The Green Knight (2021) and I’m already cheating because I saw it the day before.
Slender Man (2018) didn’t work for me. A teen horror owing a lot to Ringu and especially The Ring jars. But it does have a scene I thought worked - somebody gets a video call from outside her house, looks out to see nobody there, but sees herself doing so...
Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (2021)
Fear Street Part 2: 1978 (2021)
Fear Street Part 3: 1666 (2021)
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
If you can separate the real people involved it has a couple of nice jumps, and also an attempt at a “childlike but creepy” monster design that fails the “but creepy” to hilarious effect. Ugh.
Crawl (2019)
How much can you do with two people stuck in a flooding basement with alligators? Actually quite a lot. The constant rising water keeps the small cast moving in the initially small location. It’s not complicated. It’s fun.
Sputnik (2020)
As Alien has a company trying to profit from dangerous first contact and The Quatermass Experiment has red tape getting in the way, this take on the idea in the late Soviet era sees secrecy and paranoia add to the alien threat.
No One Gets Out Alive (2021)
From a novel by the author of The Ritual, and apparently they changed the monster to make it more like the one in The Ritual. The shift from the poverty trap to an undocumented immigrant works, though loses the meaning of the title. There’s a very Val Lewton kill at one point, which I always appreciate.
The Guilty (2018)
Someone alone listening on a phone and unable to help goes all the way back to the Grand Guignol, and this dark story about a police officer at a dispatch desk raises the tension as he tries. Does he succeed?
The Guilty (2021)
The US remake plays very close except for a couple of (I feel weakening) tweaks at the ending, and a more emotive central performance, so we’re watching the character break instead of being in his place. Still good but preferred the original.
The Wraith (1986)
High Plains Drifter in the style of Knight Rider. Provided some laughs, some of them even intentional.
Blood Red Sky (2021)
Night Teeth (2021)
The Haunted (2018)
Haunted house indie with decent low-fi atmosphere, but doesn’t really come together or use the interesting idea of the protagonist being thrown in at the deep end with no knowledge and no expert showing up later.
His House (2020)
The Night House (2020)
A great portrayal of grief, coping badly in various ways, as well as some creepy haunting. Good but not really fun.
The Empty Man (2020)
A very silly story presented like The Ring. Also featuring wonky Buddhism.
Deadwax (2018) (trailer)
The hunt for a killer record, presented as a miniseries of ten-minute chunks adding up to feature length. Would be a good Chronicles Of Darkness adventure hook. From one of the writers of Until Dawn, so was it nearly interactive?
The Addams Family (2019)
I am not the target audience for this version. Great voice cast though.
Ready Or Not (2019)
It’s a lot of fun.
And having managed 21 new-to-me, a speed run of classics I’ve rewatched this month:
Frankenstein (1931)
The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)
Halloween (1978) with friends who hadn’t seen it and agreed it generally held up although they did question Annie’s decisions.
Alien (1979) also there, turned out to be the Director's Cut which I like less than the original.
Near Dark (1987)
Interview With The Vampire (1994)
Scream (1996)
Get Out (2017)
The Invisible Man (2020)
Scare Me (2020)
Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night!
