Editorials
The Ultimate Guide to the Horror You Should Be Watching from Now Through Halloween
Has October ever been this densely packed with horror offerings before? This Halloween season has been an absolute glut of glorious horror offerings from every possible corner of viewing. The theatrical releases have been coming at a steady clip, and streaming services have loaded up on frights. That doesn’t even touch upon annual Halloween fare like AMC’s FearFest or Freeform’s 31 Days of Halloween, and any other cable channels that have dedicated their month’s programming to horror. The choices available have been nothing short of overwhelming, in the best possible way.
Can every October be like this, please?
Because the selection is so vast, we’re here to help you plot out your viewing schedule in the final days until Halloween. So to prep your DVR, viewing parties, and Halloween binges; here’s everything coming our way between now and Halloween.
Theaters
Halloween – October 19
It’s only been a week since release, which means there’s still plenty of viewers holding out until the opening weekend crowd died down. Considering it’s also the final weekend before Halloween, there’s likely no better time than now to get reacquainted with Laurie Strode and Michael Myers. Our review.
Killer Kate! – October 26 (limited and on VOD)
Described as a love letter to the early works of John Carpenter by writer/director Elliot Feld, this horror film sees the titled character attending her estranged sister’s bachelorette party at a remote cabin in the woods. The gals are unaware they’re walking into a trap set in motion by a disturbed family of amateur killers who are out for blood. Things get downright savage.
Suspiria – October 26 (limited)
If you’re in the New York or Los Angeles area, you’ve got a chance to see this anticipated remake ahead of its November 2 wide release. Written by David Kajganich and directed by Luca Guadagnino, this iteration of Suspiria is a very, very different beast. At a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour run time, this remake is guaranteed to be polarizing. Our review.
VOD
The Dark – October 26
Justin P. Lange’s feature debut follows an unlikely friendship forged between a cannibalistic undead teen girl and a blind boy that she meets in the forest she inhabits. Both have suffered unimaginable abuse, and both find comfort in each other. But their road to healing is paved in a body count. Our own Luis called this one a “chilling tale of friendship and abuse.”
Slender Man – October 30
While this is currently available to purchase digitally, it becomes available for rent on October 30 for those that are curious but unwilling to own a copy of the movie. That’s understandable, considering this movie is nothing resembling the one director Ben Young set out to do. The plot feels overly familiar to The Ring, and in this case, it sees a group of teens fall prey to the iconic Creepypasta character thanks to an accidental summoning by way of viral video. Our review.
Heavy Trip – Available Now
“Symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal.” That description of the band at the center of Heavy Trip, Impaled Rektum, is a perfect summary of the humor on display in this love letter to metal. In this offbeat comedy from Finland, Turo is stuck in a small village where the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem? He and his band mates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway-the promoter for a huge heavy metal music festival-and decide it’s now or never. They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer in order to make their dreams a reality. It’s not horror, but it is adjacent enough that horror fans will fall in love anyway. This is a film destined for cult status.
Netflix
Creeped Out
A modern-day Are You Afraid of the Dark meets Black Mirror kids anthology series that depicts creepy tales and ends with a lesson. The series is linked together by a masked ‘story collector’ called The Curious who appears in each episode.
Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil
A re-telling of an ancient fable about a Blacksmith who finds himself battling the Devil. In this story, the Blacksmith has captured a demon and lives a life of hermit-like seclusion away from the prying eyes of the townsfolk. All is going well until a desperate little girl, Usue, accidentally stumbles across the devil and unknowingly releases him. It is then left to the Blacksmith to reclaim his bounty, but this is easier said than done as he also finds himself at the end of a lynch mob that have come searching for the missing Usue.
Malevolent
Brother and sister team Angela (Florence Pugh) and Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) are nothing more than scam artists. Preying on the grief-stricken and the vulnerable, they convince the bereaved that Angela has the ability to contact the dead. It’s a simple con, until Mrs. Green (Celia Imrie) summons the pair to her home — the orphanage that was once stage to a string of murders of young girls — and Angela grows less and less certain of what’s actually real.
Tales from the Hood 2
Keith David stars as Mr. Simms to tell bloodcurdling stories about lust, greed, pride and politics through tales with demonic dolls, possessed psychics, vengeful vixens and historical ghosts. This sequel quietly snuck on to Netflix earlier this month. Our own Kalyn Corrigan reviewed the film out of Fantasia Film Festival, calling this the “timely horror anthology we need right now.”
Apostle
Richardson (Dan Stevens) has returned home, only to learn that his sister is being held for ransom by a religious cult. Determined to get her back, Thomas travels to the idyllic island where he uncovers a secret far more evil than he could have imagined. Gareth Evans invokes the unnerving folk horror of films like The Wicker Man, but dials up the gore and brutality to extreme levels. Our review.
The Curious Case of Christine McConnell
Wickedly talented baker and artist, Christine McConnell welcomes you into her terrifyingly delicious home to create delectable confections and hauntingly disturbing decor with the help of her colorful collection of creatures. This series is a whimsical combination of Jim Henson’s puppetry, Martha Stewart, and spooky creatures that go bump in the night.
The Haunting of Hill House
A modern reimagining of Shirley Jackson’s iconic novel, The Haunting of Hill House explores a group of siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country. Now adults, the family must finally confront the ghosts of their past. The latest by Mike Flanagan is a “genuine masterpiece of longform horror storytelling,” and begs to be seen more than once thanks to the sheer level of mind-blowing detail. As much of an emotional sucker punch as it is scary, this is a perfect seasonal treat.
Haunted
From the Executive Producers of The Purge franchise and Lore, Haunted gives a chilling glimpse into the first-person accounts from people who have witnessed horrifying, peculiar, extraordinary supernatural events and other unexplained phenomena that continue to haunt them. This is for those that like there Halloween filled with ghosts and docudramas.
The Night Comes for Us
Ito (Joe Taslim), a gangland enforcer, caught amidst a treacherous and violent insurrection within his Triad crime family upon his return home from a stint abroad. The latest by writer/director Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre, May the Devil Take You) isn’t horror by any stretch, but it is far gorier than most horror films would ever dare to go. For those that need a high-octane thrill ride with a heaping helping of viscera, this is worth the watch.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
A dark reimagination of the Archie comic, following 16-year-old Sabrina as she is beginning her dark education as a sorceress, juggling her half-witch side and her half-human, normal life at Baxter High. Perhaps nothing else comes close to capturing the very essence of Halloween quite like this fun series of Satanism and witchcraft, and the horror nods are endless. A seasonal treat like no other, this is a much watch (our review).
Castlevania: Season 2
The year is 1475 in the eastern European village of Lugu. Lisa Tepes, doctor and wife of Dracula, is burned at the stake by the Inquisition for heresy. Insane with rage, Dracula unleashes an army of night creatures to exact revenge and wipe humanity from the face of the Earth.
Hulu
Huluween
Hulu’s hub for curated Halloween content isn’t just a center for horror TV and movies, but a showcase of eight creepy short films by up-and-coming filmmakers. “The Gillymuck,” “The Box,” “Horrifying Sounds,” “The Hug,” “Carved,” “Urn,” “Lippy” and “The Rizzle” are all available for viewing now, and the short with the highest viewership combined with judges’ highest scores will win $10,000 toward production of their feature length film. Budding filmmakers take note!
Into the Dark: “The Body”
This anthology series is unlike any that’s come before; each episode is a feature length film. Beginning October 5, a new episode airs every month on the first Friday of the month and will run year-round. The movie-a-month series will revolve around that month’s holiday, beginning with the Halloween themed episode “The Body.” Starring Tom Bateman, “The Body” follows a hitman who carries out his latest victim in plain sight on Halloween, pretending it’s simply a Halloween prop. When groupies latch on, it becomes a battle of will and wits.
Light as a Feather
This 10-episode supernatural series revolves around a group of teen girls being picked off one by one after a game of “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.” The surviving girls then must determine why they’re being targeted, and whether an evil presence is the one behind the murders. This is the first Hulu project to be based on a Wattpad story, and stars Ajiona Alexus, Liana Liberato, Peyton List, and more.
Shudder
This horror dedicated streaming service has been killing it all month with additions like Satan’s Slaves, Terrified, The Witch in the Window, and so much more. And they’re not done yet! Here are two more titles to be on the lookout for.
Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block
Dropping the day before the newest season premieres on Syfy, the third installment of the hit Creepypasta anthology series introduces Alice and Zoe Woods, sisters who have moved to a small town to start over—but instead encounter the hellish neighborhood of Butcher’s Block, home to sinister Joseph Peach and his eerily charismatic family. Directed by Arkasha Stevenson, Butcher’s Block stars Holland Roden, Olivia Luccardi, and Rutger Hauer.
Summer of 84
After suspecting that their police officer neighbor is a serial killer, a group of teenage friends spend their summer spying on him and gathering evidence, but as they get closer to discovering the truth, things get dangerous. From the directors behind Turbo Kid, François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell, Summer of 84 isn’t afraid to get dark.
Amazon Prime Video
This streaming service is a treasure trove of repertory horror films and hidden gems. It may be light on original programming (so far), but Amazon is also great for adding some surprising new releases:
The Strangers: Prey at Night
Director Johannes Roberts takes a much different approach in this follow up to Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion thriller. Drawing influence from John Carpenter’s ‘80s films like Christine, this sequel follows a family of four staying at a secluded mobile home park for the night that are stalked and then hunted by three masked psychopaths. Amazon Prime Video is an overachiever; both the rated and unrated edition are currently available for streaming.
Slice
When a pizza delivery driver is murdered, the city is on the hunt for the murdered. A disgraced werewolf is the prime suspect, but in a town full of ghosts, witches, and humans there’s more to this mystery than pizza. An irreverent horror comedy by first time feature director Austin Vesely, Slice stars Chance the Rapper, Zazie Beetz, Hannibal Buress, Joe Keery, and more. If you want something more lighthearted this Halloween season, this might be for you (our review). It’s the equivalent of a spooky Saturday morning cartoon.
Lore: Season 2
A unique anthology series based on Aaron Mahnke’s podcast that explores folklore-based horror in a sort of documentary/live-action podcast format returns for a second season with a new showrunner at the helm. Some of the new episodes will harken back to familiar episodes of Mahnke’s podcase, and some will feature wholly new stories.
TV
Channel Zero: The Dream Door – October 26, Syfy
Two words: Pretzel Jack. But if you need more than that to tune in to the newest season of Channel Zero, here’s the details: Based on the Creepypasta short story “Hidden Door” by Charlotte Bywater, “Channel Zero: The Dream Door” follows newlyweds Jillian (Maria Sten) and Tom Hodgson (Brandon Scott), who have each brought secrets into their marriage. When they discover a strange door in their basement, those secrets start to threaten their relationship — and their lives. Perhaps the bloodiest season yet, “The Dream Door” also features horror vet Barbara Crampton in a supporting role. This six-episode season airs nightly beginning October 26 and concludes on Halloween night.
Ghost Adventures Live – October 31, Travel Channel
In Ghost Adventures Live, Zak Bagan and the crew takes over Bagan’s Las Vegas Haunted Museum for a four-hour live event with special guests and spooky surprises. Before the live event airs on Halloween night, there will be a pre-show Q&A, and the Travel Channel social media pages will host giveaways.
Stan Against Evil: Season 3 – October 31, IFC
Season 3 picks up immediately after the events of the Season 2 finale, with Stan (John C. McGinley) and Evie (Janet Varney) back in Willard’s Mill dealing with the consequences of Stan traveling through time to save his dead wife, Claire. In doing so, he opened a portal between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead, allowing evil forces to truly take over the town and even some of its inhabitants. For those still mourning the loss of Ash vs Evil Dead, this horror comedy series created by Dana Gould may fill the void.
DVD/Blu-ray
Mandy – October 30
The spellbinding feature by Panos Cosmatos that people won’t stop gushing about (for good reason) heads home this Tuesday. Starring Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, and Linus Roache, Mandy sees the lives of a couple brutally shattered by a nightmarish hippie cult and their demon-biker henchmen, propelling a man into a spiraling, surreal rampage of vengeance. Pick up a copy on DVD or Blu-ray, along with a box of mac and cheese, for a great night in.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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