The Fourth Year of Haunting. Welcome to Horror-tober Fest!

It is almost that time of year, boys and ghouls, that haunting month… of Horror-tober!  I have already created the full list for this year, but some of it may change as I am sure there may be some snags here and there. Unlike last year, we will not be in the midst of moving so there should be loads of new films this year.

Categories haven’t changed, and as always here they are:

            Supernatural Sunday A day to fit ghosts, witches, vampires, and anything otherworldly 

            that doesn’t necessarily fall into any of the other categories.

            Zombday In a zombie apocalypse, these slow-shuffling, brain-loving undead take over the 

            world. In Horror-tober, they take over a day. BRAAAAAAINS!

            Transcontinental Tuesday Foreign films. Japan, Korea, Spain, even Canada – wherever 

            offers up a good old scary story for viewing pleasure.

            Wacky Wednesday The fun and lighthearted. The funny and dark. The campy. Or the 

            animated and weird.

            Throwback Thursday Those classics I love or new favorites I want to watch again.

            Creature-Feature Friday For all things monster and creepy-crawly. This year seems like it 

            will be a mix of animals gone crazy.

            Slasher Saturday Slashers, thrillers, home invasions, torture porn, body horror, et al.

As I also did not finish last year’s posts, I offer another list of the movies I watched and the ratings for each. Last year I also enjoyed quite a few days of horror shorts, and I’ll breakdown those ratings as well.   

1 – Shaun of the Dead 5 skulls – One of my favorites, love it and always fun to rewatch this one.

2 - Cursed 3 skulls – Werewolves. Wes Craven. Christina Ricci. Jesse Eisenberg before he was annoying, oh wait. Still like it.  

3 - Maniac - 2 skulls – Elijah Wood as a killer and filmed almost entirely from his perspective. Meh.

4 - Creep - 4 skulls – Found footage. Mark Duplass. Genuinely creepy. Loved it.

5 – Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead – 4.5 skulls – Sequel to one of the craziest, campiest, and goriest zombie movies ever. As good, if not better than the first in my opinion.

6 – Tormented (Rabbito Hora) – 2.5 skulls – Surreal with creepy life-size stuffed rabbit. Otherwise, meh.

7 - Zombeavers - 2.5 skulls – Super campy, zombie-wildlife romp. Zombie bear, humans with zombie beaver teeth and tails. Just OK.

8 - Scream - 3.5 skulls – Another Wes Craven. Classic and always will be on the top of my list for slashers.

9 - Shorts – First of the day of shorts:

There Are Monsters - 2.5 skulls – Canadian short about people becoming monsters or 

something. Decent scares.

Lights Out – 5 skulls – The kind of short that will keep you up at night. Perfect setup and 

masterfully executed.

The Little Witch – 3 skulls – Really, really short. But just the right length to make your skin 

crawl.

The Whistler – 4.5 skulls – Another one beautifully filmed and great set up. Beware if you 

hear a strange whistling outside you window at night.     

10 – More Shorts – Another day of shorts:

            Vienna Waits for You – 4 skulls – An apartment with a secret. One of the longer shorts but 

            entertaining none the less.

            Pictured – 3 skulls – From the director of Lights Out. Not as good, but still pretty creepy.

            2 AM: The Smiling Man – 4 skulls – Something as simple, friendly, and innocent as a mile 

            could be the stuff of nightmares.

            Tufty – 2.5 skulls – Not so much a horror, but an OK story.  

11 – Tales from the Darkside - 4 skulls – Horror anthology with some well-known actors. Fun good group of tales.

12 – Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead - 3.5 skulls – Australian zombie comedy. Fun, and pretty fun story.

13 – Archivo 253 – 2.5 skulls – Found footage of paranormal investigators in an abandoned insane asylum. Some good jumps but otherwise pretty lame.

14 – What We Do in the Shadows - 3.5 skulls – Vampire mockumentary with Jemaine Clement. Funny and loved the nods to all the classic vampire movies.

15 – Corpse Bride – 3.5 skulls – Tim Burton’s follow-up to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Colorful, musical, and still like it quite a bit.

16 - Tusk - 3 skulls – Kevin Smith delves into the horror genre with a disturbing and entertaining body horror flick. Pretty good!

17 – Curse of Chucky - 3 skulls – 6^th installment in the Child’s Play franchise. Chucky gets his revenge. It was decent.

18 - Honeymoon - 3 skulls – Cabin in the woods for a honeymoon. Aliens in the woods, maybe? Good build up to the end, creepy crawlies, and the possibly aliens!

19 – Zombie Shorts – Shorts, with zombies! :

            Waterborne – 3.5 skulls – Zombie kangaroos!

            Dark Times – 2.5 skulls – First-person beginning of the end of the world. OK.

            Bite Me – 2.5 skulls – Zombie web series, first episode was OK.

            Play Dead – 3.5 skulls – What happens to our pets when the zombie apocalypse hits? 

            Very enjoyable and weirdly heartwarming.  

            GWAR – not a short, just still excited that I saw GWAR in my lifetime.

20 – Foreign Shorts – Shorts from around the world:

            Gakko No Kaidan/Katasumi (In a Corner) - 3 skulls - Is actually part of a few shorts that 
            introduce the ghost from Ju-On and The Grudge. 
            Comedy - 2.5 skulls - Beautiful Japanese anime. Is the swordsman a ghost, a vampire, 
            the devil? Who knows. 
            The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow - 3 skulls - A picture is worth a thousand 
            words, or in the case of Mister Hollow, worth a creepy story. 
            No Way Out - 3.5 skulls - Dismal and pretty good special effects. 
            Mama - 3.5 skulls - Shouldn't you be happy mama is home? Not if she is some scary CGI 
            ghost-thing. 
            HI - 3 skulls - A young woman haunted by her past perhaps? Creepy and just right.
            Behind the Door - 2.5 skulls - I repeat, never invite them inside. 

21 – Wacky Shorts – Shorts that are funny and wacky! :

            The Cat with Hands – 4 skulls – Live action and stop-motion animation. Utterly bizarre 
            and I love it.
            Alma - 3 skulls - A semi-lighthearted animated tale about a creepy doll store. 
            Certified - 3.5 skulls - This one was pretty funny and unexpected. 
            Killer Kart - 3.5 skulls - Shopping kart gone mad. Pretty fun. 

22 – Re-Animator – 4.5 skulls – Always a fun rewatch.  

23 – Late Phases - 2 skulls – Werewolves harassing a quiet retirement community. I really want another good werewolf movie. Just OK.  

24 – Stage Fright - 2.5 skulls – Slasher at a theater camp. Musical and alright in the genre.  

25 – Banshee Chapter – 3.5 skulls – Lovecraft. Drugs and surreal (or real?) hallucinations. I enjoyed it but don’t remember too much.  

26 – The Lazarus Effect - 3 skulls – Another one with Mark Duplass. Team works on a cure for death, but things go wrong. Decent.   

27 – The Brainiac - 3 skulls – Man being executed vows he will return in 300 years to exact his revenge on those that tried him. Old-timey movie with hilarious special effects but enjoyable.

28 – Killer Klowns from Outerspace - 3 skulls – Have I mentioned I have a fear of clowns? This and It may have been the cause. But honestly, I enjoy the ridiculous 80’s camp of this one and it is a fun one to rewatch. 

29 – Scream 2 - 3 skulls – The second is not as good as the first but it is one of my favorites in the range of sequels for a slasher franchise.

30 – Scream 3 – 2.5 skulls – Same cannot be said about the third. This one just bores me.

31 – Scream 4 – 4 skulls – And this is a case where I feel the final is better than the first. I love this one for many reasons.  

That's all folks - time to get this started!