The month of October is always a great one to do some horror movie watching. In my case, I threw in a few TV shows just to mix things up. All in all, while I missed watching something horror-related on some days, I feel like it was a pretty successful month of horror for me. Here’s a list of everything I watched:
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Phantasm
Hellraiser
Mandy
Tigers Are Not Afraid
Black Christmas
Prom Night
The Evil Dead
Re-Animator
The Old Dark House
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
The Addams Family
The Invitation
Countdown
History of Horror (all episodes)
American Horror Story: 1984 (episodes 1-7)
Castle Rock S2 (episodes 1-4)
Unless I forgot to log something in Letterboxd, this should be the complete list. When you factor in each episode of the TV shows, I definitely hit a good chunk of what I was hoping to get through. I would have loved to squeeze in more movies, but I also moved this month, so things were a little more disorganized than usual for me.
If we want to toss in horror novels, as well, I read quite a few of those this month. It helps to have a Stephen King podcast during the month of October, too.
Needful Things by Stephen King
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King
Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt
The House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
That certainly feels like a successful month of horror to me.
My Podcasts
Welcome to Geekdom 156: Hellraiser
Sean Gonzalez returned to the podcast for a quick chat about one of his favorite horror movies, Hellraiser.
Chat Sematary 50: Needful Things
And now you know why I read the King books listed above this month. Episodes on the other two books are coming soon. This was a great chat with Kt Schaefer.
Basketful of Heads #1
Why not add a horror comic to the mix? Joe Hill (who some of you may know as Stephen King’s son) is working with DC on a new line of horror comics which will be published under the Hill House banner. One of the first of those titles is Basketful of Heads, which is penned by Hill himself. If you’ve read any of his father’s work (or just seen any of the movie adaptations), you might recognize some easter eggs in the first issue.
Without giving too much away, there are some convicts on the loose and the police on Brody Island (I’m guessing a Jaws reference) are probably in over their heads. One of the officers is just a summer hire who finished up his last day on the job. What Joe Hill does well with his storytelling is letting you get to know the characters enough to like them before throwing them in the middle of a horrible situation. That’s key to why this first issue works as well as it does. It builds up to the moment where you know everyone is in trouble.
The art by Leomacs and colors by Dave Stuart adds to the overall tone of the comic. June is a very animated character and Leomacs does a great job with her facial expressions and how Liam responds to her as the two talk to one another. You really get a feel for the characters through the art. The colors by Dave Stuart play with a lot of yellows and oranges when there isn’t explicitly something scary going on. Instead, those scenes are covered with blues and grays. It’s a nice touch that lets you know when to expect things to shift.
I’m not only looking forward to the next issues of Basketful of Heads, but I plan to check out all of the Hill House comics. I’ve regrettably never done a deep dive into horror comics. I’ve read a few here and there, but this partnership with DC has me excited to read more of them.