I actually didn't think I'd be participating in spooky season as much this year, as I have a ton of stuff going on at the moment. But looking back, I've actually piled up a respectably amount of first-time watches so far.
Dark Glasses (2022) - Shudder
I just happened upon this; Shudder aired it as a surprise drop, and I even missed the beginning, but what with it being a Dario Argento movie, I figured it was worth watching the rest. Almost made me a little nostalgic for the days of discovering new movies on cable. It was pretty good, about an escort who is blinded and then stalked by a serial killer, though I doubt it'll ever be spoken of in the same breath as his classic giallos.
Odd Thomas (2013)
I've scrolled past this one on Amazon Prime for years now, and finally decided to give it a shot. Based on a Den Koontz book, Anton Yelchin (RIP) plays a psychic who can see ghosts and has limited precognitive ability. In a nice change of pace for this kind of setup, the movie gets right to it; there is precisely zero dicking around. Yelchin's character doesn't whine about what he is, he immediately uses his power to help, and when the movie starts both his girlfriend and the local chief of police already know his secret. Kinda like watching a supernatural TV series in its 4th season, just straight to the magic stuff.
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) - Tubi
The Texas Chainsaw series is a lot like the Halloween one; both started out with bona fide classics, got progressively worse, and each one has had weird outliers with cult following and remakes with mixed opinions. TCM 3 is smack-dab in the "okay" territory. A very decent slasher that's not as groundbreaking as the original or as weird and funny as the sequel. I love Ken Foree, and the cannibal family were enjoyable. Viggo Mortensen's Tex is no Chop Top, but he and his brothers got the job done. The lack of gore is a shame, though. Where the first movie avoided it by choice, this one definitely wanted to be a bloodbath, and was just edited to death. I'd rank it up there with Halloween 4/5. Not great, but completely watchable.
Magic (1978) - Tubi
Stayed on Tubi after TCM3 and watched this excellent little psychological thriller. Plot-wise, it's every "crazy ventriloquist" story you've ever seen, and it's nowhere near as unsettling as it's
horriffic trailer. But a young(er) Anthony Hopkins acts the absolute HELL out of it. Burgess Meredith was great too.
Vampire: Los Muertos (2002) - Tubi
I wasn't expecting much from a straight-to-video sequel to a movie that wasn't that great to begin with...and that's what I got. It was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, so it was at least watchable, but it didn't have any memorable characters or scenes like his
Halloween III or
Fright Night Part 2 did. I think the best thing about it was Diego Luna as an eager young vampire hunter.
Hellraiser (2022) - Hulu
I've gotta be honest, Hellraiser as a franchise just never did it for me. I've watched the first two movies a couple times each, trying to see if I could get into the flow and see the appeal, and they mostly just leave me cold. Well-made movies for sure, with a couple of great moments, but neither of them have made me want to see more. And this new one is no exception. I think it's right up there in terms of quality with the first two (which, from what I understand, would put it well above the 8 sequels I didn't see), and fans of the series will probably really dig it. But to me, it was just okay.
The Vampire's Ghost (1945) -
Youtube
I just learned about this movie the other day, when
Dark Corners did a review of it, and was intrigued by the concept. A vampire is chewing his way through a small African village, and when our colonizer hero discovers his identity, he puts the guy under a mental curse to not be able to reveal it to anyone. Kind of like what Mordo does to Doctor Strange in his origin story. The vampire then sets out to seduce the guy's fiancé, basically right in front of him.
Everything's done as well as it can be, and this is one of the earliest examples I can think of where the monster is not presented as evil or tragic so much as just world-weary. He's been alive forever, he's gotta kill to live, everywhere he goes he is eventually found out, and then he's gotta go somewhere new.
What hurts it is the runtime--barely an hour--which sees the hero break free of the vampire's control and defeat him far too easily. (Spoilers for anyone who doesn't know how the Hays Code works) Ultimately, that leaves this movie as more interesting than outright classic.
The Ninth Configuration (1980) - Tubi
Not horror at all, but I'll mention it because of the Exorcist connections. It was written and directed by William Peter Blatty, writer of
Exorcist 1 and
3, plus the books they were based on. And it very much continues the theme of those two movies, namely "How can one believe in God when there's no evidence and everything on Earth is terrible." Only this time, with no demons or anything. It even kind-of follows a character from
Exorcist; that astronaut that Regan tells "You're going to die up there." An uneven movie, but overall very good.
