Catch a ‘nightmare’ double feature in Colville this weekend

(Photo: Walt Disney Pictures)

If you're tired of watching movies on your television, and you still don't feel it's safe enough to drive over to see something at the Hayden Cinema 6, you can still enjoy a big-screen adventure.

All you have to do is drive to Colville.

Colville's Auto-Vue Drive-In will be screening a "nightmare" double feature tonight and through the weekend, with the gates opening at 6 p.m. (screening to begin at dusk). First up is the Tim Burton-written (and produced) "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which was directed by Henry Selick and features the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sardndon, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Reubens.

John Hartl, then writing for The Seattle Times, had this to say about Selick's feature: "Visually a macabre knockout, this 75-minute fantasy boasts some of the wittiest, most vigorous stop-motion animation effects in the history of the process."

The second feature: Wes Craven's original "A Nightmare on Elm Street," written and directed by Craven and starring Robert England, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley and a young Johnny Depp.

As critic James Berardinelli wrote, the film "Still stands on its own as an intriguing and chilling example of how horror works best when the characters and the audience don't have to be lobotomized."

You'll find the Auto-Vue four miles north of the city, just off Highway 395. Admission is $10 a carload. And one final notice from the owners: The theater offers radio sound, "so please don't forget your radio."

The owners offer no advice whatsoever about how to avoid post-screening nightmares.