October Horror Movie a Day 2023: 14th Year! Who Still Even Does This?!?

[Edward J Grug III]

October 19 - Hobgoblins - MST3K version. We showed this out our weekly movie club - a cheer up/baffling distraction movie after one of the group was made redundant suddenly.

[Edward J Grug III]

October 22 - Nope. Such a bold and odd film, I liked it even more on this, my second viewing.

I love final alien design so much.

I can't wait to see what his next film is.

[Cyrusso]

October 22 - Nope. Such a bold and odd film, I liked it even more on this, my second viewing.
I love final alien design so much.
I can't wait to see what his next film is.

I love Nope so much. So damn fascinating and tense AF. It's kind of like Close Encounters in several ways(Not The Fourth kind, the THIRD kind).

[WhyDontTheyLook]

Mon 10/23: Movie Jo Night: Scream of the Wolf (1974) - Peter Graves investigates a series of murders that may have been done by a werewolf, or a wolf, or maybe just the guy who's the obvious villain. Mary Jo Pehl and Chris Gersbeck screened this for this month's Movie Jo Night; it's more of a commentary than a riff, per se, but it's fun to watch them watching the movie. (Mary Jo Pehl Clubhouse)

Tue 10/24: Halloween II (2009) - Rob Zombie's second stab at a Michael Myers movie. The studio let him go his own way with the story for this one, and it manages to be simultaneously better and worse than his previous effort. Overall, was happy to see Michael killing off almost everybody in this one. (Peacock)

Wed 10/25: Silent Hill (2006) - A mother, attempting to unravel the mystery of her daughter's tortured dreams, takes her to the mysterious town of Silent Hill. She immediately loses her, and runs around shouting her name a lot. Not sure how faithful it is as an adaptation, but it's a fun, creepy, twisted flick. (Peacock)

Thu 10/26: Lifeforce (1986) - Space vampires make their way to Earth and begin sucking electricity from everybody's faces. By popular demand, they are naked a lot. I can't believe this was my first time seeing this; it's demented and amazing. (Tubi)

[Charles Castle]

12. October 20 - Re-Animator (1985)
https://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,5210.msg1042025.html#msg1042025

[Charles Castle]

13. October 21 - The Resident
https://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,5210.msg1042027.html#msg1042027

[Charles Castle]

14. October 21 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)

A true Halloween classic which hasn't lost a scintilla of resonance for me since the first time I saw it at age 6.

https://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,5210.msg1042029.html#msg1042029

[Cyrusso]

This morning, I thought back to 10 Cloverfield Lane(which... came out 7 years ago already) holds up VERY well. HOLY SHIT!

Great movie, and IMHO, MUCH better than the original Cloverfield. It's pretty rare that a movie franchise changes genres, but in this rare case, Monster movie to straight up horror film works very well.

Also... Mary Elizabeth Winstead is fucking beautiful and badass.

There's something very cool about a movie spent in a very claustrophobic location, then we get outside and somehow.... things get even more fucked up... and even more interesting.

[WhyDontTheyLook]

Fri 10/27: Hor-Riff-Ic: Friday the 13th (1980) - Can't let an October go by without at least one Hor-Riff-Ic riff. This year I picked their fabulous riff of this old-timey slasher classic. So much fun. (Movie: dvd Riff: https://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/hor-riff-ic-friday-the-13th-remastered)

Sat 10/28: Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) - Sharon's grown up now, and is ready to face the fact that she's in a middling sequel to a pretty good horror video game movie. Not as good as the first, but has some effective bits, and Sean Bean doesn't die in this one... exactly. I think. (Prime (rental))

Sun 10/29: The Gateway (2016) - I saw the 'Uncork'd' logo at the start and immediately lowered my expectations to be flush with the floor. But this one surprised me by actually being entertaining. It feels a little threadbare (it is an Uncork'd feature, after all), but the tart comic approach to this dimensional-vortex-in-my-shower horror feature made it surprisingly fun. (Tubi)

[Charles Castle]

15. October 23 - Frozen (2010)
https://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,5210.msg1042040.html#msg1042040

[Edward J Grug III]

October 23 - Rock 'N' Roll Nightmare - Easily one of my wife's top three riffs, watched on a night where she'd had a stressful day. So silly and fun.

[Edward J Grug III]

October 26 - The Black Cat (1934) - Screened at our movie club. A couple honeymoon in remote Hungary for some reason, and are in a bus accident in front of the house of a famous architect (Boris Karloff) who a fellow passenger (a doctor played by Bella Lugosi) holds a grudge against. The doctor takes the injured woman up to the house, where the creepy architect is forced to put them up.

This movie is all atmosphere and talking. Some fantastically composed shots, including a memorable shot of Karloff waking and stiffly sitting up in bed in silhouette.

[Edward J Grug III]

27 October - Hold That Ghost - My son has really gotten into Abbott and Costello (via the Universal Monster movies they did) so I picked up a boxset of their films, and this one seemed perfect for a Halloween family movie night. My ten year old does not do too well with spooky stuff and definitely got scared a few times, but still enjoyed it quite well. It has some of the worst musical segments you'll ever see at the start of the movie, and the whole set up is so over-complicated, but in the end, it's a fun watch.

[Edward J Grug III]

28 October - M3GAN - We only just got to this smash hit from last year. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, to be honest. It really successfully sets up and executes its premise. It's no masterpiece, but it's one to revisit every few Halloweens.

[Edward J Grug III]

October 30 - Onibaba - Now THIS is a genuine masterpiece.

Two women (a mother and daughter in law) in medieval Japan are left to fend for themselves when their son/husband is forced to go to war. They ultimately resort to killing and stealing to survive. Then the son/husband's friend returns without him and threatens to interfere with the mother's livelihood and survival.

Every shot looks impossibly perfect. The sound design and the score (taiko drumming and jazz) is extraordinary.

It doesn't get much better than this.