Spooky Season Watchlist

October may be over but spooky season is forever.

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Every year I count down the days until October hits and I can languish in my one true movie love: hyper-gory horror movies. Below is my October watch list ranking including a separate vampire specific list because iykyk.

Non-Vampire Watch List

1. The Conjuring, 2013

The quintessential modern horror movie that began a new wave of horror franchises for the next decade. It’s also really fucking scary.

I do a deep dive of what makes this film effective in Anatomy of a Jump Scare, but James Wan’s first installment of a family dealing with demonic possession remains his best.

2. Event Horizon, 1997

Event Horizon follows a group of astronauts charged with recovering answers from the wreckage of another ship powered by black hole technology, the Event Horizon. This film has one of my favorite tropes of competent people in a hopeless situation. As the crew examines the ship more closely a terrifying question emerges - what if the black hole has opened a gate to Hell? Laurence Fishburn’s Captain Miller says it best: “We’re leaving”; but will the ship let them, now that it has them in its grasp?

3. Stoker, 2013

At this point, Park Chan Wook has the cred to do whatever he wants. In Stoker, the filmmaker shows his ability to take risks with his first English language film. Park’s meticulous style bleeds through the screen as we watch a young Mia Wasikowska grapple with the death of her father while dealing with a self-absorbed mother (Nicole Kidman) and enigmatic Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode). Goode’s take on the predatory uncle will make you squirm in anticipation and fear.

4. Evil Dead Rise, 2023

Just like the deadites in the movie, this franchise will. not. die. While formulaic in tone and structure, this film ups the scare factor by not being afraid to “go there.” What does “going there” look like in a film filled with hyper-violent gore? For me it was probably when the possessed main character CHILDREN began to eat their disemboweled Deadite mom and then fuse together to become a demon complete with limb pieces and blood red eyes. But that’s just me I guess - a delicate little flower that draws the line at familial cannibalistic possession.

5. Night of the Living Dead, 1968

Some films are classics because they’re the first, others because they’re the best. While shocking at the time, Night of the Living dead now seems tame compared to today’s horror (not a blood drenched corpse in sight). What this film accomplishes though, is becoming the blueprint for any zombie movie for the next fifty years.

6. The Blackening, 2022

Horror has always been a genre that critiques cultural inequalities, the rise of horror addressing modern black lives (Get Out, Antebellum, Changeling, Watchmen) is no suprise. The Blackening, a horror comedy, continues this trend by putting its all black cast in a cabin in the woods where they have to make choices between confronting a chainsaw wielding masked killer or confronting a cop - both potentially/equally deadly for them.

This movie is also incredibly stupid.

7. Fall of the House of Usher, 2023

I get into more details on parts of Fall of the House of Usher in Anatomy of a Jump Scare, but this ranks low on my list because I think I need to accept the fact that I’m not a Mike Flannagan fan. I’ve tried to get into all of his films and content because I WANTED to like The Haunting of Hill House, and I wanted to like this. It just really doesn’t connect with me.

8. Host, 2020

On a recent list of scariest horror movies by heart rate Host was rated #2. Set within the zoom call, the film revolves around a group of friends holding a seance. With a lean run time of 56 minutes - the max amount of meeting time without a premium subscription (this is an indie after all), Host is a digestible horror binge. Beyond a few jump scares, my heart rate remained steady.

9. Resident Evil, 2022

If you want to watch a Resident Evil movie, do not choose this one. In the first ten minutes, the main character is attacked by a building-sized caterpillar … and the movie goes downhill from there.

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Now for the main attraction: I LOVE vampire movies. But since I need to take break from binging True Blood over and over again, this month I set out to revisit and discover fang tropes.

Vampire Watch List

1. Interview with a Vampire, 1994

This film has it all: a southern gothic setting, Brad Pitt with long hair, gorgeous set design, and Tom Cruise letting himself be as unhinged as he probably is in real life. This is a perfect movie.

2. Stoker, 2013

Okay. I know I already mentioned this movie above. And you’re probably wondering why I didn’t mention it having vampires - that’s because this is not a vampire movie.

But it should be. Put some fangs on Uncle Charlie and you’ve got yourself a vampire classic. Also I just want people to see this movie so I can talk about how incredible Matthew Goode is in it.

3. Castlevania, 2017

I’m embracing my inner weeb by putting this Netflix anime on this list. Based on the video game of the same name, this

series is too good to ignore. When Dracula wages war on all humankind, an unlikely group of vampire hunter, sorceress, and Dracula’s son may be the only thing able to stop him. Top tier voice acting, highly stylized, and hyper-violent, this show only gets better as the seasons go.

4. A Discovery of Witches, 2018

Twilight for adults.

A Discovery of Witches follows the destined meeting between a witch coming into her powers (Teresa Palmer) and a 1500 year old vampire (Matthew Goode*). This series goes off the rails in season 2-3, but the first season is pure fan service for all vampire lovers.

5. Twilight, 2008

Sometimes it’s really fun watching actors hate what they're in. Has enough time passed that Twilight has crossed over from being a maligned YA fantasy to a camp cult classic?

A girl can dream.

6. Interview with a Vampire, 2022

I only saw the first episode of the new AMC series based on the Anne Rice novel, so take this ranking with a grain of salt. What made the original film in part so successful was the pure charisma of the leads - particularly Brad Pitt. In the 1992 version, we need to buy-in to Lestat’s obsession with Louis. We need to believe that a centuries old vampire would change his entire life after a glimpse of Brad Pitt’s baby blues. With Tom Cruise’s manic charm this is accomplished within 10 minutes, while in the 2022 version the chemistry is missing. The results are a story as beautiful as it is boring.

7. Renfield, 2023

Nicholas Cage is great in this as Dracula - a touch of Adaptation Cage, a bit of Raising Arizona Cage, and a lot of prosthetics.

It’s a shame all the surrounding characters and plot can’t match Cage’s ability to transcend a thin plot. While the titular Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is likable, he’s not compelling enough to root for. Also, I did not think Awkafina could be any more annoying than the rapping seagull in The Little Mermaid, but somehow she’s worse as a cop with a chip on her shoulder??

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So please join me in experiencing one of the films above and I would love to hear what is raising your heart rate.

*notice a theme here?