Free International Horror Double Feature in Westwood on Halloween

The Archive's series The Trouble With Ghosts asks what a ghost becomes once a medium carries it, testing the line between the human and the machine. Bustamante's La Llorona (2019) sets the weeping woman's cries beside calls for social justice and solidarity in Indigenous communities. Kurosawa's Pulse (2001) traces the collapse of human contact and shared history as daily life moves onto screens. One haunting rises from buried history, the other from digital-age isolation. Both screen as DCPs, 97 and 119 minutes, in Spanish and Japanese with English subtitles, and professors Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli and Martine Beugnet introduce the program, with ten minutes between the films.

Admission is free and the Archive takes no reservations. Your seat is assigned when you pick up a ticket at the box office, one ticket per visitor, first come first served. The box office opens at 6:30 PM, an hour before the 7:30 PM start, and the theater doors open around 7:00 PM. Hammer members may choose their preferred seats and collect a ticket for one guest, subject to availability, and their priority runs until 15 minutes before showtime. The room seats 295, so the line forms well before 6:30 PM.

Come early: the Hammer's galleries are free and open 11 AM to 6 PM Tuesday through Sunday, an easy afternoon before the screening. LULU in the courtyard serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday until 8:30 PM. Both Pico picks need a car: Sei Pizza Bar is a 15 to 20 minute drive and closes at 10 PM, so it fits only before the show, while Dusty Vinyl, a bar with pool tables and live music, is about ten minutes away. Weekend parking under the museum is nine dollars, and Metro 20 and 720 run past midnight from Wilshire and Westwood. Food and drink are not allowed inside the theater, though the courtyard is fine. Expect to clear out around 11:15 to 11:30 PM, a time the Archive does not publish.