for reels: trick or treat, the bitter and the sweet
What I watched in the final stretch of October
Welcome to for reels, sorta-weekly highlights from my movie diary.
Hey hey, dunno how things have been in your neck ‘o the woods but it was a particularly uncanny spooky season in mine. Been riding my bike a lot lately, usually hit the boardwalk around noon. These days everyone’s on edge and exchanging paranoid glances through a mad spiral of solidarity and alienation. Most days you see the crows circle and swarm and gather on the sand as often as you do the gulls or pigeons, fluttering and squaking and sharing the grief of consciousness alongside all us human freaks.
Rotating head, keeps on the right side
Colied up and tense remains on the lookout
Expects to be shot or get given the bullet
Rotating head tries to look on the bright side of things
Dangerous days like these in cities like mine you can almost hear the foreboding synth of a John Carpenter soundtrack over the slow rollin’ collapse of America, the old demons of power and paranoia gathering like a psychic underground storm in some primeval Lovecraftian network of dank caverns beneath our feet. On the surface a populous of plugged-in pod people beam out a flurry of psychic illnesses to one another in posts, podcasts, tiktoks and tweets until violence bursts in aching cities everywhere. Halloween is the only time of year the whole mad scene feels as blessed as it is cursed and vice versa — the psychic weight of our Boschian era offset by the spirit of a season steeped in the imagery of mortality.
The carefree days
Are distant now
I wear my memories like a shroud
I try to speak but words collapse
Echoing
"Trick or Treat"
"Trick or Treat"
The bitter and the sweet
Horror movies are a year-round thing for me, but every October I gorge on them and the older I get the more it feels like the only spiritual practice I have left — tapping into an electronic stream of nightmares where all the waves of psychic pain materialize into ghosts, monsters and psycho killers, and you stare them all down in hopes that when the real angel of death comes knockin’ you’ll be ready to stare him down too.
Don't cut the power on me
I'm feelin' low, so get me high
Shock me, make me feel better
Shock me, put on your black leather
Anyway, here are some highlights from what I watched in the back half of October.
Strange Behavior (1981) - rewarding rewatch
Discovered this one a couple years ago and it’s stuck with me ever since. Straight outta 1981, one of the all time movie years (especially for horror), Strange Behavior is a moody, borderline arthouse slasher that draws from the small-town paranoid ouvre of ‘50s sci-fi and the rough-and-tumble haziness of the New Hollywood in equal measure. More than anything it’s the proto-Lynchian sense of melancholy, grief, and slow-building terror that makes this a true original worth checking out.
You can stream Strange Behavior on The Criterion Channel or YouTube.
October (2020) & Two Little Ghosts (2022) - two little Halloween indies that rule
Where are all the Halloween movies? Not horror movies you dig but legit “holiday movie” Halloween joints. I mean yeah they’re around, but you still might call it an underserved genre compared to Christmas or even Easter fuckin’ movies ya know? I dunno maybe not anymore but regardless the good folks at Doomed Productions, a 100% pure indie filmmaking outfit from Portland, are doing their part to expand the Halloween movie canon. Their first of a planned cycle of Halloween movies, 2020’s October is an inventive little piece of no-budget, quarantine-era filmmaking that recalls everything from The Evil Dead to Robert Altman’s Images, albeit steeped in the images and sensations of the season. Also reminded me of Dan Lotz’s Sheep Theater, another YouTube indie I plugged at spooky season last year.
The Doomed crew’s latest, Two Little Ghosts, just came out this month and couldn’t have been a more rewarding follow-up. What starts as a story of two “ghosts” falling in love at Halloween becomes a rich homegrown tapestry of the season’s most wholesome and human side — “spirits, magic, reconnecting with the dead. Kids feel the magic because they’re in the street with the spirits.”
Just smash those play buttons above to watch October and Two Little Ghosts.
Hellbender (2022) - a witch’s rocknrollin’ coming of age
Literally checked this one out because I heard it described as “psychedelic” on a podcast or some shit. Turns out it’s one of many films by husband and wife John Adams and Toby Poser, and their daughters Zelda and Lulu Adams under the moniker Wonder Wheel Productions. A true independent family institution how rad is that? Poser and daughter Zelda Adams (who both share directing credits with father John) play a mother and daughter who live secluded in a house in the woods, until the daughter learns of her family’s ties to witchcraft. Things get freaky deaky from there. Great performances all around, shot in basically one beautiful location and full of psychedelic terror. One of the year’s most infectious indies.
You can stream Hellbender on Shudder.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) - found footage fucks
Had a great little run of found footage fun at my house this month. First we queued up The Blair Witch Project on the old VCR (we do VHS Tuesdays at my house), still literally one of the greatest movies ever made don’t care who y’are. Then we watched the new V/H/S/99 on Shudder, second entry in the streaming service’s revitalized version and no worse for wear. To round things out we checked out Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, a 2018 Korean film based on a real-ass spooky haunted place or whatever. This is as good as any found footage joint I’ve ever seen and then some, staging a live stream excavation of the titular abandoned asylum. Scary as hell and a must-see for any fan of the genre.
You can stream Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum on Shudder or YouTube.
Thirst (2009) - top-shelf hot priest
Dude they really know how to make fuckin’ movies in Korea. Still more in awe of this joint from Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) than anything else so for now I’ll just say it’s a dynamite goddamn modern vampire movie. Everything just works.
You can stream Thirst on Peacock or The Criterion Channel.
The Munsters (2022) - pretty damn delightful despite itself
Big fan of Rob Zombie as a filmmaker so I went into this one really rooting for it. Way too long and there are extended sections of it that just kinda bored me, but when I wasn’t bored I was absolutely delighted so I’d say it’s a winner overall. Wouldn’t mind seein’ Zombie have another go at spooky, family-friendly fare even.
You can stream The Munsters on Netflix.
Terrifier (2016) - you’ll bleed too
A lot of buzz around this one lately given the recent release of the crowdfunded Terrifier 2, so I figured I’d give it a go. Really enjoyed it. Very low budget, which you feel in both positive and negative ways, but mostly positive. All the gore effects are tactile and, well, effective, and Art the Clown immediately sets his place in the pantheon of memorable second-string slasher icons. Legitimately funny and legitimately terrifying at the same time. Hard to pull off. End verdict: a modern slasher that feels like it’s bringing the genre back to its roots without being nostalgic. Much appreciated.
You can stream Terrifier on Tubi.
Nosferatu (1922) - that’s right movies can be a hundred years old now
K gotta run I’m bout to watch this at my local art theater with a live score. Rock on and Happy Halloween!!
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