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Film Shocking October 2022: Autumn Rises From the Tomb! Fall Into a Crypt of Terror!

Phosphorescent Skeleton

Phosphorescent Skeleton

It's a hard world for little things.
Pronouns
She/Her
Every October I watch at least one horror movie a day, and 2022 will be no different. This year however, I'll be documenting every movie I watch, and try and watch a short essay or capsule review for each film. Of course everyone is free to watch along and discuss the movies. Let's have some spooky fun!

October 1st
1. Carnival of Souls 5/5
2. Dracula's Daughter 2.5/5

October 2nd
3. Quatermass and The Pit 4.5/5
4. Santo vs The Zombies 2.5/5
5. The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies 2/5
6. The Iron Rose 4.5/5

October 3rd
7. Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death 4.5/5

October 4th
8. The Curse of the Werewolf 2.5/5
9. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad 4/5

October 5th
10. Suspiria 5/5

October 6th
11. The Black Cat 5/5
12. Dracula Has Risen from the Grave 4/5

October 7th
13. Toby Dammit 4.5/5

October 8th
14. Zombie Flesh Eaters 4.5/5
15. Matango 4/5

October 9th
16. Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors 4.5/5
17. Halloween III: Season of the Witch 4/5

October 10th
18. The Mummy (1959) 4/5

October 11th
19. The Devil Bat 3/5

October 12th
20. Lake of Dracula 3/5

October 13th
21. The Witch 4/5

October 14th
22. One Cut of the Dead 4.5/5

October 15
23. Demons 5/5
24. Island of Lost Souls 5/5

October 16th ~Draculthon~
25. Drácula 3/5
26. Taste the Blood of Dracula 4/5
27. Dracula's Fiancée 4/5
28. Dracula 2000 1/5
29. Dracula 3000 0.5/5

October 17th
30. Sh! The Octopus 4/5

October 18th
31. Bride of Frankenstein 5/5

October 19th
32. Human Lanterns 4.5/5

October 20th
33. Blood the Last Vampire 1/5

October 21st
34. The Invisible Man 5/5

October 22nd
35. A Chinese Ghost Story 4.5/5

October 23rd
36. Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell 4.5/5

October 24th
37. Xtro 5/5

October 25th
38. Phantasm 5/5

October 26th
39. Night of the Ghouls 5/5

October 27th
40. The Keep 2/5

October 28th
41: Tetsuo: The Iron Man 5/5

October 29th
42: House 5/5

October 30th
43. Monsters Crash the Pajama Party 666/5
44. The Evil Dead 5/5
45. Don't Let The Riverbeast Get You! 5/5

October 31st
46. Halloween 5/5
 
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Some early fall spooks I've watched to get ready.

She Freak: Take me to the carnival and make me a she freak. 3.5/5

Rouge: Oh, oops, one of the most dreamy films ever made! Gorgeous Ghosts Galore! 5/5

The Curious Dr. Humpp: Mind numbing, but I can't hate a film with this much lesbian sex, brains in jars, and goofy guitar playimg robot monsters. 2.5/5

The Psychic: I usually struggle to get into giallo, but this is top tier stuff. 4.5/5

Wicked World: Lotta funny stuff, but also alot of whining about PC thugs and monologs about the evils of the world intercut with footage of black people. Ruins what might be a real good goof festival. Would not recommend. 0/5

Billy the Kid vs Dracula: Better than I thought. Love looking at John Carradine's face. By far the funniest way to kill a vampire at the end. 2/5
 
Look out Dracula, he's got a gun!

Love Carnival of Souls and I'm so excited to watch it again. A must watch every Halloween!
 
Ooh, I haven't watched any of the ones you've listed so far (and I don't know if I'll have time to join in for any of these) but this is a super fun idea and I'm really curious to hear about any fun (and/or harrowing) ones!

Are you planning on a mix of rewatches and new movies?
 
paranoodle said:
Ooh, I haven't watched any of the ones you've listed so far (and I don't know if I'll have time to join in for any of these) but this is a super fun idea and I'm really curious to hear about any fun (and/or harrowing) ones!

Are you planning on a mix of rewatches and new movies?
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Gonna be a mix of new stuff to me and rewatches, and for sure over 31
 
September 29th

Lisa and the Devil, 1973, Dir. Mario Bava

What can be said of Mario Bava? One of the elemental forces in the history of horror films, a name that conjures red and green spookshow lighting, cobwebbed Italian villas, gothic violence. Dripping water, rotting wall, cherry red blood, all shot in glorious color. Lisa and The Devil features both, spending a long night in a mansion that winds on like a long nightmare of mannequins and murder. Telly Savalas plays old scratch with hammy, monologing aplomb, his bald head a canvas of light, is an agent of chaos, subtly pushing these rich Italians into murdering each other, while Elke Sommer, as German tourist Lisa, unwisely sticks around and gets involved. Everyone is guilty and damned from the start. This is where the devil lives, this is already hell. I bet this kinda thing happens in Rome all the time. This is topshelf Bava. 4.5/5.
 
September 29th.5

Blood Massacre, 1987, Dir. Don Dohler

Don Dohler is one of cult cinema's great unsung heroes. His best films, Alien Factor, Fiend, and Nightbeast, all have an infectious, handmade, lets put on a show hangout vibe, filled to the brim with enthusiastic stop motion, monster suits, make up, and local Baltimore actors. Nightbeast, incidentally, was the cinatic debut of one JJ Abrams, who did the music. It is still the best thing he's ever been associated with.
Blood Massacre came after Dohler's alien films and it a much more modest work, a kind of Dohler Store Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But there's plenty of goofy gore gags and surprises to make up for its somewhat anonymous feel. Wouldn't recommend to anyone but Dohler completists, but I had a good lazy morning watching it. 3.5/5
 
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September 30th

Kill Them and Eat Them, 2003, Dir. Collin Pendergast

Backyard/basement monster mash with friends from Toronto on glorious mini DV. What if a 50s monster movie had gore and tongue in cheek teen humor. Wasn't expecting much, but this was super charming, especially the final 15 minute monster vs monster smackdown. Gets my stamp of approval. 4/5
 
Ramune said:
Teehee!

I'm strapped in for this thread, I am on a horror kick recently and I'm plumbing some depths that are yielding both treasures and things that maybe didn't need restoring from an old VHS found in an abandoned video store in Wisconsin.
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Don Dohler was the master of video store horror.
 
October 1st

Carnival of Souls, 1962, Dir. Herk Harvey

In 1962, with 0 money, you could make a film more beautiful than anything that's come out in the past 10 years. A movie about the desperation and little horrors of living in the middle of nowhere. Herk Harvey had the soul of an artist, but he aside from this he had to sublimate his talent into making corporate films(he was a prolific director of industrial shorts) the same way Mary's only outlet for her talent is playing organ at a church she doesn't believe in. Might as well go off to join the carnival. Still genuinely chilling, the perfect movie to start October. Also there's a bunch of spooky ghosts. 5/5
 
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Carnival of Souls (1962, Dir. Herk Harvey, USA)

Carnival of Souls has got to have one of the most haunting soundtracks to any film. The ghoul (?) that pursues the main character is creepy as hell and shot so, so perfectly, but the true horror is Mr. Linden. The actor playing him puts in a perfectly sleazy performance. Who hasn't known a loser creep like that? The way he strides into Mary's room uninvited tells you everything!

A Halloween staple that gets better with every watch. One of the few non Lynch movies I'd call Lynchian.
 
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Dracula's Daughter, 1936, Dir. Lambert Hillyer

October 1.2st

Imagine if this movie was good, jfc. It'd be the best one of these. This first Dracula sequel is even duller then the original, but still has some of that Universal Horror atmosphere and visual beauty. Pretty skipable. Appreciate the lesbian stuff though, gave me that "weird" feeling.
2.5/5
 
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Dracula's Daughter (1936, Dir. Lambert Hillyer, USA)

1 hour and 10 minutes that felt three times as long
 
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October 2nd

Quatermass and the Pit, 1967, Dir. Roy Ward Baker, UK

Hammer Horror is one of the preeminent names in the history of horror, and maybe Britain's greatest contribution to horror cinema. In the late 50s they brought back the Gothic tradition of the 30s Universal horror films with fine adaptations of both Frankenstein and Dracula. Hammer's movies had a little more blood, a little more sex, and beautiful lurid color photography. While Hammer is most well remembered for their long running Frankenstein and Dracula series, their filmography is filled with hidden gems, of which Quatermass and the Pit is perhaps the finest. Eschewing the Victorian, Eastern European settings and supernatural trappings of their biggest hits, Quatermass, with its modern London setting and scientific horrors is no less a Gothic story. It is about the past come back to wreck bloody terror on a global scale. To say more would be to spoil much of the surprise, but it's not hard to see why this is a favorite of people like Stephen King and John Carpenter. This is a must watch. 4.5/5
 
Phosphorescent Skeleton said:
October 2nd

Quatermass and the Pit, 1967, Dir. Roy Ward Baker, UK

Hammer Horror is one of the preeminent names in the history of horror, and maybe Britain's greatest contribution to horror cinema. In the late 50s they brought back the Gothic tradition of the 30s Universal horror films with fine adaptations of both Frankenstein and Dracula. Hammer's movies had a little more blood, a little more sex, and beautiful lurid color photography. While Hammer is most well remembered for their long running Frankenstein and Dracula series, their filmography is filled with hidden gems, of which Quatermass and the Pit is perhaps the finest. Eschewing the Victorian, Eastern European settings and supernatural trappings of their biggest hits, Quatermass, with its modern London setting and scientific horrors is no less a Gothic story. It is about the past come back to wreck bloody terror on a global scale. To say more would be to spoil much of the surprise, but it's not hard to see why this is a favorite of people like Stephen King and John Carpenter. This is a must watch. 4.5/5
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Ooh, I've loved what I've watched of Hammer horror so far, but I hadn't heard of this one. Definitely adding it to my watchlist!
 
Quatermass and the Pit (1967, Dir. Roy Ward Baker, UK)

I went in really not knowing much about this film at all. I've seen a few of the Hammer Draculas and Frankensteins, but hadn't seen any of their work outside of these. I was very pleasantly surprised by what I found! The movie is slow at first, but escalates quite quickly. Feels like a really well run Call of Cthulhu campaign. I won't spoil any more; go into this one without knowing anything else!
 
October 2.2nd

Santo Vs The Zombies, 1962, Benito Alazraki, Mexico

The third entry in the enormous Santo series, which combined lunchdore wrestling with horror (or occasionally spy/thriller). This one is filled with the surreal imagery and exciting real wrestling footage the seires is famous for, featuring real world luchadore Santo taking on a criminal mastermind and his army of voodoo zombies. Unfortunately, Santo is more a side character to a bland detective. Not a starter Santo, but enough here for incurable Santo Super Fans like myself. 2.5/5
 
Santo Vs The Zombies (1962, Dir. Benito Alazraki, Mexico)

The movie opens with 12 minutes of just Santo wrestling, which is exactly what I want to see in one of these movies. Could have used more Santo in the rest of the movie, which for the most part is more boring than the average Santo film. There are still some high points however, including Santo wrestling zombies inside of an orphanage.
 
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October 2.3nd

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, 1964, Ray Dennis Steckler, USA

A real brain buster carnival back yard movie fantasia. There's really not much else I can say. Lots of jarring cuts to bizzare carnival contraptions and people with interesting faces. A must see for the seeker of the psychotro6pic celluloid drug mind.
2/5
 
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964, Ray Dennis Steckler, USA)

I feel like I wouldn't understand this movie any better if I was sober
 
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October 2.4nd

The Iron Rose, 1973, Dir. Jean Rollin, France

Jean Rollin is my favorite cinematic discovery of the year. Instantly fell in love with this movie. The Iron Rose, one of his most elleptic and poetic films, is filled with gorgeous graveyard imagery, surreal flourishes, and basically lacks any real narrative. Love it, though could use more lesbian vampire. Can't have it all. 4.5/5
 
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The Iron Rose (1973, Dir. Jean Rollin, France)

It's like a much spookier version of The Exterminating Angel. Plenty of gorgeous looking graveyard shots here! Wish this was as gay as the other Jean Rollin movies I've seen.
 
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Phosphorescent Skeleton said:
October 2.2nd

Santo Vs The Zombies, 1962, Benito Alazraki, Mexico

The third entry in the enormous Santo series, which combined lunchdore wrestling with horror (or occasionally spy/thriller). This one is filled with the surreal imagery and exciting real wrestling footage the seires is famous for, featuring real world luchadore Santo taking on a criminal mastermind and his army of voodoo zombies. Unfortunately, Santo is more a side character to a bland detective. Not a starter Santo, but enough here for incurable Santo Super Fans like myself. 2.5/5
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what is a starter santo? I've always wanted to check one of these out
 
SlumWolf said:
what is a starter santo? I've always wanted to check one of these out
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Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters, Santo vs Blue Demon in Atlantis, and Santo vs The Vampire Women are good places to start. Champions of Justice is all around my favorite luchadore film, but it features no Santo.
 
October 3rd



Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death, 1978, Dir. Kim Ki-Young, South Korea



An feverish film that can never stay in one place for long. A young man constantly bedeviled by skeletons and their associates. Severed heads, butterflies pinned to walls, poisoned drinks, brutal stabbings. This is the poetry of revolutionary film maker Kim Ki-Young. Much like his most famous film, this one has an incredible ending, followed by a hilarious fake out that's clearly there to please government censors. Lost my my mind laughing.
4.5/5
 
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Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (1978, Dir. Kim Ki-Young, South Korea)

I could never predict where this one would go next! A complete wild ride of a movie. Right when you think you know what the film's story is about, it shifts focus to something else. I guess the common threads throughout the various segments of the film are "death" and "will". I feel that these themes made the film's scattershot approach work to its advantage, and made it feel more nightmarish. It could have easily gone wrong in someone else's hands, but Kim Ki-Young's expert direction keeps it on track throughout, building up to another unforgettable ending much like his earlier film The Housemaid. Some wonderfully spooky skeletons.
 
October 1st: Barbarian

Man, for the love of god go into this movie unspoiled, the trailer sells you a completely different movie then what it actually is. I loved it though.
 
October 4th

The Curse of the Werewolf, 1961, Dir. Terence Fisher, UK

I've never really been into werewolf movies. The core concept is solid, but all these movies just put me to sleep. Dracula, Frankenstein, hell even The Mummy, have personality, they're dynamic bastard monsters. The wolfman in almost always some sad sack whining about turning wolf. Has the great look and gothic mood of any Hammer production, but this is slow going even by their standards. 40 minutes until anyone utters the word werewolf, and you have to wait until the very end to even see the damn beast. Not suprised Hammer never did another one of these. 2.5/5
 
October 4.2th

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, 1949, Dir. James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, USA

The Toad stuff is fine, but I'm here for the cozy spooks of the headless horseman. It's a perfect little trick of a treat. One of Disney's finest. Better than anything they've done in the past 20 years. 4/5
 
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The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949, Dir. James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, USA)

The first segment, which has nothing even remotely spooky, is fine! Cute story with some funny animals, including the inspiration for the weasels from Roger Rabbit. Of course the real meat of the feature belongs to Ichabod's segment, wherein a really weird looking guy seduces every woman in town and must be stopped by any means possible. Those means arrive in the form of one of Disney's best animated monsters, the Headless Horseman! There's something fantastic about not only the way he's animated, but how he's shaded. Ichabod's entire segment is excellent and very funny, Brom Bones' song being a real standout moment before Ichabod finally ventures into Sleepy Hollow. That whole part of the film is a such a wonderful, spooky treat! I hadn't seen this one since I was very very young, and found myself very pleasantly surprised by how good it was.
 
October 5th

Suspiria, 1977, Dir. Dario Argento, Italy

This is one I revisit every October. I can't think of much to say about this that's not a cliché. The colors are beautiful, the soundtrack is one if the best ever written, the scares and spooks are poppin', and the gore is grisly . Watching it on 4k was overwhelming. Dario Argento frequently made movies that were beautiful but boring before this, but here all the elements come together beautifully. Not a bad scene in the whole thing. 5/5
 
Suspiria (1977, Dir. Dario Argento, Italy)

Argento never made a movie as good as this before or after! All you need to make something really spooky are some gel lights, incredible looking sets, and one of the greatest soundtracks to any movie ever. Who could have guessed?

Anecdotally, the first time I watched this, I kept joking that "a spooky bat" was going to show up at any moment. Phosphorescent Skeleton (who had already seen the movie) insisted that one would not. Who was the winner of that debate? Better watch the movie and find out!
 
October 6th

The Black Cat, 1934, Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, USA

Have you ever heard of Kurgaal? It is a prison below Omsk, near Lake Baikal. Many men have gone there. Few have returned. I have returned. After fifteen years... I have returned.

The shadowy hidden masterpiece of Universal Horror. Bela Lugosi, at his career best, is a man twisted by the horrors of war into a scalpel of revenge. Boris Karloff, a man of preening, arogant evil, made fabulously wealth by war dwells in a cold modern mansion built atop gothic catacombs and a festering WWI battlefield. Devil worshippers lurk and atrocities lurk under the surface and behind the masks of respectable society. Ulmer could work wonders later in his career on poverty row with just fog, shadow, and a couple props, but seeing him work here with a full budget is stunning. 5/5
 
October 6.2th

Dracula Has Risen from The Grave, 1968, Dir. Freddie Francis, UK

Dracula is real grumpy in this one. Cleary didn't want to get out of bed. We've all been there.
This is about as good a Dracula movie as you could want. Good colors, neat blood, fun human characters, cool spooky castles and basements, Dracula has a memorable death. A lot of Castlevania stylenl imagery. Christopher Lee is probably the platonic ideal for Dracula. The best Hammer Dracula after the first one.
4/5
 
Dracula Has Risen from The Grave (1968, Dir. Freddie Francis, UK)

Much better than the last Hammer Dracula film, mainly because Dracula actually talks in this one! Christopher Lee is such a joy to watch in these films. The human characters are much more interesting this time around too. The primary moral this time around seems to be that locking a vampire out of their house is more trouble than its worth.

Constantly annoyed Phosphorescent Skeleton throughout this one by insisting that the film takes place in modern day London. It's not my fault that's how they live over there!
 
Phosphorescent Skeleton said:
October 5th

Suspiria, 1977, Dir. Dario Argento, Italy

This is one I revisit every October. I can't think of much to say about this that's not a cliché. The colors are beautiful, the soundtrack is one if the best ever written, the scares and spooks are poppin', and the gore is grisly . Watching it on 4k was overwhelming. Dario Argento frequently made movies that were beautiful but boring before this, but here all the elements come together beautifully. Not a bad scene in the whole thing. 5/5
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Clov said:
Suspiria (1977, Dir. Dario Argento, Italy)

Argento never made a movie as good as this before or after! All you need to make something really spooky are some gel lights, incredible looking sets, and one of the greatest soundtracks to any movie ever. Who could have guessed?

Anecdotally, the first time I watched this, I kept joking that "a spooky bat" was going to show up at any moment. Phosphorescent Skeleton (who had already seen the movie) insisted that one would not. Who was the winner of that debate? Better watch the movie and find out!
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I'm curious, do you two know each other irl or are just good friends off site or something? You're watching the same movies and also seem to sync up your posts frequently.
 
Phosphorescent Skeleton said:
October 6.2th

Dracula Has Risen from The Grave, 1968, Dir. Freddie Francis, UK

Dracula is real grumpy in this one. Cleary didn't want to get out of bed. We've all been there.
This is about as good a Dracula movie as you could want. Good colors, neat blood, fun human characters, cool spooky castles and basements, Dracula has a memorable death. A lot of Castlevania stylenl imagery. Christopher Lee is probably the platonic ideal for Dracula. The best Hammer Dracula after the first one.
4/5
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I've only seen the first Hammer Dracula but I really enjoyed it, I'll definitely try to get around to this one.
 
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October 7th

Toby Dammit, 1968, Dir. Frederico Fellini, Italy

Fellini turns Poe into a modern day, grotesque nightmare of celebrity. People are cut outs, mannequins, uniformly strange looking. Shadows and lights cut across the neck of the titular British actor, always deeply drunk with booze and misery, haunted by the devil, a little girl straight out of Mario Bava. The hideous horror of being trapped somewhere surrounded by people you don't know but you already hate, and how escape is sometime just self destruction. 4.5/5
 
Toby Dammit (1968, Dir. Frederico Fellini, Italy)

Fellini isn't known for horror, but he really delivers on his short foray into the genre. A washed up actor reluctantly travels to Rome for the only role he can get, while haunted by a devil child and his own personal demons. The way he uses light and shadow to telegraph Toby's inevitable end is nothing short of masterful. While the final sequence of Toby recklessly and drunkenly driving his new Ferrari through dark and empty streets is wonderfully creepy, the true horror lies in the middle of the film, where Toby is forced to attend the Oscars. The look of sheer pain on his face while the elderly director tells a terrible joke on stage is priceless!
 
October 8th

Zombie Flesh Eaters, 1979, Lucio Fulci, Italy

I have a long complicated relationship with the legendary Italian horror master Lucio Fulci. Zombie Flesh Eaters, aka Zombie 2, aka Zombie, aka a million other titles, was the first of his films I watched, and initially I hated it. The plot is nonsensical, the dubbing wooden, the gore disgusting. And with every Fulci movie I saw, I had the same reaction. What do people see in this guy? But the cult of Fulci is so strong that I couldn't help but try again after a year or two and suddenly it clicked. The movies hadn't changed, but I had. The ways I saw and appreciated cinema had expanded significantly and I could finally see why Fulci was one of the truly great horror directors. The plots and acting are both strange and elliptical like a dream, and as for the gore, well thats just fun. Zombie Flesh Eaters is rightly considered one of the great zombie movies. The living dead here are rotting, worm infested, and brutally violent, offering such surreal amd grisly sights as zombie vs shark and the old splintered door through the eye gag. Thats a real actor vs a real shark by the way. Like a lot of Italian horror movies this will work if you let it, if you let go a little. Just listen to that excellent Fabio Frizzi score and dream of tropical flesh eating. 4.5/5
 
October 8.2th

Matango, 1963, Dir. Ishiro Honda

Not as good as I remember, kinda drags at points, but great monsters and a sweaty tropical island will always be good. 4/5
 
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Matango (1963, Dir. Ishiro Honda, Japan)

I'm a big fan of Honda's kaiju films, and would rank many of them among my favorite movies... but this was just a bit too slow for me. Loved whenever we got to see the mushroom creatures! Those were great, and the scenes when they showed up were so tense! But in the end we just don't get enough of them.
 
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