Freaky Friday: The Spooky Month of October

On the last weekend of September I saw some people decorating their for yard for Halloween. A bit too early, I wondered?

October is usually the time when TV networks and streaming services pack their schedules with horror movies. Over the decades, the horror genre has morphed from scaring the viewer with sudden appearances of the antagonist, to the gross-out gore fest.

I’ve never been an avid fan of the horror genre, but as a teenager in the 80s, you kinda had to go with the flow or you’d be called a name that I will not say here.

The first horror movie I remember seeing was The Swarm in 1978. Killer bees were all the rage as they were apparently migrating north from Mexico at an alarming rate. We never got them here in Canada, but 50 years later we do have murder hornets. I don’t know what would be more frightening.

1979 gave us Alien, still one of the greatest horror flicks of all time. I didn’t get to see it in the theater although I remember my sister saying how good it was. I had to wait until the local convenience store began to rent VHS and Beta movies, along with the player.

1980

Friday the 13th scared everyone away from summer camps and gave us the sage advice, “Don’t go off on your own.” Altered States made no one run to the local sleep deprivation clinic.

1981: Ahh, the year that spawned the sequel craze, and the sequel of the sequel. Did the Friday the 13th movies get better? How about all the Halloweens?

Bruce Campbell cemented himself in offbeat horror with The Evil Dead, although I think it was a few years later I saw this one. We also got the David Cronenberg film, Scanners. Loved when the heads blew up.

1982: George Romero took a break from zombie movies to give us Creepshow, a series of short stories written by Stephen King.

1983: David Cronenberg gave us Videodrome starring James Woods and Debbie Harry. I think that was the first time I saw a musician act in a film. Cujo, based on a King novel also came out.

1984: The year of the C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, of course). Wes Craven gave us the original psychological horror movie with Nightmare on Elm Street. Two more Stephen King movies, Firestarter and Children of the Corn, let us know he wasn’t going anywhere.

I’ll leave it there until next week.

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/