Get Out: Scares across the city

Movies

Scares across the city

Assuming the Occupy D.C. crowd hasn’t packed it in yet, zombie fans don’t have to go far to find unwashed hordes milling about. However, if you’d like to see those hordes do more than demonstrate the futility of consensus hand signals, you’ll want to hit up one of the area’s theaters for a Halloween movie screening.

For true weirdos and anything-goes cinephiles, the Washington Psychotronic Film Society has been resurrected from the grave yet again and will show a montage of obscure horror flicks at McFadden’s in Foggy Bottom. Oct. 31 at 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Phone: 202/292-4067. Web: www.wpfs.org.

For a more family-oriented affair, the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse will be showing the classic anti-horror movie, “Ghostbusters,” featuring a group of brilliant comedians whose careers currently resemble their titular targets. (If Harold Ramis and Bill Murray want to prove us wrong, America sure could use that much-talked-about sequel!) Oct. 29 at 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington. Phone: 703/486-2345. www.arlingtondrafthouse.com.

Jeff Goldblum’s accidental transformation from man to giant insect in “The Fly” is likely responsible for as many good Calvin & Hobbes strips (Calvin’s Transmogrifier first appeared roughly one year after “The Fly” came out) as irritating Progressive insurance commercials (the ones where Flo’s colleagues accidentally meld their hands with boxes of, uh, insurance?). It’s a legacy almost as bizarre as Mr. Goldblum’s bug-eyed performance. Oct. 29 at E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Phone: 202/452-7672. Web: www.landmarktheatres.com.

We haven’t forgotten you, cinema snobs! If you’re not too busy pooh-poohing trick-or-treaters’ special effects, you’ll likely want to check out AFI’s showing of “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror”; the Alloy Orchestra will perform the score live. AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Phone: 301/495-6700. Web: www.afi.com/silver.

Party

Questlove at Newseum

Nearly every bar in D.C. that decides to recognize Halloween does so by offering $50 - sometimes more, sometimes less - for the best costume. In most cases, this is enough to provoke half the city’s women to walk around in the October chill wearing only their underwear. If you desire something more sophisticated, the Newseum and party planners extraordinaire Brightest Young Things have you covered. This year’s Halloween party will feature DJ work by the Roots’ Questlove, ping-pong, bars pretty much everywhere (including in the elevator), and a Halloween photo booth. Oct. 28 at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Phone: 888/639-7386. Web: www.newseum.org/

Kids Events

If your neighborhood isn’t down with trick-or-treating, you might as well kill two birds with one stone and take your kids someplace where both of you will have a nice time.

Halloween on Ellsworth sees Downtown Silver Spring turned into a wee vampire’s paradise. Kids can learn how to do the “Monster Mash,” safely play tricks for treats, strut their costumes for prizes, and design a pumpkin rocket. Mom and Dad, meanwhile, can take turns perusing the newest wares at MAC. Oct. 29 at Downtown Silver Spring, 908 Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring. Phone: 301/587-0867. Web: www.downtownsilverspring.com.

At the National Building Museum, parents and kids and alike can study under construction-paper wizard Carol Barton, who will teach them how to create a pop-up haunted house - really, it’s an art - and tell scary stories. Oct. 29 at the National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW. Phone: 202/272-2448. Web: www.nbm.org.

Halloween theater

The Georgetown Theatre Co.’s annual Halloween reading of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, a man who lived in horror every day of the year, is consistently good. GTC prides itself on bringing literature “out of the library and onto the stage,” in a way that’s more likely to hold the attention of modern audiences. Not that Poe needs the help. Oct. 29 at Grace Church, 1041 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Phone: 703/271-7770. Web: www.georgetowntheatre.org.

Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” meanwhile, is a classic text of lefty sympathy. Miller’s play was ostensibly about the Salem witch trials, making it perfect for Halloween. Underneath the period veneer, however, is a thinly veiled allegory of the House Un-American Activities Committee and Sen. Joe McCarthy’s hunt for communists within the U.S. government. Through Nov. 19 at 1742 Church St. NW. Phone: 703/892-0202. Web: www.keegantheatre.com.