Best of the Day: H.P. Lovecraft’s 125 Birthday – August 20, 2015

Welcome to Best of the Day, our daily recommendation for what to check out around town. If you do one thing in Boston today, consider this.

Scene from Curse of the Crimson Altar

Today marks H.P. Lovecraft’s 125 birthday. To commemorate this eldritch occasion, the Brattle Theatre is celebrating the horror author’s quasquicentennial with five nights of Lovecraft-inspired films, from Hammer horror like the Curse of the Crimson Altar (which the Brattle screens Sunday) to Hellboy (screening Sunday). Lovecraft, who was born in Providence and spent most of his life there, wrote dozens of stories that feature New England towns plagued by monsters, many of which made the leap to celluloid—as in the case of 1994’s John Carpenter-directed In the Mouth of Madness (Friday), set in New Hampshire.

Reserve your double feature tickets, grab a can of event sponsor Narragansett’s Innsmouth Olde Ale (the second ‘chapter’ of their Lovecraft Series), and settle in for a few bone-chilling hours of adaptations and inspirations of Lovecraft’s famous stories on the silver screen.

And if the Brattle’s films aren’t enough to satisfy your nightmarish cravings, the second biennial NecronomiCon will take place in Providence through Sunday. NecronomiCon is a Lovecraft-dedicated convention filled with scholarly talks, panels, gaming, weird fiction readings, and walking tours.

Coincidentally, Narragansett Beer also turns 125 this year, so they’re getting in on the festivities by kicking off Lovecraft’s birthday and NecronomiCon with an outdoor concert and beer garden in downtown Providence at 7 p.m.

Here’s the full list of screenings at the Brattle:

Thursday, August 20

The Call of Cthulhu: 7 p.m.
The Whisperer in Darkness: 5 p.m., 8:45 p.m.

Friday, August 21

In the Mouth of Madness: 5 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m.
From Beyond: 11 p.m.

Saturday, August 22

Hellboy: 12:45 p.m., 6 p.m.
The Thing: 3:45 p.m., 9 p.m.

Sunday, August 23

Curse of the Crimson Altar (a/k/a The Crimson Cult): 3 p.m., 7 p.m.
The Dunwich Horror: 5 p.m., 9 p.m.

Monday, August 24

X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes: 7 p.m.
Marebito: 8:45 p.m.

$9 matinee, $11 general admission, $13 for double features, August 20-24, Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-876-6837, brattlefilm.org.