The Athena Grand has an opportunity for people to get “one good scare” this Halloween weekend.
The theater, at 1008 E. State St., will screen "Halloween" (1978), "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988) and "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989) on Sunday at 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10:40 p.m., respectively. By purchasing a ticket of $20, attendees can see all three films.
Rick Frame, the owner of the Athena Grand, said people who want to see only one of the films still have to buy the pass for all three screenings.
The "Halloween" series is categorized in the genre of horror films. In the first film, a murderer escapes a mental hospital and sets off on a killing spree in the town of Haddonfield on Halloween day.
The theater has hosted scary movie marathons in the past, including the Halloween series, Frame said.
“They seem to be the ones that hold true, people continue to like to see it,” he said. “Of course there’s the die-hard people who love these movies that will come and see them again and again.”
The movies will be shown in a theater that fits 200 people, and Frame said he anticipates 50 to 100 of those seats will be filled. So far, the Athena Grand has sold approximately 15 tickets.
“It’s kind of neat to see these movies that we bring back from the past and get to see them in the theater on a big screen to get a full effect of what they were originally designed for,” Frame said. “The more people we have the better it is too because, again, it’s that full experience of going to a crowded movie theater and the enthusiasm that builds.”
Leading up to the Halloween marathon, the Athena Grand has shown other movies that fit the holiday’s theme. The theater has screened "The Shining" and "Rifftrax Live: Carnival of Souls."
“We’ve got like a whole week’s worth of Halloween tie-ins,” Frame said.
Horror films date back to the late 19th century. The first horror film, "The Devil’s Castle," is about two minutes long and was produced in 1896, according to the American Movie Classics’ Film Site. The film is centered around a bat that flies into a castle and transforms into a man. The man finds a cauldron and conjures up many supernatural creatures.
Most horror movies still have supernatural components, such as ghosts, vampires, werewolves and other monsters.
Ellen Michelich, a sophomore studying international business, said scary movies have never interested her due to their lack of originality.
“I don’t find it to be that entertaining,” Michelich said. “They usually have the same type of storylines, so I think they’re kind of boring.”
The highest grossing scary movie is M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" (1999), which grossed almost $300 million, according to Forbes.
“I like the adrenaline rush you get with it and how they’re mysterious,” Terra Numbers, a freshman studying psychology, said. “I like the thrill of them.”
Numbers said she does not just watch scary movies during the Halloween season, but enjoys them all year round.
“I don’t necessarily get super scared about them,” Number said. “It’s more exciting for me than it is, ‘Oh my god, I don’t want to see that.’ I like seeing what goes on.”
Numbers prefers horror movies that have a thrilling aspect to them, she said. Some of her favorite movies include "The Amityville Horror," "Jeepers Creepers," "Saw" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
“(I) like serial killers and stuff like that,” she said while laughing. “I’m not like psycho or anything, but I like that stuff.”
