The Warren County Public Library will host a series of film screenings for Halloween and the upcoming holiday season, starting on Wednesday, October 11, going through Wednesday, November 29, at 416 E Main Ave, Bowling Green, Kentucky.
“We do Movies at the Capitol all year long, and they are always free and open to the public,” Magnolia Gramling, manager of the Capitol said. “We try to give a variety of films based on age, and also availability. We generally will have one 2 o’clock movie, for folks who would rather not be out later in the evening, and we also do one 6 p.m. movie every month.”
Gramling said that through October, the Capitol will be showing multiple movies with the hopes of “hyping up” other fall events downtown and to bring people into the area.
“It’s a mission of mine, specifically, to get folks who wouldn’t ordinarily come to the Capitol, to come,” Gramling said. “That’s been a fun project for me, and right now it’s just a passion project.”
The series started on Wednesday, October 11, at 6 p.m., with a screening of an animated classic following the exploits of teenagers as they investigate the rumors of a neighbor’s house with a man-eating entity.
On Saturday, October 14, the series will host a monster movie marathon, showing several classic Universal Studios movies, which will be done in collaboration with the Harvest Festival, which is an annual fall festival at Fountain Square Park, Gramling said.
The marathon will include a screening based on the Bram Stoker vampire classic at 11 a.m., a screening of a scientist using corpses to create a monster at 12:30 p.m., a screening based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story at 2 p.m., a screening of the discovery of an aquatic humanoid creature at 3:30 p.m., and the story of a deep space crew coming into contact with hostile alien life at 6 p.m.
Wednesday, October 18 will see the screenings of two films, including one which tells the story of a teenager being tormented by bullies before discovering telepathic powers at 2 p.m., and the sixth iteration of a popular slasher series, showing the series’s infamous killer leaving the small-town setting of the previous movies for New York City at 6 p.m.
The series will continue on Friday, October 20, with the Boos and Brews miniseries, which will show the story of two ghosts coming to terms with a new family moving into their old home at 6 p.m., and a classic film which stars three scientists starting a ghost hunting business at 8 p.m.
“(The movies are chosen) based on my personal experience with film and preferences, but then we also collaborated on (October) 14, the one we’re doing in the evening, we collaborated with the BG Horror Club, who rent the theater out to show horror films all year long,” Gramling said.
The series will continue on Wednesday, November 1, with the screening of a movie centering around Dia de los Muertos and the afterlife at 5 p.m., with a screening of a dog-centered adventure story on Monday, November 6 at 1 p.m.
“It is so fun to be at the public library and get to do this for the community, because we don’t have to base our success on ticket sales,” Gramling said. “Because it’s a free event, we consider the event a success if there are 10 people there or 300. It always makes me really happy to see people enjoying them.”
As part of the Southern Circuit film series of films made by southern filmmakers, “Black Barbie” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 2. The Southern Circuit documentary series will continue on Thursday, November 16, with a screening of “A Run for More” documentary at 7:30 p.m.
The Movies at the Capitol series will continue with a Scorsese Thanksgiving film on November 21 at 7 p.m., with a Christmas classic ending the season of films on November 29, airing at 2 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. the same day.
“We try to honor what season we’re in,” Gramling said. “(…) We’ve been showing free movies at the Capitol since the library took over in 2021. I have been playing movies here since March, 2023.”
Gramling said that she hopes that people will be able to see the value in art by providing “equitable entertainment for all.
“That means opening our doors for a variety of different events,” Gramling said. “Whether that be bluegrass music, horror films, children’s films, oldies, we try to do a little something for everyone.”
The Capitol had recently hosted a marathon of films from the famous filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, which hosted around 200 people through the whole event, Gramling said.
More information about the series can be found at the Warren County Public Library website at https://warrenpl.org/events/list/?tribe-bar-search=movies.
Reporter Damon Stone can be reached at [email protected]
