Normally, I love to try and watch at least thirty-one new horror films during October in celebration of Halloween but October 2021 I was not able to do this as I was also watching a bunch of TV shows during the month as well (I actually enjoyed this more than catching up with the horror films that I had missed throughout the year). So, I am a little disappointed that I was only able to watch about fifteen horror films during the month but some of these films were the very best I’d seen all year.
I’d like to first take a look back to some of the older
films I viewed during the month. The
only film I had already seen was The Wraith (1986) which was one of my favorite
films of the ’80s and which still holds up extremely well today. I still love this film! I also (finally) got around to watching
Buried Alive II (1997). I had already
watched the first film earlier in the year.
These were films I just never got around to. I also watched Nightflyers (1987), The Ladies
Club (1986), and Deadly Games (1982). I
generally hated the recent TV series of Nightflyers and this ‘80s film was just
a derivative but at least it wasn’t drawn out like the series. I just did not like the story which is based
on a sci-fi novella by G.R.R. Martin. It
did star Catherine Mary Stewart which is the only plus in my opinion. Deadly Games was completely forgettable and
derivative of other ‘80s horror films but it was The Ladies Club which was the
big surprise. The Ladies Club, which is
more a thriller, was actually better than I expected as it is a smart and
provocative thriller whose themes of rape and abuse are still relevant today
for women.
The oldest film that I happened to view is the 1976 film Schizo from director Pete Walker, one of the directors whose films I was watching in October and November. This happened to be the only horror film of his that I ended up viewing as I was catching up with his sex comedies (which he also did a lot of). Walker is one of those unusual directors whose filmography is mostly horror films and sex comedies – two genres on opposite sides of the spectrum. I love his style of film-making and this is just as good as other films in his filmography.
I caught up with some more recent horror films Voice From the Stone (2017), Gwen (2018), Downrange (2017), Still/Born (2018), and Superdeep (2020). Voice From the Stone was a pretty average film but it was Emilia Clarke that was the true standout and made it worthwhile whereas Downrange had a pretty basic plot that was made better by the cinematography and suspense as it was a non-stop film in the tradition of thrillers like Joy Ride (2001), Duel (1971), and Breakdown (1997). Gwen was another mediocre film but it had a lot of atmosphere and strong performances for a slow burn folk film. Still/Born wasn’t much better as I ended up with a lot of ambitious horror films that had a lot of atmosphere and great cinematography but were not always all that good. On the other hand, Superdeep was a fun and entertaining Lovecraftian horror film that took a lot of its inspiration from John Carpenter’s The Thing. Although not a great film it was entertaining and engaging.
I do want to take a few moments to make comment about the lost George A. Romero film The Amusement Park (2021) which audiences finally get to see. This is not entirely a horror film but it is a mindfuck of a film that more a David Lynch film in the tradition of Romero’s early films Season of the Witch (1972) and There’s Always Vanilla (1971). If you’re a fan of these early films then this film will be a great treat but if you’re not familiar with Romero’s less popular films then this film may leave you wanting more.
The last group of films that I want to include is one of the
best horror trilogies put out in a long time and they were released weekly via
Netflix. Fear Street Part 1: 1994
(2021), Fear Street Part 2: 1978 (2021), and Fear Street Part 3: 1666 (2021).
Utilizing the same cast members in various roles, the films do an amazing job
of linking multiple characters and timelines in a story that’s both
entertaining, suspenseful, and at times horrifying. I was never bored and watched all three in a
single day. The performances from the
young cast are exceptionally well done as are all other production elements. These films are some of the best horror films
released in ’21.
I did catch up with two TV series this month – Black Summer (Season 2) and Holliston (Season 2). Black Summer has some amazing production value and the winter setting was a great touch but the show is just too fragmented due to the frequent cutting back and forth between so many characters and so many stories. The best episodes were character episodes where there were just a handful of characters. This show has the same problem that The Walking Dead has where the character episodes are better than most other episodes in general. The show also suffers from characters who repeatedly make dumb decisions and most of the characters are not likable or even interesting. Holliston, on the other hand, was a vast improvement over the first season as you can tell that the writers finally knew how to tell the stories (and jokes) that best fit the actors. This was a strong second season and I wished that the show had been able to do a third.
This is all for my viewing habits for October 2021! Not as many as I would have liked and I saw a
lot of mediocre films but watching horror films during October is never a bad
thing! Can’t wait until October 2022!
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