Halloween special: PVR curates a three-day festival of horror films

A still from IT: Chapter 2 (2019)

Halloween isn't an Indian festival, but when has that ever stopped India from celebrating anything under the sun? As more and more young, especially the urban young in the metros, take to this celebration of horror and macabre, PVR found it to be a great opportunity to cash in a few extra bucks with a couple of creepy clowns and a doll. Earlier this month, PVR ran a fabulous — but extremely short-lived — festival, in collaboration with Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's Film Heritage Foundation, on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan, screening the restored prints of some of his classic films over four days or so.

And this weekend, PVR Cinemas is celebrating a three-day pan-India "spooktacular" Halloween, from October 29-31, with an exclusive screening of three horror films from the recent past that truly spooked audiences.

The film exhibitor who has held these screenings in the past, is bringing back the Halloween Film Festival this year, after a two-year pandemic-lockdown hiatus, to its patrons across select PVR theatres.

2022 Halloween Film Festival across PVR cinemas

The movies will be screened across PVR’s premium format of 4DX auditoriums across 18 locations/theatres in 12 cities, namely Mumbai (PVR Phoenix Market City - Kurla; PVR Malad), Pune (PVR Phoenix Market City), Ahmedabad (PVR Acropolis), Surat (PVR Rahul Raj), Hyderabad (PVR Erramanzil, PVR Kukatpally), Bengaluru (PVR Vega City Mall, PVR Orion Mall, PVR Forum Mall Koramangala, PVR Phoenix Market City Mall), Chandigarh (PVR Elante Mall), Noida (PVR Logix City Centre), Gurugram (PVR MGF Mall), Delhi (PVR Pacific, PVR Vegas Dwarka), Indore (PVR Treasure Island) and Kochi (PVR Lulu Mall).

The revolutionary multi-sensory features of 4DX that perfectly fits with horror genre, the audiences can literally feel the fear crawl around them in the uber-dark halls. And for those with nerves of steel, can head to the theatres to have a good sinister laugh at others' misery.

Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Limited, said, “PVR always strives to provide moviegoers with experiences that are not only unique but presented in an innovative manner. The festival aims to celebrate Halloween by showing handpicked horror films on 4DX which can make the experience even scarier. The response for the Halloween Film Festival organized in the past has been very assuring and we look forward to receiving the same love from our patrons as well for this year’s edition as well”.

IT (2017)

The films to be screened include:

IT (2017)

It (titled onscreen as It Chapter One) is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti and written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman. It is the first of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 eponymous novel by Stephen King.

In October 1988, twelve-year-old Bill Denbrough crafts a paper sailboat for Georgie, his six-year-old brother. Georgie sails the boat along the rainy streets of small town Derry, Maine, only to have it fall down a storm drain. As he attempts to retrieve it, Georgie sees a clown in the drain, who introduces himself as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown". Pennywise entices Georgie to come closer, then rips his arm off and drags him into the sewer. Watch the film to know what happens the next summer.

IT Chapter 2 (2019)

It Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti, with a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. A follow-up to It (2017), it is the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel It by Stephen King, primarily covering the second half of the book. It stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. Set in 2016, 27 years after the events of the first film, as after its initial defeat, Pennywise returns to Derry, Maine in 2016, and kills a man named Adrian Mellon by biting his heart out after he and his boyfriend are brutally assaulted in a hate crime by locals after visiting a carnival. The story centres on the Losers Club and their relationships as they reunite to destroy It once and for all. But can they?

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

In the 1940s, a dollmaker named Samuel Mullins and his wife Esther grieve for the loss of their seven-year-old daughter Annabelle, nicknamed "Bee", who dies in a car accident. Twelve years later, the Mullins open their home to provide shelter for Sister Charlotte and six girls left homeless by the closing of their orphanage. Despite having been warned to avoid Bee's locked bedroom, Janice, a young orphan disabled by polio, discovers a note saying "Find me" and sneaks into the room, which has mysteriously become unlocked. She finds a key for Bee's closet and opens it, where she finds the walls entirely covered by pages from the Holy Bible, and an eerie porcelain doll. By opening the closet, Janice unwittingly releases a powerful demon that begins to terrorise the girls.

Annabelle: Creation is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by David F Sandberg, written by Gary Dauberman and produced by Peter Safran and James Wan. It is a prequel to Annabelle (2014) and the fourth installment in The Conjuring Universe franchise. The film stars Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Anthony LaPaglia, and Miranda Otto, and depicts the possessed Annabelle doll's origin.

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