October and "spooky season" more generally is my absolute favorite time of the year and went about as hard this year as we have in recent memory. Halloween candy, pumpkin everything, horror-themed bars, fright markets, jack-o-lantern fests, and many, many horror movies. We had something going on more nights than not and as much as I loved it, it did feel like a bit of gauntlet towards the end. Perhaps fortunately, my body finally gave up and I had a full-blown cold for the actual day of Halloween. It forced me to rest a bit and gave me an opportunity to marathon my way into a full 31 horror/Halloween movies for the month. I've been doing that challenge many years and I've also been donating to Unsung Horrors' Horror Gives Back fundraiser for a few years now. It's a terrific community and a great cause (they raised over $4000 for Best Friends Animal Society this year!) so if you're looking for an excuse to binge horror movies next year, I fully endorse signing up. They offer terrific prompts and categories to keep everyone engaged but I can barely stick to my own watchlist so I just follow my whims and donate some money at the end. Nobody minds.
We also took a short venture out to Seattle early in the month. I had a great time and fell in love with exploring different neighborhoods as well as the unparalleled access to nature from the city - even without an automobile. Seattle is also home to an incredibly vibrant film culture (more about that below) and I was beyond stoked to visit Scarecrow Video while I was there. Scarecrow has an unreal collection and they do rent via mail for anyone outside of the area. They are currently fundraising to maintain their current space and secure living wages for their employees so I would highly encouraging throwing them a few bucks to preserve such an incredible resource.
I've got a metric ton of movies to talk about in addition to theatrical showings (not all spooky) so without further delay:
The Face Behind the Mask (1941) and The Beast with Five Fingers (1944) - I didn't actually watch these on the same day but this was inspired by a Peter Lorre double feature that the New Beverly Cinema screened in October. The horror bona fides of Face might be tenuous but I loved the story of Lorre turning from humble and earnest immigrant to reluctant if sometimes ruthless crime boss. Lorre's performance carries a lot of the film as some of the best action happens off screen, but he's up to the task. His character becomes disfigured (certainly Tim Burton has seen this film) and the makeup he uses to disguise it is genuinely unsettling. Beast is solidly within 40s chiller territory - again propelled by fantastic work from Lorre but also some surprisingly eerie disembodied hand effects. It takes its time to get rolling and I found the denouement eyeroll inducing - but this thing really cooks when it focuses on Lorre and a murderous hand.
I, The Executioner (1968) - Stunningly shot and notably brutal for '68. Sometimes my choices lead me towards something that is more horror-adjacent than legitimately frightening. However, Executioner is about as black as a noir can get. I'm not terribly familiar with Tai Katō's films but found this rather fascinating on a formal/structural level. Executioner is pointing both at New Wave revolution in its form and classically expressionist modes in its visual language. There's something magical about that 60s B&W look with crisp photography and deep contrasts. I've read some grousing about the writing and while the politics of Executioner are admittedly pretty bonkers, I didn't take issue with how the story was presented. Surely, the humanization of the protagonist who is fully a serial killer and the depiction of the "inciting incident" are difficult to swallow. Still, I felt this is well within the lines of some of the more provocative Japanese literary and (by extension) cinematic traditions. In fairness, I struggle with those sometimes as well,
The First Omen (2024) - Sure, you might think you can win me over with Possession references and Raffaella Carra needle drops...and well...you sort of can. Very little interests me less than modern reimaginings, prequels, or sequels to classic horror films so I skipped this one without much thought upon release. However, enough people told me that this was worth checking out that I finally relented. First Omen manages a great atmosphere, both aesthetically and sonically. It's not just by virtue of being a period piece of sorts, I get the sense that Stevenson had a real vision for the feel of the picture. My only complaint is that conspiracy thriller/horror can be a hard sell when nearly every plot beat is totally predictable from the beginning. No fault of the performances and you do have to work within the context of the "franchise" but I was starting to check out a bit at various times. In a normal context, I don't know if this would be considered a "best" but I watched several newer horrors this year that I absolutely hated so I thought this was worth mentioning.
What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974) - Just one of those astonishingly obvious blind spots I had in my personal filmography that I'm finally correcting. I can't recall if this was an availability thing or I just hadn't found the time yet. Either way, Daughters is not that much of a horror film but it's a grade A banger of sleazeball Eurocrime. Massimo Dallamano leans into some similar territory as he does in the previous What Have You Done to Solange? and I only suppose it's fair to draw some parallels between the two. It's been a few years since my last viewing of Solange and I think I enjoyed Daughters about equally. The motorcycle helmeted killer featured on the cover does actually appear in several sequences which does lend a sense of proto-slasher aesthetics but Daughters is largely a mystery/crime procedural supported by a tremendous cast (Giovanna Ralli, Mario Adorf, etc.) and blisteringly cool Stelvio Cipriani music. The main theme was lifted for a great sequence in L'Innocent which was one of my favorite new movies last year.
The Strangler (1970) - This has been high on my priority list and I probably should have just gone and picked up the blu-ray from Altered Innocence sight unseen. Sometimes budgets and other priorities get in the way so I'm honestly just happy to have finally caught up to it. It's an absolute stunner of a film but it is singularly bizarre in tone. The nighttime palette of turquoise and amber blends with the utterly cryptic behaviors of the characters to create an atmosphere of total mystery and nearly oppressive loneliness. It is a looking glass nocturnal Paris populated entirely by the most wayward of lost souls and makes no attempt to justify any of this to the viewer. I can understand why some people would find it all too strange and possibly even offensive - but I think others will find something relatable here even if that's a terribly uncomfortable fact. Another totally amazing soundtrack with Strangler and I probably will have to pick it up on disc at some point as well as catch some more Paul Vecchiali features.
The Vault of Horror (1973) - Nothing has October vibes in quite the way Amicus anthologies do! I can't marathon these collections but I'm so happy to watch one or two every year and Vault is so supremely worthwhile. I was re-visiting the EC Crime SuspenStories earlier this year and even though those are not primarily horror books, I think it still put me in the right headspace for Vault. Per usual, some of the sections are stronger than others, but there's no real weak links in this one. Roy Ward Baker directed some of the oddball Hammer films (which I tend to favor) and handles this all rather well in the spirit of the original comics. The cast is a delight and you get some terrific stuff from Curd Jürgens, Tom Baker, and many more. Glynis Johns passed away at 100 years of age this year and she is wonderfully fun in her role.
The Mummy (1959) - I confess that I'm not the worlds' biggest Hammer fan but I'm always trying around this time of year to find the ones I like best. The Mummy's narrative is about as boilerplate pulp dramatics as you'll find anywhere but it is an aesthetic feast of a film and comparatively action packed. Green-lit ancient tombs, flashbacks to elaborate Egyptian rites and magic, and (most critically) Lee's moldering mummy tearing around killing people. He descends and rises from bogs, crashes through windows, and is an exemplary mummy of few words and lots of action. Cushing holds his own as a aristocratic archaeologist and Yvonne Furneaux plays double duty as Cushing's fiancée and Egyptian priestess/princess Ananka. I expect most Hammer fiends have seen this time and time again but if you find yourself resistant to their more gothic fare, you might check this one out.
Horror Castle (1963) - My man, Antonio Margheriti, delivering some ghastly yet groovy Italo-gothic action. First thing's first - DO NOT READ THE LETTERBOXD SYNOPSIS. Not only does it give away the mystery, it's not even accurate. However, once you've managed that you should dive right in for some ace October vibes. Others have written it but it does feel like a bit of a blend of Italian Gothic and German Krimi. Part Bava, part Scooby Doo Mysteries, with a wild, horrific final twist. Christopher Lee is woefully underutilized overall, but does get a shining moment towards the last act. No shortage of castles, cobwebs, secret passageways, tombs, rats, skeletons, secrets, and medieval torture devices. I could see Riz Ortolani's lush jazz feeling incongruous for some people but I absolutely loved it. I caught this on a weirdly up-rez'd copy on YT but I think Severin might be releasing this one? Definitely something I'd be into.
Hallucinations (1986) - Shot on video horror is another genre that I can't marathon but does hold a special, October-y place in my heart. A very young Mark and John Polonia deliver a slab of barely coherent Pennsylvania fever dreaming that I found totally intoxicating. There's only the faintest of pretexts as to why anything in Hallucinations is happening but the Polonia's are clearly driven by the purest of genre filmmaking intentions - put wild ass shit on the screen. Mutilation, monsters, elf urination, psychic dismemberment, and a rather courageous physical performance from John. I also like how much of the limited runtime seems dedicated to Mark's relationship with his cat. Absolute weirdo classic. You probably already know if you have the taste for this kind of deal.
Taste of Fear (1961) - Another Hammer film but one well outside of their classic horror line. Taste of Fear runs closer to a Diabolique inspired thriller but does manage to straddle genres in a similar way. I thought this was totally gorgeous, sonically varied and interesting, and genuinely suspenseful. There is a twist, naturally, but I thought it delivered a decent surprise. I thought Susan Strasberg's performance was excellent and (again) we get Lee more as a side character but an interesting one. I'll admit that I'm easily won over by 60s jet-setting thrillers where wealthy people do terrible things to each other, but this one is excellent.
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) - I put this on before remembering that it's a Christmas movie and by then I was already invested in the film. Auntie Roo? is a very loose adaptation of Hansel & Gretel and honestly, isn't much of a fright-fest. However, it is a showcase for a positively unhinged Shelley Winters performance and isn't that a compelling enough reason to watch it? The kids are not alright in this one and Winters manages to be fairly unnerving whether she's singing lullabies or eating apples. The finale is pretty brutal, all things considered. This should absolutely be in your holiday lineup if you go for cult Christmas films.
Blood Bath (1966) - The product of a strange, disjointed production and featuring two different directors (Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman) - apparently Svengoolie claimed that Blood Bath was the worst film he ever featured on his program. For the first 20-30 minutes or so I could see where Sven was coming from but there's something about this one that eventually pulled me into its acidic waters. It's very 60s and the antagonist, William Campbell as Atonio Sordii, is an avant-garde painter who depicts scenes of butchered women, referred to as his "dead, red, nudes." There are several scenes featuring Karl Schanzer and Sid Haig (among others) as laughable beatniks who sit around cafes and attempt to imbue meaning into various methods of splattering pigment on canvas. It turns out that Sordii needs to actually kill women to create his masterpieces and he might actually be a vampire or reincarnation of a murderous ancestor or possibly just insane. The plot beats are reminiscent of Corman's A Bucket of Blood or H.G. Lewis' Color Me Blood Red but (intentionally or not) Blood Bath results in a much weirder, dreamier film. There are several flashback or dream sequences - shot by Rothman- that contribute to that and I just found myself very immersed in the atmosphere. I couldn't exactly tell where this was supposed to be taking place - it seems like Italy but nearly everyone in the film is American. There are some vampiric effects, there is an acid bath with a trapdoor, and there are no shortage of lovely ladies facing immediate physical peril. I admit to a weakness for kooky, 60s horror and I was a fan of this one by the final frame.
The Seventh Victim (1943) - Another huge blind spot for me and one I'm glad to fill in courtesy of Criterion's excellent Val Lewton set that also includes I Walked With a Zombie (which I had seen before or it surely would have been listed here). Mark Robson delivers a visual knockout - the cinematographer on Victim was frequent Lewton collaborator Nicholas Musuraca - and though the storyline is ultimately rather grounded in pulp/noir traditions, it still manages to be quite strange. Occult orders and conspiracies aren't entirely out of line in pulp fiction though they are often found to be sham operations by rip-off artists. That isn't the case, here. The occult ties aren't necessarily as pronounced as I might have thought they would be, but Victim presents the "Palladists" as completely committed devil worshippers and even ones that are sympathetic in some ways (they are somewhat dedicated to non-violence, for instance). I also appreciated that this is an NYC film and that these are Greenwich Village cultists - who doesn't love bohemians gone evil? In the end, The Seventh Victim goes for the bleakest possible resolutions and it's profoundly affecting. If, like me, you haven't managed to catch this - it would make an excellent addition to your Noirvember lineup.
Kenny & Company (1976) - The first film in what was my Halloween triple-header. Kenny & Co. is not actually a horror film but it is set on and around Halloween and it was directed by multi-faceted genre weirdo, Don Coscarelli, so I'm saying it counts. It's a coming of age film somehow impossibly nostalgic for the time in which it was actually made. Maybe sentimental to a fault but also surprisingly existential and occasionally bizarre. Amidst the pre-teen hijinks and skateboarding sequences there are several sober (if youthful) ruminations on death and dying. This is set in Southern California so the vibes are more Halloween-y than they are Autumnal to my midwestern brain, but you can just luxuriate in them all the same. If you're at all a fan of the Freaks and Geeks Halloween episode, Tricks and Treats, you will probably dig this one. Of course, I am perhaps overly wistful about an age before computers where the threat of physical peril was ever present and your hobbies consisted largely of low level criminal activity.
FleshEater (1988) - Number two in my Halloween-a-thon. Bill Hinzman, the original flesh-eating ghoul from Night of the Living Dead, directs and stars in a Halloween set hybrid of Romero-worshipping gut munching and 80s slasher tropes. If Hinzman was looking to do some incisive social commentary per his mentor, it must have been lost on the cutting room floor. Young people drink beer, smoke grass, get naked, and then are summarily ripped to shreds by Hinzman - only to rise up and enact the same ritual on the next set of unsuspecting slobs. The physical effects are cheap but fun and in the vein of classic Romero-esque nihilism, nobody is safe from the undead. I actually found the end result to be a good time and charming in a way so many of the revered regional slashers fail to be. Yes, you are subjected to fumbling make-out sessions, bad dancing, and braindead conversations, but at least Hinzman delivers on the gory goods. I followed this up with my annual watch of Halloween III and called it a night.
Theatrical Screenings!
I made it out for a lot of seasonal screenings this year, but also have some non-spooky additions to highlight. It's always tough as I feel like awards season starts to pick up in October and there are lots of films I'd like to see but can't always find the time. One day I'll attend something at the Twin Cities Film Festival, I promise!
We Live in Time (2024) - This was, somewhat oddly, the first movie I watched in October. Not at all seasonal but I was a fan of John Crowley's Brooklyn and have been known to indulge in a solid relationship drama on occasion. We Live in Time's formal conceit of disjointed time-hopping through the lives and relationship of Almut and Tobias (Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield) is nothing shockingly innovative but it's handled rather well and keeps the narrative flowing along at an engaging pace. I think the main thing to be said here is that Pugh and Garfield have absurdly good chemistry onscreen and I think people will fall in love with them as a couple. As romantic tragicomedies go, Time exudes an avalanche of charm and the nonlinear reveal gives the audience ample opportunity to become truly invested in Almut and Tobias before things take a turn in the final act that is both melancholy and a little strange. I also have some questions around the Tobias character and what his motivations add up to be outside of being in love with Almut. My feelings around the finale and characterization aside, there is a scene in a convenience store bathroom that may wind up being one of the most memorable sequences committed to film this year. It's insane and hilarious and I was totally in the moment as it unfolded. Not a firm recommend for genre film diehards but if you like to get a bit weepy with charismatic performers, this should be on your list.
Suffer, Little Children (1983) - We were able to catch this at SIFF Egyptian while visiting Seattle. Little Children was programmed as part of SIFFs collaboration with Scarecrow Video in their "Scarecrowber" series. Gorgeous theater, great staff, and the Egyptian is undoubtedly a terrific venue to catch capital “C” cinema. Suffer Little Children is 1000% not that. It is a shot on video satanic panic horror from the UK that apparently was largely conceived and made as a school project by the credited director's students. Due to the satanic themes and the violence inflicted on children, Suffer managed to find itself on the infamous "video nasties" list and I believe only recently it's been possible to see the uncut version. The plot essentially boils down to an evil possessed kid who relocates to an orphanage and then the supernatural mayhem kicks in. It's filled with wild music and you frequently can't make out what anyone is saying but luckily dialogue isn't necessary to catch the broad strokes of the action. It’s rare (for me) to see this level of barely coherent murderdrone SOV insanity with an audience and I absolutely relished the chance to do so. The final 15-20 minutes was an absolute riot even with a somewhat sparse crowd. Come, Satan, Come!
Nickel Boys (2024) - I can't say too much about this at the moment other than I'm looking forward to it getting wider release and talking about it more later this year!
The Super Spook Show Spectacular - I wrote a whole damn post about my favorite new(ish) October tradition. Please put your eyeballs on it if you haven't already: https://kino-ventura.blogspot.com/2024/10/demonic-invocations-live-witch-trials.html
Rumours (2024) - I knew that this was going to be weird, but I don't think I understood how weird. Even stranger is that this might be on the lower end of the weirdness scale from Guy Maddin. I did find this hilarious, deeply cynical, and ultimately a good, strange time at the cinema. It won't be the greatest film of the year but I respect the commitment to inflicting chaos on the viewer (it also looks tremendous which never hurts). Undoubtedly will have its fans and something I imagine could end up on Waters' best of 2024 list?
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