For Spooky Season 2023, I decided to partake in a 31 days of Halloween challenge on Letterboxd. It started a couple weeks early to allow people to survive that many films. There were certain criteria to meet and these were the classics (pre 2000) films I’ve watched so far.

Yes, this is indeed a problem.

1955 – Day the World Ended – perhaps only memorable for being an early post-apocalyptic film… one that’s somehow too good for the low budget schlock it is and not bad enough to be funny. 

1963 – Black Sabbath – A pretty good three part horror anthology from Italian weirdo Mario Bava. Was surprised at how not-1963 it felt. Two of the three shorts are rock solid… one much less so (the telephone story).

1963 – X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes – what would a man do with x-rays (besides see through  clothes at a groovy swingin’ 60s party)? Not a whole heck of a lot as it turns out. But I enjoyed the movie anyway… better than I expected from Roger Corman.

1966 – Billy the Kid vs. Dracula – not nearly inventive or funny enough to justify that title. It’s a total drag that might as well not be about Billy the Kid for all the they did with their legendary mash-up. 

1971 – The Blood on Satan’s Claw – an English folk horror film with a reputation as one of the best. I sure hope not. I found it boring and unfocused. Some creepy moments… or at least disturbing ones. 

1972 – Blacula – a notorious blacksploitation movie that turned out to  be more of a real horror movie than I thought it would be. It’s pretty good but the ending is a total pacing dud. 

1972 – Tales from the Crypt – Didn’t even know this anthology existed until recently (and was a big fan of the HBO series). Some of the stories are dated but that’s ok, each is pretty short so another one is always coming up quickly. Pretty good (if slightly dated) ghoulish fun.

1974 – The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires – British Hammer Films and the Chinese Shaw Brothers collaborate on a mash-up of vampire horror and kung-fu action. Peter Cushing as Van Helsing travels to China to investigate Eastern vampires… Very good action flick… dubious horror.

1978 – Stranger In Our House – Watched  because it’s an early Wes Craven I hadn’t seen and because it stars Linda Blair. Not a bad tv movie but gets a little too teenage drama llama in the middle… granted the drama llama is actually an evil teenage witch (and she’s not even Linda Blair) but it’s all pretty low stakes. Has some Craven in the suspenseful moments at least.

1980 – The Awakening – a Charleton Heston mummy movie based on a Bram Stoker story… could not possibly be any slower and still be called a motion picture. 

1981 – The Funhouse – Tobe Hooper’s 3rd film after Texas Chainsaw and Eaten Alive. Not bad… certainly a higher production value than his previous efforts. Could have been better paced and scarier.