Friends! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down with the Poverty Level Band! Rock out with Seether at the Tabernacle! Catch Rick Springfield and Richard Marx’ Acoustic Tour at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Get your Americana fix with The Last Tycoon, Boo Reefa, Julian Morena and more at 529! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with DJ Quasi Mandisco’s Little 5 Points Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, December 6

Videodrome New-Waves it up and presents a matinee screening of Jonathan Demme’s STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) at 529 at 4pm! Two-time Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer and his Trio present A Charlie Brown Christmas at MadLife Stage & Studios in Woodstock! Hilarity ensues with the Griswolds during Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s encore screening of Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) as part of their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Get some soul with Ronnie Spector at City Winery! Get the rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get mischievous at The Star Bar with Dinos Boys, Poison Boys and Fixed Faces, or head downstairs to the Little Vinyl Lounge for a night with Stevie Tombstone and Slim Chance! Swing on by Atlanta Symphony Hall for a night with The Brian Setzer Orchestra and The Texas Gentlemen! Or ragtime it up and get countrified with Pokey LaFarge and The Easy Leaves at Terminal West! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! Catch a screening of Jon Favreau’s ELF (2003) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:15pm! Get the blues with Ike Stubblefield at Avondale Towne Cinema! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, December 7

Naughty or nice? Doesn’t matter kiddies, just make your way to The Plaza Theater for Cineprov’s 10th Annual Ruining Childhood Memories Christmas Show, featuring hilarity with riffing and screenings of Larry Roemer’s 1964 animated television special, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and the HE-MAN AND SHE-RA: A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (1985)! Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt  revs it up acoustic-style at Porterdale Bar & Grille! Funk it up as Hot Ice brings you their James Brown vs. Fela Kuti vs. Roy Ayers event at City Winery! Cody Matlock & the Mothership get down at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Bluegrass it up with Tyler Childers and Blank Range at The Earl! Death metal it up with Cannibal Corpse at the Masquerade! Get your ‘70s power pop fix with Kool Kat Scott Walker with The Head at Smith’s Olde Bar! Rock out with Darling Machine at The Star Bar! Power funk on down to Terminal West for a night of rockin’ soul with TURKUAZ and The Suffers! Jazz it up with Mike Phillips at Suite Food Lounge! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so hula on down for some bluesy tunes with the Mike Lowery Band and a couple of cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, December 8

Kamasi Washington gets some soul and jazzes it up with Moonchild at the Variety Playhouse! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kinks it up and hosts the Atlanta release of Dome Karukoski’s TOM OF FINLAND (2017)! Cross the pond to Venkman’s for their Beatles, Burgers and Beer event! Start new holiday traditions and experience the Atlanta Ballet’s NUTCRACKER at the Fox Theatre, through Dec. 28! Pop on over to the Red Light Café for the International Pop Overthrow (IPO) Day I, featuring Leisure McCorkle, The Good Graces, Casper & The Cookies, Sex Clark Five, The Shut-Ups and Kenny Howes & The Wow! The Alliance Theatre dishes out a holiday classic and presents the ghastly A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, through Dec. 24! Rock out with The Barbaric Gentlemen and The Billy Jacks at Avondale Towne Cinema! Goth on down to Mary’s for their Baddest Bitch: Siouxie Sioux tribute! Blues it up with Heather Luttrell at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Rock out with The Dream Syndicate and Elephant Stone at The Earl! Fernbank After Dark gets ‘20s/’30s jazzy with The Hobohemians! Rock out at the Masquerade with The F@cking Pantera Cover Band! Spend the night with Robin Bullock and Steve Baughman at the Red Clay Theatre! Get down with The Sundogs and The Haraway Brothers at Smith’s Olde Bar! Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra gets jazzy holiday-style at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Get the Delta blues with BJ Wilbanks, Cody Marlowe and JR Rund at Vinyl! OnStage Atlanta performs A CHRISTMAS STORY, through Dec. 23!  Bill Sheffield gets the blues at Northside Tavern! Time-Warp it up at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, December 9

Rock out for a cause a The Star Bar’s 16th Annual Toys For Tots Celebration featuring Kool Kat Spike Fullerton’s Ghost Riders Car Club, Kool Kat Aileen Loy and Til Someone Loses an Eye, Bigfoot, Dry Gulch, BSOL, AM Gold, The Scragglers, Front Porch Session Players, JJ & The Hustlers and more! Join the hordes of horned and cloven miscreants and creatures during the Wreck the Halls L5P Krampus Krawl at 8pm, with the ever mischievous Black Sheep Ensemble! Yacht Rock Revue delivers their Holiday Show at Venkman’s! The Plaza Theater holidays it up with screenings of Bob Clark’s A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) and Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), through Dec. 10! Pop on over to the Red Light Café for the International Pop Overthrow (IPO) Day 2, featuring Tony Low, Paisley Garden, Netherglades, Ambulette, The Young and the Elder, and The Soogs!  Avondale Towne Cinema dishes out a rockin’ holiday special with The Rainmen! Get the rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas for a second night at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Skank on down to The Highlander for a night with the Taj Motel Trio, the Burrito Bandits and Swingset! Folk it up with Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas from the Fam-O-Lee” at the Variety Playhouse! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend the night with Lola! Support our local artists and make your way to Little Tree Art Studios, My Parents’ Basement and more in Avondale Estates for a Jingle Mingle Holiday Art Market from 10am – 6pm! Spend the holidays with Jim Henson as the Center for Puppetry Arts screens his holiday classic, EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS (1977) at 6pm! Boogie down ‘80s-style with Kool Kat VJ Anthony during his 80s New Wave Music Video Dance Party: INXS Edition at Amsterdam Atlanta! The Wet Jeans get down at the Tin Roof Cantina! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, December 10

TCM Big Screen Classics presents a 50th Anniversary screening of Stanley Kramer’s classic, GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (1967) at theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)]! Spend the night with Rickie Lee Jones at City Winery! Jam on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for a night with Mark Michelson! It’s a night of rockin’ folk at The Earl with The Artisanals, Neighbor Lady and Drew Beskin (The District Attorneys)! Get funky with Moontower at Tin Roof Cantina! Jingle on down to Venkman’s as David Ellington jazzes it up with his Charlie Brown Christmas! Make your way to Yaarab Shriners for the Indie Craft Experience Holiday Market, from 11am – 6pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Aurora Theatre – Lawrenceville presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL, bah humbugging through Dec. 23!

OnStage Atlanta performs A CHRISTMAS STORY, through Dec. 23!

The Alliance Theatre dishes out a holiday classic and presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, through Dec. 24!

The Atlanta Ballet presents the NUTCRACKER at the Fox Theatre, through Dec. 28!

Center for Puppetry Arts presents your favorite traditional seasonal reindeer tale, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, jinglin’ through Dec. 31!

Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay, getting nerdy the first Monday of every month!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm! 

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Forget the horrorific daily grind and take a peek at what we have in store for you Kool Kiddies! Let ATLRetro fill you with a week’s worth of swingin’ good times; from vintage, fuzzed out rock ‘n’ roll to bloody fangtastic films to steamy burlesque to classic cinema galore! It’ll be a bloody good time, so get out and get Retro!

Monday, October 30

Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18 dishes out a horrorific good time with a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980) at 7pm/10pm! Or catch a screening of John Huston’s THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Rock out with the Craig Brown Band, Nikki & The Phantom Callers and Big Brutus at The Earl! Get folksy with Slaid Cleaves at Eddie’s Attic! Funk it up at City Winery with their Rick James vs. Michael Jackson vs. Prince showdown! Rock out with The Movielife at the Masquerade! Eighties it up at 529’s New Wave Halloween Dance Party! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Blues it up with Paul John Barry at Blind Willie’s! GKids Presents Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford); Studio Movie Grill (Duluth); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with Larry Griffith!

Tuesday, October 31

IT IS FINALLY HERE! Get mischievous all you miscreants, spooks and ghouls! Pull out your ghastly costumes and get spooky and see what gory galas Retro Atlanta has in store for you, and don’t forget to check out our Haunted & Hellacious Halloween Guide 2017! Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their killer “A Dish Best Served Cold” Classics Series with a screening of David Hartman’s PHANTASM (1979) at 7pm! Roll—roll–roll in the hay with a screening of Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern, as part of their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Murder, mayhem and blood-thirsty plants invade Atlanta with screenings of Frank Oz’ LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986), The Director’s Cut at theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)]! Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18 dishes out a horrorific good time with a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980) at 7pm/10pm! The Red Light Café dishes out a folksy Halloween frenzy with Shayne Goss of Fairshake, Clint Grizzly and more! The Fox Theatre dishes out a spooktacular time as they haunt it up during their annual Fox Theatre Ghost Tours, chilling your bones! Get hellacious and creep on down to Six Flags’ Fright Fest and experience Kool Kat Shane Morton’s spooktacular haunted house, Madeline Mendoza’s Casa De Meurte! Make your way to Lithia Springs for Containment Haunted House, a multi-media immersive theatrical horror experience, terrifying through Nov. 4! Be the Headless Horseman’s next victim and get your bones chilled at Serenbe Playhouse’s thrilling presentation of their immersive spooky attraction and show, THE SLEEPY HOLLOW EXPERIENCE, haunting through Nov. 5! Get to stompin’ with The Ghost of Paul Revere at Eddie’s Attic! Get ghoulish and make your way to Halloween at Krog Street Market, with trick-or-treating and costume contests! City Winery transforms into Studio 54 during Clubesque’s Halloween Show! Time-Warp it up at theatres across Atlanta with screenings of Jim Sharman’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at 10pm [AMC Classic North Dekalb 16; AMC Classic Snellville 12; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Classic Mansell Crossing 14 (Alpharetta)], and The Plaza Theater. And you won’t want to miss The Plaza’s screening of Alexandre O. Philippe’s 78/52 (2017), in-depth documentary about PSYCHO’s iconic shower scene (through Nov. 2)!

Get intergalactic with Nik Turner’s Hawkwind and Hedersleben at The Earl! Spend the night with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats at the Coca-Cola Roxy! Get the rockin’ blues with two helpings of Anders Osborne & Jackie Greene at City Winery! Get down with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with DJ Quasi Mandisco’s Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, November 1

Get your Harry Dean Stanton fix with Videodrome’s screening of Alex Cox’ REPO MAN (1984) at 529 at 4pm followed by folksy shenanigans with Loudermilk & Moon! Spook it up at the Historic Oakland Cemetery during their Grave Diggers BOOze After Dark event! Celebrate the dead during All Saints Day with L5P’s All Souls Altars & Parade of the Dead! Get down with The English Beat at the Masquerade! Make your way to the Fox Theatre for an evening with Bob Dylan! Roll—roll–roll in the hay with an encore screening of Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern, as part of their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Or catch a screening of Orson Welles’ classic CITIZEN KANE (1941) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:15pm! Spend the night with Blitzen Trapper at The Earl! Rock out with The Social Animals at Eddie’s Attic! Make you way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with the Trashcan Sinatras! Swing on by Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings! Get some soul and rock ‘n’ roll with JD McPherson at Terminal West! GKids Presents Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford); Studio Movie Grill (Duluth); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Raise a ruckus with Cody Matlock at Blind Willie’s! Emory Cinematheque continues their Resist Fascism Series with a screening of Volker Schlondorff’s THE TIN DRUM (1979) at 7:30pm! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, November 2

Get monstrous and join in on the fun as CINEPROV riff’s Bill L. Norton’s GARGOYLES (1972) at The Plaza Theater at 7:30pm! Boogie on down to The Star Bar for the Chomp & Stomp Preview Show and get a taste of the West King Stringband, the Georgia Mountain Stringband, The Muleskinner Macqueen Trio, Honeywood and more! Get countrified with The Lone Bellow and The Wild Reeds at the Variety Playhouse! Get revived with Parker Gispert (The Whigs) at Eddie’s Attic! Funk it up and rock out with Living Colour with Derek Day at The Loft! Rock on down to Avondale Towne Cinema for their Rock4Relief event featuring The Dammages, Kitty Rose & The Ramblers, The Tiger Kings and The Benders! Sweet Betty & The Shadows get the blues at Blind Willie’s!  It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so hula on down for some rockin’ island tunes and a couple of cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, November 3

Kool Kat Blair Crimmins & The Hookers dish out a night of prohibition pandemonium at Venkman’s! Rock out with Nikki & The Phantom Callers, Art School Jocks, Lucis Flux at The Star Bar! Abbey Road Live! presents A Night to Imagine at the Buckhead Theatre! Avondale Towne Cinema gets retrotastic with Virginia Plane, Casper & The Cookies and Cortez Garza! It’s a weekend of magical fantasy with CONjuration 2017, being held at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center, through Nov. 5! Cross the pond and spend the evening with The Blackyardbirds at the Red Light Café! Get down with Big Bill Morganfield at Blind Willie’s! Get the old school blues with Albert White at Northside Tavern! Time-Warp it up at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, November 4

Raise a ruckus as Cabbagetown dishes out its annual old-time hootenanny during the Chomp & Stomp Chili Cookoff & Bluegrass Festival, featuring a day chock full of raucous bluegrass shenanigans with Control Burn, West King Stringband, Smokey’s Farmland Band, The Vista Stringband, The Plate Scrapers, Grandpa’s Cough Medicine, Arlo Finch, the Front Porch Session Players, The Muleskinner Macqueen Trio, Peachtree Station, W8ING4UFOs, Sugar Lime Blue, Slim Chance & The Convicts, Tray Dahl & The Jugtime Ragband, Georgia Mountain Stringband, Leah Calvert, Honeywood, the Packway Handle Trio and more! Or rumble on down to Avondale Towne Cinema for a Rockabilly Uprising with Kitty Rose & The Ramblers, Atomic Boogie and The Sideburners! Stomp on down to City Winery for a night with Los Lobos and T. Hardy Morris! Make your way to the Little Vinyl Lounge (The Star Bar) for Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer’s ANT LODGE Vol. 4 starring The Hills and The Holler, Forbidden Waves, The Compartmentalizationalists and more! The Marshall Tucker Band rocks out at the Variety Playhouse! Make your way to Buford Highway/Northeast Plaza for their Dia De Los Muertos Festival and Parade at 5pm! Boogie on down to the KSU Museum of History & Holocaust Education for the 10th Annual 1940s Swing Dance! Get ghastly and sail on down to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center for a performance of THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, running through Nov. 12! Rock out with the Subsonics, the Midnight Larks and A Drug Called Tradition at The Earl! Get the blues with the Randall Bramblett Band at The Vista Room! Or get strange with The Dirty Doors at MadLife Stage & Studios! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for a night with Kool Kat Mary Strawberry and more! Rock out with Michelle Malone and Five Eight at Eddie’s Attic! Walk like an Egyptian on down to the Basement for their Heyday ‘80s Dance Party! Yacht Rock Schooner dishes out a night of Steely Dan at Venkman’s! Blind Willie’s gets down and dirty with Sandra Hall & The Shadows! Rock out and pay tribute to The Allman Brothers with Tribute at Northside Tavern! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, November 5

Stomp on down to City Winery for a second helping of Los Lobos and T. Hardy Morris! Get a little taste of history at the Historic Oakland Cemetery with their From Moses to Maynard: Oakland’s Legacy of Atlanta Mayors event! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Get hellacious and creep on down to Six Flags’ Fright Fest and experience Kool Kat Shane Morton’s spooktacular haunted house, Madeline Mendoza’s Casa De Meurte, weekends through Oct. 31! (LAST CHANCE!)

The Fox Theatre dishes out a spooktacular time as they haunt it up during their annual Fox Theatre Ghost Tours, bone chilling through Oct. 31! (LAST CHANCE!)

Get terrified at Sinister Suites Haunted Hotel in Griffin, GA, spooking through Oct. 31! (LAST CHANCE!)

Haunt on down to Norcross for Netherworld Haunted House’s horrorific 21st season, gorrifying through Nov. 1! (LAST CHANCE!)

A little blood splatter never hurt ya, so trek on down to Carrolton, GA for a helluva lot of haunted hillbillies ‘n’ dead rednecks at Camp Blood, horrifying through Oct. 31! (LAST CHANCE!)

Make your way to Lithia Springs for Containment Haunted House, a multi-media immersive theatrical horror experience, terrifying through Nov. 4! (LAST CHANCE!)

Be the Headless Horseman’s next victim and get your bones chilled at Serenbe Playhouse’s thrilling presentation of their immersive spooky attraction and show, THE SLEEPY HOLLOW EXPERIENCE, haunting through Nov. 5! (LAST CHANCE!)

Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay, getting nerdy the first Monday of every month!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm!

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Calling all ghouls and gals! Come see why we think you should raise hell in ATLRetro this Halloween season!

1. HEAD ROLLING TUNES. Get sinister for All Hallows Eve with a helluva lot of raucous rock ‘n roll across ATLRetro! Raise a hellacious ruckus during the Clermont Lounge’s Halloween 2017 Bash featuring Kool Kats the Casket Creatures, Captain & Maybelle, ELZIG and Dusty Booze & The Baby Haters (Oct. 26)! Or horror punk it up with Kool Kats the Casket Creatures at Mule Camp Tavern in Gainesville (Oct. 28)! The Georgia Players Guild pays tribute to Meatloaf and the Rocky Horror Picture Show at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre (Oct. 28)! The Star Bar dishes out a hellacious Halloween Bash with Dinos Boys, Paralyzer, Bad Spell and Black Cat Rising (Oct. 28)! It’s Halloween Tribute Night at The Earl with Nameless Nameless (Nirvana) and Rusty Cage (Soundgarden) (Oct. 27)!

2. FANGTASTIC FILMS.  Have a bloody good time during Kennesaw Friday Night Frights – Vincent Price Night, featuring a monstrous double-feature of William Castle’s HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) and Crane Wilbur’s THE BAT (1959) at 7:30pm, hosted by Carnival of Doom (Oct. 27)! Spook it up with The Earl Smith Strand Theatre’s diabolique double feature of Harold Lloyd’s HAUNTED SPOOKS (1920) and F. W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU (1922) at 3pm (Oct. 29)! Get horrorfied at The Plaza Theater with screenings of John Carpenter’s CHRISTINE (1983) and George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) (Oct. 26), THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) (Oct. 27-28, 31); and Alexandre O. Philippe’s 78/52 (2017), an in-depth documentary about PSYCHO’s iconic shower scene (Oct. 27-31)! Get freakishly bizarre at Videodrome’s (JavaDrome) screening of Chester Novelle Turner’s TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE (1987) at 8pm (Oct. 27)! Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their killer “A Dish Best Served Cold” Classics Series with a screening of David Hartman’s PHANTASM (1979) at 7pm (Oct. 31)! Avondale Towne Cinema continues their Throwback Thursday Cinema event with a devilish double feature of Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986), followed by a screening of George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), starting at 8:30pm (Oct. 26)! Catch screenings of Tim Burton’s A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) at theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; and Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford)] (Oct. 27)! Get witchy during Atlantic Station’s Spooky Film Festival’s screening of Kenny Ortega’s HOCUS POCUS (1993) at dusk (Oct. 27)! Time-Warp it up at theatres across Atlanta with screenings of Jim Sharman’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at 10pm [AMC Classic North Dekalb 16; AMC Classic Snellville 12; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Classic Mansell Crossing 14 (Alpharetta)] (Oct. 27-28)! Murder, mayhem and blood-thirsty plants invade Atlanta with screenings of Frank Oz’ LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986), The Director’s Cut at theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)] (Oct. 29 & 31)!

3. BOOGIE WITH THE DEAD. Get hellacious with the Fox Theatre’s Atlanta Horror Story Halloween Party (Oct. 28)! Or stagger on over to Ponce City Roof for their Day of the Dead Halloween Party (Oct. 28)! Tromp on down to Virginia Highlands for their Halloween in the Highlands Block Party from 6pm-2am (Oct. 28)! It’s a night of creepy clowns, carnival food and more during Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s’s Fright Night Halloween Party, dripping with devilish drinks, costume contests and more (Oct. 27)! Boogie down ‘80s-style at Tin Roof Cantina’s ‘80s Prom Halloween Party (Oct. 28)! Spend the night in the Upside Down during A Stranger Halloween Party at Live! At the Battery Atlanta (Oct. 28)! Rock on down to the Center Stage for their 8th Annual Boos & Brews Halloween Party (Oct. 28)! Geek it up with Radio Cult during their spooky all-ages Halloween Party at Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville (Oct. 26)! Do the Monster Mash at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club’s annual Halloween Dance Party (10/28)!  Put on those dancin’ shoes and groove like a ghoul ‘90s-style at The Basement as they get down during their ‘90s Halloween Dance Party (10/28)! Eighties it up at Venkman’s with their Back to the Future Halloween Bash featuring Members Only (Oct. 26)! It’s a night of goo-core punk at Criminal Records Halloween Party with The Manx (Oct. 28)! Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade deliver a rockin’ ‘80s Halloween Party at the Wild Wing Café in Dunwoody (Oct. 27)!

4. TERRORIFIC TOURS. Get ghastly during the Historic Oakland Cemetery’s annual Capturing the Spirit of Oakland Ghost Tours, featuring music, a fortune teller and more! Come on out and tiptoe through the graves, make a few new spirited friends and hear the hallowed tales of some of their eternal residents, through Oct. 29! The Fox Theatre dishes out a spooktacular time as they haunt it up during their annual Fox Theatre Ghost Tours, chilling your bones through Oct. 31! Dead men tell no tales, or so they say, but the Aurora Theatre begs to differ. Creep on down and see during their Lawrenceville GA Ghost Tours, every night during the month of October. Stone Mountain Park gets ghastly with A Tour of Southern Ghosts, through Oct. 29!

5. GOTHIC & GHASTLY. Haunt on down to Amsterdam Atlanta for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s COFFIN CLASSICS: Halloween Goth Industrial Music Video Dance Party featuring Goth, dark 80s and more (Oct. 28)! Get sinister with 1349 at The Earl (Oct. 28)! And experience Evanescence invading Chastain Park (Oct. 27)!

6. HORRIFYING HIKES & HAUNTS.  Nightmares are what this season’s all about! So get hellacious and creep on down to Six Flags’ Fright Fest and experience Kool Kat Shane Morton’s spooktacular haunted house, Madeline Mendoza’s Casa De Meurte, weekends through Oct. 31!  So, spook on down to Netherworld Haunted House and spook it up during their 21st and last season in the Norcross location, through Nov. 1 (7:30pm-10:30pm week days; 7pm-midnight weekends)! Get terrified at Sinister Suites Haunted Hotel in Griffin, GA, spooking through Oct. 31! A little blood splatter never hurt ya, so trek on down to Carrolton, GA for a helluva lot of haunted hillbillies ‘n’ dead rednecks at Camp Blood, horrifying through Oct. 31! Make your way to Lithia Springs for Containment Haunted House, a multi-media immersive theatrical horror experience, terrifying through Nov. 4! And 13 Stories Haunted House gores it up for another haunted season in Newnan!

7. THRILLING & CHILLING THEATRICS, FESTIVALS & PARADES.  Unleash ancient evil spirits with George Reinblatt’s EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL hosted by the Newnan Theatre Company, killing it Oct. 26-29! Make your way to Atlanta Symphony Hall as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra presents their live score to Tim Burton’s A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) at 8pm (Oct. 27 & 28)! Theatre Emory presents Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN; OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at 3pm (10/29)! Get chilled to the bone with The Ghastly Dreadfuls at Center For Puppetry Arts, spooking through Oct. 28! Spook it up during the Owl-O-Ween Hot Air Balloon Festival in Kennesaw (Oct. 27)! Boogie on down to Hellbender Harley Davidson’s (Marietta) Monster Mash Anniversary Bash, featuring live music, freak shows, zombie pin-up contests, car/bike show, costume contests and more (Oct. 28)! Spend the night with Clownvis Presley at 529 (Oct. 28)! Spook on down to the Fall Fest & Haunted Trail at the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, featuring a bonfire, s’mores, games and more (Oct. 28)! Be the Headless Horseman’s next victim and get your bones chilled at Serenbe Playhouse’s thrilling presentation of their immersive spooky attraction and show, THE SLEEPY HOLLOW EXPERIENCE, haunting through Nov. 5! Spook on down to the Buford Highway Halloween Parade and Pop-Up, from 5-8pm (Oct. 29)! Make your way to the Atlanta History Center for the Day of the Dead Festival featuring traditional dance, crafts, authentic Mexican food and more (Oct. 29)!

8. TRICKS, TREATS & A WITCHIN’ GOOD TIME. Make a trick or treat trek to North Dekalb Mall (Decatur) for their Halloween Bash (Oct. 28)! Get weird ‘n’ geeky during My Parents’ Basement’s October Bizarre Bazaar, from 12p – 5p (Oct. 29)! Get ghoulish and make your way to Halloween at Krog Street Market, with trick-or-treating and costume contests (Oct. 31)! Spook on down to Callanwolde Fine Arts Center for their Halloween Night on Callanwolde Mountain family-friendly party featuring trick-or-treating, live music with the Callanwolde Concert Band featuring Matthew Kaminski, costume contests and more (10/27)!

9. BOOLESQUE.  Get your spine tingled during the 3rd Annual Spookeasy Electro Swing Atlanta with Kool Kat Talloola Love, DJ Doctor Q, Nikki Nuke’m and more at the Red Light Café (Oct. 28)! Or chill your bones during Scarendipity ATL’s 12th Annual Halloween Bash: The Vaudeville Edition, featuring live tunes with Mayhayley’s Grave, Kool Kat Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics and more (Oct. 28)! City Winery transforms into Studio 54 during Clubesque’s Halloween Show (10/31)!

10. UNHOLY & UNDEAD. ATL Collective delivers an evening of rotting flesh as they raise the dead with their performance of Michael Jackson’s Halloween classic, “Thriller” at Aisle 5 (10/27 & 28)! Spend the weekend with the undead during the 5th Annual Walker Stalker Con at the Georgia World Congress Center (Oct. 27- 29)!

SAM & MATTIE PRESENT SPRING BREAK ZOMBIE MASSACRE (2016); Dir. Robert Carnevale; Starring Sam Suchmann, Mattie Zufelt, Madeline Brumby, Allison Maier; Trailer here.

By Andrew Kemp
Contributing Writer

Sam and Mattie are typical American teens. They like to skateboard and play video games. They chase girls. They have cybernetic implants coveted by the devil and his army of zombies, demons, and zombie-demons. The usual stuff.

SPRING BREAK ZOMBIE MASSACRE is an unexpected title for a heartwarming, feel-good picture. The real-world Sam Suchmann and Mattie Zufelt hail from Rhode Island, inseparable best friends who became fixated on the idea of making a violent, gory zombie film starring themselves, an idea that may have seemed easy for their friends and family to dismiss before the boys revealed the elaborate storyboards they’d been building in their spare time. Director Robert Carnevale helped them launch a Kickstarter, thinking that a few bucks might allow them to put a film together. Sam and Mattie’s story, however, struck a nerve, went viral, and became a runaway crowdsourcing success story. The boys became stars of the mainstream press, and their project attracted talent from across the country, including Atlanta actors Madeline Brumby (Kool Kat here) and Allison Maier, and local special effects maven Shane Morton (Kool Kat here). 

Now, Sam and Mattie’s dream film is very real, and happily delivers more than just its great backstory. The Sam and Mattie of the film are the coolest, most interesting teens at their school, the kind of kids who tend to the needs of their knockout girlfriends before humiliating the local bullies with their sick skateboarding skills. Sam is the sensitive type and Mattie is his aggro best pal. They’ve literally known each other since birth, the moment made memorable when Satan appeared in the delivery room and murdered both of their moms—one of the downsides of having an epic destiny.

Now that they’re teens the Devil is back to finish the job, calling on all the bullies who hate Sam and Mattie’s unbridled awesomeness to join his undead army. The boys respond by unlocking their full superhuman potential, partying at Spring Break, and learning valuable lessons about the dangers of buying drugs. Also, Mattie has jet packs.

L-R: Madeline Brumby, Mattie Zufelt, Sam Suchmann in SPRING BREAK ZOMBIE MASSACRE (2016). Used with permission.

The project resembles less of a coherent narrative than a series of isolated vignettes strung together by the boys’ needs to kill zombies and have their hero moments. The emotional weight of the zombie outbreak is high in some scenes, while in others the monsters resemble irritating pests that have sprung up on Mattie’s lawn. What the film really provides is a bright and imaginative window into the way that Sam and Mattie see the world. Their script—every word of which Sam and Mattie wrote on their own, with Carnevale’s helpful translation—allows them to play out power fantasies and express their take on right and wrong. Sure, it’s a kick to watch Mattie shotgun zombies in the head (he has a surprising presence in the action scenes), but it’s hard to see the occasional quiet moment, such as the pivotal bit where Mattie and Sam stare into mirrors and remind themselves how valuable and special they are, and not think of the artists behind them. This thing is destined for endless cult screenings at midnight festivals and Halloween parties.

SPRING BREAK ZOMBIE MASSACRE may be a vanity project, but it finds its own heartwarming moments amidst its Michel Gondry-inspired cardboard hellfire. The word is that Sam and Mattie are hard at work on a sequel. That’s good. The movie screen is always hungry for real heroes.

SPRING BREAK ZOMBIE MASSACRE screened at the Atlanta Film Festival on March 25. For more information on the film, visit the official site.