11

FRIDAY

Call me overly sympathetic, but every time I see a decapitated corpse stumbling down a hallway carrying its severed head in a lab dish, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for it. Take poor professor Carl Hill, the misunderstood antagonist of Stuart Gordon’s campy gorefest Re-Animator: Sure, the corrupt doctor underhandedly pilfered his student’s formula for the fluorescent green serum that transforms the dead into violent, bloodthirsty zombies. And yes, he keeps a creepy file on the dean’s daughter—which includes locks of her hair—in his office. And, whoops, he lobotomized her meddling old man. But who’s to say that such actions are deserving of a rusty shovel to the neck? After all, what decrepit codger in his twilight years doesn’t want a little fame, fortune, and—most important—sweet love from a busty college coed? Don’t scream, baby: Dr. Hill may be hard on the eyes, but no one gives head quite like the decapitated undead. Bring a barf bag at 7 p.m. at the Library of Congress’ Pickford Theater, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free. (202) 707-5677. (Matthew Borlik)