Halloween 2020 Top 5 and Bottom 3

Every October, I am all about Halloween entertainment. The same way some people go crazy for trying to watch every Christmas movie ever made starting December 1, I focus on Halloween-ish things. If I’m not reading it, I’m watching it, and I wanted to share with you five things I am enjoying this Halloween and three that didn’t really work for me. Everybody is doing top movies lists and top horror reads list, but you know what I say? Screw ’em. I’m universal. You can’t limit my Halloween joy!

So without further ado, here is what I really got into this October:

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Halloween, the 1978 movie.

Let’s start with this fun little movie you’ve probably never heard of and had no clue that it had anything to do with the actual Halloween. Is it scary? No. But does it still have tense moments? Absolutely. When we watched it, we weren’t making snide comments or little jokes like we did when watching the original Friday the 13th or A Nightmare of Elm Street. So say what you will, but even after 40 years, this movie endures. I get why people are still wearing Michael Myers costumes and watching these movies.

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2. Survivor Song, by Paul Tremblay

I have three books on my Goodreads reading list this October, but as of October 28, I have only finished Survivor Song. Probably because it sucks you in so well, but also maybe because even though it was written in 2019, this “zombie apocalypse” story seems to be hitting every beat of the pandemic in 2020. And I haven’t even gotten to the interesting part, which is that the book follows a young pregnant mother, ready to give birth, who is bitten by a zombie! The entire book follows the rest of her day trying to get medical help while not being killed by zombies. This book absorbs you like an amoeba and spits you out the other side.

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3. Dr. Sleep

I don’t know many people who had Dr. Sleep high on their “must view” list, but the first hour or so of this is every bit as good as you would expect from Mike Flanagan, the director who gave us The Haunting of Hill House. Ewan MacGregor gets top billing, but Rebecca Ferguson is enchanting as Rose the Hat, and there is one scene that I think we can all officially dub “the greatest scene of astral projection” ever filmed. And I know. If you’re watching a Stephen King movie this weekend, it’s probably IT: Chapter Two or The Shining. First of all, IT: Chapter One is the one you should be watching, and second, Dr. Sleep is worth the viewing.

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4. Primal, “Plague of Madness”

This is not what most people would first think of when they’re considering Halloween entertainment. I mean, Primal is a cartoon about a caveman and a not-T. Rex who join forces to survive in a bizarre, savage world. But the episode called Plague of Madness – and I’m not making this up – might be the most thrilling thing I’ve seen in ages. Isn’t a little heart-thumping what we crave at Halloween anyways? Like all episodes of Primal, “Plague of Madness” is light on plot but big on action. Spear (the caveman) and Fang (the not-T. Rex) are chased by an undead, raging Apatosaurus. But Genndy Tartakovsky crams this thirty minutes with so much tension, and it all works, up to its final moments.

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5. Nosferatu

Come for the black and white movie, stay for the WTF-ery. Nosferatu is known as the old black and white movie with the creepy vampire with long fingers. You’ve probably seen him in a commercial or two. His visage is well known, but not enough people are watching this film. And here is the perfect way to watch it. Get about ten to twenty minutes into it, then pull up IMDB and start reading the movie’s trivia section, and find out just how bonkers this whole thing really is. The story behind Nosferatu is almost more interesting than the film itself, which doesn’t actually exist!!! When you watch Nosferatu, you’re not watching Nosferatu. What kind of devilry is this? I don’t want to give it away, but you have to check this one out. And when you’re done, Shadow of the Vampire is a great follow-up. Shadow of the Vampire is a movie about the making of Nosferatu, but with a twist: it assumes an old urban legend (that the actor playing Count Dracula, Max Shrek, really is a vampire) is true. The film is shot in the same locations, which makes the experience that much more insane.

Here are a few things that just didn’t work for me…

The Haunting of Bly Manor. Like Dr. Sleep, this was done by Mike Flanagan, based on The Turning of the Screw. As good as this was in parts, most of it just didn’t have the same energy as The Haunting of Hill House (which you should go and watch if you haven’t seen it before.) I want to be careful not to discredit it too much. The bar is set pretty high in Hill House. But here it is almost Halloween, and it’s been a couple of weeks since I watched Bly House, and I had to go back and remember that I watched it. Silent Hill. This 2006 horror movie is one of those where the CGI doesn’t age well so the things that originally scared you look a little silly now. And the dark nurses, which were creepy as hell back then, come off as a choregraphed dance team now. (shrugs) The story is actually pretty good for a movie based on a video game, but as a “rewatch,” this one fell short.So, too, does the original Friday the 13th from 1980. I find it interesting that Halloween is still kind of intense, but Friday the 13th is mostly laughable. I recorded my family’s “interactions” while we watched the movie, and it was terrifying…not the movie, but what I learned about my family. Like, my son has a terrific repository for these movies THAT HE’S NEVER SEEN! He just starts pouting off trivia, like who Burlap Sack Jason is. Who the hell is Burlap Sack Jason and why do I care? The entire time, my beleaguered daughter just wants to go back to watching the movie, and I keep making Dad jokes like how “Ralph” looks like every Scooby Doo villain that was ever unmasked. Here is an excerpt of us watching a scene where the town’s resident spooky old man “Ralph” shows up to inspire fear and terror in the young camp counselors:

So there you have it. Five things you can watch/read this weekend, and 3 you can avoid. Is there something you watched this month that you really liked or didn’t like? Let me know in the comments!

Hey, thank you for reading and I hope you are enjoying my posts. I’m a writer from Texas who dreams of one day writing full-time. I write the Zombie Dog books, which you can find here both digitally and paperback. I also have a Patreon account here.