Andrew allowed me to start my scary movie viewing a few days early. Since we both got minor colds during the last days of September, we had even more time to settle in with cozy blankets in our excessively dark cinema room and get sketched out. I decided to publish our list a week early in case anyone was looking for a recommendation for the last week of October.

SHOWS:

Black Mirror – Season 6: “Beyond The Sea”, “Mazey Day”, and “Demon 79”. These are usually sci-fi or supernatural. Some episodes of this program make you feel so uncomfortable that time starts to stretch and elongate. An 80 minute episode can feel like 3 hours of suffering (“Beyond The Sea”). A lot of them have excellent twists (“Mazey Day”). Others are campy and just really awesome (“Demon 79”). This show is so good that you can’t stop watching, but we never watch more than one episode at a time.

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities – “Pickman’s Model” and “Dreams in the Witch House”. This show is like a modern Tales from the Crypt/Twilight Zone. We are both huge fans of creator Guillermo del Toro. He has a unique, very detailed fantasy inspired perspective. Years ago we watched The Shape of Water at a theater in LA and got to hear him speak in person. I was super excited because actors Doug Jones (who plays the Amphibian Man) and Octavia Spencer were also there.

Is It Cake? Halloween – If you can get past host Mikey Day’s constant yelling and overacting schtick, the hyperrealistic cakes are awesome and completely mind blowing. This is the complete opposite of Nailed It!

Love, Death + Robots – Volume 2: “Pop Squad”, “Snow in the Desert”, “The Tall Grass”, and “All Through the House”. Adult animation of the highest quality. Each one is an exceptional piece of art, usually sci-fi themed and many broach moral dilemmas. Much like an animated version of Black Mirror, but these are extremely intense shorts ranging from 6 to 22 minutes in length.

Re:Mind – Episode 2. We watched Episode 1 a long time ago and barely remembered what the show was about. The set gives Escape Room vibes. I wonder if we will ever finish this because we didn’t get very far this year.

Wayward – I’m a fan of Toni Colette and LOVE shows and documentaries about juvie reform schools and cults. This should have been right up my alley, but overall it fell a bit flat. Some editing might have saved this and made it feel edgier. I have enjoyed Mae Martin in the past, but they were one note and a tad boring in this. Also, I’m not certain if this series was supposed to be saying something about perceived gender roles or if Mae’s transgender character’s testosterone levels were grossly imbalanced, but the ongoing roid rage was a bit much especially when paired with the trope of her being a cop.

FILMS:

Blood Quantum – Excellent twist on the Zombie genre. Two thumbs up!

Bone Lake – Acting, casting, and cinematography were all on point. Conceptually it was the child that no one wanted from Flowers in the Attic and Speak No Evil.

Delicious – Ugh, NO. Dumb and gross. At the time of this post it had a well deserved 15% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Diabolically Yours – A 1967 French thriller about an amnesiac with an awesome jazz soundtrack that adds to the funky tension.

Found Footage 3D – This was very meta, a film in a film. It pointed out tropes, clichés, and pitfalls for horror films and then quite ingeniously solved them, all while still being scary. This came out close to the top of my list this year.

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed – We watched the original years ago and loved it. The sequel is fun, campy, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Actress Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black steals the show.

Him – I wanted this to be a weird Jordan Peele vibe like Get Out or Us, and it sure wasn’t. It was disjointed at best. Maybe the plot and imagery would be meaningful if you were on a hallucinogenic drug, but since I was just drinking sparkling water, it didn’t make any sense. Was this film about the cult of American football? Or professional athletes being granted god like status? A commentary on hypermasculinity? I would skip this one and watch Rudy or Any Given Sunday for a decent football movie. If you are looking for commentary on toxic masculinity go for Fight Club or Adolescence which, in my opinion, is a true masterpiece on the subject.

Horror in the High Desert – This was a pleasant surprise. It was found footage, but the format was like a one hour program you would watch on true crime TV. It was so enjoyable that I am looking forward to the sequel.

Hypnotic – A super predictable thriller from 2021. I hoped for more from this. Also, what is with the trend of movies about psychopaths being set in Oregon?

My Little Eye – A found footage film from 2002. I am a pretty big fan of this subgenre of horror. The Blair Witch Project was one of the first that had a lasting impact for me. I love how the Paranormal Activity movies lull you into near boredom and then turn on the jump scares when you least expect it. The Hell House LLC series now has five films and they are truly the stuff of recurring nightmares. I will never ever forget those creepy clowns. The best thing about My Little Eye is the unexpected appearance of Bradley Cooper on screen, but unfortunately that didn’t save this film. This ending could have been stellar, but the incessant sound effects assigned to camera movement were unforgivable and super distracting, and the ending lacked any real punch.

Presence – Steven Soderbergh films are like a guilty pleasure and I enjoyed his take on a ghost story. Some viewers have complained about the camera work, but I thought it was executed perfectly.

Scurry – People with claustrophobia and entomophobia should avoid this film at all costs. I have neither, but watching an unlikable female character constantly bicker with a boring male character while crawling through never ending tunnels was annoying. I kept begging for insects to eat one of them and put an end to MY suffering. About the only thing I liked was the closing scenes which made me laugh out loud.

Terrified – A 2017 supernatural horror from Argentine director Demián Rugna, in Spanish Aterrados. This was super frightening. I had to watch something light and funny right after seeing this movie.

The Astronaut – More sci-fi/thriller than horror. I really enjoy a good space story. I thought the ending was unpredictable, interesting and overall enjoyable.

The Borderlands – I love films based on the Catholic church investigating supernatural occurrences. This is another found footage film, and when combined with tunnels, weird locals, and ancient pagan rituals it was a home run for me.

The House – A creepy furry stop-motion animation anthology that is obsessed with house renovations and the emotions related to that process. It has been on our “to watch” list for an extended period of time but I avoided it because some of the characters, particularly the human ones in Chapter One, totally freak me out. Their beady eyes are too close, they have nondescript slashes for mouths, and pencil thin eyebrows. Chapter Two had a super weird dancing bug fever dream. Those gyrating bug limbs will stay with me for eternity. The final chapter was a bit less creepy, and had a somewhat happy ending. I think saving this one for Halloween was the right choice.

The Houses October Built – This was an interesting combination of a road trip documentary mixed with fictional plot points and plenty of jump scares. The movie shows real life haunted houses and interviews with people who actually work at them. It was one of the scariest movies we watched this October, so we jumped right into the sequel.

The Houses October Built 2 – The road trip continues with real locations. True fans of Halloween will relish seeing all kinds of interesting activities from zombie 5k runs to haunted hay rides. Andrew and I were partial to the section of the movie in Minnesota, our home state. While not quite as good as its predecessor, it is still well worth a watch since it brings a different tone and overall experience. I appreciate that the filmmakers didn’t just phone it in and copy the successful equation of the first movie.

The Jester – The clown is pretty scary and the actor is a master of physical acting. This slasher movie was just so-so for me. I wanted more backstory or at least part of an origin story. I watched the preview for Jester 2 and haven’t committed to watching it yet.

The Oak Room – This was a slow burn. It reminded me of ghost stories with a small town folkish tone. I liked it, but was hoping for one more big twist at the end.

The Platform 2 – The first movie was unique and an interesting, albeit violent, take on prison systems. The second was a bit too existential for me. I liked the twist that this was actually a prequel (and not a sequel), but some sections of this movie had me totally confused and wondering what the heck was going on and how the various themes related to each other.

The Strays – After the first 10 minutes I had an impending sense of dread in my stomach. The filming and styling screamed The Stepford Wives. Everything seems just too perfect and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. This film has a HEAVY ending and maybe the biggest twist is that it becomes a messed up character study more so than a thriller. I liked it immediately more than Andrew, but it grew on him after marinating for a day or two.

The Wasp – I was convinced this was going to be a Diabolique rip off. Midway through the plot does a 180 and the ending pivots again. I really liked this.

The Watchers – This is Ishana Night Shyamalan’s directorial debut (she is M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter). It looked great and I liked the theme. Dakota Fanning was reliably good, and the end was satisfying and still creepy.

The Woman in Cabin 10 – The cast is excellent and I hoped it would have a nuanced and complicated Agatha Christie plot. Unfortunately we guessed the twist almost immediately. Also, sometimes an actor being cast in a certain role is a sure fire giveaway that they are a villain.

YellowBrickRoad – A nightmarish spin on themes from The Wizard of Oz themes. This mini budget ($500,000) B film from 2010 was not a total waste of time. The acting is not stellar, some of the horror effects are comical, and there were some glaring plot holes, but you can tell the film makers were passionate. The most striking thing was how sound and music were as important as any of the onscreen human characters.

Tip: If you prefer tense, fingernail biting suspense more than slasher films, look for the “thriller” genre. Some of my most intense viewing experiences have been movies labelled this way.

VIDEO GAMES:

Amnesia: The Dark Descent – This is the first game in a trilogy and it is scary as heck. I screamed out loud multiple times. Andrew and I played together and it was an excellent addition to the Halloween lineup. My main complaint was that solving puzzles became less intuitive and more frantic in the final 1/3 of the game. I felt like I was just throwing things at a wall and hoping they would stick.

Crow Country – A 2024 video game that feels like games from a bygone era (Andrew says it plays like Resident Evil which I didn’t play). The graphics are rustic, but pleasant. Aiming your weapon is clunky in a way that adds tension. Killing zombies is difficult. It is perfectly puzzly and super fun. Once I started I didn’t want to stop playing. We finished this game in record time.