Scary monsters by MATTHEW HAYS Halloween movies will again unreel this year as part of the Macabre Film Fest. For 2001, all screenings will take place at the Cinéma du Parc, and there are some old cult classics that beg to be seen once more on the big screen. Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist and James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein will both play, as well as Jeepers Creepers (a film that Clive Barker liked but I thought kinda sucked) and Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead. But the entry I'm really looking forward to is Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, the '74 Hammer entry that put a fantastic new spin on globetrotting bloodsuckers. As well as cool movies, Macabre ringmaster Craig Francis has unleashed a new Web site, HorrorTheory.com, where academics can let loose their meditations on the genre and its offspring. Francis reports that the site is already proving a popular spot for academics from around the world to exchange ideas on this often-overlooked group of films. That old trannie Halloween standby, The Rocky Horror Picture Show also screens this weekend, Friday and Saturday (Oct. 26-27) and on Halloween itself, at the Imperial. Again, this year's sweet, seductive song and dance will be presented by the irrepressible Plastik Patrik. The 30th annual Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media wrapped on Sunday, and this year's event can only be described as a major success. The line-up of films was extremely gratifying, from David Lynch's surreal epic Mulholland Drive (which opens this week at the Parc) to the home grown goodness of Daniel Cross's S.P.I.T. and André Turpin's Un Crabe dans la tête. Congratulations go out to the filmmaking team behind Atanarjuat, the first Inuit-directed and -written film, an NFB coproduction, which won both the Special Jury Prize and the Audience Choice Award. Part of the New Fest's birthday celebration came in book form, Les Nouveaux Cinémas, a collection of the work of photographer Jacques Dufresne, who has shot many of the filmmakers who've shown their shorts and features at the fest. Prefaced by none other than Wim Wenders, the book includes portraits of Gregg Araki, Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Moore, John Greyson, Guy Maddin and Spike Lee. Recently, I received a nasty letter from a disgruntled reader who said that I was superficial, stupid, ill-informed and couldn't write my way out of a wet paper bag. Well, I'll have this "letter writer" know that I'm actually quite bright. In fact, someone once even referred to me as "intellectual." By the way, did anyone catch that Gilligan's Island reunion special a couple of weeks back? I can't say when I've enjoyed watching something quite that much. All those scintillating behind-the-scenes stories, the home movies, the reminiscences. The only downer was the absence of Tina Louise, who continues to refuse to have anything to do with any of the reunions. That makes me sad. Man, she used to rock my world. What a role model! COMMENTS: mhays@mtl-mirror.com