The final tally is in, and I watched 53 horror films across October, including 7 on Halloween. I’ve been posting about them individually (albeit without much commentary) on Threads, but here’s a better summary of what stood out and where my annual horror-binging journey took me this year.
THE BEST “NEW TO ME”
The Synapse Films restoration of the 80’s heavy metal horror TRICK OR TREAT (1986) arrived in the mail just a few days too late for Halloween in 2024, and, being weird, I waited until the following October to watch it. Having watched the similarly-themed BLACK ROSES (1988) a week earlier – it’s about a heavy metal band that is literally playing the devil’s music, corrupting the youth of a small town to become mindless killers – I was expecting something just as shoddy and cheesy. It’s not. Actor Charles Martin Smith directs it with a wry eye toward nerdy teenage angst (and recognizing the truth that high school heavy metal fans are a unique brand of nerd), but lets the audience in on the joke, never looking down on them. The black comedy and zippy tone recalls, in its best moments, the cult classic HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II.
I also took time at the start of the month to finally – finally! – finish off the stellar ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS box set of folk horror from Severin Films, and even get a start on VOLUME 2. That meant watching a pair of films that I’m still thinking about weeks later: ROBIN REDBREAST (1970), a British TV-movie that crystallized the genre in England, and Chris Newby’s ANCHORESS (1993). (I also watched another important British TV-movie, PENDA’S FEN, and enjoyed its phantasmagoric mystery very much, though I didn’t see much by way of “horror” in it.) ROBIN REDBREAST feels now like a dry run for THE WICKER MAN, and though it takes a while to get going, the slow closing-in of a rural community, and their strange ways, on a transplanted city woman who falls for a strapping local boy, gets increasingly uncomfortable and disturbing (in the best way). ANCHORESS, though light on the horror, is a transfixing imagining of the real-life story of a woman (Natalie Morse) who allows herself to be walled up in a church so she can be alone with her visions of the Virgin Mary. Unfortunately for the severe priest (Christopher Eccleston), her visions, with strong pagan overtones, don’t align with his preferred miracles.
Also “new to me” was the original THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927), directed by Paul Leni, though I’d seen and loved the Bob Hope remake. Produced by Carl Laemmle (who spearheaded the Universal Monster canon), this “old dark house” hit is snappy, funny, and cozy-spooky in all the right ways. The 4K restoration now available from Kino is the way to go.
Finally, it took me a long time to get around to FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958), which Criterion released on DVD way back when they could spare a moment for the odd B-movie, but I was thrilled to see that the climax lived up to the hype. Yes, it’s a stock 50’s SF monster movie with all the cliches for most of its runtime, but the climactic reveal of the killer brains-with-tentacles – psychically produced by a mad scientist – is more than worth the trip, including very good stop-motion effects and a surprising amount of blood.
THE BEST OF THIS YEAR’S HORROR
I haven’t gotten around to some of those just hitting theaters (BLACK PHONE 2, BONE LAKE, SHELBY OAKS), though I did make a trip to see GOOD BOY (2025). That’s the ghost story told from the point of view of the dog – a premise I couldn’t resist. And neither could all the dog owners who packed the theater on a Tuesday night, emotionally wrecked by the film’s conclusion. Though the story could stand to be a little stronger, director Ben Leonberg does a great job of putting the audience in the dog’s, um, paws, conjuring that desperate feeling of not fully understanding what’s happening around you or why, but knowing when something just doesn’t smell right.
I haven’t been completely under a rock – I have seen SINNERS, and thought it was extraordinary – but this month I did get around to the box-office hit WEAPONS (2025) (and it seems a lot of people were catching up to it too, since WEAPONS chatter exploded online the weekend it hit HBO). I actually ended up watching WEAPONS twice, since I quickly slated it for my annual Halloween party, knowing it would go over well. On a second viewing, I appreciated some of its details better and how well director Zach Cregger ties it all together, though it also seemed more obvious that the Tarantino-esque multi-character, time-reversing story structure sometimes hinders as often as it enthralls. (Meaning that on watching the film a second time, you can’t help but want the film to just get on with it, and trust the viewer a little more to put pieces together.) Nonetheless, this works as a modern-day Grimm’s fairy tale, and the ending is surreal, cathartic, and intentionally hilarious in a way that feels visionary. I also love the opening and closing narration. (This has my favorite last line of the year.)
WEAPONS has come to be divisive in recent weeks, but, in a quieter way, HERETIC (2025) has been even more so, with many frustrated by the film’s third-act horror cliches. I’m…a bit in the middle (there’s an argument to be made for why the ending theme, horror cliches included, is very important to the overall message), but on the whole this is still one of my favorite horror films of the year. Maybe it’s because I spent a couple years in Utah, and the two Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) were so recognizable with their patchwork grasp of the world outside their cloistered existence. And Hugh Grant is marvelous as an egocentric know-it-all who happens to make some very good points about religious history.
And BRING HER BACK (2025) is a gnarly, harrowing folk horror film with just the right notes of black comedy to relieve the tension.
THE WEIRDEST
TENDER DRACULA (1974) stars Peter Cushing – very off the beaten path here – as a vampire in this erotic comedy/fantasy/horror from France. The plot isn’t much and isn’t worth mentioning; and the comedy isn’t terribly funny. But what’s striking about the movie is its dreamlike construction, both physically (the sets are large scale and very surreal) and with its interior logic, similar to the French vampire films of Jean Rollin emerging during the same period. In fact, Rollin fans are the only ones to whom I can confidently recommend this. I’m going to revisit this some late night when I’m in the right mood.
LADY FRANKENSTEIN (1971), an Italian horror film directed by American (and Roger Corman vet) Mel Welles, is another sexy European outing from the 70’s, but it’s most notable for Rosalba Neri’s fiery performance as the title character, seeking to build the perfect man for her own ends (a la Dr. Frank N. Furter). It’s also more feminist than that broad description makes it sound, and made me realize how rarely we see women in the Dr. Frankenstein-like role.
And STARVE ACRE (2023) features Doctor Who himself (Matt Smith) under the thrall of an evil jackrabbit. What more can you want?
A FULL LIST OF THIS YEAR’S OCTOBER VIEWING:
Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter
Heretic
Intruder
Elvira’s Haunted Hills
Bring Her Back
Iced
Anchoress
Penda’s Fen
Robin Redbreast
Good Boy*
Lady Frankenstein
The Return of Doctor X
The Monkey
Sleepaway Camp
Fiend Without a Face
To Fire You Come At Last
The House in Nightmare Park
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers
The Monster Squad*
Starve Acre
Shaun of the Dead
The Monster of the Opera
Tremors
28 Years Later
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland
Weapons
Black Roses
Ready or Not
The Seventh Grave
The House That Would Not Die
Tender Dracula
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The Phantom Speaks
Vampire’s Kiss
Arachnophobia
Weapons
Color Out of Space
The Legacy
Smile 2
One Dark Night
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
The Man Who Could Cheat Death
Trick or Treat (1986)
Dead of Night (1977)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show*
On Halloween:
Nosferatu (1922)
Psycho II
Pet Sematary
Creepshow
The Curse of Frankenstein
Hold That Ghost
Nosferatu (2024)
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