The Tampa Theatre, “one of the most haunted buildings in Tampa,” is again offering its yearly A Nightmare on Franklin Street, a two and a half weeklong Halloween-horror-themed movie lineup from Friday, Oct. 13 to the Tuesday, Oct. 31. During the ‘Nightmare,’ the Tampa Theatre offers a variety of events, showings of classic horror movies, such as “The Shining,” “Saw” and “Halloween” and more recent films, such as “M3GAN” and “Talk to Me.”
Kicking off a Nightmare on Franklin Street is Sean Cunningham’s 1980 “Friday the 13th,” which is being shown at 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 13. It follows a group of counselors at the formerly abandoned, newly reopened Camp Crystal Lake, who are relentlessly stalked and killed one-by-one by an unseen killer. The film was a major success, starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Kevin Bacon and Robbi Morgan and is the first installment of the “Friday the 13th” franchise.
At 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 23, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” will be shown. It tells the story of Jack Torrance and his family as they agree to manage the Overlook Hotel for the winter; the Overlook, however, has its own secrets. I said the same about John Carpenter’s “Christine;” it’s a great film in itself (certainly worthy of its spot in the National Film Registry), but pales in comparison to the book. Regardless, Shelly Duvall as Wendy Torrance is perfect and Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack Torrance is unnerving and incredible; he plays a man losing his sanity very well.
And at 7:00 p.m., on Oct. 31, John Carpenter’s 1978 “Halloween” will be shown, which he both directed and scored. Need little be said about it, “Halloween” is one of the most well-known horror-slasher movies ever made and is, without a doubt, one of the greatest and most influential films of all time. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, Pamela Jane Soles as Lynda Von Der Klok and Nancy Loomis as Annie Brackett. They play teenagers stalked by an escaped psychopath, Michael Myers (Nick Castle and Tony Moran) who returns to his fictional hometown of Haddonfield, Ill., after escaping from a mental hospital on Halloween.
A variety of other films and events are going to be at the theater during the ‘nightmare’, including “Hocus Pocus,” “The Wicker Man,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Train to Busan” and “The Changeling,” amongst other ghost tours, comedians, story-hours and movies.