#Jill Witecki

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The Tampa Theatre's 'A Nightmare on Franklin Street': Keeping Halloween Alive in Florida

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By Hector Franco

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Published: October 29, 2024

When the state of Florida comes to mind for most people in the United States or around the world, things like flatlands, lousy traffic, beaches, high temperatures, retirement communities, hurricanes, and political snafus come to mind. However, in Central Florida, in the heart of the city of Tampa, the world of horror and Halloween is celebrated like in any other mid-western city. According to WalletHub, Tampa Bay ranks as the 23rd best city for Halloween enthusiasts, with metrics including the number of costume stores, trick-or-treat stops, and Halloween celebrations.  

Since October 2013, one of Tampa's historic landmarks, The Tampa Theatre, has put the world of horror and celebrating Halloween to the forefront. The Theatre's "A Nightmare on Franklin Street" film series showcases various films throughout the horror world, ranging from classics in the genre to silent films and recent contemporary movies. The Theatre was first built in 1926 and is considered one of the 10 Most Beautiful Cinemas in the world by the BBC, as it was designed by famed Chicago-based architect John Eberson. The renowned architect gave the Theatre a night-like look with stars, adding to the experience of watching movies in the building. The Tampa Theatre has grown a reputation for being haunted, leading to the Theatre producing Ghost Tours, and with its 1238-seat auditorium, it hosts nearly 1,000 events each year. 

The "A Nightmare on Franklin Street" event began over a decade ago and has gone through numerous iterations and ideas. This year, the series runs for three weeks (October 11-31), showing more films than ever, with multiple days including double features beginning with the 1980s slasher classic Prom Night, which stars Jamie Lee Curtis. The festivities end on Halloween night, coming full circle with Curtis' most famous role of Laurie Strode in 1978's Halloween, followed by another tentpole horror classic in Wes Craven's Scream. 

However, one wonders how a series like this gets put together. In an era where streaming and watching films at home has become the norm for most movie watchers, asking audiences to pay to watch older films, albeit in a beautiful setting and atmosphere, is a tall task. 

One of the prominent people responsible for putting together the "A Nightmare on Franklin Street'" series is the Vice President and Director of Marketing for the Tampa Theatre, Jill Witecki. Witecki has been with The Tampa Theatre for 12 years and came to the theater from Busch Gardens, where she worked in marketing and public relations, putting together the theme park's Howl-O-Scream Halloween events. Before Busch Gardens, she was a reporter at the Tampa Tribune with a degree in journalism, working, as she puts it, in the 'media and storytelling realm' in Tampa.

Witecki's background working at Busch Gardens and the Tampa Tribune allowed her to have a vision for the passion and intrigue horror movies and the Halloween season could potentially have in Florida. 

"I've gotten to see the economic impact that horror and Halloween can have and how eager people are, especially in this part of Florida, it seems like, to start selling, celebrating Halloween the moment they can because we don't really have a fall season here," Witecki told Frontproof Media in an exclusive interview. "So we have to create it. I think the Central Florida Horror industry does that and gives everybody an excuse to start celebrating fall even when the weather isn't cooperating."

In some respects, the Sunshine State's lack of fall and winter seasons only strengthens its adulation for all things Halloween and horror. When Witecki first started working at The Tampa Theatre, she recognized the Theatre's haunted reputation could be used to facilitate horror fans and Halloween enthusiasts to help celebrate the popular holiday season. A conversation with the Tampa Theatre's CEO brought to fruition the horror-based film series to the Tampa Bay landmark. 

"There was an early conversation I had with my CEO about how we can maximize Halloween," explained Witecki to Frontproof Media. "Because there is all of this interest and all of these fans. I don't know what the number is now, but Halloween was a $4 billion industry at that point.

"Our first "Nightmare on Franklin Street" was in October 2013. We picked a Friday in the middle of the middle of the month and then ran through Halloween, putting a film series together. At that point, it was a lot of the top 10 one would think of. It was Psycho, Halloween, and The Shining. We put a little series together, and we included some ghost tours in it and people loved it. We can show movies every single day, so it was very easy for us to put together a horror movie series." 

While putting on horror classics is a must for the film series, showcasing cinema essentials of the genre is only one aspect of the series. The festivities have included live acts throughout the years, interviews, and question-and-answer presentations for certain films. This year, one of the shows included a Victorian horror troupe called Fangoria. In the past, specific films, including those of the silent era, were accompanied by an orchestra playing the film's score. The series also makes it a point to show recent horror films that may not have gotten their deserved time in local everyday theatres. 

Showcasing films like Halloween and Hocus Pocus are guaranteed ticket sellers for the Theatre. However, The Tampa Theatre also knows the importance of helping out local filmmakers. Each year, the film series shows locally produced horror films based out of Central Florida. Not many of these films sell out in the famed Theatre, but it allows local filmmakers to have their films screened in front of a large audience in a historic venue. 

"The evening of local horror is something that we've done for several years now because there is so much locally produced horror in Central Florida," stated Witecki. "I do understand that people are going to plunk down money to see Halloween because they know what they're in for. But for a local film, if you don't know the cast, if you don't know the crew, you may not be as willing to put out the money.

Witecki continued, "We do have those stalwarts that we have to show every year, like Halloween and Hocus Pocus. We sell out Hocus Pocus every year. We always want to include some of the best horror films that came out that year. So that's where you get Late Night with the Devil and Lisa Frankenstein."

The Tampa Theatre's reputation for being a haven for horror fans has grown over the years. This has led to some of the most recognizable names in the genre being featured at the Theatre. For example, during a presentation of 1988's Child's Play- the film's then-child star Alex Vincent attended the showing, and Marilyn Eastman did the same for a presentation of Night of the Living Dead. The Tampa Theatre also had author Andrea Perron give a presentation after a showing of 2013's The Conjuring. Perron and her family lived in the house on which the film was based. 

Horror films are known for pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable to be put on film. Sometimes, they can be bleak affairs where the villain comes out victorious or blood-filled gore fests where the kills and practical effects are the film's highlight features. But the world of horror and Halloween can be unique. Many different horror films can be shown to audiences ranging from children to young adults to seniors. The Tampa Theatre's selective film choices for the "A Nightmare on Franklin Street" series satisfy a broad audience despite horror's niche fandom. 

“The true horror fans are definitely niche," says Witecki.  "But that's one of the many reasons I love Halloween so much; there are so many ways to celebrate it. So, if you are into bloody gory slashers, we have movies that address that. If you're more into supernatural ghost movies, we've got some of that. But if you're into cutesy pumpkins and witches, we've got that too. That's where films like Hocus Pocus come in."

Perhaps The Tampa Theatre's greatest strength is its place as a beacon for film preservation and showcasing the medium how it was meant to be seen. There are more films available now to audiences than ever before, but the medium is treated at times as disposable. Streaming apps release a movie on their platform with little to no marketing, and it sits in perpetuity until it's removed without any physical or digital release elsewhere.

The Tampa Theatre treats films as the art form that they are. The loud laughs and cackles from a sold-out venue from a showing of Blazing Saddles can't be duplicated at home. The gasps in unison from an audience as the killer unsheaths a knife from the shadows is an experience meant for many, not one. No matter the size of your television or the booms from your speaker system, the theatrical experience of watching a film can't be replicated at home. In a world full of distractions, some of which are right in our hands, The Tampa Theatre is one of the few places where one can truly get lost in another world. 

"What you experience at a screening is the difference between going to a movie theater, going to a cinema, and experiencing a film with friends and family and community versus sitting on your couch and watching it on streaming," explained Witecki.  

"You turn on the movie, and maybe you're paying attention, and maybe you're not. Maybe you're scrolling your phone at the same time the movie's happening. Maybe you are walking around doing laundry, or maybe it's just background noise while cleaning your house. It's not the same as it is to sit in a theater. Turn your phone off and be surrounded by the movie. It's huge right in front of you. You can't escape it. And to experience all of those emotions with the people sitting around you.

"And with horror especially, it's great for sitting in a big room with 1200 people, and you can hear a pin drop. You can feel everybody holding their breath and waiting to see what's going to happen, and everybody screams and laughs at themselves for screaming. That's what the movie experience is supposed to be."

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