Ty's weekend movie picks for Friday, October 31

(still from "Fear(s) of the Dark," opening at the Kendall)

What's the scariest thing to be found out there this Hallowe'en eve? It may be the neighbor's 8-year-old appearing on your doorstep dressed as Sarah Palin (although if he or she is dressed as Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin, award extra candy points for irony). It's probably not "The Haunting of Molly Hartley," a horror film which didn't screen for reviewers and is doubtless there as a de facto date destination for those who have no Halloween parties to go to. (We'll have a review in tomorrow's paper and up on the site.)

The scariest thing, probably, is that the two best films playing in the Boston area over the weekend will likely have the two smallest audiences. "Ballast," at the Kendall, is a true American independent original, a story of three shattered lives healing in the deep South that plays out to the rhythms of real life. Director Lance Hammer pulls off something unusual here: He makes himself invisible, allowing the story and the actors (Jim Myron Ross, Micheal J. Smith Sr., Tarra Riggs) to breathe without the sense of directorial manipulation that almost always spoils indie-realist films. The movie's slow, and it takes a while to gather, but by the end it moves with implacable, heartbreaking force. A good one to see, maybe, before you cast your vote next Tuesday.

"Lola Montes," at the Coolidge, is only one of the greatest movies ever, arriving in a restored Technicolor widescreen print that makes clearer than ever that Max Ophuls' 1955 ironic/romantic carousel is a deep influence on "Moulin Rouge! " and other feats of cinematic excess. Don't know how long it'll be around, but you need to see this puppy on a big screen.

Speaking of the Coolidge, the annual Halloween Midnight Movie Marathon kicks in at 12 tonight and goes through noon Saturday. Your duty is to make it all the way through to "From Beyond," the completely insane 1986 H.P. Lovecraft adaptation from Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator"). I took a date to see this back in the 80s and she spent most of the movie hiding in the lobby; why she ended up marrying me, I have no idea.

If you do want something creepy that doesn't require multiple cans of Red Bull, "Fear(s) of the Dark" at the Kendall is a good bet -- an animated omnibus of short tales with art from the likes of Charles Burns, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Richard Maguire (image above). Less gory than "Saw V," but a lot harder to shake, if you ask me.

"Zack and Miri Make a Porno" -- or "Zack and Miri" if you go by the bus ads and TV spots -- is cute as a bug's ear, really. Kevin Smith indulges his raucous side first, then goes for deep romance; one works, the other not so much. It's like John Waters and Frank Capra are wrestling for the director's soul; unlike "Chasing Amy," this one's a draw.

Wesley kinda likes "RocknRolla," the latest from Guy Ritchie, and fans of local filmmaking are hereby pointed to "The Golden Boys," shot and set in Chatham MA and featuring David Carradine, Rip Torn, and Bruce Dern as crotchety Cape Cod fisherman, circa 1905; it's at the West Newton. Fans of good acting should check out Kristin Scott Thomas in the French melodrama "I've Loved You So Long" -- the movie's pretty good, but the star is great.

At the Harvard Film Archive tonight is a fine Vincent Minnelli double bill that includes the original "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (1962) and one of the great unknown movie romances, "The Clock" (1945), featuring an almost unbearably tender Judy Garland and Robert Walker as young lovers in wartime New York.

And if you can make it all the way to Monday without succumbing to candy overload or election jitters, do drive over to Brandeis, where actor Richard Jenkins will screen and discuss his acclaimed movie "The Visitor." He's the hardest-working character actor in the business and it's nice to see him get a rare starring role; better yet to see him in the flesh.