Scarecrowber: vintage horror at SIFF Film Center

If you are still looking for a way to lean into the season, the SIFF Film Center has a month-long horror series going right now. Scarecrowber 2026 runs from Wednesday, October 14 to Wednesday, October 28, and it is a collaboration between SIFF and Scarecrow Video, with half of the ticket proceeds going to support the video store. The series is built around three vintage horror classics, each screening on a Wednesday at 7 pm.

The first one has already come and gone: Dario Argento's 1975 Italian giallo Deep Red played on October 14. It runs 127 minutes and follows a jazz musician and a plucky reporter as they uncover a legacy of dementia and murder, with a score by the band Goblin. If you missed it, you are out of luck on that one, but the next two are still on the table.

Tonight, Wednesday, October 21, the series turns to Japan with Ringu, the 1998 film directed by Hideo Nakata. At 96 minutes, it is the shortest of the three and follows a reporter investigating the mysterious deaths of her niece and friends after viewing a cursed videotape. Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Rie Inō star in it. It is the middle chapter of the series, so it is the one to catch if you want to be in the thick of it.

The finale arrives on Wednesday, October 28, with Philip Kaufman's 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. At 115 minutes, it is the American entry in the group, starring Donald Sutherland as San Francisco Health Inspector Matthew Bennell, who begins to notice unsettling changes in the people around him. Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum are all in the cast. That wraps the series, so it is the last chance to catch a Scarecrowber screening before the month is over.

It is worth knowing who the other half of this partnership is, because Scarecrow Video is a Seattle institution. It is an independently owned, non-profit 501(c)3 video sales and rental store over on Roosevelt Way NE, and it bills itself as the last remaining video store in the city. It has been running since 1988 and carries a massive collection that runs well over 150,000 titles across 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, Laserdisc, and VHS. In January, the SV Archive announced it had purchased the property for $5.5 million, which is not small change for a non-profit video store. If you end up at one of these screenings, a little of your ticket money goes toward keeping that archive going.

All three films screen at the SIFF Film Center at 167 Republican St., and each one starts at 7 pm. With Ringu tonight and Invasion of the Body Snatchers next week, there are two chances left to catch a vintage horror classic on the big screen before the series closes out.