I tried again. Like the last few years – I’ve always been a little envious of people who watch like 31 scary movies (or more!) during the month of October. I’ve never been able to hit the full 31. There’s always baseball or football or regular TV or soccer or dance classes and such.
But this October, I did my best. This is my lowest total (17) since I started doing this – I only hit 20 last year and 27 in the first year. I did watch a few series that were great but which took a lot of time. I will say this much about both of them, which I absolutely loved.
Crystal Lake (Peacock) was basically perfect. Exactly what I wanted. Truly fleshed out the Pamela Vorhees character so much. One thing that did make me laugh though was I was reading the director wanted to add nudity to the show in honor of how horned up the original Friday the 13th movies were and he got major pushback from Peacock. What cracks me up is on this show I saw multiple people get their heads smashed in half and someone get thrown into a deep fryer but a boob or butt here or there is too much in this country lol.
Carrie (Amazon Prime) on the other hand I thought was like 98% perfect. I love Mike Flanagan and will watch literally whatever he wants to make at this point and Carrie was amazing. The acting from relative unknowns was great and it’s always a treat to get a good Matthew Lillard performance. Without any spoilers though, Flanagan made a decision near the end which I think truly changed the whole story that Carrie was meant to tell. It vaguely makes sense seeing he is doing a whole Dark Tower series but the decisions made in the storytelling really didn’t sit right with me. 7/8 episodes absolutely nailed it though and I still loved the series as a whole.
If you are looking for a movie to watch tonight or tomorrow before all the trick-or-treating is complete, here is the list of the creepy, scary, disgusting and/or classic horror and horror-adjacent movies I have seen this month. A few of these (Evil Dead Burn, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, Hokum and Backrooms in particular) are ones I’m truly bummed I didn’t get to see in theaters. I didn’t do a full write-up on each of them, and let’s be honest. That ain’t happening and as per usual, there’s Reese’s to be dad-taxed so here it is!
| Movie | Streaming Service | Score (Out of 10) | Notes | |
| 1 | Valentine (2001) | Netflix | 9 | Somehow missed this. Campy. Exactly what I wanted with a good twist ending |
| 2 | The Whisper Man | Netflix | 8 | Adam Scott is great in this as usual |
| 3 | Lee Cronin’s The Mummy | HBO Max | 8.5 | Ending brought it down and it’s too long by probably a half hour. Great if you think of it as a mummy movie in the Evil Dead Universe. |
| 4 | SOULM8TE | HULU | 5(.8) | A little Obsession mixed with a little Ex Machina and a pinch of Her. It’s in the same universe, so think big time M3GAN vibes without the comedy. |
| 5 | Terrifier 3 | Amazon Prime | 8.666 | Brutal as the other two. Art the Clown kills Christmas! |
| 6 | Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 | Netflix | 7.5 | A perfectly fine sequel to the first FNaF. Definitely setting up another in the series. |
| 7 | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Disney+ | 10 | Yearly watch. Perfect. No notes. |
| 8 | Evil Dead Burn | HBO Max | 7.5 | Not sure where this one ranks for me in the Evil Dead series (probably low middle), but it was absolutely ruthless and bloody as could be while getting in one or two lines that made me chuckle like any good Evil Dead movie will. A few scenes will stick with me. |
| 9 | Together | HULU | 10 | Body horror. Relationship horror. It’s so freaking good. |
| 10 | Happy Death Day 2U | Netflix | 9.5 | I loved the first Happy Death Day, and this one may be better. Very funny and sweet. Tree’s death montage is great. |
| 11 | House of 1000 Corpses | Amazon Prime | 8.5 | First watch. Somehow missed this one for 23 years. Good tribute to the exploitation films of the 70s and 80s. The plot is kinda everywhere but made up for by the characters and bloody vibes. |
| 12 | Trick ‘r Treat | HBO Max | 9.75 | Yearly watch. Almost perfect. |
| 13 | Casper | Peacock | 10 | Absolute perfection. This began everyone’s love affair with with Christina Ricci or Devon Sawa. |
| 14 | Hotel Transylvania 2 | Disney+ | 9.5 | This whole series is so so fun. I didn’t think it needed a sequel but I’m glad they kept going. Bleh, bleh, bleh. |
| 15 | The Little Mermaid (2024) | Peacock | 6 | I LOVE a good, bad movie. This thing fits the bill to a T. The archeologist is named Dr. Eric Prince for goodness’ sake. This is under the “Disney lost all of their original IP to public domain” Universe and not an official entry into the Poohniverse. Is it great? No. Is it good? Maybe also no. But did I enjoy it? Yeah. |
| 16 | Hokum | HULU | 9.5, possible 10 | A friend told me this could be my favorite movie of the year. Very possible. Probably a hair behind Obsession. Just a perfectly executed “get under your skin” throwback type folklore horror. Adam Scott is having a horror moment it seems |
| 17 | Backrooms | HBO Max | 9.5 | The same friend told me this could also be my favorite movie of the year. I’m real bummed I didn’t get around to seeing this in theaters. Chiwetel Ejiofor is just so unbelievably good. Great two movies to end with. |
Happy Halloween everybody! I hope you all get every treat you deserve and all the tricks you want!
