Critic’s pick
The short and long of indigenous film
Through Sunday. At a time when resource anxiety is beginning to infuse all manner of movies — from eco-documentaries to horror flicks — the eighth Indigenous Film & Arts Festival offers visions of cultural awareness and sustainablity. And it does it for free. The festival’s goings-on, which began Wednesday, continue through the weekend. Catch “Little Thunder,” a beguiling animated short of the Mi’kmaq Stone Canoe legend (7 p.m. Saturday). Sunday, the festival ends at the Museum of Nature & Science with “Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change” (at right) at 6 p.m. After the screening, co-directors Ian Mauro and Zacharias Kunuk (“The Fast Runner”) will participate in a discussion on the cultural impact of climate change. Complete schedule: or 303-744-9686. Lisa Kennedy
Family fun
Get a glimpse of that rascally “Were-Rabbit”
Tonight. Bundle up the gang and head out for a silly-scary (mostly silly) night under the stars at Aurora’s “Flicks on the ‘Fax,” featuring “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” The 2005 Wallace and Gromit Claymation film follows the man-and-dog team as they try to figure out who’s been ravaging their town’s vegetable gardens. Sunset tonight. Fletcher Plaza, 9898 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora. Admission is free.
Settle on a tell-tale or two with Allan Poe
Through Nov. 5. Spend an autumn night with one of the American masters of horror in “An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe” at the Byers-Evans House Museum. Set in the historic home of two of Denver’s most prominent families, the reader’s-theater performance brings to life some of Poe’s freakiest tales: “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Raven” and more. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Byers-Evans House Museum, 1310 Bannock St.; 303-620-4933. Tickets are $16 general admission, $14 for students, seniors and military. Tickets must be reserved in advance; call to save seats or visit .
“Victorian Horrors” of it all at Molly Brown house
Through Oct. 22. The Molly Brown House Museum really turns into a historic haunt during the “Victorian Horrors.” Guests creep into the darkened museum, lit by candles, and encounter the “spirits” of famous authors. Such writers as Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe and H.G. Wells will tell their spooky tales to the small groups of adventurers. Can’t make it this weekend? “Victorian Horrors” runs again Oct. 21-22. Performances run every 15 minutes from 6-9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Molly Brown House Museum, 1340 Pennsylvania St.; 303-832-4092. Tickets are $15 for museum members, seniors and children; $18 for nonmembers.
Get the Dickens scared into you at Arvada show
Through Oct. 30. Experience the eerie side of Charles Dickens in Arvada at the Festival Playhouse’s “Charles Dickens’ Ghost Stories.” It explores Dickens’ fascination with the weirder things in life — and death — in stories like “The Signalman,” “The Bagman’s Uncle” and “The Queer Chair.” The show focuses on the supernatural and strange, not the gross-out, so it’s appropriate for families. On Saturday, the Festival of Scarecrows makes its second attempt after last week’s weather postponement. The festival fills Olde Town Arvada with Halloween happenings, from a kids’ costume parade and scarecrow contest to vendor booths and a pumpkin patch. Dickens: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, The Festival Playhouse, 5665 Old Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada; 303-422-4090. Tickets are $16 on Fridays and Saturdays, $14 on Sundays. . Festival of Scarecrows: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. West 57th Avenue and Olde Wadsworth Boulevard, Arvada. Free.
Scary movie
Catch “The Thing” in all its 1982 glory
Friday. It’s the best kind of homework, ye students of horror. The assignment: Go see “The Thing” — John Carpenter’s “things that go bump in the ice” classic from 1982 (itself a remake of a classic 1951 film) — playing tonight at 10 as part of the Denver Film Society’s monthly genre series The Watching Hour. Then go (or perhaps don’t go) to the studio reboot, unleashed in multiplexes today. Lisa Kennedy
Pop music
Waste away with Buffett and fans in Pepsi Center
Tuesday. Many a Parrothead has already requested the day off on Wednesday — because on Tuesday night they will be wastin’ away again in Margaritaville with their hapless hero, Jimmy Buffett. In this case, Margaritaville is actually the Pepsi Center, but Buffett fans will surely bring enough of a vibe with them — think Hawaiian shirts and high-tipped ballcaps — that the Can will feel like . . . a basketball arena in the tropics? The singer-songwriter-merchandiser is still touring in support of his latest effort, the double-disc “Encores,” but the release on everybody’s mind will be the monolithic 1985 CD “Songs You Know by Heart,” the most aptly named greatest-hits collection ever released. Tickets, $39-$139, are still available via . Ricardo Baca
Theater
Zombies return to get their burlesque on
Wednesdays. Popular burlesque diva Cora Vette and her BurlyCuties are moving into swank new digs at Bar Standard for a new weekly Wednesday night party. The next two 8:30 p.m. shows will feature “The Return of Zombielesque,” a Halloween-themed soiree complete with stripping zombies, witches and everything in-between. There is also a separate, 11 p.m. cabaret every Wednesday called called “Cora Vette’s Naughty Bits,” featuring vintage dirty ditties from the 1900s through 1950s about sex, drugs and drinking. That’s followed by DJ Chris Fish spinning dance music until closing time. $10. 1037 Broadway, 303-295-1883 or . John Moore
“Enrique’s Journey” to open Su Teatro season
Denver’s Chicano theater company, Su Teatro, opens its 40th season with artistic director Tony Garcia’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Enrique’s Journey,” which recounts the harrowing odyssey of a Honduran boy trying to reunite with his mother in the United States.
The book’s celebrated author, Sonia Nazario, will also be on the Auraria campus next week as Metro State’s 2011 Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professor.
She’ll deliver the keynote address at an 11 a.m. Wednesday luncheon at St. Cajetan’s Center; and lead a 2 p.m. Thursday panel discussion with area journalists at the Tattered Cover LoDo, 1628 16th St. Info: 303-556-3124.
The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays (plus 3 p.m. Oct. 30) at the former Denver Civic Theatre, 721 Santa Fe Drive (303-296-0219 or ). John Moore
