Movies Under the Stars

The 7 best outdoor movies around Dallas-Fort Worth in summer 2018

No matter your age, there's something fun about watching a movie on a big screen, outdoors, on a lazy summer night. Families have multiple opportunities to do just that around Dallas-Fort Worth this summer, from rooftop venues to parks, plazas, and even water parks. Bonus that many are free.

Here are seven of the best places to watch a favorite movie under the stars in DFW in coming months.

Sundown at Granada presents Rooftop Movie Nights
Sundown at Granada presents free Rooftop Movie Nights on Wednesday nights through June 20. Guests can enjoy a movie while sipping on some tasty treats from the rooftop bar and enjoying food off of the bar bites menu. Films coming up include Clueless (May 30), The Big Lebowski (June 6), Labyrinth (June 13), and Empire Records (June 20).

Downtown Dallas Movie Series
After presenting a series of kids movies in May, Downtown Dallas, Inc. will age up a little with their free outdoor movies in June. Taking place at various locations in the Dallas Arts District, the films will be shown on a giant inflatable screen. Guests can bring a blanket and chair, grab some food from one of the nearby restaurants, and enjoy the movies. Screenings include Chicago (June 11 on the lawn at Moody Performance Hall), Sister Act (June 18 next to Meyerson Symphony Center), and Hairspray (June 25 at Sammons Park).

Sundance Square presents Movie Nights
Sundance Square Movie Nights in Fort Worth will feature five movies that are celebrating special anniversaries, as well as a current release. Sundance Square’s new digital screen should make for an enhanced outside movie experience. Featured free movies include The Great Escape (June 7), American Graffiti (June 14), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (June 21), You've Got Mail (June 28), Bottle Shock (July 5), and Peter Rabbit (July 12).

Levitt Pavilion presents Movies Under the Stars
Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts in Arlington mainly hosts weekend concerts during the summer, but they'll also host a variety of free movies every Thursday night through July 5. While they'll host regular screenings of recent movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (June 14), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (June 21), and Early Man (June 28), they'll also put on sing-a-long versions of Frozen (June 7) and Mamma Mia (July 5).

Hawaiian Falls presents Dive-In Movies
Hawaiian Falls, which has four locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is now open for the summer. In addition to the fun you can have swimming in the wave pool, lounging in the lazy river, or riding the water slides, the area parks will take turns hosting a Dive-In Movie night. Garland will show Moana on June 15, Mansfield will show The Lego Ninjago Movie on June 21, Roanoke will show Wonder on June 22, and The Colony will show Sherlock Gnomes on June 26. All are free with park admission.

NRH2O presents Dive-In Movie Series
There's only one location of NRH2O in, wouldn't you know it — North Richland Hills — so you won't have to hop around to catch its Dive-In Movie Series. Taking place almost every Friday night starting on June 22, it will feature screenings free with park admission: The Wizard of Oz (June 22), Despicable Me 3 (July 6), Jaws (July 13), Coco (July 20), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (July 27), and Black Panther (August 3).

Coyote Drive-In
Okay, so technically Coyote Drive-In, which has locations in Fort Worth and Lewisville, has a never-ending movie series since it's an actual movie theater. However, going to the drive-in is a time-honored summer tradition, so you can't leave it off the list. Plus, it has the biggest screens, the ability to watch in the comfort of your car, and double features showing all the big summer movies. What more could you want?

Hawaiian Falls will host Dive-In Movies at each of its four area locations on various dates in June.

Photo courtesy of Hawaiian Falls

Hawaiian Falls will host Dive-In Movies at each of its four area locations on various dates in June.

families movies

Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

movies film

Movies Under the Stars

The 7 best outdoor movies around Dallas-Fort Worth in summer 2018

Hawaiian Falls will host Dive-In Movies at each of its four area locations on various dates in June.

Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

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