Doing ‘Time Warp’ again

Classic and cult movies are returning to Memphis drive-in screens.

After seven months of coronaviral time off, the “Time Warp Drive-in” cult-movie series returns Saturday to the Summer Drive-in with a timely terror trilogy devoted to body trauma and media mind control.

Titled “Long Live the New Flesh: The Body Horror Films of David Cronenberg,” the lineup includes three masterworks of suppurating skin, exploding heads and psychic peril: “Videodrome” (1983), with James Woods and Blondie vocalist Deborah Harry; “Scanners” (1981), which imagines an underground conspiracy of psychic powermongers; and “The Dead Zone” (1983), a Stephen King adaptation that stars Christopher Walken as a man who turns would-be assassin to prevent the ascension of a crazy demagogue to the U.S. presidency.

Organized by Matt Martin, owner of Black Lodge, the Crosstown-area movie rental business, and filmmaker Mike Mccarthy, the popular monthly “Time Warp” series has been on hiatus since February. The interruption was caused by the March shutdowns of theaters and other businesses, mandated by local government in an attempt to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

The Summer Quartet Drive-in reopened for business in May, but executives with Malco, the cinema chain that owns the drive-in, decided to keep “Time Warp” in time out for the time being, until operations at the outdoor theater had returned to so-called normal. (Because of the lack of new theatrical films, some of the movies on the reopened drive-in screen were reissues that had played during previous “Time Warp” seasons, including “Jaws” and “Back to the Future.”)

Now in its seventh season, the “Time Warp Drive-in” series is devoted to cult and classic cinema. Its once-a-month themed programs sometimes present as many as three or four movies, as compared with the double features on the other drive-in screens.

Here’s the “Time Warp” lineup for the rest of 2020 (barring shutdowns, fingers crossed). Shows start at dusk. Admission is $10.

h 7:15 p.m. Saturday: Long Live the New Flesh: The Body Horror Films of David Cronenberg. “Videodrome” (1983), “Scanners” (1981), “The Dead Zone” (1983).

h Oct. 17: Night of the Living Time Warp: Zombies Take the Drive-in! “Zombieland” (2009), “Re-animator” (1985), “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985).

h Nov. 21: Gods & Mortals & Monsters 2: The Cinematic Magic of FX Artist Ray Harryhausen. “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), “20 Million Miles to Earth” (1957).

h Dec. 12: Strange Christmas 7. “Black Christmas” (1974), “Silent Night Deadly Night” (1984).

PARAMOUNT Christopher Walken does not want a demagogic nutcase to become president in the 1983 Stephen King adaptation “The Dead Zone.”