Like a lot of people on the magical interwebs I decided to try the "31 Days of Horror" horror movie challenge and watch 31 horror movies in October. I knew I probably wasn't going to make it, because 1. I had to finish writing my own (secret) horror movie by October 30 and 2. I accidentally got addicted to Fargo and binged on the whole first season.
But I ended up watching 15, 14 of them that I had never seen (and I'm only counting Hocus Pocus once even though we watched it at the work Halloween party and I had it running at home on Halloween night), and that ain't bad. I won't list them all, but my top five are:
1. THE BABADOOK. One of only a few movies to ever give me a nightmare the night after watching it. It is especially unsettling if you are a parent, with an interestingly enigmatic ending.
2. BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO. Weird shocker about a sound technician working on an Italian horror movie, and maybe going crazy at the same time. Best for fans of Italian horror of the 70s, but you probably already saw it.
3. PONTYPOOL. A burnt-out morning DJ at a remote Canadian radio station begins to realize that something terrible is happening in a snowstorm outside. A claustrophobic, slow-burn mind game.
4. HOUSE OF THE DEVIL: Throwback-style horror about a young woman hired to babysit an unseen client at the start of an eclipse, and what could go wrong with that?
5. GRABBERS: Brisk horror-comedy is sort of a remake of "The War of the Worlds," only the aliens turn out to be allergic to alcohol, prompting the residents of an Irish village to get hammered and fight back.
Special Honorable Mention to HAUSU (HOUSE), a 70s Japanese horror movie that is not to be entered into lightly; a group of schoolgirls visit a reclusive aunt in a creepy old house, which makes it sounds like a normal movie, but is really only for those fans seeking the truly odd and unsettling.
Enjoy!
But I ended up watching 15, 14 of them that I had never seen (and I'm only counting Hocus Pocus once even though we watched it at the work Halloween party and I had it running at home on Halloween night), and that ain't bad. I won't list them all, but my top five are:
1. THE BABADOOK. One of only a few movies to ever give me a nightmare the night after watching it. It is especially unsettling if you are a parent, with an interestingly enigmatic ending.
2. BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO. Weird shocker about a sound technician working on an Italian horror movie, and maybe going crazy at the same time. Best for fans of Italian horror of the 70s, but you probably already saw it.
3. PONTYPOOL. A burnt-out morning DJ at a remote Canadian radio station begins to realize that something terrible is happening in a snowstorm outside. A claustrophobic, slow-burn mind game.
4. HOUSE OF THE DEVIL: Throwback-style horror about a young woman hired to babysit an unseen client at the start of an eclipse, and what could go wrong with that?
5. GRABBERS: Brisk horror-comedy is sort of a remake of "The War of the Worlds," only the aliens turn out to be allergic to alcohol, prompting the residents of an Irish village to get hammered and fight back.
Special Honorable Mention to HAUSU (HOUSE), a 70s Japanese horror movie that is not to be entered into lightly; a group of schoolgirls visit a reclusive aunt in a creepy old house, which makes it sounds like a normal movie, but is really only for those fans seeking the truly odd and unsettling.
Enjoy!
