If I fall, can I stand?

OCTOBER RECAP

I did amazingly well this month with my choices. While a decent handful of my choices fell into the category of “I was entertained for 90 minutes but I wouldn’t rewatch,” I’m not mad about that. Out of my 31 movies, I only thought one was utter garbage and that was “The Open House.”

I watched a ton of Netflix originals and the vast majority of them were good, and a few were spectacular. “Final Girls,” “The Ritual,” “Crawl,” and “The Perfection” all get top marks, but the winner this month is still “Apostle” by a huge margin. Fantastic all around and a movie that will most definitely be making it into my revised top 31.

Now it’s time to turn on my annual rewatch of “Trick R Treat” and then break out the dark glasses and leather pants for my Crowley ensemble tonight.

Happy Halloween!

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26. Zombieland: Double Tap - Loved it! The first Zombieland is a favorite of mine. It’s one of the first movies I saw when I moved to Austin, so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. And it is utterly blowing my mind that it’s ten years ago! The sequel definitely wasn’t as magical as the first movie, but it was still a blast. And Woody Harrelson can still get it.

27. Wounds - Body horror is probably one of my least favorite sub-genres of horror. It’s the type of horror that I find the most viscerally unpleasant which means it’s effective, but it also means that they only body horror movie I’ve ever rewatched is “American Mary.” This one was quite good but deeply unsettling. The whole cast was filled with fairly unlikeable characters, and the movie doesn’t try to make you muster up any sympathy for them. You just sit back and watch as they barrel toward their own destruction.

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21. The First Purge - LOVED this one. I’ve enjoyed the other offerings in this franchise but this was the best by a huge margin. I always want to see the origin of the dystopia so I’ve been waiting for this installment.

SHOCKER, the ultra-right-wing party of psychos decides to clear out the undesirables that are overwhelmingly poor people of color. Was the imagery a bit heavy-handed at times? Sure. But you know what’s not usually particularly subtle? That level of bigotry.

The musical choices of playing old spirituals while men dressed in the uniforms of institutions of power (police and military) and racism (KKK and Nazis) hunted unarmed citizens guilty of the crime of being poor was incredibly effective.

This made me want to rewatch the other two with the insight from the origin story.

22. Eli - Quite liked this one. It had a good, creepy setting and the kid was a decent actor. Definitely did not see the twist at the ending coming at all!

23. Jigsaw - I unironically love the Saw movies for the ridiculous Final Destination level traps. With the exception of the first, are the movies actually GOOD? Not particularly. But they always keep me entertained and I continue to be impressed by the way details weave together across all eight movies.

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18. The Open House - This one’s going to be a no from me. I enjoy the whole home invasion sub-genre, but with this movie literally nothing happened until the last 20 minutes. We learn nothing about the killer. We never even see his face. And I’m all for “murder sprees are my self-care” being the killer’s motivation, but if you’re going to give me that little, I need the rest of the movie to be interesting. And this really really wasn’t. Hard pass.

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13. Malevolent - Pretty standard fare of fake ghost hunters who scam people ending up in a house with real ghosts. I mainly watched it because the house it was set in looked cool, but the set wasn’t utilized to it’s potential at all. A bit of a twist at the end that kept it from being completely generic, but definitely not a movie I’d recommend.

14. The Golem - Surprisingly good little movie. A bit predictable, but there aren’t too many horror films out there that delve into Judaism so it’s always enjoyable to see something other than the usual demons and priests with more religious-themed horror.

15. Darling - Visually striking, but very art house. The film being in black and white, as well as the editing choices, definitely worked for this movie. It keeps a tight focus on a single character for 99% of the movie and has almost no dialogue. It feels a bit like a student film version of Hitchcock. It’s not something I’ll ever watch again, but I appreciate it for what it is.

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10. The Perfection - This was stunning. The movie was an absolute roller coaster, and I never expected any of the many twists. Allison Williams is really carving out a name for herself with her horror roles. I can’t really think of anything else to say about this other than - perfection.

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8. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House - I actually really liked this one which will surprise a lot of people who know me. The movie was slow and quiet and didn’t have much in the way of action for a large portion, but it also reminded me of everything I love about the Gothic Horror genre.

The voiceovers were creepy and poetic, and what the movie lacked in action it made up for in tension and atmosphere. Also I loved that house. New England farmhouses are my favorite, even with the murderous ghosts.

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5. Apostle - I loved this one. LOVED IT. I adore period horror films and there aren’t a huge amount of them period, let alone ones that are incredibly well done. I also didn't know Michael Sheen had a large role in this, so I might have shrieked AZIRAPHALE when his name popped up on the screen.

Seriously though, this was a fantastic movie. The 2+ hour run time didn’t feel long at all, the crazy cult story was fascinating enough before any of the supernatural elements showed up. So far, this is my favorite of the month. Absolutely going into the rewatch file and this might even make my top 31 in the future.

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3. The Ritual - VERY impressed with this one. Visually stunning setting with a tense atmosphere that keeps ratcheting up. It really brought me back to watching Blair Witch the very first time and having those “did I see that?” moments.

ALSO THIS IS WHY YOU STAY ON THE TRAILS INSTEAD OF GOING JAUNTING THROUGH THE CREEPY SWEDISH FOREST.

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Happy Halloween month everyone! Now that October has arrived you all know what it’s time for - lots and lots of horror movies!

This year marks year number 11 of my annual tradition, and I have tons of monsters and slashers on the docket for this month.

1. Terrifier - This movie was recommended by one of my very favorite people and someone who is pretty much my horror soulmate - Aaron Hefler. If Aaron tells me to watch something, I watch it.

This movie was a fairly ridiculous, absolute balls to the wall slasher movie. It gave me “The Collector” vibes, and I enjoyed that one too. This definitely isn’t DEEP MEANINGFUL CINEMA, but the deaths were inventive and the clown was creepy AF.

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