Celebrate Halloween at the Westdale Theatre

The Westdale Theatre will showcase various Halloween classics so you can get your dose of the spookies just down the street from campus

The Westdale Theatre screens independent films and provides a space for public performances and exhibitions. They aim to showcase diverse Canadian content as well as classic throwbacks. They also host live cultural events throughout the year. 

The theatre is managed by the Westdale Cinema group, a charitable organization that hopes to provide a space for the community to gather to enjoy cinema and culture. 

For Halloween this year, the Westdale plans to once again screen various Halloween classics, as they have been doing since they opened. However, this year, they will also be hosting a drag and movie mixer entitled REEL QUEENS on Oct. 31 at 7 p.m., where they will be screening The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  

This event will be sponsored by the House of Adam and Steve and will feature drag queen Jessie James. 

There will also be a sensory-friendly screening of The Addams Family geared towards family and kids on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. The sensory-friendly screening allows those with heightened sensitivity to light and sound to come to the theater and enjoy the show. The lights will be turned on and the audience can roam around and make noise. 

Neal Miller, the Executive Director at the Westdale Theatre, hopes that everyone who comes out to the Halloween showings will have a great time.  

“[I hope they] just come and have fun in the theatre. I think the great thing for Mac students to know is that not all universities in our country have access to such a cool place that’s within walking distance of their campus,” said Miller. 

With the growing norm of just watching movies alone in your home, Miller hopes this event will bring the community together, as watching a movie with group of people is a completely different experience from watching one alone. It is important for students to collectively experience things with the rest of the community. 

“Watching Rocky Horror Picture Show at home on your TV is not nearly as fun as watching it with 300 other people screaming and calling back to the screen and bringing props and having fun, not to mention all of the cultural value and that the health values of having culture,” explained Miller. 

For The Rocky Horror Picture Show, they encourage viewers to dress up and to bring props. Miller hopes that this will provide students and adults a time to have fun and relax by dressing up. 

“Dressing up, [for] adults, allows [them] to be kids, not taking life too seriously. Life [can be] pretty serious and difficult,” said Miller.  

Over the next few weeks, they will be other Halloween-themed films as well, including The Nightmare before Christmas. 

In the future, the Westdale Theatre hopes to continue educating the community through the arts and provide opportunities for the community to come together by showcasing local art and film. The Westdale Theatre also hopes to bring more of the city’s cultural works to the big screen, so more people can enjoy them.