COVER!

It's our Halloween issue! Pat Rapa talks with professional actors about the roles they've played in haunted houses in less-flush eras of their careers: "I wandered around, mean as fuck, glaring at people and barking at them in a voice like Jack Nicholson chewing on speed and broken glass."

Theresa Everline hangs out with mummies at the Penn Museum: "There are numerous human heads with (ew!) preserved hair. There’s a falcon, an ibis, a herd of cats, a crocodile and two young children — all mummified."

Mark Cofta goes to the Adrienne for Luna Theater Company's 70 Scenes of Halloween, in which a resentful suburban married couple are stalked by two scary monsters: "Beast and Witch are simultaneously neighborhood children, Jeff and Joan’s friends and the couple’s barely controlled ids.

And a roundup of Halloween events, from Dracula ballet to a Rocky Horror Puppet Show to zombie-pop.

ARTS!

Deni Kasrel on human-robot choreography in Science per Forms from Carbon Dance Theatre: "Homer must be reprogrammed, not merely asked to avoid beaning the other dancer."

MUSIC!

Patrick Rapa talks to Kate Ferencz about her band Evil Sword and their love of costumes and weirdness. " Regardless of what time of year it is, if you come to an Evil Sword show you are expected to wear a costume."

Michael Pelusi has a few things to say about the Aimee Mann/Ted Leo show at Union Transfer on Friday: "Thirteen years after Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, Aimee Mann has found another simpatico filmmaker: Tom Scharpling, host of The Best Show on WFMU. Scharpling’s videos for songs from Mann’s latest album, Charmer (SuperEgo), delight in testing the resolve of her deadpan. ..."

Peter Burwasser is intrigued by the gigantic Cage: Move From Zero series starting up on Friday: "Was John Cage a creative genius or a clever charlatan?"

MOVIES!

Sam Adams calls the highly ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell’s sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas "a movie of big ideas — and only some of them are terrible." Directors: Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer Stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant Grade: B+ Theaters: Franklin Mills, UA Grant, UA Riverview.

Christian Graham reviews The Other Son, "a West Bank story of mistaken identity and clashing cultures that, unfortunately, fails to hit as hard as it could." Director: Lorraine Levy Stars: Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé and Jules Sitruk Grade: B- Theater: Ritz Five.

Drew Lazor calls indie drama Smashed "a forthright exploration of alcoholism clipped by its own rhetoric." Director: James Ponsoldt Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul and Octavia Spencer Grade: B- Theaters: Ritz at the Bourse.

Plus, a roundup of rep films by Christian Graham that includes all kinds of old-school Halloween flicks, like The Monster Squad at The Balcony, The Exorcist at County Theater and Halloween at Rave.

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