I didn’t take part in #31DaysofHorror for the past three years. (If it was up to me, it would be #365DaysofHorror). But I thought I’d throw another selection on the funeral pyre of Musk’s fascist folly before that platform dries up and blows away. This brings the running total to 124 recommendations and there really should be something for everyone here. I’ve tried as always to avoid the obvious choices and I’ve jumped all over the cinematic map, so there’s new stuff, old stuff, shorts, animation and wicked delicacies from all over the world. For your enjoyment and edification here’s the latest list of dark diversions for the Season of the Witch. Happy Hallowe'en!
1. Messiah of Evil (1974): A splash of Bava, a shard of Hammer…The makers of Howard the Duck blend giallo, 70s counter-culture and pop art into a singular stylish slab of American Gothic surrealism.
2. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022): Based on a Stephen King novella and featuring one of Donald Sutherland’s final performances, this has been buried by the capricious vagaries of the Netflix algorithm. Menacing, moving and worth exhuming from the thumbnail graveyard.
3. The Mad Doctor (1933): Mickey Mouse and Pluto riff on the Universal horrors over seven wildly inventive minutes in one of the greatest Disney animated shorts. You can watch it here.
4. Ghostwatch (1992): Aired on the BBC on Halloween 1992 and never broadcast again, this is the urtext for all the found footage that followed. Without this faux live broadcast masterwork, there is no The Blair Witch Project or Host or Late Night with the Devil.
5. Bones (2001): Taking just as many stylistic cues from Dario Argento as it does from Blaxploitation, Ernest Dickerson’s ghostly revenge tale is visually sumptuous and a hell of a lot of fun.
6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987): Second only to Craven’s original, with some of the most inventive set-pieces and gnarliest kills of the series. What a rush!
7. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016): André Øvredal’s unsettling visceral chamber piece is not for the squeamish, but it’s worth girding your loins for his rigorous command of mood and tone anchored by Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch’s grounded performances.
8. Piggy (2022): Overweight withdrawn teen Sara is mercilessly bullied by her peers, but everything is about to change when a serial killer arrives in her small town. A satisfying and refreshing spin on the splattery stalk-and-slash subgenre.
9. Laura Hasn’t Slept (2020): Parker Finn’s calling card viral short film that both inspired and serves as a prequel to his massive hit Smile. Tense, tactile, discomfiting and all wrapped up in eleven minutes.
10. Terror Train (1980): Jamie Lee Curtis, a masked knife-wielding killer…this really wants to be Halloween on a train and it absolutely isn’t remotely in that league, but it is occasionally nasty, mildly transgressive, frequently ludicrous fun.
11. The Blackening (2022): Deftly walks the treacherous tightrope between horror and comedy with the satirical gags working in harmony with the well-executed (pun intended) cabin-in-the-woods kills.
12. Zombie for Sale (2019): A South Korean zombie movie with laughs and wit and heart to go along with all the blood and brains.
13. Anguish (1987): A slasher film within a slasher film with a terrific on-screen disclaimer at the beginning, which ends: "…if for any reason you lose control or feel that your mind is leaving your body -- leave the auditorium immediately." Magnificent.
14. Werewolf by Night (2022): The MCU goes red in tooth and claw. Gael García Bernal gets his fangs into the role of the classic Marvel monster in this done-in-one tale that gets in and out in a just-right 52 minute runtime.
15. Dashcam (2021): Our phenomenally unsympathetic protagonist Annie Hardy swaps LA for London during the pandemic to livestream her adventures, culminating in an ill-advised trip to transport a mysterious old lady elsewhere. Bad news for her. Chaotic fun for us.
16. Infinity Pool (2023): Like a visceral squishy body horror version of The White Lotus made all the more petrifying by a monumentally untethered Mia Goth performance.
17. Mayhem (2017): A virus that strips away all inhibitions and moral imperatives rips through an office block, with Steven Yuen and Samara Weaving smack-dab in the eye of the storm in Joe Lynch’s fast, funny and furious action horror.
18. The Night House (2020): “A grieving widow uncovering secrets” is a hoary old chestnut of a set-up for a ghost story, but this is atmospheric, creepy and surprising, with an excellent Rebecca Hall performance holding it all together.
19. Nanny (2022): Magical realism and melancholia collide in the first horror movie to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. A story deftly illustrating the insidious death-by-a-thousand-cuts of Othering - something horror can achieve better than any other genre.
20. Fresh (2022): Sebastian Stan as a charming cannibal in an eat-cute rom-nom-com with bite and relish. That’s it - I’ve hit my pun quota for the year.
21. Swallow (2019): Haley Bennett chows down on inedible objects in a stomach-roiling Douglas Sirk meets David Cronenberg “eat the rich” fable.
22. Slither (2006): An extraterrestrial parasite invades a small town in South Carolina in James Gunn’s witty and affectionate valentine to the gloopy sci-fi horrors of the 80s.
23. C.H.U.D. (1984): Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers are responsible for a spike in the number of Manhattan’s missing persons in this gleefully scrungy B-movie creature feature.
24. The Skeleton Dance (1929): The first ever Silly Symphony from Disney. A danse macabre animated by the magnificently monikered Ub Iwerks. In the public domain and available here for your viewing pleasure.
25. Werewolves Within (2021): Sam Richardson is terrific as an amiable forest ranger pitting his wits against a wily lycanthrope in Josh Ruben’s playful comedy horror.
26. Theatre of Blood (1973): Vincent Price wreaks gleeful Grand Guignol vengeance on the theatre critics who humiliated him.
27. The Black Cat (1934): “The phone is dead. Even the phone is dead.” Karloff and Lugosi together for the first time in Edgar G. Ulmer’s creepy pre-code chiller.
28. Abigail (2024): A delicious dark delight from Radio Silence. Don’t watch the trailer or read a synopsis. There are reveals and reversals here best enjoyed ice cold. All you need to know: A kidnapping goes very wrong very quickly. And then the screaming starts.
29. She Came from the Woods (2022): An affectionate riff on 80s summer camp slashers with a rich seam of humour to leaven the slaughter.
30. The Empty Man (2020): Thrown out into the world with little fanfare in the midst of a global pandemic, this supernatural horror has grown in stature over time thanks to a deeply strange tone and pervasive creeping dread throughout.
31. Trick ‘r Treat (2007): Linked vignettes unfolding on Halloween night in a small Ohio town. Brian Cox as a Carpenteresque curmudgeon is a joy and little trick-or-treating demon Sam deserves to be a horror icon on a par with Freddy and Jason. Absolutely glorious.
