The Following Preview Is Heartily Approved

We love all manner of film geek, from the guy who always finds a way to say “Truffaut” in public to the woman who haunts the night in front of flickering silent films. A new subset, however, is close to our short-attention-span hearts: the trailer geek. Joe Dante is a supreme example: After directing such gems as Gremlins and The Howling, he helped found www.trailersfromhell.com. The site showcases trailers, mostly the genre-weird but also the Hollywood-classic, and feature commentary from a wide and very impressive list of industry people, from leading horror directors and producers to effects people. There’s love all around in there — except for the trailers of today, especially the made-by-committee big-budget abominations that are primarily of interest to explosions experts. Tonight, his site presents Trailers from Hell Halloween Screening and Costume Party, a night of choice cuts hosted by the astute Mick Garris, director of Stephen King’s TV miniseries The Stand and The Shining, creator of the Showtime series Masters of Horror, and all-around well-connected genre-film geek — a few years back he hosted the infamous “masters of horror” dinners attended by A-listers Dario Argento, Eli Roth, David Cronenberg, and Guillermo Del Toro, among others. Pay close attention to your costumes, because the film geeks certainly will.
Mon., Oct. 26, 7 & 9 p.m., 2009