7 scary and campy films to watch on the big screen this spooky season

It’s the time of year when everyone likes to curl up on the couch and watch scary movies. But it’s way more fun being frightened out of your wits with a crowd. The nice thing about living in one of the greatest movie cities in the world is that there’s no shortage of horror flicks you can go see on a giant screen with a sound system that blows away any setup you have at home. Besides, there’s something healthy about screaming along with strangers. It reminds us that we’re all in this together. The fine folks at Screen Boston have tallied more than 40 frightening films showing in the Greater Boston area between now and All Hallows’ Eve. Here are a handful of highlights.

Getting a two-week sneak peek on a few area screens before settling into its forever home on Netflix in November, writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s handsomely appointed adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel is an eye-popping wonder of production design. Bumping the book ahead a few decades to incorporate Victorian-era advances in electricity and plate photography, it’s still the same old story, lavishly told, with Oscar Isaac as the mad scientist trying to conquer death and the fantastic Jacob Elordi as his heartsick creation. As a filmmaker, del Toro has always had more affinity for his monsters than men, and Elordi’s tender creature is so much more interesting than Isaac’s off-putting, one-note doctor that the movie doesn’t come alive until he does, which is unfortunately over an hour into the 149-minute feature.

Like a lot of del Toro films, his “Frankenstein” is as visually extravagant as it is dramatically undercooked. One wishes as much attention had been paid to the psychology of Mia Goth’s dual roles as to her billowing scarlet scarves rippling across the frame. Still, it’s a shame that so few cities will be able to see these gorgeous images in all their big-screen glory, since Netflix’s limited theatrical release is merely a contractual obligation to qualify for year-end awards. There’s a lot I don’t understand about this business, but it seems crazy that they’re making big $120 million movies like this for television.

"Frankenstein" screens on 35mm at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and digitally at the Alamo Drafthouse Seaport and Landmark Kendall Square starting Thursday, Oct. 23.

As part of the Goethe-Institut USA’s “Among Friends – Unter Freunden” program to strengthen international relations, the Brattle Theatre’s retrospective “Wild, Weird and Bloody: German Vampires of the ‘70s” offers a trio of films curated by Deutsche Kinemathek, because what brings countries together better than fanged freaks and creatures of the night? Between extremely rare screenings of director Hans W. Geißendörfer’s anti-fascist political parable “Jonathan” (Oct. 27) and the Rainer Werner Fassbinder-produced "Tenderness of the Wolves” (Oct. 28) comes this considerably less dignified lark from director Franz Josef Gottlieb, whose resume includes titles like “Swedish Wife Exchange Club” and “Hot Hungry School Girls.”

The agreeably antic “Lady Dracula” stars Swiss bombshell Evelyne Kraft as a bloodsucking countess from 19th-century Vienna unearthed in the swinging ‘70s. Bedecked in striking yellow jumpsuits and backed by a disco jazz score heavy on the flutes, the ancient vampiress is being romantically pursued by a hunky police officer who also happens to be investigating the rash of blood-drained bodies she’s been leaving strewn around the city. Despite Gottlieb’s previous credits, this one’s more slapstick than softcore, imparting the age-old wisdom that one should not come knocking if the coffin’s rocking.

"Lady Dracula" screens at the Brattle Theatre on Monday, Oct. 27.

“Horror Movie Survival Guide” podcast co-host Julia Marchese is back at the Somerville Theatre with her fifth annual Halloween Hullabaloo. This year’s highlights include “Ghostbusters” in 70mm (Oct. 28), as well as a nifty double feature of female-led serial killer thrillers from the ‘90s, with the Sigourney Weaver-Holly Hunter team-up “Copycat” followed by “The Silence of the Lambs” (Oct. 30). But if you’re looking for local scenery and problematic sexual politics, there’s no topping “Mad Max” director George Miller’s gonzo adaptation of John Updike’s “The Witches of Eastwick,” in which Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Cher are seduced by Jack Nicholson’s smiling prince of darkness, a self-described “horny little devil” who learns the hard way that hell hath no fury like a New England coven scorned.

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The movie was originally set to be filmed in the town of Little Compton, Rhode Island, until local church members objected to the content. Luckily, we godless heathens in Massachusetts were more accommodating, and it was shot on location in Cohasset, Ipswich and Milton Academy. The battle of the sexes has never been as silly as in this feast of super-sized movie star acting, with Nicholson at his most mischievously unhinged. You can also stick around afterward for more supernatural Pfeiffer and Jack in director Mike Nichols’ woebegone “Wolf,” a film that peaks early when Nicholson’s lycanthropic publishing executive tries to mark his territory by peeing on James Spader’s shoe.

"The Witches of Eastwick" screens on 35mm at the Somerville Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Coolidge After Midnite’s annual 12-hour Halloween Horror Marathon (Oct. 25) is the signature cinematic event of every spooky season, with this year’s (mostly) secret lineup centering on creature features. But Coolidge Program Director Mark Anastasio loves surrounding it with oddities you wouldn’t see anywhere else, like a screening of “Child’s Play 2” (Oct. 23) hosted by actress Christine Elise, who not only had the honor of killing the possessed Chucky doll in this 1990 sequel (spoiler) but also played bad girl Emily Valentine on “Beverly Hills 90210.” (Swoon.) Leave it to Anastasio to revive the little-seen big-screen debut of TV horror host Cassandra Peterson, whose Elvira character was like a Valley Girl Morticia Addams, making a career out of cleavage and clever innuendo between commercial breaks of schlocky old horror flicks.

Her charmingly ramshackle film debut finds Elvira inheriting a house in the fictional town of Falwell, Massachusetts, infuriating puritanical locals like Edie McClurg’s pricelessly named Chastity Pariah and getting mixed up in a demon scheme that nearly gets her burned at the stake. Peterson started her career as a Vegas showgirl before joining legendary Los Angeles improv troupe The Groundlings, and her act is somewhere between a teenage boy’s pinup fantasy and a drag queen, twirling tassels and tossing around double entendres with self-aware aplomb. The movie will be followed by an afterparty upstairs in the Coolidge Education and Community Engagement Center. I hope someone brings a casserole monster.

"Elvira: Mistress of the Dark" screens at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 30.

The MFA’s Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium is turning into a juke joint this Halloween night with a special screening of the year’s most raucous blockbuster. Writer-director Ryan Coogler broke out of Marvel jail with this boisterous genre mashup — a vampire gangster musical starring his regular muse Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twin brothers returning to their Mississippi Delta hometown and throwing an all-night bash that’s swarmed by hordes of the pesky undead. (A friend joked that it’s all a long way of explaining why you should never let an Irishman into your party after midnight.)

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The movie is a swaggeringly confident, spectacular entertainment, steeped in matters of race and religion without resorting to the cart-before-the-horse didactics that have bogged down most socially conscious genre efforts in the post-“Get Out” era. Local musician Jake Blount, a 2025 WBUR Maker, served as a music consultant on the picture, and it’s a soundtrack album you will want to own. I will confess to preferring the film’s more atmospheric first hour, when the bad boy siblings go around living down to their reputations while recruiting old friends and musicians for their new nightclub endeavor. It’s basically “The Blues Brothers” until the vampires show up. The subsequent supernatural shenanigans are thrilling, if a bit more familiar than what came before. Coogler stuffs the film with so many ideas, I’m still not sure which of the 17 endings I liked best.

"Sinners" screens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on Friday, Oct. 31.

Fifty years ago last month, this low-budget film adaptation of the London and Los Angeles stage sensation was first released in theaters. And it bombed. It wasn’t until months later — on April Fool’s Day, 1976 — that producer Lou Adler and crew decided to try running “Rocky Horror” as a midnight show, and it’s been playing continuously ever since. A rite of passage for misfits and queer kids looking for a safe space to let their freak flags fly, Richard O’Brien’s musical sci-fi horror movie parody is a singing and dancing celebration of decadent desires, with audiences invited to join in as Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon’s all-American squares are swept away by Tim Curry’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Half a century later, it’s still giddy and empowering — maybe now more than ever, given what a political cudgel gender essentialism has become — and the songs are still catchy as hell.

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I missed doing the time warp again at the golden anniversary screenings this past September on account of being the same age as the film and therefore unable to attend midnight movies anymore without finding myself incapacitated for the rest of the weekend. The Coolidge is sticking to the after-hours tradition while the Somerville is offering an earlier 9 p.m. show, perhaps out of consideration for the fandom’s aging demographic. Rose-tint my world, but get me home at a reasonable hour.

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" screens at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Friday, Oct. 24 and at the Somerville Theatre on 35mm with live shadowcast on Friday, Oct. 31.

The Brattle’s jam-packed “Halloweek 2025” features a free Elements of Cinema screening and discussion of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” (Oct. 28), the best Freddy Krueger sequel with the most righteous theme song. (Yes, that’s Patricia Arquette.) They’re also celebrating horror streamer Shudder’s 10th anniversary with return engagements of Issa López’s critically adored cartel ghost story “Tigers Are Not Afraid” (Oct. 29) and Nicolas Cage’s phantasmagoric cult classic “Mandy” (Oct. 29). It all leads up to IFFBoston’s Fall Focus Halloween night screening of the spooky “Knives Out” sequel, “Wake Up Dead Man.” But earlier that afternoon, the Friday Film Matinee is a rare 35mm screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s gloriously rococo “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”

The “Godfather” director’s barmy, bodice-ripping take on the vampire tale is one of the most deranged big budget studio pictures of its era. Or any era. Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder star as doomed lovers across oceans of time, while Anthony Hopkins gives a performance that’s cranked up to 11 and Keanu Reeves never gets past three or four. Coppola uses silent movie techniques and antiquated, in-camera special effects — choices that were terribly unfashionable and have aged considerably better than the cutting-edge CGI of the time. I remember sneaking out of high school to catch the first show on opening day and being embarrassed by its ardor and intensity, laughing with my friends at how dorky and unabashedly corny the movie was. Now I realize that’s what’s so cool about it.

"Bram Stoker's Dracula" screens on 35mm at the Brattle Theatre on Friday, Oct. 31.