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    Summer Movies That Deliver Chills and Skyline Views

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    Outdoor venues in and around the city are reliable resources for scary movies this summer. Here are our picks, for the squeamish and slasher-lover alike.The outdoors is a terrible place to be if you’re in a horror movie being pursued by a knife-wielding maniac. He’ll always know the woods better than you.But for horror-movie fans, outside has been a refuge this past year. When theaters went dark, old-school drive-ins stayed alive with the help of scary movies, some of which became box-office hits, at least by pandemic standards.This summer, outdoor venues in and around New York continue the promise of spine-tingling nights under the stars. Most of their programming is heavy on blockbusters, classics and children’s films, but a few evenings are devoted to actual screams. From creepy-cuddly animated films for kids to terrifying exploitation shockers, here’s a selection of horror movies (and a sprinkling of sci-fi) to accentuate your summer. Most films begin at dusk, with venues encouraging viewers to arrive an hour before to set up blankets or lawn chairs.Not-So-Scary ScaresMovies Under the StarsVarious locations in New York City; free.Outdoor movie screenings come to green spaces across the five boroughs in this summer-long series presented by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and NYC Parks. Showing on July 22 is the 2016 reboot of “Ghostbusters,” starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, in Highbridge Park in the Bronx. Seating is limited so get there early.Pix on the PlazaManhattan; $30 spending minimum; reservations recommended.The Standard, High Line, a chic Meatpacking District hotel, has turned its open-air terrace into a summer cinema, free popcorn included. A night of nostalgia is in store for Gen Xers on July 26, when the hotel shows “The Goonies” (1985). The antic-adventure movie, starring Corey Feldman and Josh Brolin, isn’t quite in the horror category, but it will definitely keep kids — and parents — on the edge of their seats.Movies With a ViewBrooklyn Heights, Brooklyn; free.“Grit” is the theme for the 21st season of this popular film series from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), a surprisingly tender zombie apocalypse comedy, kicks things off on Aug. 5. The movie will be shown at Harbor View Lawn, located at the highest point in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and that means fantastic views of the Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan. Before the movie starts at sundown, there will be music courtesy of Brooklyn Radio at 6 p.m. and a short film selected by BAMcinématek. There’s also a free bike valet and vendors from Smorgasburg.Queens Botanical GardenFlushing, Queens; $10 for members; $15 for nonmembers.On Aug. 20, the Garden’s movie night series — its first — will feature the animated film “Abominable” (2019), about a cuddly Yeti named Everest. In addition to after-hours access to the Garden, attendees can sample icy treats and make snowpeople-themed crafts out of botanical materials.Greenville Drive-In in upstate New York is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from the city.Beth Schneck Greenville Drive-InGreenville, N.Y.; $8 per ticket.This Catskills drive-in, established in 1959, has become a popular spot for visitors to Greene County, about a two-and-a-half hour drive north of New York City. The summer film schedule includes a two-night stint (July 30-31) of the sci-fi meta-comedy “Galaxy Quest” (1999), starring Tim Allen, about a group of actors from a “Star Trek”-like show who are transported to outer space for an actual mission. Pair the film with concessions that include a rotation of beers from local breweries.Demarest FarmsHillsdale, N.J.; $25 per car.Founded in 1886, this Bergen County farm is known for peach picking, cake doughnuts and an annual Halloween light show. But this summer there are movies on the calendar as the venue brings back its popular drive-in theater space. The very family-friendly film lineup includes the animated comedy “Monsters Inc.” (2001), on July 16; the scarier-than-you-remember creature feature “Gremlins” (1984), on July 24; and the undead-with-a-smile teen comedy “Zombies 2” (2020), on Aug. 14.Movies by MoonlightOyster Bay, Long Island; free.Here’s another chance to see “The Goonies,” this time at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park and Beach on July 28, as part of this summer series of pop-up drive-in movie nights. Vehicles will be admitted to the parking lot on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 7 p.m.Be Very AfraidMost drive-ins like Skyline allow viewers to watch from their cars or set up lawn chairs.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesSkyline Drive-InGreenpoint, Brooklyn; $55 per car; $22 per outdoor seat.Located on the East River with killer views of Manhattan, this popular outdoor cinema offers a dark slate of very scary horror movies at midnight all summer long. High points include “The Nun” (2018), on July 16; “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” (1986), on July 17; “Grindhouse: Death Proof” (2007), on July 24; “Army of Darkness” (1993), on July 30; and “The Cabin in the Woods” (2012), on July 31. Watch from your car, or get there by bike or by foot and use a chair provided by the venue. Movies are shown rain or shine, and pets are welcome.Rooftop FilmsVarious locations in New York City; $16 per ticket.Adventurous programming is on the calendar for this outdoor cinema organization celebrating its 25th anniversary. On July 19, Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn will show “October Country” (2010) with a live score by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher, a member of the troubled family featured in the 2009 documentary. On July 24, the cemetery will also present a program of eerie short films about “the living, the dead and those caught in between the two,” as the listing puts it. On July 28, the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus, Brooklyn, will play host to a free screening of the playfully dark German psychological thriller “Sleep” (2020).Movie Lot Drive-InBayshore, N.Y.; $40 per car.This Suffolk County pop-up venue, located in a parking lot at the Westfield South Shore Mall, is heavy on horror all summer. Late-night screenings include “Us” (2019), on July 16, and “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), on July 17. There’s also a Christmas in July lineup that includes some playfully dark ones: “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” (2010), on July 30, about a monstrous Santa Claus; and “Krampus” (2015), on July 31, about a demonic creature who terrorizes children on Christmas. Even better: They’re shown on a 52-foot screen, the largest on Long Island.The Mahoning Drive-InLehighton, Pa.; $10 per ticket.About a 90-minute drive from New York City, this is a go-to destination for die-hard horror fans. Highlights include a deadly Christmas double feature (July 23-24) that includes the ’80s slasher films “Silent Night, Deadly Night” and “Christmas Evil,”; a 10-film, 35-mm “Schlock-o-Rama” series (July 30-Aug. 1) that includes “The Tingler” (1959) and other movies by the schlockmeister director William Castle; and Herschell Gordon Lewis’s exploitation jolter “The Wizard of Gore” (1970), on Aug. 3. Parts of the grounds are available for folks who want to set up a tent and camp overnight. In the dark. In the woods. (You’ve been warned.) More

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      The Schlock-Horror Drive-In That Rose From the Grave

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      Many drive-in theaters got a boost during the pandemic. But the scene at the Mahoning Drive-In in rural Pennsylvania is something else entirely.It was about 2 a.m. on a Sunday when the gross-out horror-comedy “Class of Nuke ’Em High” started playing at the Mahoning Drive-In. This was the last screening at TromaDance, an annual showcase of low-budget horror and sex comedies produced by the Queens-based Troma movie studio. Earlier that evening, about 600 cars had piled into the drive-in in Lehighton, Pa., but by 2 a.m., only the die-hards remained. Kevin Schmidt, an extra in the film, was among them.He had driven to the Mahoning from Summit, N.J., and hadn’t seen the movie projected on screen since it was first shown in Jersey City in December 1986. “This is the only time I can justify driving 100 miles to see a movie,” Mr. Schmidt said much earlier in the evening.By the time the evening was over, it had been another success for the Mahoning, a 72-year-old drive-in theater that was left for dead just seven years ago. And while the pandemic has helped spur a small-scale revival of the drive-in, it doesn’t quite explain what’s going on at this theater in rural Pennsylvania an hour south of Scranton.“There’s a feeling of excitement that I get every time I drive past the Mahoning’s sign and see the huge screen get closer and closer,” said Andrew Ramallo, who drove from his home in Rego Park, Queens. His car was one of dozens with out-of-state plates. In fact, he has made the 100-plus-mile drive from New York to Lehighton a half-dozen times since 2019. “Like visiting an old friend,” he said, “there’s an overwhelming sense of familiarity.”Robert Humanick, an assistant projectionist, loading a film into one of the theater’s original projectors.Amanda Mustard for The New York TimesThe Mahoning is not the only successful drive-in theater in the area. There’s the Delsea in Vineland, in southern New Jersey, and the Hi-Way in Coxsackie, in upstate New York, but they mostly screen new movies that are also showing at indoor theaters. A few New York City drive-ins screen older movies, including the Skyline in Greenpoint and the Bel Aire Diner in Astoria. But the movies they show can probably be streamed at home. And they don’t have a devoted audience willing to travel hundreds of miles to see them.Movie screenings at the Mahoning Drive-In often feel like events. Films are shown in double and triple features, sandwiched between older (and often bizarre) movie trailers. You might take in “Escape From New York” and “Invasion U.S.A.,” which play after vintage church advertisements (“Worship at the church of your choice”) or an anti-cable-TV screed (“Don’t let pay TV be the monster in your living room”). It is, in the words of Mr. Schmidt, “a special place.”Fans lining up last month to meet Mr. Kaufman at TromaDance, a festival featuring the Troma studio’s  movies, Amanda Mustard for The New York TimesThe Mahoning Drive-In opened in 1949, part of a wave of drive-ins that became popular in America after World War II, first with parents and their young children, and then with teenagers who sought unchaperoned privacy. “Most teenagers didn’t have many places that they could go to be alone,” said John Irving Bloom, a drive-in historian. “The drive-in was one of those places.”Mr. Bloom is the author of 11 books, including “Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History,” but he is better known as the redneck TV character Joe Bob Briggs, host of the popular horror movie showcase program “The Last Drive-In” (on AMC’s Shudder streaming service). Mr. Bloom’s show will shoot a live episode on July 17 at the Mahoning Drive-In. The movies he’ll present, as always, will be a surprise.According to Mr. Bloom, drive-in attendance started to decline when multiplex theaters proliferated across the country. In the 1970s, many drive-ins survived by showing pornography, and by the 1980s, he said, most drive-in theater owners had sold their land to big-box stores like Walmart.The Mahoning never went out of business. But by 2014, attendance was sometimes as low as 10 cars per show. An industrywide shift from film to digital projectors left the drive-in’s owners with a dire choice: either spend $50,000 for a new digital projector, which would allow the theater to show the latest movie studio releases, or stop showing new movies altogether. Many owners would have either begrudgingly put up the money or folded outright — but Jeff Mattox, the drive-in’s longtime projectionist, did something weirder. He bought the place and decided not to change a thing.Mark Nelson, the Mahoning’s general manager: “I wanted to be a part of this wild, wacky thing.”Amanda Mustard for The New York TimesMuch of the open-air theater’s equipment hasn’t changed since he arrived in 2001. Mr. Mattox estimated that he has had to replace only one gear in the theater’s film projectors, which date back to 1949. Replacing those old workhorses with digital projectors would change the Mahoning Drive-In’s fundamental character. “It would have ruined the whole drive-in look,” he said.His conviction was infectious.Two of the drive-in’s enthusiastic volunteer employees, Virgil Cardamone and Matt McClanahan, provided Mr. Mattox with a solution: abandon the new movies and exclusively screen older cult and genre movies, all shown on film prints rather than digital projectors.Mr. Mattox was initially skeptical. Netflix was well on its way to domination, and a number of competitors were also launching apps. Who would come to a drive-in to see a movie they could stream at home? But he put his faith in keeping things retro.It’s not just a drive-in but a social event.Amanda Mustard for The New York TimesThe Mahoning Drive-In’s programming was only fitfully successful throughout its first two seasons, but word soon spread about themed programs like “Bite Night” — a Steven Spielberg double feature of “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park.” After that, the drive-in’s thousand-car lot began to fill up on a regular basis. The nearby Mahoning Inn motel started filling up with movie fans on weekends.Since then, programming has become more eclectic thanks to the suggestions of Harry Guerro, a film collector from New Jersey who has lent the drive-in many features, shorts and trailer reels from his considerable collection.Mr. Guerro, a founding member of the Philadelphia film programmers group Exhumed Films, suggested themed showings, like Zombie Fest and Camp Blood, which have gone on to be the Mahoning Drive-In’s most successful recurring events.Though it’s the party atmosphere that gives the Mahoning its unique character, Mr. Guerro said he felt emboldened by its thriving fan base. He hopes to experiment more soon by showing more than just older horror movies, which he says are unquestionably the Mahoning Drive-In’s biggest draw.Strictly speaking, he isn’t even an employee. But he’s nonetheless invested. “I mostly want to give people the opportunity to experience or re-experience films that I love on the big screen with an audience of like-minded individuals.”The concession stand sells popcorn and vinyl records. The drive-in’s owner has bet on keeping things retro.Amanda Mustard for The New York TimesMr. Guerro is not the only one working with the Mahoning Drive-In who lives out of state. The theater’s manager, Mark Nelson, regularly commutes about two and a half hours from Dobbs Ferry, just north of New York City. He started volunteering at the drive-in 2015 and is now a paid employee. “I wanted to be a part of this wild, wacky thing,” Mr. Nelson said. “The staff were best friends, and the customers were just as crazy for films as the people working there.”John Demmer, a carpenter from Nutley, N.J., works at the Mahoning Drive-In with his wife, Cindy, albeit as unpaid volunteers. The two, who are both 54, have built elaborate costumes, props and sets for customers and celebrity guests to take photos in since last year. They work closely with an amateur set designer named J.T. Mills who has volunteered at the Mahoning since 2018.At this year’s TromaDance, the Demmers sat in lawn chairs next to a newly renovated drive-in speaker that Mr. Demmer found and repaired while antiquing in Detroit. They fondly recalled their first visit to the Mahoning Drive-In last year, when they dressed up as Willy Wonka and Veruca Salt for the annual opening-night double feature, “The Wizard of Oz” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”A moment from the recent Troma take on Shakespeare.Amanda Mustard for The New York TimesTo celebrate their 35th anniversary, the Demmers visited the Mahoning Drive-In to rewatch “The Thing.” It was the first movie they had seen as a couple.“You don’t just sit in a car and watch the movie,” Mr. Demmer said. “You actually become part of the entertainment. You could argue that seeing the movie is secondary to being there with your friends.” Mrs. Demmer agreed and said she was looking forward to the upcoming Joe Bob Briggs screenings — a “major recognition” for the drive-in and its staff.There was such a high demand for “Joe Bob’s Jamboree,” in fact, Mr. Mattox said, that Ticket Leap, the Mahoning Drive-In’s online vendor, crashed soon after tickets for the event were released. Two of the event’s four evenings sold out immediately after the website was restored.When Mr. Bloom shows up as Joe Bob Briggs at the Mahoning Drive-In this month, it will be his first visit, but he already understands the outdoor theater’s appeal. “It’s partly nostalgia, but it’s also partly because people now live on the internet,” he said. “They make friends on the internet, but they never meet these friends. So now people go to the drive-in to meet people that they already know.” More

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      Rossini at the Drive-In, as San Francisco Opera Returns

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      SAN FRANCISCO — It feels almost too good to be true after a pandemic closure of Wagnerian scale: an audience watching a cast of singers enter the War Memorial Opera House here to rehearse and perform Rossini’s classic comedy “The Barber of Seville.”And, indeed, we’re not quite there yet. After 16 months, San Francisco Opera did return last week to live performance with “The Barber of Seville,” but not indoors at the War Memorial, its usual home. Rather, it is presenting the work through May 15 some 20 miles north, in a Marin County park. The cast for this abridged version is pared down to six main characters, who appear as singers coming back to work at the opera house to embody their Rossinian counterparts.Much of the plot has been reconfigured as a day of rehearsals, culminating in a performance of the final scenes “on” the War Memorial stage. By then, contemporary street clothes have been replaced with 18th-century-style costumes — the illusion of art restored, at long last.“We wanted to ignite and celebrate the return of this living, breathing art form with a sense of joy and hope and healing,” Matthew Ozawa, who adapted the opera and directed the production, said in an interview. “Audiences really need laughter and catharsis.”About 400 cars form the capacity crowd for this open-air “Barber” at the Marin Center in San Rafael, Calif. The orchestra’s sound is mixed with that of the singers and transmitted live as an FM signal to each car’s radio. Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesSan Francisco Opera needs it, too. With its centennial season fast approaching, in 2022-23, the company is trying to write the most dramatic crisis-and-comeback chapter of its history at breakneck speed.The damage has been brutal. Arts organizations around the world have been devastated by pandemic shutdowns, but San Francisco has been closed significantly longer than most. Because of the structure of its season, which splits its calendar into fall and spring-summer segments, its last in-person performance was in December 2019.This enforced silence has come at great cost: Eight productions had to be canceled, wiping out some $7.5 million in ticket revenue. The company, which struggled with deficits even before the pandemic, has had to make around $20 million in cuts to its budget of roughly $70 million. In September, its orchestra agreed to a new contract containing what the musicians have called “devastating” reductions in compensation.Top, Catherine Cook, familiar to San Francisco audiences as the housekeeper Berta, warms up before the performance.Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesMatthew Shilvock, the company’s general director, said of the production, “I see this as a signpost to something new in our future.”Kelsey McClellan for The New York Times“We felt that it was so important to get back to live performance when we could,” said Matthew Shilvock, the company’s general director. “There has been such a hunger, a need for that in the community.”Like opera companies in Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, upstate New York and elsewhere, San Francisco’s return has a retro precursor: the drive-in. “The Barber of Seville” is being presented on an open-air stage erected at the Marin Center in San Rafael. Audience members, in their cars, can opt for premium “seats” with a head-on view of the stage, or for a neighboring area where the opera is simulcast on a large movie screen — for a total capacity of about 400 cars.A cellist gets ready in the tent that serves as the production’s orchestra pit.Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesThe drive-in presentation meant jettisoning the company’s house production and conceptualizing and designing a brand-new staging in a just few months.Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesRoderick Cox, in his San Francisco Opera debut, conducts the singers by video feed — while wearing a mask.Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesThe logistics necessary to bring this off have been complex — not only to adapt to an unaccustomed space, but on account of Covid protocols, which in the Bay Area have been among the strictest in the country. The company has adhered to a rigorous regimen of testing and masking; wind players have used specially designed masks, and in rehearsals the singers wore masks developed by Dr. Sanziana Roman, an opera singer turned endocrine surgeon. Even during performances, the cast members must remain at least eight and a half feet away from each other — 15 feet if singing directly at someone else.Shilvock realized in December that it might be possible to bring live opera back around the time of the company’s originally planned April production of “Barber,” but only if he could “remove as many uncertainties as possible.” The idea of a drive-in presentation began to take shape. But that meant jettisoning the company’s house production and conceptualizing and designing a brand-new staging in a just few months.“I’ve had to rethink some of my tempi and how to keep that excitement,” Cox said. “To know when to press on the gas a little bit more.”Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesA village of tents behind the stage houses the infrastructure and staff needed to run the show. One tent acts as an orchestra pit, where the conductor Roderick Cox, making his company debut, leads a reduced ensemble of 18 players. Along with adapting to using video screens to communicate with the singers — while wearing a mask — Cox noted an added layer of challenge in the absence of audible responses from the audience.“I’ve had to rethink some of my tempi and how to keep that excitement,” he said. “To know when to press on the gas a little bit more.”The orchestra’s sound is mixed with that of the singers and transmitted live as an FM signal to each car’s radio. “Rather than sound coming through big speaker clusters, across a massive parking lot,” Shilvock said, “it comes straight from the stage and from the orchestra tent into your vehicle.”Alek Shrader, who sings the opera’s dashing tenor hero, said he felt “a combination of nostalgia and excitement for what’s to come.”Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesDaniela Mack, Shrader’s lover in “Barber” and his wife in real life, spoke of the cathartic effect of finally being able “to perform for actual people.”Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesA sense of drive-in populism — keeping in mind the comfort and attention spans of automobile-bound listeners — resulted in the decision to present a streamlined, intermission-less, English-language “Barber,” about 100 minutes long. All of the recitative is cut, along with the choruses.The familiar War Memorial Opera House is conjured through projections of the theater’s exterior and replicas of its dressing rooms as part of Alexander V. Nichols’s two-level set. Ozawa’s staging takes as a poignant underlying theme the transition back to live performance: The singers, with sometimes witty self-consciousness, must negotiate a labyrinth of distancing precautions, but with a hopeful sense of soon being able to return to much-missed theaters.The mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, who stars as Rosina, spoke in an interview of the cathartic effect of finally being able “to perform for actual people, to have that connection with an audience.” The tenor Alek Shrader, her lover in the opera and her husband in real life, said he felt “a combination of nostalgia and excitement for what’s to come.”For all of the production’s novelty, there was something reassuring about the familial ease with which the cast interacted. Mack and Shrader are reprising roles they have performed previously here in San Francisco opposite Lucas Meachem’s charismatic Figaro. And Catherine Cook’s sympathetic housekeeper Berta has been a fixture of “Barber” at the company since the 1990s. All four, as well as Philip Skinner (Dr. Bartolo) and Kenneth Kellogg (Don Basilio), emerged from San Francisco’s Adler Fellowship young artists program.Much of the plot has been reconfigured as a day of rehearsals, culminating in a performance of the final scenes “on” the War Memorial Opera House stage, conjured through projections.Kelsey McClellan for The New York TimesShilvock said the production costs for “Barber” were comparable to what the company would have spent for the 2021 summer season it had planned prepandemic — but building the temporary venue and Covid restrictions added between $2 and $3 million in extra costs.Still, Shilvock said it has been worth it — and on opening night on April 23, the curtain calls were greeted with an exuberant chorus of honks. Shilvock said that around a third of “Barber” ticket buyers were new to the company.“I’m not seeing this in any way just as a band-aid to get us through to the point where we go back to normal,” he said. “Rather, I see this as a signpost to something new in our future. It’s creating this energy for opera for people who would never have otherwise given us a thought.” More