The Colonial Theatre
The 1903 movie palace where The Blob attacked the audience in 1957, still packing three screens with indie, classic, cult, and horror films plus live shows. Bridge Street's marquee glow, and the whole reason Blobfest exists.
Field notes: Four art house theaters, one weekend, 35mm and a sing-along
Run The Colonial Theatre? This page is yours to claim : fix the hours, swap the photo, and set the record straight.
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Jurassic Park (1993)
The water glass, the kitchen, the T. rex. Spielberg's dinosaurs hold up better than almost anything made since, and this is a three-day run.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Second day of the Jurassic Park run. Saturday is the one that sells, so buy ahead if you want the good seats.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Last day of the Jurassic Park run over Labor Day weekend. Good rainy-Sunday fallback if the holiday plans collapse.
Niagara (1953)
Marilyn Monroe in a noir shot at the falls, opening the Colonial's In Glorious Technicolor series. The colour is the whole point of seeing it projected.
Victoria Aveyard, Author of Tempest: Live in Phoenixville
The Red Queen author brings her adult fantasy debut to the Colonial, run with Reads & Company. Ticket includes a signed deluxe edition, and she will personalise one copy.
Laurie Gilmore, Author of Big Bad Wolf: Live in Phoenixville
The Pumpkin Spice Cafe author launches a new small-town romance series at the Colonial. Ticket includes a signed copy, signing capped at two books.
At the Devil's Door: Prince of Darkness (1987) + The Sentinel (1977)
Carpenter's Prince of Darkness paired with The Sentinel, both on 16mm. Fright Night double bills run long, so eat first.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Kurt Russell as the most confident idiot in movie history, screened on 35mm. Cult Cinema, and the print is the draw.
Moana (2016) Sing-Along
Lyrics on screen, kids encouraged to sing. Sponsored screening in the Family Favorites series, and the easiest Saturday morning you will have all month.
Come and See (1985)
The Soviet war film people describe as the hardest watch ever made. Art House Cinema slot. Go in knowing what it is.
The War of the Worlds (1953)
The George Pal version, all glowing manta-ray war machines and matte paintings. Part of the In Glorious Technicolor run.
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Gene Tierney in the rare noir shot in colour, and a lake scene that will stay with you. In Glorious Technicolor series.
The Colonial Presents Introduction to Screenwriting
Twelve-week screenwriting course taught by Jeff Bender of Ursinus College, capped at nine people, meeting Wednesday evenings in the Colonial's Garden Suite from mid-September.
Rushmore (1998)
Wes Anderson's second film, opening the Colonial's Back to School series. Jason Schwartzman at fifteen, running every club at once.
The 4th Annual Phoenixville Film Festival
Four days of independent film at the Colonial, with filmmaker panels, workshops, after-parties and an awards ceremony. Fourth year running.
Pet Sounds Live!
The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, played front to back with narration and archival footage, plus the hits that didn't make the original tracklist. One of the stranger, better nights the Colonial books all year.
Donnie Darko (2001)
Twenty-fifth anniversary screening of the rabbit-suit movie, slotted into the Back to School series. Still nobody agrees on what it means.
West Side Story (1961)
The 1961 original on a 35mm print, closing out the In Glorious Technicolor series. Bernstein's score in a room built in 1903.
Phoenix Chamber Inaugural Concert
The first concert of a brand new chamber ensemble's first season, built around Beethoven ahead of his 2027 bicentennial. New group, new series, ground floor.
Notting Hill (1999) Craft Cinema
Bring your yarn and your project. Craft Cinema pairs an easy rewatch with permission to knit through the whole thing, run with Here and Now Crafts.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Five kids in Saturday detention, and the closing fist in the air. Part of the Colonial's Back to School run.
Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
Twenty-fifth anniversary screening of the pop satire that got written off in 2001 and reclaimed since. Cult Cinema slot.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder doing black-and-white Universal horror as farce. Put the candle back, walk this way, and all the rest of it on a real screen.
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968)
Japanese sci-fi horror about a plane crash, a blob-like alien and a forehead that splits open. Tarantino lifted its blood-red sky for the opening of Kill Bill.
Super Art Fight
Two artists go at a giant canvas while hosts run commentary and a Wheel of Death keeps changing the rules. The crowd picks the winner, measured on a decibel reader.
Horror in the Shadows: Cat People, I Walked With A Zombie, The Leopard Man
Three Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur chillers on 16mm, back to back. Shadow, suggestion and sound doing the work that later horror hands to a monster suit.
The Vanishing (1988)
The Dutch original, not the remake. A man spends three years hunting the woman who walked into a rest stop and never came back out. The ending stays with people.
An Evening with Buena Vista Orchestra
The Cuban repertory ensemble built out of Buena Vista Social Club alumni, playing son, bolero and danzon in the big room. Rising Sun books it, the Colonial hosts it.
The Monstrous-Feminine: Rosemary's Baby + Carrie
Rosemary's Baby and Carrie back to back on 35mm. Two films about what everybody around a young woman decides to do with her body, programmed as one long night.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Fifty years on, with the Colonial Transylvanians running the shadow cast in front of the screen. Bring a newspaper, learn the callbacks, do the Time Warp.
The Haunting (1963)
Robert Wise's Hill House, where the scares come from camera angles and a door that appears to breathe. Part of the theatre's Her Haunted World series.
Kwaidan (1964)
Four Japanese ghost stories shot on painted soundstages in colors nobody has matched since. Three hours long, and the kind of thing a laptop cannot carry.
Countess Luann LOVE Tour
Luann de Lesseps brings her cabaret act to Bridge Street, part Real Housewives storytelling and part lounge singer. A late start, so eat first.
Exhumed Films 24 Hour Horror-thon
Twenty-four straight hours of 35mm horror prints, every title kept secret until it hits the screen. Doors at 10am, first reel at noon. Bring a blanket.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) with Live Organ Accompaniment
The German expressionist landmark with its crooked painted sets, scored live on the theatre organ. Silent film the way it was actually meant to be heard.
Practical Magic (1998) Craft Cinema
The Owens sisters, the midnight margaritas, the aunts. Craft Cinema means you bring a project and stitch through it in the smaller room while the film runs.
Halloween (1978)
Carpenter's original, the one with the synth line and the very patient camera. Still the cleanest slasher ever made, and it barely shows any blood.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Stop-motion built one painstaking frame at a time, and the one film that covers both holidays. A good first scary-adjacent movie for kids not ready for the rest.
Asi Wind: AWE
Sleight of hand and mind reading from the New York mentalist behind AWE, scaled up for a full theatre. Late start, so plan dinner on Bridge Street first.
The Innocents (1961)
Deborah Kerr as the governess in the Turn of the Screw adaptation. Whether the children see ghosts or she does is still argued about sixty years on.
The Parlour Reading Series: Haunted Halloween Shorts
Local playwrights send in short horror and Halloween plays, and the picks get staged as readings around a bonfire setup. A cheap night of brand new writing.
Watsky X Infinity Anniversary Tour
The rapper and poet performs x Infinity front to back for its tenth birthday, alongside the eighteen interconnected videos that made up the visual album.
The Exorcist (1973)
Halloween night, a 35mm print, the Georgetown stairs and the pea soup. If you have only ever seen this on a laptop you have not really seen it.
RAEL – A Genesis and Peter Gabriel Experience
A tribute band that's spent over a decade on the early, weirder Genesis catalog — Nursery Cryme through The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, played as full albums, Peter Gabriel era only.
The Longest Johns
The Bristol sea shanty group that went viral singing four-part harmony work songs. Expect the whole room bellowing along by the third number.
Music For Everyone: Vanessa Collier
Blues singer and saxophone player touring her sixth album, cut live to analog gear with the band mostly in one room. Orion Communities runs the night.
HUSH: An Immersive Speakeasy Experience
A speakeasy built inside the White Rabbit Theatre, with Parlour Noir playing and the Franklin Follies dancing. Your ticket gets you the password and the alley door.
Judy Collins: Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Farewell Tour
Six decades of Both Sides Now and Send in the Clowns, on the farewell run. A folk voice most people know by heart without knowing whose it is.
A Charlie Brown Christmas with the Eric Mintel Quartet
The quartet plays Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts score straight through, then the rest of the Christmas jazz songbook. They have been doing this run for over twenty years.
Blobfest
Phoenixville’s gloriously weird signature weekend: reenacting the famous theater "run-out" scene from The Blob, which was filmed at the Colonial in 1957, plus a street fair, costume contests, and B-movie marathons.
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