October is for scary movies, or at least movies that are about Halloween. So for the second straight year, I dedicated all of my movie watching time to this endeavor, except for The Eras Tour and Killers of the Flower Moon, which totaled six hours, which is the equivalent of four scary movies. Some of the movies I watched, I have seen before, but not logged on Letterboxd, but most of the movies I watched, it was my first time watching them. There were some gems, but also there was some garbage, but that is just movie watching in general. I also watched 10 scary movies that came out in 2023 this October. This is also a great time to do some franchise horror dives, and I delved into one new franchise that I had never really watched before. So here are my rankings of the 38 movies I watched, and below those are some Spooktober Awards!
1. The Shining
2. When Evil Lurks
3. V/H/S
4. V/H/S 2
5. Hell House LLC
6. Hell House LLC Orgins
7. Halloween
8. Halloween 2
9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
10. Talk to Me
11. Rob Zombie Halloween
12. Totally Killer
13. Re-Animator
14. V/H/S 85
15. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum
16. Halloween 3
17. Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3
18. Hell House LLC II
19. Devil
20. You Should Have Left
21. Deep Red
22. Zombies
23. Five Nights at Freddy's
24. Spirit Haloween: The Movie
25. All Hallow’s Eve
26. Rob Zombie Halloween II
27. The Night of the Hunted
28. The Exorcist Believer
29. Chernobyll Diaries
30. The Return of Texas Chainsaw Massacre
31. Nightmare
32. Lake Mungo
33. Dog Soldiers
34. Halloweentown
35. The Puppetman
36. The Dog Who Saved Halloween
37. All Hallows Eve 2
38. Tales of Halloween
2023 Movies Favorites Kid Friendly
Biggest Surprise: The one new franchise that I dove into was Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I watched the original earlier this year when Netflix released their modern sequel to it. I was not too into the original or the new version, but I decided to give the franchise another go, because horror franchises are bad, but they always have their moments, and this one had its moment with Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II. It was so much fun, and it built an adequate amount of tension. Not to mention that it was super creative and well over the top. There was a moment when they broke into the radio station, and the tension that was building when the guy was asking for a tour was top tier. He was just so creepy and predatory, and then the chainsaw guy was sawing through cans of soda in the cooler for minutes while the girl screamed. It was wild! Then the end takes place at some weird carnival type place, that had great production value and was the perfect setting for a film like this. I highly recommend watching it on MAX.
High School Friend Favorite: One sleep over in high school, we were scanning through the horror movie titles on Netflix, and we came across V/H/S. None of us knew anything about it, but we gave it a go, and it left a lasting impression. When I posted my One Sentence Review on Instagram, multiple of my friends that watched it with me replied to my story. The story centers on a group of people, who break into a house looking for a valuable object, but they find a house littered with tapes, and when they put one in the VCR, it plays some disturbing footage, and they play a few more tapes, and people in the house start disappearing. The one tape that haunts me the most is the one of the hotel. I still think about that one when I stay in a hotel to this day, and I watched that movie probably ten years ago. Of course, I watched it several more times with different people, like my college friends, because when you find a gem, you must share it, but it is not for everyone! Streaming on Peacock.
Best New Addition: My second ranked movie of the month is When Evil Lurks. I knew it was coming to Shudder at some point, but I did not know much about the actual storyline. Then one of my friends asked me if I had seen it, and I said no, but that made me want to see it more. Then they talked about it on The Big Picture Podcast, and that increased my interest even more, because they said it was creepy. So I immediately went and saw it in the theaters, when I saw it was available. It is an Argentinian horror, so it was in Spanish, but it was incredible. It was a totally original story, and it was filled with shock value. The most surprising and disturbing came from an altercation between a massive dog and a child. It was fully committed to what it was, and it did everything well, and this included a ton of practical effects, which added to the realistic gruesome visuals. It was violent and intense, but it keeps you drawn in the whole time! I highly recommend it, and it is now streaming on Shudder!
Best: My number one horror watch of October was one that I have seen a few times, and it is also one of my favorite books, The Shining, and although Stephan King does not like it, it is undoubtedly a masterpiece. Not only does it tell an unsettling story about a man losing his mind in isolation and endangering his family, but it is also incredibly artistic, and there are so many undertones to it as well. They literally made a whole documentary about hidden messages in the film. The first time I watched this, I was in high school, and I watched it with a friend and my dad, after I had finished reading the book, then after college, I got lucky, and I got to see it at a special anniversary screening in an actual theater, and it was incredible to see it on the big screen. The opening tracking shot of the car is the best, but there are so many other great tracking shots as well. Kubrick is a master with the camera. It has so many iconic scenes and lines, that it is almost impossible for it not to be number one! It is also streaming on MAX, so go check out this classic, if you have never seen it. It is from 1980, but it still holds up.
If scary movies are not your thing, well I suggest you check them out anyway. It is one of the true art forms that can make you feel something, even if that feeling is extremely uncomfortable. Also the only way to get used to scary movies is to watch them. Eventually you become desensitized to it, and you can just enjoy it for what it is. One of my favorite things is how broken down the horror genre is from slashers to zombies, to gore, to paranormal, and so much more. It is a mega genre with something to offer for everyone.
Postscript: I waited to the last minute to put this paper up, because Hell House LLC Origins just released onto Shudder, and I wanted to see if it could live up to the original, and it did! Top three horror movie of the year, and it was the second scariest of the year. It fixed the mistakes of the second and third instalment. It switched up the location, and it added some new scares in addition to keeping some of the same tactics as the original, and it worked so well. So happy that I was able to finish Spooktober on a high note!
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