Every Halloween I try to watch a ton of horror movies. Scary, silly, slashers, I just wanna load up with a fun time! I'll make an interesting html layout for this at some point, but for now, I just wanna record the movies I watched in 2022 (last year) and 2023.
The Fly David Cronenberg 1986 ★★☆☆☆
The Fog John Carpenter 1980 ★★★☆☆
Poltergiest Tobe Hooper 1982 ★★★★☆
Pet Semetary Mary Lambert 1989 ★★★★★
A Nightmare on Elm Street Wes Craven 1984 ★★☆☆☆
The Thing John Carpenter 1982 ★★★★★
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Tobe Hooper 1974 ★★★★★
Texas Chainsaw Massacre David Blue Garcia 2022 ★☆☆☆☆
Phenomena Dario Argento 1985 ★★★★☆
Suspiria Dario Argento 1977 ★★★★☆
Inferno Dario Argento 1980 ★★★☆☆
Mother of Tears Dario Argento 2007 ☆☆☆☆☆
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage Dario Argento 1970 ★★★★☆
Re-Animator Stuart Gordon 1985 ★★★★★
The Cell Tarsem Singh 2000 ★★☆☆☆
This movie, so far, has been the movie this October that has had the most interesting premise that was not utalized to it's fullest potential. In this movie they have the technology to go inside people's minds, mind melding, if you will. They have a therapist that's been working with this kid who's in coma. Things get fucked up when the fbi is tracking down this killer and they find him in a similar unresponsive state, and the therapist agrees to go into his mind to figure out where his latest victim is being held (who hasn't been killed yet). It's a really interesting premise that feels held back. It did not go nearly as hard as I wanted it to in the weirdness.
It didn't help that they gave the killer some super turbo version of schitzophrenia which I fucking hate in any of these movies. Because they need to make the killer have a mental illness because only the mentally ill do murders, I guess? Gross. There is some genuinely interesting scene design and costume design here so whoever was in charge of those things deserves big props here. I do wish the cinematography here had been better to actually take advantage of some of that, it was completely inoffensive but not interesting in the slightest. Just kind of a big letdown, I really am in love with the premise of the movie though and wish someone else would do it differently.
Tenebrae Dario Argento 1982 ★★★☆☆
The Evil Dead Sam Raimi 1983 ★★★★☆
Prince of Darkness Jon Carpenter 1987 ★★★★☆
Haunted Mansion Justin Simien 2023 ★★★★☆
Haunted Mansion seems to be disliked by critics and enjoyed overall by audienced based on the rotten tomatoes page for it, and I'm not horribly suprised by this. This is no cinematic masterpiece, and in a lot of ways it's very safe but damnit it's got heart. It's a great movie about grief and found family. The cast is a group of black people, the main characters are all black, plus also owen wilson is there as a "priest" and danny devito plays danny devito. Which is what we all want from danny devito. In a world where movies come out every year that are completely devoid on soul and character please do yourself a favor and watch a recent release that has both. Bonus if you want a Halloween movie that isn't scary, unlike a lot of the watches on this list, this movie is perfect for people who aren't into being scared but love the halloween aesthetic.
Evil Dead 2 Sam Raimi 1987 ★★☆☆☆
I really wanted to like this movie more. The plot is objectively better and more interesting than the first one but I really just... did not find it funny. At all? I like comedy and I knew this was a comedy horror movie but this movie didn't make me laugh once. The silliness isn't fun to me and it was very rare that I found the silly moments in this movie to be fun rather than jarring. I feel like this movie is someone's favorite movie and I really respect it for just how off the wall it is, but it was not for me and that's okay.