The Wrath (Young-sun Yoo, 2018)
Another Korean horror period piece to add to my list this October. There was a good movie buried in here somewhere, but sadly it couldn’t quite pull it off. It feels like it needed to be a slower burn as at first I was enjoying the build up, but unfortunately the last half of the movie moves way too fast. It feels like it needed to be thirty minutes longer, take its time and explain things a bit more/have a more natural way for the characters to learn past events and just build up the threat. As things stand it moves in an unnatural way to keep things “exciting” and has way too many bad CGI moments. 3/10
Phantasm II (Don Coscarelli, 1988)
Not awful, but I prefer the surrealism and dreamlike feel of the first to this much more 80s action packed sequel. 5/10
The Walking Dead (Michael Curtiz, 1936)
I love Boris Karloff, but this one just didn’t work for me. The first 25 minutes or so is a not so great gangster film, the rest is a weird mishmash of Frankenstein where pretty much everyone who dies goes out in a comedic elaborate way to make it an accident so as not to make Karloff the monster. Some great camerawork though and surprisingly good performances. 5/10
Berserker (Jefferson Richard, 1987)
Viking ghost vs. bear. I really don’t care what anyone says about this one, it’s awesome. 7/10
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (Don Coscarelli, 1994)
Brings back some of the surrealism of the first, but keeps the action of the second. Also adds a lot of weird comedic bits. Not bad, but I think it’s at this point that I’m going to give up on the series. I just don’t care for the direction it’s going and really other than the first, I don’t really love any of the movies. 5/10
The Beast Must Die (Paul Annett, 1974)
I actually really liked this one. A game hunter invites several guests to his house for a weekend party only to reveal one of them is a werewolf and that he intends to hunt for it. The movie is treated like a mystery where clues are given to the werewolf and you, the viewer, are supposed to solve it. It even includes a William Castle style gimmick of a “Werewolf Break” before the reveal where it pauses with a counter for 30 seconds for you to solve it. Realistically the movie is not great and the fact that the host knows one of his guests is somehow a werewolf, but doesn’t know which, is a huge stretch... but I think horror fans have had to deal with bigger ones in the past and the movie is just fun. 8/10
Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023)
Wait a minute! This isn’t a horror movie! What’s going on here? Frankly after watching about 40 horror movies in a row I needed a break so I decided to check out one of the most popular films of the year. Overall I liked it. It has quite a few good laughable moments (particularly the Ken song) but it tries WAY too hard to bludgeon its message into your head to the point that I found myself going “yes, yes. Point well made. Please have Ken do something funny again.” Still I think the good here by far outweighs my issues and it's one of those movies that I can call "pure fun" and just leave it at that. 8/10
Thirteen Women (George Archainbaud, 1932)
Another pre-code horror film. This time thirteen women are threatened by a woman that they tormented in school years ago. Her method is to send them letters saying that their horoscope says something terrible will happen. Then it does. I can’t tell you how she is able to kill them (is it hypnotism? The Power of suggestion? General stupidity?). It’s also notable that we don’t actually see 13 of them, we’re simply told there are thirteen. We see maybe six of them. It’s not very good, but there’s some nice scenes and some moments that are genuinely shocking for a movie from the 30s. 4/10
Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)
This was great and truly deserves its status as a classic in my opinion. That said, I’m actually not sure if I consider it a horror film. It’s certainly a drama and a rather thoughtful one at that (it’s notable that we never see the “freaks” perform, but we do see a lot of humanizing scenes with them celebrating the birth of a child, having parties and performing everyday tasks) but in terms of horror there’s really only one scene and if I’m to be completely honest, if it was not sideshow performers, the scene would come off as a typical moment of revenge/justice served without the “scary” factor. While there is an element of exploitation to it, it’s rather a thoughtful look at a group that is so frequently mocked. All in all it’s a very good watch. 8/10
Murders in the Zoo (A. Edward Sutherland, 1933)
There are some shockingly grotesque moments in this little pre-code horror film (it actually starts with a man getting his lips sewn shut before being left in the jungle), but other than the shocking nature of it, it’s pretty standard 30s horror with nothing that stands out too much. 6/10
