(This was originally a thread on Twitter where I listed the movies I watched throughout the month of October as I watched them. Some were good. Some were very good. And some were not very good.)
October's the month for monster movies or scary movies, so this is where I'll tweet out what I've watched so far.
1. Beetlejuice (1988). My favorite perfomance from Michael Keaton. Walked around saying "Have a problem with the livin'?" for hours after. Tim Burton's art direction is top notch. Absurd fun.
2. Phantasm (1979). BOY!! Never saw this before. Goofy, MST3K worthy. The plot was convoluted, it was a bit messy, but I have a lot of respect for anyone who writes and directs their own feature film.
3. The Invisible Man (1933). Over the top, a bit silly, but it's pretty faithful to H.G. Wells' book. All of the Universal Monster movies are gonna be in the rotation over the next few weeks.
4. Sleepaway Camp (1983). A horror afficionado friend of mine told me that I have to watch this, since I mentioned I had never seen it. He warned me that there was a twist in the end that haunted him for a while. Yep. Me too. *shudder*
5. Hellraiser (1987). Another movie I had never seen. Not going to revisit it either. A bit too gruesome for my tastes.
6. An American Werewolf in London (1981). Didn’t see this one before either. “A naked American stole my balloons” is some quality dialogue, though.
7. The Black Phone (2022). Finally had the chance to see this, and man, was it worth the wait. Ethan Hawke was terrifying, and Mason Thames delivered an incredible performance. The ending was very satisfying, too. Hats off to C. Robert Cargill and his team.
8. Werewolf by Night (2022). I know that this is just an MCU Special, and only has a run time of 55 minutes, but I think it counts. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. I dug the character design of the two featured monsters.
9. Return of the Living Dead (1985). Silly zombie fun. Great effects, fun ending.
10. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981). First time watching since I was a kid. I love that, after Jason’s first kill, he is fire safety conscious enough to remove a boiling teapot from the burner on the stove.
11. Friday the 13th part III (1982). The 3D effects shots are almost as annoying as the Shelly dude who keeps scaring everyone else. You know he’s eventually going to get killed, you almost cheer when it happens.
12. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984). The best of the sequels should have been the last one. Or, a clever twist could have spun the rest of the movies off to make Tommy the new killer. Never mind - that would suck too. Jason X is still a helluva premise though.
13. The Invisible Man Returns (1940). H.G. Wells was still alive to see the original and sequel to the film adaptations of his book, and I can’t help but wonder what he might have thought about them.
14. Ghostbusters (1984). Introduced my 14 year-old son to this classic. Holds up very well. Bill Murray owns every scene he is in. As he should have.
15. Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988). It’s a Roddy Piper double feature tonight. Finally saw this after years of seeing it mentioned in every Piper bio I have read. Schlocky, cheesy, a bit risqué; the kind of movie you would expect from a studio started by Roger Corman.
16. They Live (1988). Roddy is perfect in this movie, but I can’t help but wonder if his part was originally written for Kurt Russell. It would still be good, but I doubt it would be canonized as a classic.
17. Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies (2014). Well, it was a movie. I mean, it was a series of pictures displayed one after another to simulate movement, so yeah. It was a movie.
18. Hubie Halloween (2020). I have no idea why I put myself through this again. I forgot just how bad it was.
19. Without Warning (1980). I have a vague memory of seeing this late on a Saturday night when I was 7 or 8. I didn’t know the title, but Google helped me figure it out. Jack Palance and Martin Landau must have taken up most of the 150K budget, right? Still a fun flick.
20. The Wolf Man (1941). The best thing about movies before, maybe 1998 or so, was everything was played straight. Sincerity is a lost art. I think that’s why most of the best monster/horror movies are before the post-Scream era. Self Awareness kind of ruins the illusion.
21. Scanners (1981). I have zero experience with Cronenberg, and my only reference point for this movie is a throwaway line from Wayne’s World. This was a fun flick, gruesome in all of the right spots.
22. Videodrome (1983). Cronenberg is one messed up dude, isn’t he? I guess I will never look at Debbie Harry/Blondie the same ever again.
23. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). My favorite of the series, and it holds up very well. The soundtrack alone makes this a top 5 80s Horror Movie for me. Best Freddy death of the series too, IMO.
24. Arachnophobia (1990). What if you took the story beats of every 1950s era monster movie and transported them to a movie in the late eighties? You’d get this. A great throwback that’s entertaining on every level. John Goodman steals the show.
25. Barbarian (2022). Holy Crap. The less you know before you see it makes the experience far more interesting. It's like they made a 70s style horror movie in 2022. Incredible.
26. The Thing (1982). What else can one say about this that hasn’t already be said? The perfect blend of paranoia and gore.
27. Frankenstein (1931). The granddaddy of them all. I love that it only has a 70-minute runtime.
28. Young Frankenstein (1974). Easily my favorite in the Mel Brooks canon. Marty Feldman should have been arrested for how many scenes he stole as Igor (Eye-Gore).
29. Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Karloff is only billed using his last name; no idea why. The Bride (like Karloff in the first film) is not billed. I’m really not sure why they bothered to have a framing device at the beginning with an actress paying Mary Shelley’s though.
30. Children of the Corn (1984). Courtney Gains is such an underrated 80s movie actor. Between this, The Burbs, and (my personal favorite) Can’t Buy Me Love, it’s a solid run of weird, interesting roles. He’s the pride of Ginger Nation.
31. Dracula (1931). Had to finish the month with a Universal classic. Perfect blend of atmosphere and stage craft. One of the charms of these older films is the way they do a lot with a little. Dracula is creepy in all of the right ways.
Now the month is over. I don’t know that I will watch a horror or monster movie for a while. Except for Jordan Peele’s Nope - I will watch that as soon as it hits a streaming service. I think it’s coming to Peacock soon.