City’s vibrant cinema group has Halloween sorted

Townsville Cinema Group’s Halloween Spooktacular features “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” celebrating local cinema with prizes, costumes, and a festive atmosphere.

Townsville Cinema Group are set for Halloween. Picture: Evan Morgan

As Halloween approaches, the Townsville Cinema Group is gearing up for one of its most highly anticipated events of the year: the Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Spooktacular.

This annual tradition has become a hallmark of the Townsville film community’s celebration of cinematic art and culture.

Glenys Rowe, a leading figure in the group, underscored the excitement surrounding this year’s festivities.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show has now become a worldwide annual screen event for Halloween. The film is now nearly 50 years old,” Glenys told NQ Weekend.

“With its campy humour and fun storyline, it’s become traditional for audiences around the world to turn up dressed to kill and ready to sing along with “Let Do The Time Warp Again!” and Townsville is no exception.

“We’re expecting a full house in Townsville, dressed to the nines.

“We’re offering big prizes for the best dressed, including a night for two at the Grand Chancellor Hotel with breakfast, an Aquascene Discovery Boat Tour around Magnetic Island, hairdressing vouchers and lots more.

“There’ll also be free cocktails for the first in, best dressed.”

In addition to the fanfare and merriment, the Rocky Horror Picture Show is steeped in Australian cinematic pride.

“What many people don’t realise is that The Rocky Horror Picture Show was directed by the Australian film director, Jim Sharman, had an Australian Production Designer, Brian Thomson, and was edited by an Australian, Graeme Clifford and stars an Australian actress, Little Nell Campbell as Columbia,” Glenys said. “So what looks like and has behaved like an international cult film for so long is really Australia punching above its weight in movies once again.

Townsville Cinema Group is gearing up for one of its most highly anticipated events of the year: the Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Spooktacular. on October 31 Picture: Evan Morgan

“We want to celebrate that. “

This celebration of homegrown film prowess is central to the Townsville Cinema Group’s mission to highlight both international and Australian cinematic achievements.

The group was formed in 1962 when a small group of James Cook University students believed Townsville was missing out on a lot of new and interesting films that were being shown in Melbourne and Sydney.

The Townsville Cinema Group was formed in order to get those films to Townsville.

“For our birthday celebrations last year, we screened some films from the 1960s, our birth year alongside the modern ones.

“Everybody loved them. We included Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, already a married couple in life, but in Virginia Woolf, they play a married couple trapped in a toxic relationship which nonetheless is weirdly satisfying for them both.

“At the Townsville Cinema Group we love a showbiz story and that was one of the best.”

Glenys said as well as the latest art house releases, the Townsville Cinema Group also tried to screen a lot of Academy Award winners as well as winners from the other major international film festivals such as Venice and Cannes.

“We love to show the overlooked and underrated stunners and think we help make Townsville a really lively place to live, always surprising.”

Glenys said selecting films which resonated with the audience involved a careful and informed approach.

“The committee of volunteers keeps an eye on national and international film festivals and meets twice a year to come up with a program that we want to see, with an eye on what our members have asked for.

“Great films develop a reputation from the moment they are first screened and word of mouth travels fast.

Glenys Rowes from the Townsville Cinema Group says the committee of volunteers keeps an eye on national and international film festivals . Picture: Evan Morgan

“We first heard about the new Australian film Memoir of a Snail back in June when it opened the 2024 Melbourne Film Festival, then it won First Prize at the Annecy Film Festival in France, then it got picked up for American release and word started to travel.

“We booked it straightaway for our final screening of the year in November, ahead of all the other Queensland theatres.

“Programming is a combination of research, passion, a feel for the zeitgeist as well as a bit of risk taking.

“After a while, you get to know what people like and our audience likes films that are little more offbeat and thought provoking than straight out Hollywood blockbuster hero journeys.”

Glenys said the Townsville Cinema Group audience liked films where stories portrayed life in all its nuance and variety, where nothing was ever as black and white as Hollywood would have you believe.

“We try and show films that are not generally available. We aim for the best in every genre and format.”

For those interested in joining the Townsville Cinema Group, Glenys extends a welcoming invitation.

“You will join a group of people who apart from loving a night out at the movies, don’t really think that sitting home glued to a device is really a good life.”

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Spooktacular tickets can be purchased on the night at BCC Cinemas, 10 Little St, October 31. The show starts at 7pm.

The Townsville Cinema Group screen films every second Thursday at BCC Cinemas. Box office opens at 6.30pm. Email the group on [e-mail]

Originally published as City’s vibrant cinema group has Halloween sorted