Spooky Season 2023 update 2.. in which I decided to partake in a 31 days of Halloween challenge on Letterboxd. I completed the challenge and still have a couple weeks to go… but this’ll probably be the bulk of the classics.

1922 – Haxan (witchcraft through the ages) – a thinly veiled “documentary” that’s more interested in scandalizing than actually informing. It’s about how primitive screwheads of the past treated women accused of being witches while showing how enlightened we were in 19222… what with all the female “hysteria” and “modern” clinics.

1943 – I Walked with a Zombie – Pretty atmospheric and surreal zombie film from a time before George Romero blew up the genre. It’s a little racially insensitive in the usual ways of its time… but also pretty open and blunt about slavery. An interesting film.

1960 – Peeping Tom – a cult hit but I can’t understand why. A killer with a video camera is on the loose in London… and he’s the protagonist. But he’s a twitchy, weird guy with a messed up past… but I couldn’t care less. I found this flick boring and overrated. 

1958 – The Revenge of Frankenstein – Hammer Film’s second stab at a Frankenstein film is about as good as its first… which is to say, pretty decent in that poppy technicolor way.  

1972 – Sisters – An early Brian De Palma joint… and a damn good one too. I’d never heard of it but certainly know his later thrillers like Body Double and Dressed to Kill. Baffling this one fell into obscurity (at least in my brain).

1974 – Phantom of the Paradise – not really a horror movie though it was labeled as such. But also not sure what it is… a rockabilly musical comedy satire of the music industry, I guess. It’s a no from me, dog.

1980 – Inferno – Dario Argento’s thematic follow up to his more popular Suspiria. It’s a weird film, almost to its determinant as it bounces between characters and very little story structure to explain its many murders. And all the cats. Not bad, but a little befuddling.

1980 – Motel Hell – I’d heard of this movie for years but never gave it a shot. I was not expecting a demented horror comedy. It was amusing… I laughed and chuckled… and was marveled at how weird and sick it got. Doesn’t hold up for the entire runtime.

1981 – Dead & Buried – A pretty decent whodunit horror film about a small seaside town where people are suddenly getting murdered. We know whodunit but the sheriff doesn’t… but we learn WHY they dunit along with him. Curious structure for a horror film (or a mystery).

1981 – Deadly Blessing – an early Wes Craven film about a woman on a farm and the crazy religious sect next door who think she’s a literal incubus come to steal their menfolk. Not a bad film… not a particularly good one either.  

1981 – My Bloody Valentine – Surprisingly well produced for an early 80s slasher. Very good setup, kinda dragged out in the final half hour as “teens” wander aimlessly around a mine instead of getting pickaxed to death by the killer miner.

1988 – Evil Dead Trap – A decent Japanese splatter slasher film… nothing to do with the Evil Dead franchise.