FREEDOM FILM SERIES PRESENTS: HALLOWEEN MOVIE MADNESS II

After a month and a half break, the Freedom Film Series is coming back and gearing up for an exciting month of October. For this series, I have incorporated a program into the Freedom Film Series that I put on last year at this time. I decided to keep the name, so the Freedom Film Series takes on a kind of producers role. Every Wednesday night, throughout the month of October, the Freedom Film Series will be celebrating Halloween by screening five different scary movies for the film series, Halloween Movie Madness II!

As I mentioned before, this is the second annual Halloween movie series that I will be putting on here at Freedom Regional. Last year's Halloween Movie Madness was quite successful and we had steadily growing crowds every night. I am hoping that with this success and the introduction and promotion of the Freedom Film Series that the crowds will be the biggest that we've had so far. I mean, what's better than scary movies at Halloween?

Since the film series will be centered around the Halloween holiday, I thought it would be appropriate to provide some information on the origins of Halloween.

This annual celebration originated in Ireland as the Celtic festival of Samhain, a celebration of the end of the harvest and Celtic New Year (the transition from October to November). This harvest festival did not remain solely within Ireland for very long. The idea spread across the world and, soon, many countries had adopted their own versions of Halloween. With the immigration of the Irish into the United States, Americans began celebrating the holiday and it was made an official holiday in the 19th century.

Though the traditions adopted for the festival vary from country to country, the general beliefs surrounding the holiday and the traditions remained the same. In one way or another, most of the cultures believed that on the eve of the Celtic New Year and the end of the harvest season (October 31), or All Hallows Eve, the boundary between the world of the living and the world of dead dissolves. Spirits are able to physically affect the living at will. In an effort to ward or confuse the spirits, people would wear masks and costumes. They believed that dressing up as spirits themselves would fool the spirits into leaving them alone. So, the costuming that people love to practice today was born from fear, not the desire to scare. Another common Halloween tradition today has its roots in this same fear. Villages would build huge bonfires in an attempt to keep spirits away and they would dance in their costumes and masks around the bonfires the entire night.

In the United States today, Halloween is the 6th most profitable holiday. Candy and costume sales reach their yearly peaks at this time of the year, which comes as no surprise. It is also one of the biggest, if not the biggest (in my opinion), movie holiday. I'm not referring to the number of releases or it being targeted for big blockbuster releases. When I say that it is the biggest movie holiday, I am referring to the fact that any company that is making a horror movie prays that they can shoot for a Halloween release date. More money is spent buying tickets to a horror movie or renting them than any other time of the year. Watching scary movies in October and on Halloween has become a storied tradition and a consistent part of American life.

So, if you're planning on using movies to scare the pants off of you this year (and I know you are), then why not come out to Freedom Regional Library and do it here with us for free! Every Wednesday night in October at 6:00pm the light from the movie projector will be our own bonfire as we watch a series of five scary movies in celebration of Halloween. Hope to see you there!


Freedom Film Series Presents: Halloween Movie Madness II

October 1: Monster Squad, PG-13
October 8: Friday the 13th: Jason Lives, R
October 15: Fright Night, R
October 22: Scream, R
October 29: Halloween 2, R
**anyone under 17 must have parental permission or be accompanied by an adult for the R-rated features**


Until next time....


P.S. FREE POPCORN WILL BE SERVED AT EVERY SCREENING!!