October Horror Thread

Summer of '84 - shit. It's a bad Stranger Things knock-off that is surprisingly well shot but involves way too much plot armor and too much incompetence from the killer for it to be remotely scary. Decent ending, though.

Wasting no time, my first three October watches! 


Not of this Earth (1957) 6/10, where a human-looking alien in ray-bans is the test subject for his galactic race to see if human blood will save them, with his blasé servant like Jeeves on jive. This Roger Corman plays like campless Ed Wood, a bit absent and lacking thrills, but it’s watchable and I really dig the ending shot that calls forward to It Follows.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) 8/10, or pretty much a masterpiece of its time. Reminds me of the Theroux quote that “a distorted mind proves there’s something on it.” Germany between wars, the movie is designed at all odd angles and brushstrokes, an expression so lurid only a mad memory could make it….. framed from an asylum where the patients are like a pirouetting troupe who’ve never been rehearsed, used ill and at will by the “director” of the asylum - the word in the calligraphic inter-titles looks fascinatingly a bit like dictator.

Black Christmas (1974) 10/10, rewatch, a genre masterpiece with all the right moves, in story, setting, scares, style. I wrote in the IMDb days about how a rewatch opened my eyes that there’s really three horrors going on at once. Bob Clark despite his very silly later movies, at his best he was no joke. He did Deathdream this same year too - which is like a Cassavettes horror version of a social drama. This watch, with pacinoyes recent sharp insight, there really is a whole thread of absence and violence between parents and their kids (or expecting).

The movie opens with Barb getting a call from mom that she’s on her own for the holidays - it seems to motivate much of Barb’s acting-out behavior. There’s the father who’s first mortified of his missing daughter’s living conditions and then more deeply mortified by realizing he’ll never see her again. Before the brilliant caroling murder scene, Billy is in the attic putting a baby doll in the lap of his first(?) victim and rocking their rocking chair like some disturbed image of motherhood. Something else I forgot, this sweater worn by Olivia Hussey (Juliet, here totally over Romeo)….. OK not very subtle yet very fascinating. Are the hands at her, or shielding her?

Tales from the Crypt (1972) 7/10, with Ralph Richardson as the crypt keeper ("All in good time...."). First tale set on xmas is a fun bit with some of the wildest wallpaper you'll ever see, second tale has a lot of POV shots and a clever twist, third tale is the best with a heartbreaking Peter Cushing (wink), fourth tale a self-aware Monkey's Paw is okay, and the last tale at a blind asylum is a bore. Freddie Francis is a better DP but for the kinds of movies he made was an effective director, I especially like his first hammer Paranoiac.

Started off the month with a first-time viewing of Interview with the Vampire (1994). Enjoyed the hell out of this one, a bloody fun and gloriously staged period horror with some terrific performances. Was especially blown away by a young Kirsten Dunst, who goes toe-to-toe with the likes of Cruise and Pitt and frankly outshines them often. 7.5/10

The Blood-Stained Shadow (1977) - on tubi - 7/10

Total Argento rip-off that's part - Bird With The Crystal Plumage and a ton of Deep Red - black gloves, paintings with clues, use of settings (Venice here), childhood flashback........ and a total rip off of the head crush scene in Deep Red too.

It has plenty of flaws - acting, people responding to Death strangely and passively and a slow-ish first hour set up - but when the killings start they are memorable and make sense (mostly) ...........a notable ending too. Best of all you can't predict exactly who will die here.

If you want a giallo substitute of the big ones in the genre it's quite fun as long as you don't expect too much originality.....and I've seen far worse than this.

6.4 on IMDB .........which is a little low.......

I finally saw Da Sweet Blood of Jesus which is Spike Lee's take on the underseen Ganja & Hess. Solid and with some really gorgeous shots and some disturbing moments sprinkled throughout.

Last night I rewatched Midsommar on shrooms which was an experience.

The Crazies (1973) - 5/10

Really clumsy, one of Romero's weakest. Some good imagery in it as always though. Funny watching it right now given the whole virus situation.

William Friedkin's Bug (2006) is probably gonna end up my favorite first-time viewing of the month. Goddamn, was this ever an effective and distressing little chamber piece. Shannon and Judd light up the screen with some of their best work ever, and Letts's economical and tightly-wound screenplay caters to both their strengths. I also can't heap enough praise onto the terrific sound design, which evokes an erratic, Lynchian vibe at times. Friedkin and Letts need to do more collaborations, because after this and Killer Joe, they've established themselves as quite the dynamic director/screenwriter pair. 9/10

Thank you for the recommendations- this is fantastic!

And as a big Sleepaway Camp fan, "brilliant" is a word I never thought I'd hear applied to it lol

The Abominable Snowman (1957) 5.5/10, reminded me of the EE Cummings line "The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches." The Thing From Another World lite and with a slow-going script (though the screenwriter's next two, he adapted Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer). It picks up a few thrills around the halfway point and I am a sucker for the Cinemascope and those snowy vistas.

The Haunted Palace (1963) 6.5/10, I liked all of the fog in this one and the cursed little town, though Corman skips over seemingly essential moments and the makeup dpt forgot to do all the necks, dammit. But, Vincent Price gets some great close-up moments and I get a kick outta knowing Francis Ford Coppola was the "dialogue supervisor" and was running lines with and sort of himself directing Price and the other actors.

John Carpenter's Vampires - Great? no. Fun? loads. Who doesn't want to see James Woods with snappy one-liners stabbing vampires with spears and shooting them with crossbows? I'd love to see this premise as a TV show.

The Stepfather (1987) - 7.5/10 rewatch

Crime novelist/God Donald Westlake wrote this script here which gives this more gravity right off the bat and makes this the rare horror film where you notice the screenplay at all - and it's lean, satirical, and smartly referential of genre traps too.

At one point Westlake writes something that looks like a gaping hole and later fixes it too (involving a photo) he doesn't gloss over it......though it helps to watch this and remember this was pre-Internet era.......still his screenplay gets all this in, in a tight 90 minutes.

.......and when I say "all this" I mean he even has shading in here as several characters "fake" things beyond just The Stepfather himself (and in multiple ways actually).....the step-daughter fakes forgiveness......the therapist fakes interest in buying a house .....now that's a script that has some real thought in it beyond just the title character.

Mirror mirror on the wall....