A little crypt-cleaning today, just catching up on some current offerings.

“QUARANTINE”

“Quarantine,” essentially a zombie movie, opens today in theaters, but unfortunately there’s no review — not from lack of trying. Robert Horton, The Herald’s movie reviewer, says the movie studio scheduled a press screening, then canceled it. We horror fans in particular know that bodes poorly.

You’ll find the video of the trailer to the right of this entry.

“Quarantine” is based on the Spanish film “[REC].” And your Scream Queen is in a royal pique that she signed up for an online rental service only because it appeared to offer “[REC],” but it was “availability unknown” when I clicked on it. My local DVD rental store doesn’t have it, either. I hope that changes.

If you see “Quarantine,” post your thoughts on it below.

Other movies scheduled for release this month include “Saw V” on Oct. 24 (oh, lordy, here we go again) and “The Haunting of Milly Hartley” on Halloween. The remake of “Scanners,” originally scheduled for Oct. 17, was pushed back to next year.

STAGE FRIGHT

Not movies, but these plays are local so why not give them a plug. We take our horror where we can find it, yes?

(Other area theaters with Halloweeny offerings are invited to shoot me an e-mail about their presentations, jrmccartney@heraldnet.com, and I’ll drop them into a future blog entry.)

“Pages of Poe” at 8 p.m Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 15 and 16), presented by the Driftwood Players at the Wade James Theatre in Edmonds. The Players’ teen apprentices will perform dramatic readings of works by Edgar Allan Poe. Tickets $5.

Lovely combination here, Lizzie Borden and a sugar rush. The disgruntled daughter is the subject of “A Memory of Lizzie,” a one-act play at 8 p.m. Oct. 24 and 25, and 2 p.m. Oct. 26, at Wade James Theatre in Edmonds. A dessert buffet follows this Driftwood Players production. Tickets $10.

More information is available at the Driftwood Players’ Web site.

DARK NIGHTS AT SIFF

Fly your shriek flag at Dark Nights, the Seattle International Film Festival’s series of classic horror films. Thirteen movies will shown from Oct. 24 to Nov. 6, and some dates are double features.

Movies on the playlist include: “Frankenstein” (1931), “Dracula” (1931), “I Walked with a Zombie” (1943), “Freaks” (1932), and “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968).

Visit SIFF’s Web site for more information.

What the heck, may as well plug myself, too. Don’t forget to list your favorite horror movies under the Oct. 1 topic, “Hey…you wanna see something really scary?” I’m taking the top three movies mentioned and we’ll do a day on each toward the end of the month.

Recent entries here on Scream Queen include Asian horror movies, zombies, vampires, sequels and favorites movies. Threads coming up on the Scream Queen blog include two days of Stephen King, horror comedies, slashers and ghosts. There’s a different topic each day this month. Post on.