2025 October Horror Challenge #45 "Sinister"

The first time I saw this movie I had heard so many good things about it and of course it's a horror movie and it's got Ethan hawg so we know I was going to watch it. I heard that it was really scary and that it had scared a bunch of my friends and they all recommended that I watch it so I was excited to check it out for the horror challenge that year so I put the movie on and I watched it. And it was a really good movie I was very impressed with it I thought hey this is a good movie It's got a good plot it's got good acting It's got heart and soul to it I cared about the characters It was pretty devastating because it's a horror movie and it's mean to its characters but in clever ways so I was impressed with the movie. The only thing was, it didn't scare me. So I thought well this movie isn't scary but it's a good movie and I really like it so I'm going to buy it so I guess I'm happy with my viewing choices tonight. And then I turned off all the lights and I went to bed and I lay in bed and I looked around the dark room and I closed my eyes and I heard footsteps running in the hallway and I opened my eyes and I looked and my cat was lying down in the bed next to me so the footsteps weren't hersed and I was like fuck this. I got up I turned on all the lights and I watched another movie because no way was I going to sleep with the evil demon from this movie running around in my hallway. So as you can see the movie did end up scaring me more than I thought it was going to It has a slow burn kind of scare to it where you don't notice until later it's like an aftertaste. You don't really notice it right away but it slowly creeps up on you and then you're scared and you're like damn this movie is scary. So I'm excited to check this movie out again today I enjoy watching Ethan hawke in movies He's one of my favorite actors as I think you can tell by reading my reviews on this website how often I mention him cuz I try to watch every horror movie that he's in and he's in some really good ones and I honestly think everyone does a great job acting even small bit players like the sheriff and the youngest daughter in this movie does a great job with her role so the movie is well worth checking out It's got a sinister haha a sinister Aura about it that just kind of seeps in like a stain like a drop of water landing on cloth is slowly seeps in and spreads out and infects everything around it and I appreciate a movie that can give me that feeling because I think evil is a very all encompassing force that taints everything around it and I think sometimes it creeps up upon you slowly and you don't notice it until it's taken over and That's what this movie illustrates. I like that this movie features an evil that you can't really escape, because the house isn't haunted the family is haunted So even if you leave the house because in horror movies you're always wondering why the family doesn't just leave the haunted evil house and get away from all of the demonic activity but in this movie even if you leave it follows you so I appreciate that perspective and I think the movie is well worth checking out so give it a shot.

2025 October Horror Challenge #44 "Scream 6"

I really didn't know what to expect from this movie because let's be honest these sequels run the gamut from really good to pretty terrible so I wasn't sure where this one was going to fall but there are a lot of things that I liked about this sequel. Again the relationship between the two sisters feels real and again the tight knit relationship between the people who survived the murders in the past movies is something great to see because I like to see good things coming from tragic things and the friendships and bond that these characters share because of the messed up things that have happened to them definitely a plus that could qualify as a good thing that came from something bad. And I want everyone to know that I did guess who the killer was in this movie It doesn't matter really because I as I said that's not why I watch these movies I watch these movies to see stock and slash movies with some cleverness and some tongue in cheek humor and killers that aren't invincible finally and victims that don't die from one stab wound like they do in most movies Get some resilience people. But I did guess who the killer was and I'm proud of myself for doing that It's like the first time I guess the end of a Harlan Coleman novel I was very proud of myself because he writes really twisted twisty stories and it's hard to figure out all his plot twist cuz he lies right through his teeth to you so you have to pay attention very closely to everything every character says in order to guess the gaps and the knowledge that are going to lead you to the conclusion of who the killer is and that's hard to do I got s*** to do in my life I don't have time to sit here and read a book and remember every word that a character says So I tend to fall by the wayside with movies that get too twisty and I don't notice all the hints and all the clues and all the evidence but I pick up on the red herrings and then I look silly so I've given up trying to guess who the killer was but I was proud of myself for figuring out who the killer was this time around. I like the characters I like the backstory of the killer and why the killer is doing this I think that had the two sisters Sam and Tara sat down and spent some time thinking about it they would have probably figured out quicker what was going on because it was glaringly obvious to me and I don't know why it's like the ghostface killer kept saying over and over again why he was doing this and they were like plugging their ears and saying la la la la la la la and not paying attention and they would have figured it out way earlier on in the movie if they hadn't just sat down and talked and not run around and gotten stabbed thousands of times I don't know maybe they're like getting stabbed some people are into that kind of thing. This movie is gory and the killer is really vicious in this movie like in the other movies I have said that the scream movies have sadistic kills and they do with stabs that are mean and harsh and definitely not little pokes These are full on stabs but in Scream 6 the killer has using a knife in each hand and basically eviscerating people and it's pretty gross and I'm impressed with the gore. I liked seeing some of the legacy characters come back in this movie it was nice to see them again Hayden panettiere is one of my favorite actresses so it was great to see her again and it was great to see characters who really are passionate about horror movies though I could say that this movie is making an argument that people who are passionate about horror movies are psycho killers but that's not really true because the character of Mindy and the character of Kirby are both definitely obsessed with the horror genre and they don't end up being psycho killers which ruins a little bit of the end for you cuz it knocks out too suspects but I don't think any of you really suspected them in real and if you did then you weren't paying attention because I knew it wasn't them Now that I guess to the killer was I shall look down my nose upon anyone who did not guess who the killer was That is my birthright and I am glad I checked this movie out I'm glad I gave it a chance It's definitely better than part two and three it holds up pretty well although I think it's getting tired and I just don't know if they're going to be able to sustain the momentum to make the sequels continue to be watchable but they're probably going to continue to make sequels as long as they make money and let's be honest we know that I am a fan and I will watch them as long as they make this equals whether they're good or not so I'm hoping that with the next movie they come up with something cool maybe the Agatha Christie wrote where everyone is a killer but for now we have five stock/movies that I crammed into one day and I'm happy that I did because slashers are my favorite sub-genre and I had a fun day checking all of these movies out and remembering why I liked this franchise so much in the first place so yeah I recommend this movie. give it a chance.

2025 October Horror Challenge #43 "Scream 5"

So I'm watching Scream 5 because I haven't seen Scream 5 or Scream 6 and scream 7 is coming up soon and I would like to watch that one as well because I like the scream movies so I'll watch them until they stop making them pretty much That's just what's going to happen I'm that kind of a fan they inspired devotion and their fans. But I heard somebody tell me that they had a problem with one of the character deaths in this movie they said I'm not mad necessarily that the character died although I did like the character I'm mad at the way the character died because it doesn't make sense So I was watching to see if I agreed with that statement and now that I'm seeing the movie yeah I agree The death doesn't make sense It's stupid and annoying and it insults all of our intelligence and I don't understand why it happens the way that it does so boo on that. Other than that death though so far the movie's pretty good the beginning was great the opening sequence I definitely liked it and I liked that they continued the tradition of the killer being human meaning you can kick the killer and beat the crap out of him with a chair and it will hurt the killer not like those movies where the killer is invincible because that's just not fair and I liked how they brought in the family story although I think one of the family connections is kind of stupid and they're not explaining how it happened and they're just leaving it there like we're just going to accept that this happened without any explanation of how and I'm irritated by that but other than that I do like the new characters and I like seeing the characters return There were characters that I actually liked from some of the previous films that I did not want to see die in this movie so I'm pissed but that's the way the cookie crumbles and scream movies so I understand we'll see how the rest of the movie goes. yay we get to see two girls kiss and a Scream movie My life is now complete. So what did I think about this movie in the end Well I have to say that it was actually pretty good I didn't guess who the killer is but you know I've given up on ever trying to guess who the killers are in the Scream movies because I just it's not about that for me I don't trust anyone and I hate everyone and I just think every once the killer and one of these days there's going to be a scream where everyone is the killer it's going to be like that Agatha Christie book where everyone is the killer in the end and they're all killing each other and I could see that happening in the screen franchise because honestly they just can't seem to do it with just one killer except in part 3 oddly enough part three managed to do it with just one killer. So part 5 like I said has two girls kissing part 5 has a person with asthma losing their inhaler and having to go back to a murder house to get it and part 5 has hidden family secrets that as we all know can't stay hidden because they're going to come back because the past is never really passed and it's going to come back to bite you in the ass. or something like that generally with these movies that's what happens. I wish they explained how I don't want to ruin anything or spoil anything but there's a twist that I wish they would have spent more time on because I just can't see with the timeline of the first movie how this twist could have happened and I guess it just bugs me that they rely so heavily upon this twist Just being true with no one questioning it and I don't know I find it irritating I know that movies like this have to reveal twist Wait a minute I'm your best friend sister's brother's boyfriends uncles brother-in-law That's why I'm the killer but in this movie it seems like it's really reaching and I wish they would have tied that up neither and there's one character death that that guy on Twitter was right it is stupid but other than that I did enjoy this movie I liked the acting I liked the relationship between the sisters it felt real to me I liked the chemistry that Gail and Sydney have on screen because at this point Courtney Cox and Neve Campbell have been in a lot of movies together so they just work they're fun to watch and it was great to watch them kick some ass and it was great to see ghostface stabbing people again because that's really what these movies are all about So let's move on to the sixth one and we'll see if that one is worth checking out.

2p26 October Horror Challenge #42: "Scream 4"

I've always said that I'd like to scream for better than scream three and scream too and I do although it has its flaws and its things that make it difficult to watch at a times It's a little cringe let's be honest The opening sequence is great The character of Jill is kind of a b**** to Sydney just because Sydney is the cousin who went through the original murders doesn't mean you have a right to treat her like crap although when all is revealed in the end I guess it makes sense that some of the people act the way they do I don't know He makes the characters unlikable but I really liked the character of Kirby and I like that Sydney is virtually unkillable as the killer said "What are you fucking Michael Myers or something?" It's funny but it works and I did like the movie I liked how dark it was Now I'm watching the fifth movie and I appreciate how the fourth brought the story back without seeming like it was just retreading old ground trying to ring the buffalo's neck to get pennies from heaven I don't know It just seems like horror movies have to have sequels and they said Scream was going to be a trilogy and then of course we all know it is an increasingly inappropriately named trilogy because it's not trilogy they keep making sequels Now they're working on a seventh one so we'll see what happens with that I suppose but I do enjoy the back story behind the Killer in scream for more than I expected to. basically it's a litmus test if you like stock and slash movies you'll probably like scream for so you should check it out but if these aren't the kind of movies you like this movie is more of the same and it's not something that will appeal to you so give it a pass for my money I appreciate it and I definitely enjoyed watching it so I guess I say I recommend it onto screen 5.

2025 October Horror Challenge #41: "Scream 3"

remember when I said that sequels to movies have a tendency to be bigger and throw more crap at you at the screen and tend to be louder and more obnoxious and everything's bigger There's more kills There's more twisted backstory there's more bad acting There's more explosions? Well I'm sure some of you were thinking There's no explosions in the Scream movies. I said before you this day scream three where a house just blew up because they put an explosion in the movie because they wanted to make it bigger and that's what they did. This movie tries to go back to the past and rewrite history that was done so well in the first one and they just fail miserably and I it makes me sad The only thing that I like about this movie is watching Courtney Cox and David arquette hug each other because I know that they fell in love doing these movies and that makes me happy cuz I think it's sweet. Everything else about this movie irritates me There's too many characters there's too much of a twisted backstory only certain people should be allowed to write plots this twisty. Harlan colbin is allowed to write plots this twisty because he is proven time and again that he can handle juggling this many twists without sounding like he's pulling things out of his butt You on the other hand writers of Scream 3 are not allowed to handle this many plot twists because you do not possess the skills to make it seem like you are not pulling everything out of your butt and throwing it at the screen and hoping that some of it sticks It's insulting. So I just don't vibe with this movie the way I did with the original. And I know this because I watched this movie along with Scream 2 Back when I was a freshman in college and I watched them and gave them a chance because I had loved the original scream and I wanted to see what the sequels did with the story and how they added to the story. And it was a fun night I got to hang out with friends and we ordered pizza and we watched movies and we watched Scream 2 and Scream 3 and the movie sucked but it was fun hanging out with my friends So the movie is remind me of good times but they really get under my skin and piss me off when I try to watch them now because I know so much about horror movies and I know that they could have been good Not all sequels are bad I have seen some good sequels. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D is what the 7th Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie or the 6th and it's good I like it better than all of the other sequels reimaginings and remakes by far by several orders of magnitude the sequel to Candyman Candyman 2 farewell to the flesh isn't as good as the original but it is good it's worth watching it's worth buying and owning. These movies aren't worth buying and owning They're worth staring at with anger and derision and your face because they're just going to take everything that worked in the first movie and shit all over it. That's really all I have to say about Scream 3 at one point I think that I did enjoy it better than Scream 2 I told everyone that scream too was my least favorite but the more I watch them the more Scream 3 irritates me and the more I appreciate Scream 2 because while it is not a good movie for a lot of reasons it's not as insulting to my intelligence as the third movie. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. EDIT: okay, I admit it, I was a jerk when I wrote this review. Once most of the cast is dead and all the secrets start coming out finally for real the movie doesn't get as bad as it was it gets better and I understand why I did like it the first time that I saw it I always forget that it gets better after the first half of the movie So I would say that Scream wanted two and three are worth watching if nothing else so that you can have a basis of knowledge for scream for when scream for comes along because Scream 4 is a movie that I actually enjoy and I like the story and I would want to know the story from the three original films before watching Scream for so I would know what everyone was talking about in that movie Scream 4 is a movie that I actually enjoy and I like the story and I would want to know the story from the three original films before watching Scream for so I would know what everyone was talking about in that movie So give it a chance It's not as bad as I said it was It's not as bad as the critics said it was It's just a little ridiculous in the beginning and for the first maybe hour of the movie after that it gets better. give it a chance if you want There are some good scenes that come near the end and if nothing else seeing Sydney get chased through the house by a killer is fun for me at least as a fan of slasher movies so I like watching stock and slash movies like this and I appreciate what this movie has to give me and what it gives to the horror genre as a whole even though it gives a huge pile of crap There's gold buried in the crap if you want to dig and I generally want to date because that's what I do in October I watch a lot of horror movies and I dig for gold and sometimes I find it.

2025 October Horror Challenge #40 "Scream 2"

So, the self-aware horror movie that has balls to say what we're all thinking, that most of the time sequels suck, now has a sequel. interesting. I think we all know that as a general rule sequels are not as good as the original movies. That's just the way things are. With a few noted exceptions, sequels have a tendency to be louder bigger and more explosive than the original, but that does not translate into being better they take what worked in the first movie and try to cram more and more and more of it down our throats until we get sick of it and throw up and that is not a good formula for creating a good movie. So I see scream to doing that from the beginning of the movie. though the opening scene in the theater works, it's not as effective for me at least as the opening sequence of the original film because the opening sequence of the original film was really creepy whereas the opening so we can coins of this film was exactly what I like to say about pretty much every other sequel second verse same as the first but a little bit louder and a little bit worse. That's what happens, and it sucks that everything that made the first movie special has a tendency to get trampled in the second movie. So here comes Scream 2, and it is a lot louder a lot bigger and yeah it is a lot worse than the original screen. I just don't like Scream 2 I try to appreciate it for what it is and there are moments that I appreciate Like I love watching Sarah Michelle gellar on screen in any role that she plays she's great and I like watching her get stalked by the killer and watching her fight back and seeing what happens No I'm not going to tell you what happens because I don't spoil movies in my reviews but it just seems like everything in this movie is too much It the music's too loud there's too many fights there's too many kills and I never thought I would say that I watched a movie called Dead alive where a bunch of zombies get killed with a lawn mower and that's probably about as many people killed in that one scene as there are in the entire movie scream too and that is a lot of deaths and it's not too many for that screen so I don't know why the deaths in this movie would be too many but it just seems like the movie tries to throw everything at us hoping that something will stick and it would do better for itself just to sit back for a minute and give us time to breathe. One thing I noticed about this movie that never really struck me before the way it strikes me now is how Jada pinkett Smith's character in the beginning of the movie talks about how horror movies are disproportionately white They don't have a lot of women of color in them and that's something that I noticed of course being horror movie fan that I am but it's not something that really bothered me until about 10 years ago when it just started to be too much because I know that black people tell scary stories too. They do I've heard them most of the ghost stories that I learned were from black and brown people So I know that they have scary stories too Why don't they ever appear in horror movies? typically my answer is that they're smarter than the white people and they leave 5 minutes into the movie because they're far more intelligent than able to see that something evil is going on and that answer does carry some weight but it's not a good enough answer for why there are so many white people in these movies It's not fair to joke and brush off a question like that without giving it some thought and analysis so I started to analyze it and think a little more deeply about it and I'm glad now that we have a resurgence of speculative fiction and horror and dark fantasy stories written by authors of color and I'm glad that we have movies with diverse casts now in horror movies more than we did before at least It's not like hey look this movie has one black guy in it the way it used to be back in the '80s and the '90s so things are getting better I guess It's just a slow process Time marches on and it will continue to take time. I'm hoping that as far as the Scream movie is go I enjoy watching the rest of the sequels better than I enjoy watching the second one because I'm drowning watching the second one wishing that it was over with so I could watch the third and get it over with because if I remember correctly I didn't like the third one either So we'll just have to see what happens but as far as horror movie sequels go Scream 2 Mrs out on a lot of the suspense of the original by being too much. It's the annoying little kid that tries to get attention by banging pots and pans and pushing things off shelves and throwing books until the parents explode and scream because any attention is better than no attention if you know what I mean? And I just don't vibe with this movie the way I do with the original so I don't like it but I will watch it I make sacrifices for Halloween horror month.

2024 October Horror Challenge #39 "Scream"

I have a big announcement for you all. "Scream" is a good movie. I know, I know. next I'll be announcing to you that water is wet right? But I think it's an important announcement because sometimes I forget it. There was so much hype surrounding the movie Scream when it came out that what sometimes gets buried in the midst of all the crap is that it's actually not a bad little horror movie. I mean, sure it's dated, but it's dated for the mid-90s which is the Aaron which I was a teenager, so it's dated for my youth and it brings back some fairly good memories of time spent watching the movie with my mom and one of my best friends and I don't have very many good memories with my mom so I do treasure that. What happened was my friend saw the movie and recommended it to us, and my mom doesn't normally watch horror movies but she agreed to watch Scream with us so we all watched it together and my mom actually got into it by the end of the movie it was a little too gory for her but she was intrigued so she watched it with us and guessed who the killer was right along with us and she was wrong. I remember the first time we watched it she thought the killer was Sydney's dad, and I thought the killer was Gail weathers, which is funny to me now because when I watch the movie now, it's glaringly obvious to me what is going on and the identity of the killer and all of that but at the time that I saw it I was only 15 so cut me some slack I was young, and I hadn't seen many horror movies. Now I've seen so many that scream sometimes gets lost in the shuffle but it was one of my first horror movies so I should definitely appreciate it for that if nothing else. The story of Scream is pretty well known by this point. It's about a small town where some high school students are brutally slaughtered in the beginning of the movie and we get to watch The killer call and torment them and then stalk them and kill them on screen in pretty violent ways for my mom to be watching because she just doesn't like gore so you can imagine that the Gore in this movie was a lot for her. honestly it's not that gory but it is kind of sadistic the way they torment the victims on the phone, before they go in for the kill and that is something that I appreciate. Like I always say, I like my slashers mean spirited. What I mean by that, is that I like to see murder portrayed as something sadistic and evil when it's calculated like this because that's what murder really is you have to be a callous human being to take another human being's life in such a way and I like to see things portrayed on screen the way they are in life. I don't necessarily like to see violence that is sanitized for public consumption, and I don't like to see killers who kill their victims cleanly because that's not what murder is like in real life you would trip over the coffee table knock over a plant make a mess while you were trying to stalk your victim through the house and this movie shows that kind of thing the killers actually look human so I vibe with that kind of portrayal. I'm not going to spoil what happens in the movie even though most of us know all of the twists and turns of this movie pretty inside out. at this point the movie has been around for almost 30 years! Think about that; 30 years. What the hell have we been doing for 30 years? where did 30 years go It doesn't seem like it's been 30 years and yet it has I guess it's true what my friend always says about time Time is like toilet paper the closer it gets to the end the faster it goes so now that I'm a little older time seems to be flying by me and I see these big gaps and I look back and blink and it seems like years have passed and it's surreal but I appreciate anything that can hearken back to my younger years and made me see them in a positive light because I had a lot of tragedy and trauma and my younger years and the monsters and horror movies, the fake monsters that I saw on screen and read about in books, helped me deal with the real monsters that I had to deal with in life. So I needed an outlet and these movie is provided in outlet and scream showed me that you could fight back against a killer You could fight back against the evil and possibly win. which to me is an important lesson. I like the characterization that I missed when I was younger now when I'm watching the movie it's hard for me to miss how the characters of billions do really did look like they were in a relationship. I mean come on they were two seconds away from kissing every time they were together on screen It's a little ridiculous but it's not something that I would have noticed when I was a kid it went right over my head but it's something that I noticed now and I appreciate it now because it added to the story that they had chemistry between them. And I appreciate seeing the character of Dewey the cop and Gail weathers the reporter being real people with real lives and real problems and real attraction to each other that just kind of built organically from their interactions with each other. Even though I know that it ended badly, I know that Courtney Cox and David arquette were married so they met on the side of the movie and fell in love and it makes their scenes cuter and it makes their scenes ring truer for me knowing that this happened so that is another reason for me to enjoy this movie. The movie's not perfect. It's a little ridiculous how Sydney takes so long to figure things out because I was watching the movie so you can say I was stupid for not figuring it out but she was right there in the middle of everything and she didn't figure it out either So I think I should get a pass if you give her a pass for not figuring it out. I definitely appreciate the sadistic nature of the violence, the rebelling against authority that I see the teenagers doing this movie, which comes to a head when the principal is murdered graphically on screen. I'm sure that scene was satisfying for a lot of people who hated their principles in high school. Mine wasn't so bad so I wouldn't have wanted to stab her but I know some people who might have at least had a cathartic reaction to seeing a high school principle be stabbed on screen so that helps the movie ring true as well. overall I have to say that the movie works. The tongue in cheek sarcastic dark humor and the awareness of the culture in which the movie was released is something that a lot of movies tried to copy after scream came out to mixed results obviously most of the time it produced lower quality films but Scream was special because it rose above its flaws to become a cultural phenomenon so it's well worth checking out now even if you've seen it before and appreciating it for what it is and for what it did for horror movies and for horror culture. You can't go into a Halloween section of a store without seeing those ghost face masks now and that's a testament to the ongoing popularity of the screen franchise. So check this movie out and see where it all started and where all that popularity came from and give it a chance if you've never seen it before because even though it isn't perfect, it's a good little slasher and that's exactly what it's supposed to be and that's what I love it for.

2025 October Horror Challenge #38 "Friday the 13th"

Man I love this movie. It's funny because this is one of those movies that Stephen King rags on really badly and his book dance macabre which is his overview of the horror genre that he published in the '80s and he talks about why this movie doesn't have any brains and why it's just stock and slash and doesn't have any heart and soul and for a while I agreed with that but I don't know The more I watch this movie the more I like it I think you could make the argument that some of the later films in the Friday the 13th series our mindless stock and slash movies not that there's anything wrong with that but this one actually has some plot going for it It's got some surprises It doesn't surprise me because I've seen billions of horror movies but it has twists to it and they're kind of cool. I like how you generally just assume that the killer was male so when the killer and someone the ending comes and the killer is revealed It is kind of a surprise I would like to watch this movie now not knowing what happened and see if I could guess the ending maybe I've seen too many movies now and I would guess the ending but I'd like to try it sometime because when I watch this movie with people who haven't seen it They like it too and they get to the end and they say wow that's creepy that killer is messed up and I say yes I agree and I'm not going to give away who the killer is in this review even though we all know who it is because you know let's pretend we don't for a minute let's pretend that none of us have seen this movie before and a new movie called Friday the 13th has come out and it's in theaters and it's a horror movie and we should all go see it and maybe if we come into it with that mindset people would enjoy it more I don't know It's just a thought but I appreciate what this movie tries to do it's very loose remake of Mario bavas Bay of blood I recognize that right away when I saw it because I'm obsessed with Italian horror movies so I saw the similarities. remake might be a nice way of putting it when rip off would fit better, but I still like this movie so it's fine with me I don't mind if movies ripping each other off as long as they make good movies out of it I'm okay with that. Plus we all know that the twist at the end interests me because I have deep seated mommy issues so this movie is one of those that touches on touchy subjects and I'll probably always appreciate it for that It's a good little slasher and it holds up pretty well now It's not that bad It's not a movie that I liked when I was younger that I'm embarrassed to admit that I like now. for my money, this is a pretty good movie and I enjoy revisiting it every chance I get so I was happy to watch it again this year.

2025 October Horror Challenge #37 "Terrifier 3"

I saw this movie in theaters last year last October and I loved it then too so I was happy to get a chance to revisit it for the challenge this year. It's gory and nasty and disgusting and icky and really really gross and there's some spiritual hoo haha wash that reads a little bit silly though I don't mind it as much now as I did when I first saw the movie because I've made my peace with it and I want to see what happens and the fourth movie and I know the fourth movie is going to continue the hoo ha ha wash so I have to accept that if I'm going to continue experiencing the story so I don't mind it. When I first saw terrifier 2 I thought it was stupid but I don't really know what my problem was with that movie I rewatched it and I must have had a stick up my butt because there's nothing really wrong with Terrifier 2 It's just a little silly sometimes. Part 3 is the best of the bunch for me, though, and i have high hopes for part 4.

2025 October Horror Challenge #35 "The Grudge"

legend has it that if someone dies in the grip of a terrible rage a curses born. Well I'm always in a group of a terrible rage so if I die at any time we're all screwed. whoops. when i first saw this movie, i liked the idea, but not the execution, so i chalked it up to this being a bad movie. then i went to bed and had nightmares about it all night. after I woke up, i decided that maybe i needed to check out the original movie, since this was a trmake, so i bought the original and watched it and loved it. it was everything this movie tried to be and failed. now of course, i like both movies and appreciate what each brings to the 5able. this is a spooky good time with two of my favorite actresses, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Clea Duvall. i appreciate this take on the haunted house myth. i watched both Ju-On 2 and The Grudge 2, and i actually like The Grudge 2 better.

2025 October Horror Challenge #34 "The Ring"

When I first saw this movie back in 2002 when it first came out, it marked a lot of first for me. It was the first time I ever saw a horror movie in the theaters, it was the first time I ever saw something crawl out of the TV and a horror movie and I had nightmares about that happening since I was a kid so it was a trip seeing it happen on the big screen in front of me, and it was the first time I was so scared that I cried during a horror movie. So this movie made a big impact on me because of all those things and I definitely loved it then and I still love it now. it doesn't have the impact on me that it once did, of course, and i don't get scared of it anymore. it still impresses me with its dark, heavy atmosphere though, and i still get creeped out by the cursed video that causes all the problems in this movie. creepy ass ghosts and their videography skills.

2025 October Horror Challenge #33 "[Rec]2"

It's very rare that a sequel is as good as the original movie. With this movie, I was hesitant to watch the sequel because I loved the original so much and I didn't want to see the sequel and have it suck and have that taint my view of the original so I waited for a long time before I finally watched the sequel and when I finally sat down and gave it a chance I was blown away by how well it was done. It was creepy, it was gory, it managed to improve upon the original which was hard to do because the original was a slam bang hit, and it did what sequels are supposed to do which is made all of the action bigger and louder and throwing in more characters without making it too Loud and obnoxious. Now of course, I loved it so much the first time I saw that there's no way that I would love it as much the second time I saw it it had to lose some of its luster and shine but it's still a great movie and it's still functions really well as a creepy and bloody and nasty little w**** romp. So it's well worth checking out especially if you are a fan of the original movie.

2025 October Horror Challenge #32 "Wolf Creek"

This movie has a long sorted history with me. When I first saw it I was like wow this is a really grueling slasher and I liked the movie but I was cautioning my friends not to watch it because I knew it was the kind of movie that they would not appreciate I just knew I knew them well enough to know they wouldn't like the movie Well one of my friends decided to watch it anyway so she borrowed it from me and I told her please don't watch this She said can I borrow it and I said yes you can borrow it but I really wish that you wouldn't and she borrowed it for me anyway and she watched it and then she returned it to me and told me that she could no longer be my friend because the movie had disturbed her so much and she knew that I liked it and she found that disturbing. So that was a big blow to me I guess that says something for how grueling and twisted this movie is but I've got to say there's a big trigger warning on this movie it's not just a slasher it's a nasty mean spirited grueling sadistic slasher movie that you don't want to see if you don't want to see mean people getting killed by meaner people then don't watch this movie and there's no repercussions and the killer isn't your typical wise cracking slasher or a silent killer like Michael Myers he talks and he has a big mouth and he's a big jerk So it's pretty intense and I think that some people should probably not watch this movie because if it's going to be so bad that you're going to end a friendship over it You should probably not watch a movie that your friend told you explicitly not to watch repeatedly. thank you for coming to my TED talk. Now that we've established that most people shouldn't watch this movie for those of us that are freaks hey there's a slash a movie and it's good. I like how sadistic and mean this movie is because I like slashers that are mean that don't have the funny tongue in cheek wink at the camera kind of vibe to them. I like the movie Scream but I don't want every movie to be scream and it feels sometimes like too many slashers try to be scream and they fail and it they just become annoying in their attempts to be funny so I like that this was a return to just mean nasty horror. But there's a lot of gore and there's a lot of bad language He uses the C word which is a word that even people who cuss don't tend to like that word and get mad when I use it and it used to be every other word out of my mouth until I cleaned up my language so I do understand that it bothers people and I understand that it bothers people cuz this killer really hates women and that's why he uses that word but he hates men too he just hates people He hates everyone and that's why he kills everyone So that's all I really have to say about that This killer is mean and I like that he's not the typical wise cracking killer. Now they did make a sequel to this movie, there is a Wolf Creek too, but people have told me oh you'll like that one better it's funny. Look at my face does it look like I would like this movie if it was funny I just got done telling you and a really long paragraph run on sentence rant that I enjoy movies when they're sadistic in mean and I don't want the killer to be wise-cracking and " funny " and you're telling me that they turned him into one of these funny killers for the sequel great. So I'll be honest with you I have not watched the second movie yet because I don't want to see a killer that I actually appreciated because he gave me chills turned into a walking joke so no I have not seen Wolf Creek 2 but it is there for the taking and I'm probably going to have to watch it at some time I should probably watch it this Halloween I will probably look it up and see if I can watch it tonight just to get it out of the way but I don't expect to like it if it's supposed to be funny because a lot of things that are supposed to be funny are really just stupid So that's my thoughts on that subject. There's really not much more that I can say without giving away a lot of what happens in the movie and I refuse to do that. I have heard some complaints about the movie that I really want to address but I can't do that because then I would be spoiling what happens in the movie but suffice it to say that the people who say the moral of this movie is that men are stupid and women are smart is not The people who say this movie is anti men are ridiculous The people who say this movie is anti-women have more of a leg to stand on but I just think this movie is antisocial and anti-people because the killer hates everyone and that's why he sadistically tortures them and then kills them in cold calculating uncaring mean nasty sadistic ways. So if that's what you're in the mood for then Wolf Creek is for you. No it's not a werewolf movie which is what I thought it was going to be when I read the title of the movie and I told all my friends not to tell me anything about the movie because I didn't want them to spoil it so I was surprised that it was a slasher and I was surprised that it was this mean but I did enjoy it if that means that you can't be my friend anymore then I'm sorry about that but I do like this movie because it shows horror being what it's supposed to be which is horrific and horrible.

2025 October Horror Challenge #31 "Late Night with the Devil"

I first watched this movie a few months after it came out in 2023 and I have to say I was really impressed with it at that time I was creeped out and it's not often that I get creeped out to the extent that this movie creeped me out but it did so that impresses me because I watch a lot of horror movies and if I find one that can really get to me I tend to hold that movie and high regard. So I decided to check this one out again so that I could give you the review that I should have given you when I first saw it and I'm excited to be able to deliver you to you today and to give you some thoughts about this movie. First of all, the movie is about a man who runs a late night television show and he has had some problems in his recent past his wife died of cancer and then he had problems with anger which is understandable considering that his wife died and he had problems with getting into altercations with some of the guests on his show, and so the network is talking about canceling his show if he can't deliver big enough ratings so he's got a lot of writing on this idea he comes up with. The idea he comes up with is a Halloween show where he has people who claim to talk to demons or spirits or dead people and he's going to have them on live and show the world what they can do and let the world decide if they can really communicate with the devil if they can really communicate with the dead. He also has a skeptic on his show who is basically going to refute every claim everyone makes and argue that everything is fake no matter what anyone says basically the thing that skeptics are there to be the ones who stand in the corner and make everyone else uncomfortable obviously. So that's the setup for the show and his friend who is a paranormal psychiatrist has a patient who is a teenage girl who's supposed to communicate with a demon and he has his friend this paranormal psychiatrist and her patient the young girl named Lily on his show and they do a demonstration of how she can talk to demons and it's the usual possession stuff that you see in most movies So it's it's good it's well done but it's nothing that I haven't seen before but I did appreciate it and I thought okay this movie is pretty good. Once that demonstration is over the skeptic lays into everyone and points out why he thinks this demonstration of demonic activity is fake and they fight on stage not physically but just arguing back and forth and it's pretty interesting and then things start to get a little more intense and then things start to get a little more intense and then they get even more intense and I didn't expect this movie to be a slow burn but it is because it gives up this demonic activity about halfway through and you think Oh that's what the movie's going to be about No this movie has a lot more of its sleeve it's just hiding and you're not going to find out until you start watching the movie exactly what this movie has and it's bag of tricks for you. So I don't want to give anything away because that would be rude and I try not to be a douche like that, so I'll stop with the summary there. When I first saw this movie, I was watching it with my boyfriend, and we had a movie day where we watched a bunch of horror movies and this was one of the movies we watched and that was fun getting to see the movie through someone else's eyes. He enjoyed the movie as well and he said it was messed up and he wasn't expecting that those were his words which I think is pretty high praise for this kind of movie because when you're a horror fan and you've watched a lot of these movies you kind of know what to expect that doesn't mean you don't enjoy movies obviously you enjoy the creepy and the crawling and the cookie and mysterious and spooky and that's why you wash these films right? But if you can come across a movie that actually has some surprises in store for you even after everything you've seen That has a tendency to stick with you and that's what this movie did. It goes into some demonic lore from the past that it doesn't try to over explain. What I mean by that, is that it doesn't info dump all over you and try to give you too much information but it gives you just enough information to be intriguing and then you watch what happens and I honestly didn't expect the ending which is saying a lot for me since I can guess the endings of movies pretty easily just because I've seen so many movies in my life. When everyone was fawning over the book Gone Girl, I decided to read it because I was excited to read it because I loved the author and I thought yay this is going to be a great book and it was like jumping into an empty swimming pool I crashed hard at the bottom. because 10 pages into the book I had every single twist figured out literally and I spent the entire rest of the book waiting for the characters to catch up to me. That ticked me off. I don't like it when I can guess everything that's going to happen and it's not really the book's fault it's just that I've read too many books and I've seen too many movies so it's hard to surprise me and I can honestly say that this movie late night with the Devil surprised me So like I said I'm impressed I like the buildup the acting is good it really does look like a movie from the '70s and everything works together to make this movie frightening experience. The acting is good and that compliments the musical score which is good and doesn't overwhelm the movie or takeover. And the special effects are good and they don't get so over the top that they distract from the rest of the movie like some of these movies do. And there's some mystery and intrigue, there's some genuine hearts dealing with the death of this guy's wife, there's some really gross scenes that are cool if gross out cinema is what you're looking for There are lots of surprises in store for you so I recommend that you check this movie out and give it a chance because it totally impressed me and not every movie can do that so i appreciate it.

2025 October Horror Challenge #30 "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers"

I just love the Halloween movies. Michael Myers is really the first horror icon that I remember liking when I was a kid I saw Halloween and Halloween 2 when I was 10 years old I think 11 and my mom was asleep and my brother and I snuck downstairs and watched the show called USA Up All Night with Gilbert Gottfried where he showed horror movies and we watched Halloween and Halloween 2 but we had to keep turning them off in case my mom would hear us and make us go to bed so I only remember bits and pieces but I remember Michael Myers and his scary white face mask and I remember thinking that he was the creepiest thing that I had ever seen He's creepy in a way that other horror icons aren't to me. Like some of them are gory like Freddy Krueger and Jason and some of them make me uncomfortable like the tall man in the Phantasm films but I think Michael Myers himself the word creepy fits him perfectly because he just looks at you with that blank face and those eyes that you can see anything human in them? That's down to the actors they do a good job portraying him I suppose. Michael Myers was the first horror icon to be genuinely creepy for me so I will probably always love him for that even though his movies got pretty cheesy pretty quick. Halloween the original was a good movie at least I think so I know a lot of people think it's boring but I like it. Halloween too I've never liked Halloween too because it was cheesy and campy to me and it just wasn't as good as the original so I don't think it lived up to the hype from the original movie? Have you heard the saying second verse same as the first only a little bit louder and a little bit worse? That's Halloween too for me it's just the same only louder and worse. But I've softened to it over the years because it's got Michael Myers in it and he's creepy and he kills people so I can forgive it shortcomings and watch it around this time of year and not have a problem with it. Halloween 3 is a pretty good movie but it doesn't really have anything to do with Michael Myers so Halloween 4 is the next real Michael Myers movie and I have always liked it. I know that it's cheesy and I know that it's silly and I know that it's perhaps not the best movie ever made, but for my money it might be my favorite of the series just because it's so much fun to sit around and watch with a bowl of popcorn and some friends. it's got Michael Myers being creepy but he does more than he does in the original movie there are more kills There's more Gore There's more outward effects like everyone in the town banding together to kill Michael Myers at the end of the movie and that tracks with what I know of small towns so I like this movie despite its flaws and I'm having fun watching it now as a little older and a little wiser but still the horror fan that I've always been.

2025 October Horror Challenge #29 "[Rec]"

I remember when this movie first came out, and the trailers and previews that I saw were all just videos of the audience's reaction to the movie and that didn't show footage from the actual movie and I thought that was an absolutely brilliant idea because hello trailers give away too much of the movie right now You don't have to watch the movie if you watch the trailer because they give away every single thing that happens and it's annoying I like to be surprised and there are lots of surprises in this movie and twists and turns that would have been totally ruined for me if I had seen them in a trailer before I saw them in the movie It actually made my blood run cold when I first watched this movie and that just wouldn't have happened if I'd known what was going to happen in the movie beforehand so I'm a big fan of the ad campaign for this movie, and that is something you will never hear me say except in this case! This movie is in Spanish, and the English American version of it came out in 2008 which is a year after its initial release and the American version is called quarantine and it's actually pretty good as far as remakes go I appreciate it and I appreciated the acting and the way the movie is set up I do think that the original is better but the remake is not terrible so I recommend that you watch both of them if you like this movie because the remake is definitely worth giving it a chance and checking it out. In case you don't know, this movie is about a news crew filming an up all night segment for the local news and they go to a local apartment building and then all hell breaks loose like pretty much literally and that's all I'm going to say because I'm not going to ruin this movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet but if you haven't seen it yet what the heck are you doing with your life? Get out and watch this movie immediately! I actually really like some things about this movie. I like the main character She is gorgeous and she's adorable she's just very likable so I was rooting for her and that definitely made the movie more impactful for me, and I appreciate as I said before that the filmmakers tried to keep the details of the film a secret before you viewers watched it so that they would be shocked and surprised at what happened, and I appreciate how this movie is full of little twists that I didn't expect because that always intrigues me because I've seen a lot of movies so when they do something that I wasn't expecting that really impresses me. I like the special effects in this movie because they look pretty realistic and they never go so over the top that they look ridiculous and fake but they also don't hold back and look like they were made for 5-year-olds and that's a hard line to walk sometimes with movies like this especially when you don't have the budget to create the kind of special effects that you really want to create This movie does a very good job doing very much with very little. That's pretty much all I can say without giving anything away so I'm going to let you go now and I hope that you run out and watch this movie if you haven't seen it yet because it is pretty spectacular.

2025 October Horror Challenge #28 "Candyman"

So this movie is a classic from 1992. it's based on a lot of old folklore in Legends kind of put together and pieced together into a puzzle that made this character Candyman. As a kid I tried saying candyman's name four times five times in front of a mirror and he didn't appear and kill me so my time might be coming soon he might be in the other room and I'm probably going to say his name at least five times while I'm writing this review so you know it's been nice knowing all of you if I get killed by Candyman while I'm writing this review. Virginia masden is great in this movie as is Vanessa Williams as is the late great amazing wonderful spectacular Tony Todd who will be forever missed This is the second movie I've watched with Tony Todd in it I did watch Final Destination Bloodlines as well and he's in that one that's actually the last movie that he filmed before he died so it's kind of sad but it's cool to see him in his prime being the charismatic terrifying living nightmare that is Candyman. What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said? I suppose I could talk a little bit about racism because the remake or reimagining or sequel whatever you want to call it of this movie that came out recently deals a lot with racism and this movie deals a lot with racism and it's always been based on oddly enough the torture that black people endured at the hands of white people which is what beloved was about and you'd think I'd be tired of watching movies about that after watching that traumatizing horrific thing but now I'm watching Candyman because it's one of my favorites and I wanted to revisit it and see something that was a classic that I knew I would enjoy today has been all about revisiting movies that I've seen before so that was the theme of this day. These are creepy. bees freak me out. I'm allergic to bee stings so every time I see a bee I tend to freak out and run away and it chases me and that I hide and then it finds me and then I run away again and people are like just stay calm it won't sting you and I'm like yeah that doesn't work it will sting you even if you're calm because bees do sting you when you're calm because when I was a little kid I didn't know to be afraid of bees so I played with bees thinking oh this is cute Look it's a little black and white insect or yellow and black insect and they stung me and then I swelled up to the size of a balloon and that's when I learned that you should stay away from bees. or at least I should. But there are lots of bees in this movie because the legend of Candyman is that a white man a rich white man wanted to commission a portrait of his beautiful wife so he hired a black artist to paint it and that artist ended up having an affair with the wife whoops and the wife ended up pregnant and of course the rich man was not happy about this so he had the black man tied up and dragged and tortured and then they coated him with honey and left him in a beehive for the bees to get him so he was probably stung thousands of times. What's with all the movies about torturing black people today When did that become the theme of the day I thought that was not supposed to be the theme of the day. anyway aside from the accidental theme that I keep running into today the movie is also about two graduate students in the '90s Virginia masden and Vanessa Williams play the two graduate students and these graduate students are writing a thesis about oral folklore traditions and specifically the legend of Candyman so they go around researching Candyman and interviewing people about the story of Candyman and people who claim to have seen Candyman or had friends who've seen Candyman or had friends who were killed by a Candyman and it's just fun to watch because I'm a grand student right now working on a thesis nothing is interesting as Candyman but hopefully my thesis won't get me into as much trouble as it gets Virginia Madsen into in this movie. while researching Candyman, of course, they discover that Candyman is real and he latches on to one of them and systematically ruins her life until she has to make a choice whether she should go on living or sacrifice herself to help save someone else and that's pretty honorable. It also ties in with smile too a movie that I watched yesterday because the ghostly parasite supernatural force in that movie takes over people's lives and systematically ruins them until they have nothing left and then once it's done feeding on their darkest fears it forces them to kill themselves and then it moves on to another host So Candyman kind of does a similar thing in this movie but I won't give it away because that would ruin the ending I'll and if you haven't seen this movie yet you should So I'll just say that it's creepy it's gory it's fun it's a scary little movie it makes me want to sit around a campfire and tell scary stories but not go in front of a mirror and say anyone's name five times just in case it pisses off any ghost and that ghost comes after me. Definitely check this one out.

2025 October Horror Challenge #27 "Creature from the Black Lagoon"

I always say that the wolfman is my favorite universal horror monster but this one comes pretty close I love seeing it's creepy looking eyes and I love the scenes where people are swimming and the monster touches their feet and they gasp and look down and I can just imagine every time I'm swimming and I feel something touch my foot and I freak out that the creature from the Black lagoon is underneath me and is going to eat me and I am going to die So this probably wouldn't have been a good movie for me to watch when I was a kid right before I learned to swim but it's a fun little horror movie. Yes it's kind of dated, and yes the special effects are a little silly looking now, but I still think that kids can enjoy the movie because I've watched it with kids and they do like it and it's just about a subject that creeps me out because so much of the sea and the underwater world is unexplored that there could be creatures under there We don't know the creature from the Black lagoon could be real You don't know You know nothing. So I recommend that you check this movie out, and when you do make sure that you take time to appreciate the effort that went into making the creature book menacing even though now we can tell it's obviously a rubber suit pretend you're 10 years old pretend you're 5 years old pretend you're kidding in and just sit back and enjoy and you might have a really good spooky time with this one.

2025 October Horror Challenge #26 "The Watcher in the Woods"

So this is a remake or reimagining of the 1980 children's horror classic with the same title. I know that sounds like an oxymoron but really when you think about it children do have horror classics they have ghost stories that they tell each other around campfires and in dark in bedrooms late at night during sleepovers so kids are well acquainted with horror even though we try to keep it away from them So yes kids do have horror movies and the original watcher in the woods is one of them. it's a very interesting movie. I say that because I always liked it up until the end which I think is really stupid but I try not to let that taint my view of the rest of the movie because the rest of the movie is pretty good. In this movie we have Angelica Huston playing an older woman who has lost her daughter her teenage daughter years ago and a new family moves into the house next door with two young daughters and they hear about the missing daughter and they try to solve the mystery of what happened but of course the mystery of what happened ends up being supernatural and not just Mommy hacked her up and buried her in the basement. So the whole movie is about trying to get the teenage daughter back where is in the original movie I think the focus is more on the mystery of what happened this movie solves the mystery of what happened pretty early on and then it's moves into a suspenseful evil ghost fighting kind of tale. it's kind of hard for me to describe because I'm trying to do it without spoiling anything so that part was actually really hard for me to write. When I first saw this movie, I didn't like it. I love the original watcher in the woods minus the ending so I thought this one was just cheaply made and quickly done and it didn't make any sense and there's a bunch of spiritual hoo-ha and hog wash and I don't know what going on and it just fell flat for me the first time I watched it. But because I couldn't watch it without buying it I own a copy of it now so I decided to watch it again and give it another try and I actually did like it better the second time around it didn't bother me as much I still think the original is better but this movie isn't too bad. lifetime the movie network actually has a few good horror movies. There's a movie called devil's diary that is a lifetime movie that is actually pretty scary and sick and twisted and I was very impressed with it as a horror fan so I would recommend this movie if you want to introduce horror to your kids or if you're in the mood for a scary movie that's not going to be gory and gross Just ignore the spiritual hog wash and try to enjoy the other aspects of the movie because the acting is actually pretty good, and you might enjoy this movie too.

2025 October Horror Challenge #25 "Beloved"

This is a very difficult review for me to write. My church, the Episcopal Church, likes to use the word beloved a lot and all I can think about is this movie and I don't know how to explain to them that word is very triggering to me and to other people who've read the book and seen the movie just because it's hard to watch and hard to read but I guess history is supposed to be hard to watch and read because if you're watching and reading history and it only makes you feel good then you're not really learning history. to make another point, it's just that this movie is graphic and violent. And I know that horror movies are graphic and violent in general, I'm aware of that, but most of the time horror movies are portraying things that are pretend. Things that did not really happen. In this movie, they're portraying the horrible things that enslavers did to their slaves and this stuff really happened and that makes it hard for me to watch so it's just a struggle for me with this movie and it's themes but it's such a good movie that I can put that aside and try and analyze it a little bit here for you so that you understand what you're going into if you watch this movie. The movie starts and we see that a cabin is haunted by the ghost of a little girl and her mother and her sister and her brothers and her grandmother are all there and they are being tormented by the spirit but the mother makes a really good point when she says it's not evil it's just sad. That is what is really hard to deal with in this movie, how sad it is. I don't want to give away too much and ruin everything for you so I'm not exactly sure what I should say here in my analysis but I'll tell you some of the things that make this movie hard for me to watch. their scenes were slaves are raped and tortured, and there are scenes where a mother is so terrified that her children are going to be returned to slavery that she does some unspeakable things to prevent that from happening and it is really hard to watch. I know I've said that about three times already but that's just how I feel about the movie. I think it was very well done, it was very well acted, and there are a lot of very good actors in the movie. Oprah Winfrey is in the movie she plays the main character, and whether you like her or not she does a good job in this movie. Danny Glover plays another main character and he's good as well though I kind of want to punch him in the face because he frustrates me but I understand that his character is stuck in an impossible situation So I should give him some slack. Kimberly Elise is in this movie She plays Oprah Winfrey's teenage daughter and she is a really good actress Tandy Newton is in this movie and she plays a character named Beloved, And she does a great job as always. I think people would argue that this movie is a drama and not horror movie so I'm going to say why I think this is a horror movie for the rest of this review and leave it at that. First, there's a ghost. Yes there can be ghosts in movies that are not horror movies I have seen that before, like I wouldn't call the movie Ghost a horror movie and obviously there's a ghost in that movie. This movie is different however because the ghost in this movie is a vengeful spirit who comes back because she died a horrible death and once you find out what happened to her and how she died it's hard to feel anything but sympathy for the ghost but then you also feel sympathy for the other characters in the movie because they had to make him possible decisions and they didn't know what to do and they did maybe not the best they could but they did what they thought they had to do. second, there's Gore in this movie a dog's eye gets popped out and has to be put back into place There's a very bloody scene with an ax there's like I said rape and torture scenes there's one scene I'm never going to be able to forget where two men drink a woman's breast smell against her will which kind of makes me want to puke even just saying that and I had to watch it. third, there is a time when the characters band together to get rid of the ghost and they have a kind of exorcism scene that is just about us intense as any exorcism seen I've seen in any other horror movie so I don't know how people could watch that and say this isn't a horror movie because it's got all the elements. I guess in the end if you don't think this is a horror movie and you don't think it belongs on this list and it's not horrifying to you what happened to these poor people, then you can disregard this but I definitely think that this movie is horrific enough to classify it as a horror movie so I will continue to do so.

2025 October Horror Challenge #24 "When Evil Lurks"

I don't know anything about this movie except that someone recommended it to me and it came very highly recommended so I'm hoping for the best here. I think that the guy who directed this movie is the same guy who directed a movie called The Dark in the evil sorry "the dark and the wicked..." I watch too many movies. "The dark and the wicked," which was a really good mean-spirited little horror movie that I got to watch year before last so I wouldn't mind watching more from that director or producer or team that had something to do with that movie if they made another one so that got me interested in this movie and I know I could just Google who made the movie and find out but I might as well watch it since I'm watching a hundred horror movies this month anyway and it is a horror movie so we'll see I have high hopes. at first it was fun because this movie is in Spanish and I don't know how to turn the subtitles on for Disney plus yet so I got to play around with the menu and listen to the people talk in Spanish and have no idea what the hell was going on for a while luckily nothing very important happened just two brothers interacting and going into the woods but it would be nice so I got the subtitles to work and after that the movie made a lot more sense. although I will say that one of my criteria for calling a horror movie good is if it can be enjoyed even without subtitles if you don't speak that language. I know that sounds like a tall ask, but the orphanage is one movie that I understood perfectly even though it was in Spanish and I didn't need the subtitles So I hope that this movie works on a level with acting and storytelling and special effects and all of that coming together to tell a story that I would understand even if I didn't speak the language. it's just something to think about. it's something I think about a lot and my eyes are getting bad and I can't read the subtitle so I might as well just pretend that there's no subtitles and try and enjoy the movie and let you know what happens so let's go! This is one of those movies where I can't really tell you anything about the movie without giving away everything that happens in the movie because everything is connected these tiny little things lead to other tiny little things which lead to slightly bigger things which lead to slightly bigger things which then lead to big things and huge things but it's all interwoven together and connected and I don't want to give anything away suffice it to say there are demons they are real they are possessing people and the two brothers that I saw going into the woods in the beginning of the movie have to try and stop it from happening. And you thought your life was hard! So essentially this is a movie about demonic possession but it doesn't take the tactic of any other demonic possession movie I've seen Well that's not true I saw one where people were being possessed and I think it was a Spanish horror film in the beginning of the movie there's a guy who is collecting fingers from his victims and he's a serial killer and it turns out that there's a demon possessing people and that one was messed up. This movie is more linear than that movie was so it's easier to follow and even though I can't speak Spanish and my eyes are bad and I can't read subtitles very well I still followed what was happening in this movie pretty easily so I'm impressed with that. The special effects are just gross They look real I swear this movie didn't have a budget and they just really killed people and then covered it up Who knows? Just kidding. But seriously this is a good movie and I highly recommend it but it is depressing and it's perhaps not the best movie to watch right before you go to bed so I'm going to have weird dreams now but other than that I do recommend that you check this movie out.

October Horror Challenge #23 "Absentia"

This is such a quiet little movie. It says so much with very few words. It begins with a woman walking with her head down and you see her walking up to these electric poles and there are missing person posters stapled to the poles that are afraid and tattered and old and she takes them down and puts them in a bag and puts up new posters and so without really saying anything you kind of know book This woman's looking for someone and he's been missing for a while but she's not giving up hope she's still looking for him and that says everything you need to know right then about that character in one shot whoever wrote the script is pretty genius and whoever acted in this movie does a pretty damn good job of it. Later on, there's a scene where the main character's sister has come to stay with her presumably until the baby comes Oh I forgot to tell you the main character is pregnant isn't that a trip she's pregnant and her husband has been missing for 7 years, and now after a one-night stand she's 8 months pregnant? that's really sad. But she calls her sister and her sister comes to stay with her until the baby comes to help out and we learn a lot about the sister without her having to say much like we learn when she asked for a glass of wine her sister says this isn't going to violate your sobriety is it And that's how we find out that the sister was a drug addict but she's in recovery now and she's clean and she's been clean for a while so that's a good way to introduce that topic. And then we see the younger sister the former drug addict one kissing a picture of the ultrasound of her little niece or nephew and tucking it behind a cross nailed to the wall and she says God bless you too little niece or nephew and that's how we find out that she's a Christian They don't preach at us They don't throw anything in our faces This movie just quietly lets people interact and lets the story flow from that and I really appreciate how well they pack an emotional punch into little details like that. speaking of mental illness, the thing about it is that you never know whether the things your mind is showing you are real or not and that can cause problems obviously but I don't think that's always portrayed well in movies it looks corny and silly and campy and stupid most of the time. This movie portrays it very quietly by showing our main character having nightmares that her husband comes back and he stumbles toward her with his arms out and he tries to hurt her and she's scared and she wakes up screaming and she has this dream a few times throughout the movie so she doesn't recognize when her husband shows back up that it's real because she thinks she's just dreaming or having a vision She only knows it's real when other people react to it. In that way this movie is a lot like "they look like people." I forgot how sad this movie is I mean I remembered everything that happened but I forgot that it's really just sad and devastating and depressing when you think about it and I feel really bad for the poor characters and I want to hug them all Well maybe not all of them We can skip hugging the villains in this movie cuz they're creepy but this is a very good movie it's a very quiet horror movie It doesn't have a big budget but the way it gets around a big budget is very clever and it manages to deal with big budget problems in small budget ways that work. When the big reveal finally happens it's not much of a reveal cuz the movie doesn't have a budget to show you what happens but it it lets you figure out what happens through subtext and I appreciate that the movie doesn't consider me stupid but thinks that I'm smart enough to figure things out on my own and I do. So this is my recommendation for a little slow burn horror movie but it's also very sad and tragic and devastating and emotionally draining so I probably shouldn't have watched smile to and then they look like people and then this because I'm not giving myself much a break to mourn for all those poor dead characters that we have now. It's all good though. I love real horror movies that affect me in real ways, and i wouldn't change that for the world.

2025 October Horror Challenge #22 "They Look Like People"

nothing will top the first time that I saw this movie. And I know that because it's just one of those experiences you're never going to be able to replicate. I was sitting here doing my Halloween Horror challenge trying to watch a hundred horror movies for the month of October one year and there's a movie called they look like people and I'm like okay well let's see what they really look like so I click on it and watch it. let me tell you how much this movie messed with my mind. I have seen so many horror movies I have seen 100 horror movies every October and throughout the year horror movies for every year my 44 years on earth cannot exactly that many every year of my 44 years but you get the idea I've seen lots of horror movies and so they don't always get to me the way they would get to people who are normal because I am not normal. This movie got to me. And it's a lot of just a guy lying in bed quietly staring at the person next to him in the darkness with no music waiting for something to happen waiting for their face to change waiting for something horrific to jump out at you not sure what's going to happen next and it just builds the sense of tension that is unspeakable. I can't even describe how tense I was I was biting my nails I was covering my mouth with my hands at the end of the movie, I was watching the movie with my hands covering my eyes partially and sheer terror and I watched the end credits that way too because I didn't trust that the movie wasn't going to come back at me and show me something else horrifying so I had to watch it until the end credits were over with and that is pretty special because I don't just watch the end credits for anyone. sometimes I think that to truly understand mental illness, you have to be mentally ill yourself. maybe that's not true, but to really understand what it's like to have to fight battles every single day with your own mind that's telling you things that you know aren't true and showing you things that you know aren't real and you have to stand for what's right and what's true and what's real in spite of what your mind is telling you and showing you? That's hard to do. And I don't honestly think that I've ever seen a movie really portray what that's like for me before I saw this movie. The main character in this movie is just a regular guy who has a fiance and he has a best friend and things start happening to him and he starts seeing things and hearing things and are they real We don't know and most of the movie isn't really much happening it's just scenes from these guys friendship them talking them hanging out them playing games then talking about life while they play basketball. I'm sure some people who watch this movie after I tell them how much it scared me think that I'm a big wuss because they think the movie isn't scary because there's no chainsaw wielding maniac jumping out of the woods at people those can be kind of scary too you know? I would be scared of somebody jumped out of the woods at me with a chainsaw. But there's a different type of fear and the fear of your own mind and what it can do is a fear that maybe some differentn't know and some people don't understand. There's a lot of stigma surrounding mental illness because people don't understand it because people whose brains work properly Just think well that's not real Just tell yourself it's not real Why doesn't that work? if that worked then we wouldn't be mentally ill in the first place yay you've cured us! That's like talking to somebody who has asthma and saying why don't you just breathe There's air all around What's wrong with you. The point is you can't breathe it's great that there's air You can't breathe it it's not doing you any good. In this movie, everything in this guy's head is telling him that there are monsters and they're taking over the world and that the people around him aren't really the people he knows and loves but their monsters and he needs to destroy them. That's terrifying don't you think? I mean for me it's terrifying It would scare the shit out of me i know, so i really feel for this guy in his quiet struggle against his own mind and the battles he fights every day that no one else can see. And the thing about mental illness is that it's insidious because it is inside your head so no one can see it, so no one really knows what you struggle with on a daily basis and no one can see that this guy is falling apart because everything is happening inside his head and he doesn't know if that's true or not if he can trust his own mind, and he doesn't know if everyone around him is suddenly turning into a demon and he needs to be the hero to kill the bad guys and save everything or if he's really messed up and something's really wrong with him. And it's not like he's not doing anything about it he's seeing a psychiatrist he's taking meds he's going to therapy He's telling a psychiatrist about his visions and about his dreams and his psychiatrist seems like kind of a douche who blows him off and that's unhelpful but he is trying He's struggling as hard as he can against a monster that no one else can see. So your life can be completely falling apart and you can be shattered into a million pieces and no one will know because the damage is all inside you where no one can see it right? So with this movie this guy is slowly very slowly losing everything that he loves and the people in his life don't totally understand what's going on or appreciate the significance of it until things get weirder and weirder and until he starts showing more and more signs of his mental illness outwardly because people can't see what happens on the inside so they have to look at outward actions and his outward actions seem normal until they don't. that's the struggle. I guess I just connect because the actors do such a great job I feel for the guy who has mental illness I feel for his friends who are just his friends who don't know what to do He's just a little strange and unusual until he actually becomes dangerous and by the time he becomes dangerous you have a choice to make I guess. Do you turn him into the authorities what do you do when it's someone you love is struggling with this kind of mental illness? And the thing is you get a lot of people who don't understand mental illness so they treat people with mental illness like absolute feces coded garbage. it's sad. With my meds I'm probably more stable than some of you but you wouldn't know that unless you knew me and knew you very well, and were able to tell the difference. So people use mental illness as an excuse to treat people like garbage basically they hospitalize and institutionalize people who don't need to be institutionalized they don't believe anything we have to say because we're mentally ill which is extremely annoying to me because I have a college degree and I'm getting my master's degree I'm not stupid and I know what I'm talking about and people refuse to listen to me on subjects that I know a lot about because they know that I have a mental illness which is just ridiculous to me. it's the same as not listening to someone who has diabetes because they have to inject insulin to control their illness. I can't help the way I am, and I'm a good person most of the time at least I like to think so. And I think that the guy in this movie is a good person and he likes to think that he's a good person and he doesn't know what to do. He's just living a nightmare. And movies like "Smile 2" are definitely more outward with the gore effects whereas movies like "they look like people" are small and quiet and they don't have all the special effects They just have a guy looking into the camera and you have to see that he's watching his life fall apart through his facial expressions and that's hard to do and they managed to make me care about these characters so I was very impressed with how well this movie did what it did on such a small budget. Plus it helps that I'm going through some of the things that these characters are going through, like losing jobs and having relationships break up and many of the other stressors that are happening in their lives that is exacerbate the situation and make everything 10 times worse when you're dealing with either a demon invasion or mental illness lying to you, and you don't know which is which. But watching the characters fight this evil which is really just fighting with your own mind is encouraging to me and it actually moved me to tears at the end of this movie though I was terrified that something horrible was going to happen and didn't trust the filmmakers not to throw something else at me so I watched the movie through my fingers covering my eyes because I was so scared and felt for the characters and that is something special not many movies can do that and this movie did that for me So I will always highly recommend this movie to people even though it might make you question whether I'm really a horror fan or not if I consider this horrific but understand that different people find different things scary for different reasons. I can watch somebody get sod in half and their skin ripped off and their head chopped off and be fine with that and then a movie like this stops me in my tracks and makes me cry So you just never know It depends on the individual viewer but for my money this is one of the best movies you could watch for any horror challenge and I will always love it for that.