A few different kinds of humorous horror from the past return to the big screen in New York City this winter. Read on for details of retrospective showings of Alex Winter’s monsterama FREAKED (with the filmmaker in attendance) and a group of genre films written by John Sayles.

Winter, who co-directed FREAKED with Tom Stern and stars, will be on hand for showings of the 1993 creature comedy and the insane vigilante sequel DEATH WISH 3 (in which he plays one of the punks opposing Charles Bronson) at 92Y Tribeca (200 Hudson Street) on Saturday, January 14. It’s part of the New Cult Canon series sponsored by The Onion’s AV Club, and Winter (who plays an arrogant TV star trapped in a freakshow run by an insane Randy Quaid, with human oddities created by pretty much every working makeup FX artist at the time) will take part in a Q&A with AV Club’s Alison Willmore. FREAKED begins at 7:30 p.m. and DEATH WISH 3 at 10:15; admissions are separate, with FREAKED costing $12 (order tickets here), and $10 for DEATH WISH.

The following month, Anthology Film Archive (32 2nd Avenue) begins From the Pen of: John Sayles, a retrospective of movies scripted by the maverick filmmaker, including the chance to see a few late-’70s/early-’80s genre classics on the big screen. These features include:

• Joe Dante’s THE HOWLING, Thursday, February 23 at 7:15 p.m. and Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 9:15 p.m.

• Dante’s PIRANHA, Saturday, Feb. 25 at 7:15 p.m. and Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 9:15 p.m.

• Lewis Teague’s ALLIGATOR, Saturday, Feb. 25 at 9:30 p.m. and Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 7:15 p.m.

• Jimmy T. Murakami’s BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, Sunday, Feb. 26 at 6:45 p.m. and Thursday, March 1 at 9:15 p.m.

For those who’d like to hear Sayles speak, he’ll appear after a showing of Bill Forsyth’s comedy BREAKING IN on Friday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

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