Jim’s Top 10 Most-Anticipated Films Playing at the 2026 Jan-June Retro Season

For anyone who loves a good throwback, we’ve got you covered for 2026! Senior Director of Film, Jim Carl, shares the best of the best of the Retro Film Series for the 2026 Jan-June season.  It’ a special countdown to New Year’s, Carolina Theatre style! 

BURNT OFFERINGS (1976) – The perfect summer rental for the last vacation you’ll ever take. It comes with a pool, a garden, and a guaranteed fatal accident.  The chauffeur in this picture scared the hell out of me as a kid.  (RetroGothic, April 24-26) 

THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927) – The first-ever “old dark house” movie.  It created a horror subgenre that still exists today and is the reason every spooky mansion now comes with a creepy relative and a will-reading gone wrong. Newly restored in 4K, so you can admire every dusty cobweb in sparkling high definition. (RetroSIlents, Feb 4) 

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN (1980) – Possibly the greatest time travel film ever made. A modern-day aircraft carrier travels back to the eve of Pearl Harbor in 1941.  Eat your heart out, Marty McFly.  (FantasticRealm, Feb 6-12) 

HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978) – For anyone who hates rom-coms, this should be an exception. One of my all-time favorite endings in film history.  It’s always the quarterback.  (RetroFantasma, March 18) 

MAGIC (1978) – Before Annabelle, before Chucky, there was Fats. This movie is the reason why everyone hates ventriloquists. Sam Raimi plans to produce an ill-advised remake. (RetroGothic, April 24-26) 

THE MANITOU (1978) – Imagine if Billy Porter directed “Evil Dead Rise”.  Witness a 300-year-old Indian medicine man growing out of a tumor on a woman’s neck.  Gloriously goofy fun.  (RetroFantasma, Feb 18) 

THE RELIC (1997) – Proof that every object excavated and returned from a foreign country is cursed.  You’ll learn a lot about pineal glands. (FantasticRealm, Feb 6-12) 

THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982) – The best animated film about genius mice ever made. Sparkly, dramatic, and somehow more stressful to children than “Jurassic Park”. (Double Feature, April 3) 

VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982) – “Le Jazz Hot” is one helluva number. Still is.  (Retro Rocks!, June 14) 

THE X-FILES MOVIE (1998) – For diehard fans, it’s everything you want from Mulder and Scully — aliens, conspiracies, and awkward flirting. Now owned by Disney, so catching it in theaters feels like spotting an actual extraterrestrial. (FantasticRealm, Feb 6-12)