Elvira, the Crypt Keeper, and Garfield Headline Our Weekday Recommendations

Super Scary Slushee Series

Throughout October, Blue Owl Brewing Company

Oh boy: If there were ever an October to get a slush during. Blue Owl Brewing gives you the thrills and chills you desire all throughout the month. Each week they’re releasing a new flavor for you to enjoy – in a cute li’l themed cup as well. This week’s sip selection is Sour Yuzu Gummy Worms, a surefire hit for those who love East Asian citrus and getting sugar stuck between your teeth. Tis the season, after all.   – James Scott

Film Strip Club: 16mm Direct Animation Workshop

Monday 14, Howson Branch Library

The term “movie magic” is a misnomer, as there’s not a lick of witchcraft in how those incredible onscreen images get made. That’s all human ingenuity, practices created and passed down in order to make the world on film a better version of our own. Austin Public Library helps keep those analog skills alive through their Film Strip Club, which can either be a one-time activity or provide a space for a longtime projects. This Monday, you’ll be learning how to animate directly on 16mm film – “paint on transparent film, manipulate images on developed film, and scratch the emulsion off of opaque black film (or ‘leader’) to create unique and brilliant visual effects,” as APL writes. Once you’re finished, you can take your physical creation home or – thanks to an APL partnership with the Texas Film Commission – get that strip professionally digitized.   – James Scott

Queer Full Moon Circle

Monday 14, Pilates Apothecary

Now is the time when the veil is thin, which means energy exchange is deffo on the table. Local Queer ATX pairs up with pilates/spiritual shop Pilates Apothecary to help you access your inner strength via the full moon. Activities include: reflecting on the last 30 days’ triumphs, letting go of what no longer serves you, drinking herbal tea, and “a deep conversation about the moon, its power, and how to navigate its energies.” What more could you want?   – James Scott

Panic at the Paramount: Demons and Popcorn

Tuesday 15, Paramount Theatre

Where better to watch movies set in movie theatres than in a theatre that shows movies? The Paramount marks the midpoint of the spookiest month with a double bill of flicks about what happens when the terror spills off the screen. Lamberto Bava’s Dèmoni locks an unsuspecting preview audience in a movie house that’s also a portal to Hell and delivers a demonic eruption that somehow one-ups Alien’s chestburster. Then stay frozen to your seat for Popcorn, a bonkers metahorror of films within films that starts off with Kingston, Jamaica, unsuccessfully standing in for the U.S. It only gets weirder from there.   – Richard Whittaker

Banned Wagon Tour

Tuesday 15, Black Pearl Books

Look: Book bans have been in the fascist playbook since we crawled out of the muck and grew feet instead of fins. They’re terrible and so is the anti-intellectual culture that sprouts up around them. In an effort to combat this lack of literary respect, publisher Penguin Random House has put pedal to the metal in their Banned Wagon – a literal van that’s hitting spots particularly vulnerable to conservative government overreach. Texas is, no-duh, on the list and they’ve chosen independent and Black- and woman-owned shop Black Pearl Books as the Wagon’s Austin landing spot. Come check ’em out, get new lit, and give those who might try to break your book spines the middle finger.   – James Scott

Terrifying Tuesday: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

Tuesday 15, Double Trouble

What if a mad scientist spliced Vampira and a Valley Girl? Mad, you say? Maybe you are the one who is mad, because what you’d be unleashing would be none other than the curvaceous countess of cleavage and corny jokes, Elvira! The horror host played by Cassandra Peterson made her own leap from the small screen of Los Angeles’ KHJ-TV to the big screen of cinemas for her 1988 movie Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. Tarred and feathered when it was released, this spooky season is the perfect time to relish its witchy, titillating, double-entendre-stuff dun. And not only is this screening free, but Double Trouble throws in complimentary popcorn. So grab a handful or two for double your pleasure.   – Richard Whittaker

“Don’t Talk to Me Until I’ve Had My Lasagna”

Through November 2, Sage Studios

Known for their platforming of artists with physical and intellectual disabilities, Sage Studio brings to the front a creature beloved of the Sunday morning comic strip connoisseur. Yes, it’s really all about him: Garfield, the orange cat, and his friends, with their many facets showcased by Sage’s artists in traditional and non-traditional materials in this new exhibition. Want a chance to celebrate the big boy in a manner befitting his feline fortitude – and help the studio fundraise? Sage hosts Love Me, Feed Me, Never Leave Me: An Evening with Garfield & Friends this Monday, Oct. 14, where a $100 ticket gets you pizza, lasagna, Garf cocktails, a photobooth, and much more. All this just might be enough to turn even the sourest puss around on Mondays ...   – James Scott

Shoal Creek Social

Tuesday 15, Shoal Creek Trail

A huge part of Austin’s charm is its many beautiful waterways and walking trails, and the Shoal Creek Trail is one of the best as well as the city’s oldest. Keeping a treasure like this alive requires a community effort, so the Shoal Creek Conservancy works year-round to organize volunteer efforts and once a year, they put on the Shoal Creek Social. From Oct. 15-31, the campaign raises funds and awareness, offering opportunities to explore the trail with walking tours and a scavenger hunt. All are welcome to a creekside party at Duncan Park on Oct. 26.   – Kat McNevins

Tangerine

Wednesday 16, Alamo South Lamar

Tangerine wasn’t the first film shot exclusively on iPhone, but it’s definitely the most successful version of that particular brand of filmmaking. It’s also the film that rocketed Sean Baker into the spotlight. It spends the course of a day with transgender sex worker Sin-Dee, fresh out of jail and hot on the trail of her cheating pimp boyfriend. Baker excels at showing the margins of society, and with Tangerine, he does that by showing the real Hollywood: the seedy L.A. streets immediately recognizable to any Angeleno. Check out Baker’s roots before his Palme d’Or-winning Anora – opening in Austin Oct. 18 – dominates conversation for the next few months.   – Cat McCarrey

Zine Night: Spooky Theme

Wednesday 16, Central Library

For some of us, time is binary: either Halloween or not Halloween. What’s not to love? Scary movies, costumes, candy, parties, pumpkins, skeletons ... raise your hand if you’re so excited it’s October. For zinemakers, the season offers a wealth of inspiration, which will be manifested at this fun workshop where you’ll learn to craft your own zine with the experts at the Austin Public Library. The workshop happens on the sixth floor, right above the library’s fifth-floor zine collection that your work can become a part of. A perfect way to prep for the upcoming Lone Star Zine Fest, if you ask me!   – Kat McNevins

Playdate in the Park

Wednesday 16, Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park

Another day, another morning spent figuring out how to minimize your child’s screentime. Allow the Austin Parks Foundation to give you a day off with this series of community events featuring storytime, crafts, movement-based fun. The kids will even go home with a book that will continue the non-internet based fun after the event’s 10-11:30am runtime. The whole shebang ends with a dance party that will likely tire the adults out more than the kids, but it’s worth a try.   – James Renovitch

Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight

Thursday 17, Eastside Cinema

It’s the Cryptober Crossover at Austin’s last remaining single-screen cinema as Roxy Horror – the queen of screams, high priestess of sleaze, and host of the Roxy Horror Picture Show – teams up with the rapscallions behind Z-movie advocates One Man’s Trash. They’ll be Brundleflying together for a special screening of the 1995 spinoff from the classic HBO anthology creepfest inspired by EC Comics, Tales From the Crypt. Was it hot garbage, or just ahead of its time? Was a bald Billy Zane inspired casting for a soul-hunting demon, or a sign that Nineties Hollywood was out of control? Either way, the badass metal soundtrack – Pantera, Ministry, Sepultura, and more – made it legendary. Make sure to come back for the deliciously sleazy followup, Bordello of Blood, on Oct. 24.   – Richard Whittaker

Writers’ League of Texas Third Thursdays

Thursday 17, Virtual

Y’all: Writing is so hard. Imagine a crying emoji attached to that statement, and you’ll understand how my chosen career field affects me. Take heart, though, as I have done when learning about our local Writers’ League and their many workshops. Every third Thursday of the month, WLT brings you discussions by skilled panelists on myriad subjects pertaining to the written word. October’s topic concerns characters: How do you write ’em good? Authors Sherri L. Smith, Alex Temblador, and Meg Vondriska – who WLT assures us have experience in the area – bring their advice.   – James Scott

The Beyond

Thursday 17, Hyperreal Film Club

After a woman inherits a Louisiana hotel located on one of the seven gates of hell, she begins experiencing mounting horrors stemming from a dark arts-involved murder that happened decades before. Italian director Lucio Fulci does Southern Gothic in this 1981 cult classic that Hyperreal writes “plays like a surreal body-mulching autumnal nightmare you can’t quite shake the morning after.” Expect ravenous spiders, women with white eyeballs, surreal atmospheres, and buckets of blood.   – Lina Fisher

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Want to see all of our listings broken down by day? Go to austinchronicle.com/calendar and see what's happening now or in the coming week.