Our next Friday Fright Night presentation is a double bill of late night Horror for Friday the 13th!

JAWS:
When a shark terrorises the resort of Amity, the search is on for the Great White Male to teach it that eating people is wrong. The three who set to sea are contrasting examples of flawed masculinity: a macho sea-dog (Robert Shaw); an upstart marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss); and a Sheriff (Roy Scheider) out of his depth. The film’s narrative has elements of post-Watergate topicality (the political cover-up to protect the tourist trade) but then swerves into mythical adventure, with the shark a more accessible Moby Dick and not without a wicked sense of humour, particularly when it first pops to the surface to greet the Sheriff and give him the fright of his life. Benefiting from twisting underwater camerawork and the mechanistic rhythms and hungry groans of John Williams’ score to suggest the monster’s presence, Spielberg’s dazzling direction gives the first hint of his superstar potential: this is the most proficient manipulation of an audience’s primal fears since Psycho. (Notes by Neil Sinyard.)

INTRUDERS:
From director Juan Carlos Fresnadilla (28 Weeks Later) comes the eerie and intense Intruders, telling parallel tales of the fears and monsters faced by two children in different times and countries. In recent Spain, a young boy and his mother are terrorised nightly by a supernatural being named Hollowface, whose goal is to rip off the young boy’s face to wear for his own. Meanwhile, in contemporary England, Mia, the twelve-year-old daughter of John Farrow (Clive Owen), discovers an old, unfinished children’s story in the hollow of an old tree. Unfortunately for Mia, the story is about the legend of Hollowface, who soon comes for her, searching for a new face to wear. With thrilling set pieces and plot twists, Intruders builds atmosphere and suspense throughout to provide Friday Fright Night audiences with plentiful and satisfying chills.