We found the murder and skulduggery of director Rian Johnson’s latest film, Knives Out, to be a dizzying pleasure. So of course we’d be interested in watching a bunch of classic whodunits that inspired the flick—and hearing from Johnson himself about them.
Downtown L.A.’s Alamo Drafthouse is putting together a six-screening series dubbed Knives & Knaves, which runs on select nights from December 2 to 15. The slate includes the likes of Robert Altman’s social satire Gosford Park (Dec 2); Sidney Lumet’s cat-and-mouse Deathtrap (Dec 4); a pair of detective Poirot flicks, Evil Under the Sun (Dec 14; in 35mm) and Death on the Nile (Dec 8); and the Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier-starring Sleuth (Dec 11).
Rounding out the series, Johnson will follow up a 35mm screening of The Last of Sheila on December 15 with an in-person Q&A. The 1973 mystery-game movie comes from director Herbert Ross and writers Anthony Perkins (better known as Norman Bates in Psycho) and Stephen Sondheim (yep, that Sondheim), who based their screenplay on scavenger hunts that they’d write for their industry friends in 1970s New York.
Johnson will also be hosting a Q&A for Knives Out during the December 1 screening at 11am, but it looks like most tickets for that one are already spoken for.
If you attend all six screenings and see Knives Out at the Drafthouse, you’ll be entered to win this sweet Mondo poster and the film’s vinyl release—just make sure to get your series passport stamped at each screening.