No matter the cinephile, there is always a large list of blind spots. Sometimes it’s specific time periods of films – classics from the 40s or 70s – and sometimes it’s whole genres. For all its ubiquity in theaters and streaming, Horror is probably the largest collection of blind spots for me. Despite the many, many horror films I watch each year, I’m not really a spooky efecianado. The majority of the fright films I watch are more out of proximity and always accessible offerings than any true desire to go down a blood splattered rabbit hole.
But this year, I decided to challenge myself with a new movie project. Now I know the last thing I need is another project for watching movies, but in an effort to cross off an every growing list of genre staples, I decided to try and watch 31 horror films in 31 days of October. The catch is they all MUST be first time watches. There was no restriction on how many or few films I watched on any given day. I just had to complete watching all 31 before Halloween. With a plethora of streaming options and few theatrical releases plus my ever growing physical media selection, I was spoiled for choice. I had a harder time figuring out what to watch than I did with how many movies I set myself up to watch.
With 4 more days to Halloween (Halloween, Halloween!) I ended up watching 40 horror films total, all first time watches. So with this project completed, I thought we should run down some of the films I checked out – the good, the bad, and the zombie. Yes, even the most ardent of movie watchers have some egregious blind spots on their list. So please try to withhold judgement for how many films are core pillars of horror head personalities. I have corrected some huge misses here, and for the most part it was a frightening (complimentary) experience, one I may even repeat next year! Let’s get spooky!
The Frightfully Good
Surprising no one, the proven classics reign supreme at the top of the list. Films like The Vanishing and Audition absolutely chilled me the bone. The last 20 minutes of each film left me shook and filled with dread, completely unsettled and unnerved. I love a good slow burn, and both films have that in spades. They lure you in with a sense of security and then dial up the terror when it’s too late to turn back. Also hitting the top of the list are films like Possession, The Exorcist III, and the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I was enamored by the constant state of mental unraveling in Possession, and completely understand why people champion this insane, psychological horror.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre truly sets the stage for nihilism and brutality for the genre. It’s so smart and direct in its construction. Just in and out, mean spirited and inexplicably demented. I’ve actually seen some of the other, lesser sequels and remakes, and I can say with complete confidence that the original stands tall above all of them. The Exorcist III might be one of the best sequels to a classic on the list. I was shocked at how good it was – I may even like it more than the original, just don’t say that too loud. Brad Dourif is elite and George C. Scott is truly excellent here.
He’s also great in The Changeling, and straight forward haunted house ghost story that may be predictable but no less effective. Rounding out the top of the list are the original Suspiria – a film I don’t pretend to understand but admire its bloody beauty. I know there’s some questions about the nature of its brutality, but The Sadness rocked me. Just unhinged nastiness with a devastating ending. Scanners is wonderful Cronenberg and might be one of my favorites of his early work I’ve seen so far. Perfectly weird and perfectly Cronenberg – as all things body horror should be.
The Reliably Chilly
They can’t all be bangers, but they aren’t all bad nightmares, either. We’ll get to the unwatchable watches shortly, but there’s a nice chuck of horror movies that are just good old fashion chilly fun. Films like Hellhouse LLC. and Hellhouse Origins, both of which are relatively average found footage films with two of the scariest endings in the genre. Trick ‘r Treat is basically every horror movie ever made in one single Halloween anthology and it’s so damn fun to watch. Every list needs more Cronenberg and Carpenter, so while they aren’t their best I enjoyed the hell out of Videodrome and Prince of Darkness.
You really understand why they’re considered the masters of horror when even their middle of the road films in their filmography are better than most other films in the genre. I’m a sucker for noir and a who’s who of stars before they were stars, so the Lovecraftian To Cast a Deadly Spell won me over. It’s cheesy as hell but high concept and smart enough to be effective with its genre hybrid balance. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is a wild hidden gem that I surprisingly dug. I’d never even heard of it, and it’s a movie you’d find on the shelf at Blockbuster on the bottom shelf of the horror section that you can’t believe is a real movie. Perfect for this experiment.
My last call out in this middle section is Adam Chaplin, a blood splattered gore fest that is incomprehensible plot wise and objectively terrible. But in a TLDR story, it’s a film I’ve tried to watch for over a decade and relished its nonsensical insanity with rose colored glasses on. Honestly? Worth it. Just blood and abs, baby. Blood and abs.
The Nightmares
In any other time discussing horror films, the Nightmare section would be the most terrifying. Unfortunately, these are nightmares that are weak on frights and scares altogether and more like experiences you wish you could forget. Films like The Terror and the original The Blob, both of which had a lot of promise but became very difficult to get through. Cat People is conceptually interesting and is a guilty pleasure for most, but halfway through I kind of just wanted to turn it off. The Sentinel and The Irrefutable Truth About Demons were equally tough hangs. They weren’t the worst – the insane cast of one and Karl Urban of the other is worth the journey.
The worst films on the list belongs to films like The Nightcomers, House, and Equinox. I’m not versed enough in the original Henry James text, but even without that I can see that everything about this film was wrong. I nearly gave up on Equinox, a slog of a film that feels more fit for Mystery Science Theater 3000 than a spot in the Criterion Channel. Controversially, this also applies to House, a film that is beloved by most but sadly abhorred by me. I get that it’s just chaos incarnate, but I found everything about this to be baffling and dreadful. Sorry, House heads. It’s a no for me.
So there you have it! My 31 Days of First Time Horror Watches recap! Lots of films we didn’t mention, so you can check out the full list here.
Happy Halloween!
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