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excusethequality · 5 months ago

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My 2024 in Film: October, p.1

Every October I do my annual 31 Days of Spooky Movies challenge wherein I attempt to watch a spooky movie every day of October and I can't count anything I've counted in a previous October.

It started many years ago as my attempt to spread the fun of Halloween into the rest of the month. And has become a fun way to force myself into broadening my Horror horizons.

Unfortunately for me I watched a lot of them this month and so listing them all is going to take some time. So I suppose I had better get started.

* = rewatched

207.

You Are Not My Mother

(2021)

— Horror Directed by: Kate Dolan

A strange incident forces an Irish teenager to question whether her mother's increasingly erratic behaviors are the result of mental illness or something far darker.

On one hand it feels great to start the challenge off with a banger.

On the other hand it can be tough when you begin a challenge with the bar set extremely high.

I loved this movie. The performances, the mood, the themes, the way they build the horror; all of it was phenomenal.

Reminds me a lot of one of my favorite films Pyewacket (2017). With that one I've noticed that there's a big difference between how people thought about that one based on what their childhood was like. And I suspect there might be a similar reaction to this one.

As someone who definitely can relate to being a kid and being routinely terrified of what a parent might do and never knowing which version of them you might be seeing, this film hits me on a really primal level.

I really hope Kate Dolan goes on to make more movies because she's got a ton of talent.

208.

She Came From the Woods

(2022)

— Horror Comedy Directed by: Erik Bloomquist

It's 1987 and a group of summer camp counselors accidentally-on-purpose revive the killer nurse from the camp's ghost stories.

I started off the month on the high note then immediately came crashing back down to earth.

I watched this entirely because I saw William Sadler was in it and was curious what he was up to, but I was quickly made to regret that decision.

The writing is just truly, truly painful. Nothing really makes any sense. The villain is terrible. And there's this character named Dylan who just makes you want to throw your TV out the window.

209.

Scooby-Doo

(2002)

— Spooky Comedy Mystery Directed by: Raja Gosnell

The Mystery Inc. crew reunites after a long break up to solve a mystery at a spooky-themed island resort.

I watched the Scooby-Doo cartoons back in the day, so I was never inclined to watch this thing. But I know a ton of people with a lot of nostalgia for it.

It's also funny to me that I've met a lot of people who were introduced to Matthew Lillard from this movie. This has always been funny to me, because when this had come out I was already a fan of his because of his performances in SLC Punk (1998) and Hackers (1995) [and possibly Scream (1996), but I can't remember if I had seen that one yet at this point].

My friend and I decided this year we'd finally get around to seeing what the fuss was about.

The casting for this movie is pretty phenomenal, but I just couldn't get into it. It is both trying to stick to the format of the old cartoon while also doing a modern interpretation while also doing a meta twist on the cartoon? And I just feel like it would have been better to either fully commit to the old formula or fully commit to doing something entirely different.

210.

Nosferatu the Vampyre

(1979)

— Horror Drama Directed by: Werner Herzog

Warner Herzog's 1979 remix of F.W. Murnau's 1922 remix of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

Admittedly this was an odd follow-up to watch right after Scooby-Doo.

I don't really have a lot of thoughts on this one. And yet weirdly enough it ranked really high on my list of all the things I watched this month.

It's one of those movies that doesn't exactly vibe with me. There's no real characters that I was particularly interested in. The plot is basically just a stripped down version of Dracula.

And yet Herzog is bringing such a depth of artistry to it that I can't help but respect it.

Not the sort of thing you'll want to watch if you want a thrilling bit of Horror, but certainly a very well made film.

211.

Last Night at Terrace Lanes

(2024)

— Horror Thriller Directed by: Jamie Nash

On a bowling alley's final night before closing for good the people at the alley find themselves under attack by a strange cult out for blood.

This was also on the same day as Scooby-Doo and Nosteratu the Vampyre so clearly my friend and I are all about that that shuffle life.

After watching this I was pretty disappointed. It is not very good. Really a very messy story. They are trying to do somewhere in the ballpark of 4 different things in this:

Comedy

Family Drama

Romance

Horror

I'm of the mindset that anytime you add a genre to your story you are upping the challenge rating considerably, which is typically why good movies have either picked a lane or are just that talented.

Take Edgar Wright's movie Shaun of the Dead for instance. At certain times it hits all the same genre beats that this one was after. But it picked a lane. It is a comedy first and foremost. Whenever it hits one of the other beats it is for some flavor and either move the story forward and provide character development.

Here they are trying to do everything all at once. And they just don't have the talent to back that up.

However, it still was FAR from the bottom of my ranked list for the month (which probably says a lot about the quality of films I watched) and that's because its sin—in my mind—was one of being over-ambitious more so than one of being wholly untalented.

While the plot is a total mess, and the pacing is a mess, and they set themselves up as an ensemble and then killed almost everyone immediately, and they didn't have a decent budget; it is still leagues beyond some of the shit shows I've seen.

Which just goes to show that I am the wrong person to ask about bad movies, because the depths of film that I have encountered are far beyond where the casual movie watcher dares to tread.

The parts about the cult are terrible though. I've gotta admit that. They are so dumb and boring. But I kind of liked the main actress. And the queer romance bits and even the father-daughter stuff? Could've been better, but not too shabby for the minor leagues this film is running in.

...actually I kind of thoroughly hated every character other than the dad and the two main girls...

And yet I still put this movie at #22 out of the 56 movies I watched this month soo...

It was a bit of a rough month, y'all.

212.

Black Friday

(2021)

— Horror Comedy Directed by: Casey Tebo

Things are about to go from bad to worse for the over-worked retail workers trying to make it through a Black Friday at a toy store when a strange sickness starts to turn their customers into even more blood-thirsty monsters than they already were.

I watched this entirely because Bruce Campbell was in it.

It was a mistake.

Just a really dumb movie. It clearly cared more about its practical effects then it did its script. Because the effects were pretty decent, but the story and the characters are just awful.

Bruce Campbell is truly the only thing decent in the entire movie. And he's not in it enough to pull it back from the brink.

213.

Dance of the Dead

(2008)

— Comedy Horror Directed by: Gregg Bishop

On a dark and dangerous prom night it's up to a group of teenage outcasts to save their town from a zombie outbreak.

Filing this under films that didn't do any research and have a very limited knowledge of how anything works.

Nuclear reactors, public schools, pizza places, and more. They understand none of it. So when you do know more than nothing on those subjects a lot of the movie gets really distracting because nothing about this world is normal.

The plot is just this contrived incel wetdream about nerds winning the girls and never having to recognize that maybe the reason they were outcasts was because they weren't good people.

214.*

Night of the Comet

(1984)

— Horror Comedy Directed by: Thom Eberhardt

Two sisters are forced to confront the end of the world when a strange event seemingly kills or mutates everybody in the world but them.

I had already watched this in a previous October so it didn't count as part of the challenge, but I love it nevertheless. My friend and former coworker at the movie theater had talked about showing this after close one night for the longest time and we finally got around to doing it.

I tried to sum up my thoughts on this movie, but anytime I start I just wind up nearly starting an essay, so suffice it to say that I love it. It's just such a unique and wonderful film.

Much like how Reg and Sam are dismissed and underestimated by the people they come across, I think it's easy for people to do the same to this film. I can see how people can walk away from it thinking it was nothing more than a silly little movie. But part of why I keep coming back to it is that there's actually so much going on in here when you stop and look.

You've got really great characters with a lot of depth, you've got a story of 3 survivors in a post-apocalyptic world and not a one of them is a white man, you've got accurate sibling dynamics, you've got the romantic bittersweetness of these sisters who have the world laid out in front of them but what they want most of all is just to be loved, and more!

It's just such a gem of a film and I never get sick of it.

215.

In Fabric

(2018)

— Moody Horror Directed by: Peter Strickland

A strange cursed dress brings nothing but misery to the lives it touches.

Oh, A24. I've long said of the studio that I tend to either love their films or hate them, and there's very rarely any grey area. So, I certainly appreciate that they're a studio that isn't afraid to take big swings, but it does mean I'm making a sort of all-or-nothing gamble when I try something of theirs.

It certainly does have more artistry than most of the other movies I really didn't like this month. But I also just thoroughly don't care about any part of it. It all just seemed to be arty and weird for no other reason than to be arty and weird.

I could see someone grasping onto some themes I was missing and being able to decipher it and really like it. But by the end of it for me I was just bored out of my mind and just waiting for it to be over.

216.

Tremors: Shrieker Island

(2020)

— Monster Attack Horror Sequel Directed by: Don Michael Paul

Does it really matter? You know you aren't about to watch the 7th Tremors movie if you haven't watched any of the others. And if you've seen the other 6 you know you don't really need a reason to want to be a completionist.

I thought I had seen watched all the Tremor movies earlier in the year and I was wrong! I had missed the most recent one.

And to my complete and utter shock, it is actually one of the better Tremors sequels? How did that happen?

I should point out that the original is a perfect film and not a single one of the sequels is anywhere even close to being in its league. So I'm not by any means saying this movie is great.

But damn. The sequels range from some that are enjoyable in the way that it's fun to watch silly bad movies with your friends. And others are almost completely unwatchable direct-to-dvd cash grabs.

217.

Suck

(2009)

— Rock n Roll Horror Comedy Directed by: Rob Stefaniuk

A rock band must confront some tough questions when one of their members is turned into a vampire, but greatly increases the band's popularity by doing so.

I went into this one fully ready for it to be an absolute trainwreck.

But you know what? I actually kind of enjoyed it.

It's not one I'd necessarily recommend anyone run out and go see. But if you come across it streaming somewhere and you're bored? You could do a whole lot worse.

218.

Cat People

(1982)

— a fucking disgrace Directed by: Paul Schrader

I am a HUGE fan of the 1942 film Cat People. That movie is a brilliant piece of queer horror and a personal favorite of mine.

As such I've avoided watching this one, because I had heard that it is a pretty wild departure from the original.

But since I had already watched a ton of shlock this month, I figured now was the time to watch it, because it's not like I had far to fall.

I went in with a really low-bar of expectations for this and somehow it still managed to be even worse than I expected.

One of my biggest annoyances with the original is how many people see it, not as a queer story, but as a story of sexual repression. And this director is definitely one of those people.

This movie is so straight it hurts. It is so allosexual it hurts.

The people making this were just a truly uncomfortable level of horned up when they made this movie.

I truly despise it. I hate it for existing. And I hate it for attaching itself like a dirty parasite to something I love.

What a truly terrible piece of cinema.

219.

Dave Made a Maze

(2017)

— Comedy Horror Adventure Directed by: Bill Watterson

A man's friends go on a mission to rescue him after he gets lost inside a cardboard labyrinth he made in his apartment.

[I should mention that the director of this movie is a different Bill Watterson than the one that created Calvin & Hobbes. I just need to clarify that for anyone that is like me and saw that name and got really excited.]

It's certainly a low-budget independent kind of movie, but I can't help but love the sheer creativity that went into it. It's like a really bizarre take on House of Leaves.

The production design of all the cardboard sets are my favorite part.

I don't even know what to say. In terms of acting and plot it isn't going to blow your mind. But I think the worst thing a movie can be is forgettable and this is certainly one that I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

220.

Lisa Frankenstein

(2024)

— Rom-Com Horror Directed by: Zelda Williams

A teenage outsider has a crush on her idea of a boy who died in the 19th century. But when he winds up being raised from the dead the two will have to decide just what lengths they are willing to go to for love.

I really wanted to love this one. Diablo Cody wrote the script and Kathryn Newton is always fun. And at times I do love it! Ugh. It comes so close to being something great. It's just perpetually on the line. It's just missing...I don't know...a real cohesive hook?

Sometimes it feels like things are just happening to happen. If the story and character arcs were a little more developed and drove the plot more it would have made a huge difference.

I still had a lot of fun with it and will definitely be watching it again at some point. But there's just something so annoying about a film that comes so close to greatness!

221.

The Mummy

(2017)

— Fantasy Action Monster Adventure Directed by: Alex Kurtzman

I honestly can't even remember the exact nature of this bizarre plot and I refuse to bother looking it up. It's something like, an ancient evil enchantress from Egypt is inadvertently released from her prison and wants to use Tom Cruise's body as a vessel to bring a god of death to life.

There is an action scene that they shot in a zero G plane for real. And that was admittedly pretty cool. Everything else in this movie is just absolute madness.

Yet another movie of the modern age wherein any attention to plot and characters has been sacrificed on the alter of big names, special effects, and stunts.

222.

And Now the Screaming Starts!

(1973)

— Horror Directed by: Roy Ward Baker

It's 1795 and a newly married woman is horrified to learn that her new husband's family suffers from a dark curse and now a ghost fueled by ancient resentments is determined to get its revenge at her expense.

While not one to write home about it's not terrible. Very firmly in the middle of the road. After that last movie it was refreshing to watch something from that older style where the story came first and it actually makes sense. Good or not you don't have to spend the movie going, "What the fuck is even happening!?" And that's something I appreciate about it.

223.

Haunted Mansion

(2023)

— Spooky Family Comedy Directed by: Justin Simien

A group of people have been cursed after stepping foot in a haunted mansion. Now in order to be freed from the ghosts that live there they will have to figure out a way to defeat the evil specter at the center of it all.

TRASH. FILM.

So fucking dull. And there's a truly weird amount of product placement.

Just like The Mummy (2017) this is yet another modern movie that only cares about famous actors and special effects. The plot or any sort of character development felt like a complete after thought.

Truly a terrible watch. I was so utterly and completely bored. It's not even fun bad, it's just dulldulldull bad.

224.

Island of Lost Souls

(1932)

— Sci-Fi Horror Directed by: Erle C. Kenton

A shipwrecked man winds up stuck on the island of a mad scientist who is determined to learn where the line between man and beast truly resides.

I've seen a lot of versions of H.G. Wells' novel, but strangely never this one.

You know what? Solid. I think it holds up.

Is it my favorite bit of 30s horror? Not even close. But it's solid. It's got interesting characters, some great tension, a memorable premise, makes the viewer ponder some intriguing moral questions, has decent production, and comes in at a tight 70 minutes.

Watching it after the shitshow that was Haunted Mansion (2023) was like a breath of fresh air.

225.

The Swarm

(1978)

— Animal Attack Horror Directed by: Irwin Allen

A swarm of killer bees threatens to destroy the United States of America and only bee expert Michael Caine can stop them.

Definitely a movie to watch with a friend. I am convinced a great drinking game could be made out of this movie, because it's definitely not good.

Take a drink every time there's a snapple fact disguised as dialogue.

Take a drink every time someone sees a bee hallucination.

Take a drink every time you'd wish they'd get back to the bees.

Finish your drink every time Michael Caine eats sunflower seeds as if he was feeding a cat a pill and he's the cat.

I definitely rated it quite low though. It's like 2 hours long and has some truly bizarre pacing. There's just so much filler and so many scenes that feel like a public service announcement to teach people about the dangers of killer bees.

226.

The Hunt

(2020)

— Action Horror Directed by: Craig Zobel

A group of people wake up in the middle of nowhere and learn that they are being hunted for sport by a group of unhinged one percenters.

What a truly odd movie.

I'm really not sure who this movie was aimed it. It has that South Park energy of "Caring about things is stupid so we'll just sit back and make fun of everyone for caring."

HOWEVER, I'm a sucker for a survivor turning the tables on those who would do them ill through sheer brains and willpower. And Betty Gilpin is amazing in this movie.

She single-handedly straps this movie to her back and drags it up the mountain. So I had a good time watching it, but only because of her. Any scene that she's not in was wasted time.

227.

The Night Has Eyes

(1942)

— Mystery Thriller Directed by: Leslie Arliss

A woman searching for her lost friend on the moors takes shelter with a strange man who lives out there. She starts to fall in love with him but fears that he is hiding a dark secret.

I had a real problem this October with movies I had to reject from counting towards the challenge because I found them to not meet my qualifications for being a Spooky movie.

Personally I consider this to be a Mystery Thriller and not a proper Spooky movie, but that's just me.

I dunno. I've definitely seen movies of this type before and it probably suffers in my mind from the comparison.

I'll still put any solid older movie up against your average modern blockbuster any day though.

228.

The New Mutants

(2020)

— Superhero Coming-of-Age Horror Directed by: Josh Boone

A group of mutant teens are held at a psych ward to help them control their abilities. But something dark has begun to haunt the halls here and threatens to kill them all one by one.

This movie has suffered so much. It went through a true production hell and it shows.

The whole situation sucks so much because I've read the New Mutants' comic arc that this is based on so I was really excited when I heard this was being made. I've been waiting forever for someone to make a true Horror movie out of a superhero story!

The movie is really awkward. You can see the Frankenstein patchworking of its production all over it. Everything is awkwardly stitched together into an unnatural creation.

And if that wasn't bad enough almost all the actors are doing bad accents for absolutely NO reason

And yet I can't completely write it off because I can see beyond the surface to see how this could have worked. There are moments where you can see what this movie originally wanted to be and in those moments it's actually really interesting!

I would definitely file this under movies that I like more than they deserve and so I wouldn't recommend anyone else watch it, but I'm definitely going to be rewatching it at some point because it intrigues me.

229.

Thirst

(1979)

— Horror Thriller Directed by: Rod Hardy

A woman is kidnapped by a vampiric secret society who are determined to force her to join their ranks by one way or another.

Yo, the 70s were a weird ass time.

I can't say I particularly liked this movie, but I also can't say I don't respect it.

This thing is out here absolutely swinging for the fences. It is extremely artistic, weird, and memorable.

I can't say I'm dying to see it again anytime soon, but definitely glad I watched it.

230.

Renfield

(2023)

— Action Horror Comedy Directed by: Chris McKay

Dracula's manservant Renfield begins to question if there isn't more to life than luring unsuspecting victims to be eaten by his master.

You know what? Respect where respect is due: I liked this far more than I thought I would. It's a pretty solid character-centric action comedy.

I definitely wished they hadn't gone to the Mortal Kombat school of blood effects though, because it is weirdly distracting how much blood they think the human body can hold.

I don't really have any solid opinions about this. It's fine. I would definitely watch it again, but I wouldn't ever pay to watch it again. So take from that what you will.

——————

Previous months’ posts:

JAN | FEB | MAR p.1 | MAR p.2 | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP

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