Variance Films, the specialty distributor behind the long U.S. tail of S.S. Rajamouli‘s Indian crossover sensation RRR, is out with the director’s Baahubali: The Epic. This is a 3-hour and 58-minute blended version of Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017) with Rajamouli having cut, edited and reshaped both films to shorten the running time. Part 1 and 2 will be separated by an intermission, which is typical of Indian movies but last seen Stateside — and quite successfully — with The Brutalist.

Baahubali-fest launched Wednesday on 131 top-tier PLF (premium large format) screens — Imax, Dolby Cinema at AMC, Cinemark XD, Regal RPX, 4DX, D-Box. Thursday sneaks followed and tonight it opens on 400+screens nationwide — 60 of which will be week-long PLF engagements.

Variance notes that this is about the fans, so all tickets including PLF will be standard price and all subscription services (AMC A-List, Regal Unlimited, etc…) will be active starting with the first show. That will reduce grosses but increase footfalls, which is the point.

A note by Rajamouli explains why this and why now: It’s been ten years since Baahubali: The Beginning first hit theatres. What followed the release surpassed anything we could have imagined. It continued with The Conclusion, and together, the two films created a world that connected deeply with audiences across India and the world. Now, with Baahubali: The Epic, I edited both films into one continuous and immersive experience to celebrate the 10th anniversary.

It wasn’t easy to cut down a 5-hour 27-minute saga, but revisiting the story after all these years gave me the chance to look at it with fresh eyes, experiment with the narrative, and shape it into a 3-hour 50-minute experience that still holds the scale and emotion we set out to create in the original films. We had to make some difficult choices to edit it to under four hours. A few portions, ones we loved, had to be sacrificed. But we made each decision with the hope of making the experience seamless for both those who’ve seen it many times and, at the same time, make it just as inviting for first-time viewers.

We have also updated the visuals and sound to suit today’s cinema technology, especially in IMAX and Dolby formats, so this world feels more vivid than ever. This is the version I would like audiences to experience in theatres today: the Baahubali movies as one story.

This version is for those who stood in line on Day One, filled theatres with cheers, asked, “Why did Kattappa kill Baahubali?”, and have carried this world in their hearts ever since.

The Epic isn’t just about revisiting the past; it’s also about sharing Baahubali with those who came to enjoy it during the last decade. Over the years, many have discovered Baahubali through TV, streaming, reels, memes, and, more recently, after the global success of RRR. Many of them missed the chance to witness it in theatres. Now, they can.

I invite you to return to Maahishmathi or visit it for the first time.

— S.S. Rajamouli

In a nod to Halloween weekend, XYZ Films and AMC are collaborating on a scary movie double feature (for the price one ticket) exclusively at AMC Theaters. That’s Hallow Road with Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys (90% RT critics) and Vincent Must Die with Karim Leklou and Vimala Pons (93% RT). The partners say they’d like to revive a tradition not seen since Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse in 2007 marked the first theatrical first-run double feature in almost two decades.

In mystery thriller Hallow Road directed by Babak Anvari and William Gillies and written by Gillies, parents receive a distressing late-night call from their teenage daughter, who has just accidentally hit a pedestrian. They jump in their car, racing to get there before anyone else stumbles across the scene. As they head deeper into the night, disturbing revelations threaten to tear the family apart as they soon realize they might not be the only ones driving down Hallow Road.

In Vincent Must Die, random strangers have suddenly started attacking Vincent with murderous intent. His existence as an unremarkable man is overturned, and as things spiral violently out of control, he is forced to flee and change his life completely in a movie that rides the new wave of French horror. Directed by Stéphan Castang, who wrote the screenplay with Mathieu Naert and Dominique Baumard.

Moderate indie releases: IFC opens Southern revenge thriller Violent Ends by John Michael Powell at 700 theaters. Set in the Ozark Mountains, Lucas Frost is an honest man brought up in a crime family whose only legacy is violence. As he tries to make a peaceful life of his own with his fiancée, Emma, he is brutally pulled back into the family business. Stars Billy Mangussen, Kate Burton and Sean Harris Jones.

Roadside Attractions debuted Jan Komasa’s dystopian political thriller Anniversary on Wednesday in moderate release on 809 screens. A close-knit family is caught in the turmoil of a controversial rising movement known as The Change. See Deadline review. Ellen and Paul (Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler) witness their lives fall apart when Ellen’s former student Liz (Phoebe Dynevor) reappears and starts dating their son (Dylan O’Brien). As Liz becomes a part of the Taylor family, tensions rise and loyalties are tested. Liz’s role in The Change brings simmering conflicts to the surface, unraveling the fabric of the family just as the nation itself stands on edge during an alarming and challenging time of uncertainty. Written by Komasa with Lori Rosene-Gambino.

Wide: Briarcliff Entertainment debuted Steve Hudson’s animated fantasy comedy Stitch Head Wednesday at 2,162 theaters. High above the little town of Grubbers Nubbin looms Castle Grotteskew, the maddest of all mad professors brings his latest monstrous creations to (almost)-life. But watching, hidden in the shadows, is the professor’s first, long-forgotten creation, Stitch Head.

Limited releases: Netflix expands Frankenstein to unspecified screens ahead of the Nov. 7 streaming release of Guillermo del Toro adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic.

And 1-2 Special opens Radu Jude’s Dracula on 13 screens.

Little Amélie or the Character Of Rain from GKids, which just won the Grand Jury Prize at Animation Is Film Festival, opens on two screens ahead of an expansion next week. See Deadline’s review out of the Annecy Film Festival. The French animated feature from Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han is at 96% with RT critics on 27 reviews.

Alternative engagements: Depeche Mode: M from Sony Music Vision and Trafalgar Releasing opened globally Wednesday and continues its run in select U.S. theaters. The film by Fernando Frias features interstitials and archival footage from the band’s Mexico City shows on the 2023-2024 Memento Mori Tour. A musical journey, using nearly 200,000 Mexican fans’ fervent connection with the band as a window into its timeless global influence, and a tribute to the connection between music, tradition and the human spirit. Frias weaves footage from the three sold-out shows at Mexico City’s Foro Sol Stadium to explore the parallels between the themes on Depeche Mode’s album Memento Mori and the connection to death and mortality in Mexican culture. 

If you’re a Twilight Saga fan you may be in time to catch a show of Twilight: Eclipse tonight. Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is on for Saturday and Twlight: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 for Sunday – all on about 1,500 screens. Twilight and Twilight Saga: New Moon already hit on Wed. and Thursday, respectively. From Fathom Entertainment.