Summerween: Scary Summer Movie Festival
You don’t have to wait until October to celebrate the communal spirit of Halloween. If the heat of the summer is becoming a horror show, join us for our first Summerween Film Festival. Cool down with some spine-tingling films that will make you want to grip onto the edge of your seat in the Montalbano Family Theatre. We’re screening everything from kid-friendly skeletons to adult only zombies and secluded country estates that will haunt you long after the lights come back up! Special guest, Doaa Magdy of the Horror in Seconds Film Festival will do a discussion around the film Get Out.
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Schedule
Film 1 / 2:00 - 3:30 pm - Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (2008)
Jack Skellington is the King of Halloween. He becomes bored with the same routine every year. He decides to take a walk in the woods. There, he discovers a door leading to Christmastown and decides to spread Christmas joy to the world. When he is back in Halloweentown he shows his friends what Christmas is like, and he suggests doing Christmas this year instead. But things do not go as planned when Oogie Boogie, an evil gambling boogey man, plots to play a game with Santa Claus' life and creates a nightmare for all the good little boys and girls everywhere. Although Sally attempts to stop him, Jack embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sled pulled by skeletal reindeer.
Rating: PG
Runtime: 76 mins
Film 2 / 4:00 - 5:30 pm - Blood Quantum (2020)
The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi’gmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are immune to the zombie plague. Traylor, the tribal sheriff, must protect his son’s pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees, and reserve riff raff from the hordes of walking white corpses.
Rating: 18A
Runtime: 98 mins
Film 3 / 6:00 - 8:15 pm - *Get Out (2017)
A young black man meets his white girlfriend's parents at their estate, only to find out that the situation is much more sinister than it appears.
Rating: 14A
Runtime: 104 mins
*Featuring a special introduction and discussion of the film by Doaa Magdy of the Horror in Seconds Film Festival. Doaa will take a critical look at Jordan Peele’s movie Get Out and the commodification of Black bodies. Doaa will also screen a few shorts from the Horror in Seconds Film Festival.
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Doaa Magdy is a polyglot, award-winning visionary, multidisciplinary artist, event producer, podcast host, and somatic yoga teacher. She is the founder of Horror in Seconds, Canada’s first BIPOC horror festival, which she transformed into a revolutionary artistic movement spanning films, performances, and a horror podcast, all dedicated to giving racialized artists a space to unleash their creativity. Thanks to the festival’s growth in the past few years, Horror in Seconds is hosting its first international pop-up in NYC in November 2026.
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Please register. Registration is required to attend as seating is limited, and it helps us anticipate attendance and send a reminder the day before the event, or any updates about this program.
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VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at [email protected].
*Elevator access to the Montalbano Family Theatre on level 8 is available with the main elevators on level 2.
*The theatre has three wheelchair accessible spaces in the front row on the right hand side.
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Schedule
Film 1 / 2:00 - 3:30 pm - Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (2008)
Jack Skellington is the King of Halloween. He becomes bored with the same routine every year. He decides to take a walk in the woods. There, he discovers a door leading to Christmastown and decides to spread Christmas joy to the world. When he is back in Halloweentown he shows his friends what Christmas is like, and he suggests doing Christmas this year instead. But things do not go as planned when Oogie Boogie, an evil gambling boogey man, plots to play a game with Santa Claus' life and creates a nightmare for all the good little boys and girls everywhere. Although Sally attempts to stop him, Jack embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sled pulled by skeletal reindeer.
Rating: PG
Runtime: 76 mins
Film 2 / 4:00 - 5:30 pm - Blood Quantum (2020)
The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi’gmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are immune to the zombie plague. Traylor, the tribal sheriff, must protect his son’s pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees, and reserve riff raff from the hordes of walking white corpses.
Rating: 18A
Runtime: 98 mins
Film 3 / 6:00 - 8:15 pm - *Get Out (2017)
A young black man meets his white girlfriend's parents at their estate, only to find out that the situation is much more sinister than it appears.
Rating: 14A
Runtime: 104 mins
*Featuring a special introduction and discussion of the film by Doaa Magdy of the Horror in Seconds Film Festival. Doaa will take a critical look at Jordan Peele’s movie Get Out and the commodification of Black bodies. Doaa will also screen a few shorts from the Horror in Seconds Film Festival.
---
Doaa Magdy is a polyglot, award-winning visionary, multidisciplinary artist, event producer, podcast host, and somatic yoga teacher. She is the founder of Horror in Seconds, Canada’s first BIPOC horror festival, which she transformed into a revolutionary artistic movement spanning films, performances, and a horror podcast, all dedicated to giving racialized artists a space to unleash their creativity. Thanks to the festival’s growth in the past few years, Horror in Seconds is hosting its first international pop-up in NYC in November 2026.
---
Please register. Registration is required to attend as seating is limited, and it helps us anticipate attendance and send a reminder the day before the event, or any updates about this program.
---
VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at [email protected].
*Elevator access to the Montalbano Family Theatre on level 8 is available with the main elevators on level 2.
*The theatre has three wheelchair accessible spaces in the front row on the right hand side.
Where is it happening?
Vancouver Public Library, 350 West Georgia Street,Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherVancouver Public Library
