The time has come. It’s decorative gourd season. The Autumn Wind is a pirate. Familiars are colluding during a Night in the Lonesome October. Tales of horror are being told in Treehouses. “The living and the dead dance together. Now’s the time. Now’s the place. Now’s the weather.” We’re festooned with seasonal adornments of mutilated gourds, decorative corpses, plastic spiders, styrofoam gravestones with cute, ironic captions, and of course, the (pumpkin) spice must flow.
All these and other ostensibly ghastly indicators mean that it’s time for the 6 Weeks of Halloween: that hallowed holiday tradition of watching (and reading) copious amounts of horror movies (and books) in the leadup to the big day. Why six weeks? Well, it used to be two weeks better than the standard October marathons that a lot of folks do, but everyone’s been stepping up their game of late, such that I’m actually somewhat behind the curve at this point.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a string of breezy Mad Scientist thrillers starring Boris Karloff on streaming (if you are so interested, Eureka! has collected most of those in Karloff at Columbia). It turns out that a guy with over 200 film credits actually has quite a back catalog of such obscurities, and most 6WH marathons will unearth at least one or two such flicks, so I was happy to take a flier on this collection of Universal Horror oddities starring Karloff (not to mention other contemporaries like Béla Lugosi and Charles Laughton). Let’s dive in:
6 Weeks of Halloween 2026: Week 1 – Karloff in Maniacal Mayhem
The Invisible Ray – Karloff plays Dr. Janos Rukh, an astronomer who observes a meteorite from the Andromeda Nebula (scientists had demonstrated conclusively a few years earlier that Andromeda was actually an entirely separate galaxy, but I guess the “Nebula” classification stuck in popular consciousness for a while) that landed in Africa. After joining an expedition to the impact site, he discovers and subsequently becomes infected by an element called Radium X. Symptoms include glowing in the dark and a particularly deadly touch. Thanks to a custom remedy brewed up by fellow mad scientist Béla Lugosi, he’s able to keep the light monsterism at bay, but he soon becomes paranoid and bent on revenge against those who have “stolen” his discovery of Radium X.
This film opens with a text scroll extolling the scientific achievements of Dr. Rukh and follows it up with a wonderful mixture of Gothic imagery and science fiction. Working at a castle in the Carpathian mountains and wearing a cape, Karloff kicks this movie off right with some classic mad scientist tropes about using telescopes to see into the past or some such nonsense. It’s an effective setup and really does call to mind Karloff’s mad scientist run at Columbia pictures. Once the scenery shifts to the African dig and later France, some of that atmospheric, Gothic magic is lost, but it still comports itself well enough. Some 30s stylistic trappings are perhaps overused (lots of exposition via on-screen newspapers, for example) and the romantic subplot isn’t as effective as the paranoia and revenge scheme, but it was pretty much exactly what I was hoping for from this set. ***
Black Friday – Hoary old tale of a mad doctor (Karloff) who saves a dying friend’s life with a brain transplant. The catch? The brain donor was an infamous gangster, thus setting the scene for a Jekyll and Hyde story as the gangster seeks vengeance on his crew (led by Lugosi), who betrayed him.
Tales of transplanted organs influencing or overwhelming their host dates back to at least The Brothers Grimm, and it’s an incredibly common, verging on parodic, trope in horror stories. This 1940 take on the conceit does a decent job of it, purporting more of a split personality, Jekyll and Hyde situation than most brain transplant stories, and clocking in at just 70 minutes, it moves along at a good clip and never wears out its welcome.
Karloff is more of a side character, though he does get to sneak in some nice mad science bits and his character does have something of a tragic arc. Still, British character actor Stanley Ridges gets the meatier dual role and does admirably well, differentiating the two personalities with body language and attitude (in addition to the more traditional costume and hair changes). Lugosi is almost criminally wasted as a bland gangster minion, and while Ridges is great, you can’t help but wonder what this would be life if their roles were swapped.
The Black Friday in question from the title is actually Friday the 13th, making this an interesting alternative to our slasher friend for Friday the 13th watches, though this mostly feels more like a crime caper and film noir than horror. I suppose there are a few bits to keep the interest of horror fans, but this is ultimately a minor, though entertaining programmer for Karloff, Lugosi, and Universal. **1/2
The Strange Door – A wicked nobleman, played by Charles Laughton, devises an elaborate and long gestating revenge plot against his younger brother. Along the way, his niece and a local scoundrel get caught up in the convoluted scheme.
Adapted from a Robert Luis Stevenson story, this one happens late in Universal’s horror run, but prefigures Corman’s Poe cycle while taking on that winning combination of period gothic horror and vengeance (I kept thinking of The Pit and the Pendulum, which is probably better than this, but they’re comparable). This might be the best movie of the set, but it also features Karloff the least. Laughton steals the show whenever he’s on screen; a big, hammy, scenery chewing performance that he’s so good at. Karloff plays the loyal manservant of the imprisoned brother and I suppose he gets a heroic turn in the finale of the film, but otherwise isn’t given a whole lot to do. Even the other servants get more interesting tidbits, particularly William Cottrell as Corbeau, a character who seems to have a full backstory we’re not privy to. Alan Napier plays a friendly count here, and he would later go on to work in Hammer Horror pictures (and an early take on Batman).
So we’ve got some decent swashbuckling action, Gothic scenery, period trappings, and torture chambers, what else do you need? Given this week’s theme, more Karloff would have been nice, but it’s still quite good. ***
It’s been a busy year and this will likely continue through the six weeks… as such, I’m unlike to make many Wednesday posts, though I should be able to maintain the Sunday schedule. Stay tuned, next up we’ve got some Resident Evil coming up (and maybe some Becky(s)).
We conclude Kaedrin Movie Awards season with a traditional top 10 list of my favorite movies of 2025, only three months (or so) late! This marks the twentieth year in a row that I’ve posted a top 10, two decades of excellence! For reference, previous top 10s are here: [2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006]
It’s customary at this point to discuss themes of the year in film, usually a fraught exercise even in the best of times, but especially strange in the past several years. Between the pandemic, extended actor/writer strikes, increasing streaming & social media competition, and accelerating industry consolidation, the movies (particularly theatrical exhibition) just haven’t managed to get back on track. There are plenty of success stories, but they’re isolated events, and even old reliable franchises are strained and underperforming. Unfortunately, this bleak outlook seems to be the trend of 2025. Prior to 2020, you could pretty much count on some sort of big success at the box office every week. There were occasional misfires and definitely slow times of the year, but in 2025, misfires were far more common and it seemed like there was one weekend nearly every month that was a total wasteland.
In terms of actual movies, it’s looking like Video Game adaptations might be a future bright spot (A Minecraft Movie), but people have been speculating about Video Game Movies for a long time, so maybe the last few breakouts are flukes. Live-action remakes of animated favorites has broken containment from Disney (Lilo & Stitch) to spread to other studios (How to Train Your Dragon), which unfortunately does seem to be a reliable formula, though we are seeing some misfires there too (Snow White). There are always provocative movies about the increasingly insane times we live in, but this year’s crop seems to be better and more divisive than most (even if I personally don’t respond well to them), including the likes of Eddington, Bugonia, After the Hunt, and maybe even One Battle After Another. Superhero movies are still on the downswing, with only one broaching the top 10 (Superman), though that might turn around this year (Avengers: Doomsday).
Box Office isn’t everything, of course, and there’s always bright spots if you know where to look. But the last few years, it’s gotten harder and harder to put together this list. It’s often difficult to narrow down to 10, and breaking it down further is also difficult. I was able to settle on the 10 movies pretty readily this year, but when trying to order the list, it feels like most should fall in the 5-10 range, and it’s really hard to pick a number one. I mean, it’s rarely easy to do that, but it’s been a rough couple of years. Indeed, the Honorable Mentions were difficult to fill out here, and I really struggled (and wound up just having fewer entries there than usual). Here’s to hoping for more from 2026.
As of this writing, this top 10 list is pulling from a total of 131 movies I’ve seen that could be considered a 2025 release. This is less than your usual critic, but probably more than your typical moviegoer. Standard disclaimers apply, and it’s always worth noting that due to release schedules (especially in these plague years), some movies from 2024 that didn’t become available until 2025 qualify for this list. Allrighty then, I think we’ve covered all our bases, so let’s get to the feature presentation:
Top 10 Movies of 2025
* In roughly reverse order
Black Bag – Steven Soderbergh’s riff on spy thrillers channels a sort of talky John le Carré by way of Agatha Christie vibe (as opposed to a more bombastic Bond take), but there’s a weirdly romantic (read: horny) streak underlying the intrigue and machinations of the plot that sets this apart from its brethren. David Koepp’s script is sharp and unpredictable, and while this sort of experiment may not be for everyone, it worked well for me.
Warfare – Alex Garland’s brutal anti-war polemic seems to inspire divisive responses, and while I certainly come down on the positive side, I can’t really blame anyone for hating this. Francois Truffaut once famously said “There’s no such thing as an anti-war movie.” His reasoning being that depicting war, no matter how horrifically, inevitably glorifies it. I think Warfare puts that quote to the test, and I can’t think of a better microcosm of the pointlessness of some (but I suppose not all) conflicts. Intense, realistic, and if you saw this in the theater, the sound design, of all things, is just incredibly effective (I doubt this would work well at home unless you had a really top notch sound system).
Eephus – This sort of plotless, slow movie about a bunch of rec-league baseball players competing in their last game did not seem like it would be my sorta thing. And yet, here we are. Its simplicity snuck up on me, sorta like the eponymous pitch, which really does make for a perfect title for this movie. It’s just comforting to hang around with a bunch of snarky old coots playing ball and making quips like “Every great defensive play starts with shitty pitching.”
It’s a perfect distillation of the mundane which paradoxically leads to more wistful, existential thoughts on the passage of time and life in general. I suppose that makes it sound a lot more pretentious than it really is, but like I said, this is a movie that caught me off guard.
It Was Just an Accident – Tense Iranian drama about former polticial prisoners who are suddenly confronted with the possibility of revenge against their sadistic captor. It works well on its own and I don’t usually comment on the context of the film, but director Jafar Panahi has already suffered consequences for making and releasing this depiction of authoritarian oppression (he was sentenced to prison and handed a travel ban, though who knows how that will play out given the current events in Iran.) As an outsider looking in, there are a hundred grace notes in this film that capture what it’s like to live in a place like this. I don’t know how things will play out for Iran in the coming months, but I hope for the best (even if it’s easy to be cynical about the current war). In the meantime, it’s worth seeking out this drama because not enough people have seen it, but it’s profound and important and it’s made by someone who will suffer for having made it.
Baby Assassins: Nice Days – Fortunately, this is not about assassins who exclusively target literal babies. Unfortunately, this is not about literal babies who have become professional assassins. It’s more of a metaphorical thing about very young (college age teenagers, not infants) assassins. This is actually the third entry in the Japanese series, but despite my usual reservations about sequels, this might be the best of the three. The introduction of a proper villain raises the stakes considerably, making the intricate, tactile action sequences hit harder than ever even while the film retains its quirky, lovable leads and comedic hangout vibes.
Wake Up Dead Man – Rian Johnson’s Knives Out movies tend to strike some folks as unbearably smug, and sure, there’s some of that there (particularly in the second entry in the series), but this third offering is perhaps the least smug of them all, and while I still prefer the first film’s clever plotting, this film has more thematic heft to it. It might even be the best of the three films, even if it is perhaps not as fun (though it’s worth noting that there is plenty of levity on display, this is not a slog or anything, but it is longer and weightier). I really appreciate that Johnson has gone out of his way to do something quite different with each outing, making them all distinct experiences with very different goals and themes each time out. There’s a very simple scene in this movie, where a priest talks to a grieving woman on the phone, that is one of the best things filmed all year. A good story with great performances that also looks great (a rarity in Netflix originals).
F1: The Movie – The action spectacle event of the year. It might sound a little stupid to say this, but this movie really does have a tremendous amount of racing sequences in it (a lot of movies like this will have a couple of standout races and an interminable amount of post-or-pre-race drama, but F1 shows a ton of actual racing.) In many ways, it’s a ludicrous movie, but it was just so fun to go to the theater and see this sort of spectacle on the big screen. One of the best, most enjoyable experiences of the year.
Weapons – Zach Cregger’s unconventional thriller takes all sorts of weird, unexpected twists and turns while still delivering the horror movie goods in a satisfying way. Plenty of thematic depth too (without being on the nose about it), and one of the more memorable villains in recent years. In a world where so many movies are sequels or reboots or pastiches of other works, something this original and just plain weird is startling in the best way possible.
Zodiac Killer Project – This documentary is a recounting of a documentary the filmmaker wanted to make, but never got the funding for. This allows him to mercilessly examine and skewer the true crime documentary format. It’s a neat idea, but the execution is just pitch perfect. There are several instances where they’ll say something like “We would have a shot of the outside of a police station when we play the interview with the suspect” while showing B-roll of a building, then they say “This isn’t a police station, by the way, it’s a library in Ohio, but it looks like a pretty good police station, right?” No matter how many times they pull this gag, I couldn’t help but laugh. And the more they did it, the more effective it became. Great stuff.
Presence – Yes, this year’s top 10 is a Steven Soderbergh directed, David Koepp written sandwich. This is an experimental haunted house movie told from the perspective of the ghost. I don’t want to spoil how it plays out, but all the haunted house tropes are there (not to mention some other horror conventions), but they’re often distorted or subverted in clever ways.
This clearly isn’t for everyone, but I was spellbound by this approach, and the ending was perfect.
Awarded to films that exist only in a quantum superposition of two or more states. If you’re not sure what that means, that’s kinda the point. To confuse matters even further, the “two or more states” tends to also change from year to year. One year, this was awarded to four movies that could have been #10 on the top 10. Other years have been about movies that I go back and forth on and can decide whether I like them or not, even if I recognized the skill and craft on display. Or “movies” that were too long or too short to really fit the definition of a movie. Last year, it was movies that I saw immediately after publishing the top 10, but wanted to recognize anyway.
This year? This year we’ve got two movies that are phenomenal, but which I didn’t connect with as rapturously as most other folks. Also, these are two of the most fêted movies of the year and simply don’t need the additional hype of being on yet another top 10 list (even one as obscure as mine). Sometimes movies like that make my list because I do connect strongly with them, but while these two movies are worthy of a callout, I didn’t put them in the top 10.
One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic Pynchon riff is likely to earn him a few Oscars tonight, and perhaps deservedly so, but while I can ackowledge the supreme craft on display during several standout sequences (particuarly that astounding climactic car chase), I found the films political themes to be somewhat muddled. Much of what was established in the first half of the film was surprisingly clear-eyed and complex, while the latter portions, and specifically the ending, attempt to flatten and forgive that thorniness in a way that I found offputting. Also, and I realize this is silly, but a part of me really wants to ding this for removing the Kaiju subplot from Vineland. That being said, I still nearly put this in the top 10, because Anderson is just that good at what he does.
Sinners – Ryan Coogler’s monumental film certainly checks a lot of boxes for me, and shoving a bunch of weighty themes into a pulpy vampire story is an approach that I generally respond well to, and to be sure, I really quite enjoyed this movie. The filmmaking on display is quite impressive, and the performances are also pretty great, but it’s also built on a narrative that is more than a little messy (there are literally three almost completely different endings, for instance) and while I enjoy music as much as the next guy, I have to admit that this movie’s thematic reliance on music did not completely work for me.
To be clear, this is very much a “me” thing. I just don’t vibe with that sort of theme that well. It happens. Still, it’s one of the great original success stories of the year, and I’m so happy that it’s garnered so much attention (and once again, despite my misgivings, it very well could have made the top 10 on another day).
Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos’ paen to conspiracy theorists is probably my favorite of the year’s provocative examinations of the insane times we’re living through. I’m hit-or-miss on Lanthimos, and while this is certainly a hit, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. This is, of course, one of the reasons to watch a Lanthimos film – even if you don’t like it, it will make you think. Amazing lead performances anchor this too, and while the twist is somewhat predictable, it’s still fun in a “Yep, they went there” sorta way.
Companion – This is certainly not fine cinema, but it’s a good example of a movie that I went into with low expectations, only to find myself consistently surprised by the deftness of the twists and turns that propel the story. Like, they mostly obey the rules of the premise, everyone acts realistically (if amorally), and while it does hit the obvious thematic points, it also strays much further afield than expected.
Diablo – The DTV action scene has a somewhat spotty record, but there are bright spots, and this is one of them. DTV action stars Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror are both great, and frequent Zaror collaborator Ernesto Díaz Espinoza is one of the better DTV action directors out there. The story is nothing special, but the action is plentiful and very well done.
Final Destination Bloodlines – Very strange that the sixth movie in a series as formulaic as this generated so much buzz this year, but there is something kinda comforting about this series. The last couple of movies stumbled a bit, and at first it seemed like this one might, but it settled back into the groove of the first few entries in the series and as a result wound up being a blast. Not exactly top 10 material, but a really good time at the movies.
Good News – When a Japanese flight is hijacked by communists, a mysterious Korean government fixer attempts several zany schemes to recover the plane safely. A deft skewering of political maneuvering and beurocracies, it perhaps goes on for a little too long, but the comedic tone keeps things interesting. Worth seeking out.
Henry Johnson – David Mamet’s still got it, baby! It very much feels like a stage adaptation, but in this case that seems to fit the material, and Mamet’s facility with crackling dialogue still shines. Great performances anchor the movie moreso than a plot that feels a little muddled, but it moves quickly enough that you barely notice. I get that Mamet has become something of a crank, but I’d love see more from him. He may have lost a bit of zip on his fastball, but I bet he could throw some good games in the future…
The Long Walk – A brutal, but effective film that really does showcase the sort of thing that Stephen King is known for… Like setting up a ludicrous premise but grounding it with enough pathos and populating it with memorable characters, such that it becomes one of the better King adaptations (if not exactly the best).
The Naked Gun – I’ll admit, I was skeptical. I’m not generally a fan of reboots/remakes like this, and Liam Neeson isn’t exactly known for his comedy (though he has done some small bits here and there in a similar Leslie Neilson straight-man register, so maybe I shouldn’t have been too surprised), but this worked incredibly well.
Comedy films are seemingly rare these days, so it was really a joy to see something like this crop up in theaters. Too many fun lines and sequences to mention, but I will just call out the whole Snowman sequence as a favorite standout. The funniest thing I saw all year, though again, the pickins are slim these days.
No Other Choice – Park Chan Wook’s dark comedy/thriller represents an interesting balancing act that might not work for all, but worked well enough for me, even if it wasn’t quite enough to crack the top 10. That tonal inconsistency sometimes works well here, but might fall flat at other times. Your mileage may vary.
The Phoenician Scheme – Wes Anderson’s latest is filled with his hallmarks. He’s got a very distinctive, fussy brand of weaponized quirk that always works well aesthetically, but sometimes his plotting can stretch towards the esoteric. This one seems a little more grounded than his last few, and unlike a lot of recent Hollywood fare, seems to eschew typical Eat-the-Rich tropes in favor of something a little more subtle. Worthwhile!
Predators – A documentary profile about the rise and fall of the “To Catch a Predator” television phenomenon. Formally pretty standard, lots of talking head interviews, archival footage and the like, but what sets it apart is an uncommon thoughtfullness on the thorny subject matter from all involved. It’s another documentary about our obsession with True Crime, albeit a more conventional take. That being said, it was definitely vying for that coveted documentary slot in the top 10.
Despite having watched over a hundred and thirty movies released in 2025, there are plenty that I probably should have caught up with. Sometimes they weren’t readily available, sometimes I couldn’t muster up the will to get to the theater, sometimes I just didn’t wanna watch (because reasons, that’s why). I will almost certainly end up seeing some of these and loving them, which is why the Kaedrin Movie Awards always has a category about the previous year’s movie…
That just about covers it for the top 10 movies of 2025 and Kaedrin Movie Awards season in general. Normally I would have posted this a couple weeks ago, and today would be reserved for Oscars speculations, so I’ll just give really quick predictions – One Battle After Another will get Best Picture and PTA will get Best Director. Michael B Jordan for Best Actor (maybe Timothee Chalamet), Jessie Buckely for Best Actress, Sean Penn for Supporting Actor, and Amy Madigan for Supporting Actress (maybe Teyana Taylor). OBAA for Best Adapted Screenplay, Sinners for Best Original Screenplay. KPop Demon Hunters for Best Animated, Sentimental Value for Best Foreign Feature, The Perfect Neighbor for Documentary. OBAA for Cinematography, Sinners for Score. And I’ll stop there for now, but if you’re watching the ceremony tonight, I’ll be on Twitter @mciocco …
The 2025 Kaedrin Movie Awards Winners were announced last week, which means that it’s time for more… arbitrary considerations. The idea is to recognize aspects of films that aren’t reflected in more traditional awards or other praise like a Top 10 list. However, any consistent, formal awards system will fail to capture all the nuances and complexity available; hence the 2024 Arbitrary Awards, an opportunity to commend movies that are weird or flawed in ways that don’t conform to normal standards. A few of these “awards” have become an annual tradition, some were stolen from other folks, but most are just, well, arbitrary. Previous Arbitrary Awards: [2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006]
The “You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else” Award for Worst Dialogue:War of the Worlds. How bad could yet another adaptation of H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds really be? As it turns out, quite bad, and yes, the dialogue is a huge part of that. Doing the adaptation in a “Screen Life” style isn’t exactly innovative or clever, but it certainly should keep costs down. But if you’re going to skimp on the visuals, you have to rely more heavily on your dialogue… and the dialogue is thoroughly terrible here. Thrill to the president’s declaration: “This plan is humanity’s last chance. I see no other option but to initiate this war of the worlds to save us all.” Or to our hero’s scolding of his superiors “You risked all of our lives just to spy on people’s Amazon carts!” And speaking of Amazon, this movie is functionally an Amazon commercial. How do we defeat the all powerful alien menace? With the products and services of a global corporate behemoth, of course! One of the main characters is even an Amazon deliveryman, and while racing to save the planet from invaders, he practically stops to lecture our hero about Amazon’s drone delivery service, which he informs us is called “Prime Air” and that it is “the future of delivery!” Thank goodness for that! I’m sure there are other movies that could be mentioned here, but none can even come close, and I’m only scratching the surface of the bad dialogue here.
The Dude’s White Russian Award for “What the hell is that person drinking?”: Materialists. At one point in this movie, Dakota Johnson’s character gives what we’re to assume is her standard drink order: a coke and beer. Somehow, this is treated as if it’s a completely normal thing to do. I suppose it’s meant to be an odd idiosyncrasy that demonstrates another character’s familiarity with her (because he knows her bizarre drink order before she even says it), but really it’s just… weird. And when he puts the drinks down, it’s a full bottle of coke and half a pint of beer. What is going on here? How does one drink a coke and beer? Does she… does she mix the coke into the beer? Even if not, it’s still pure psycho shit.
The Garth Marenghi “I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards” Award for Achievement in Didacticism:Mickey 17. Director Bong Joon Ho is no stranger to didacticism, and this movie is amongst the worst in that respect, though I will admit that it went down easier than a lot of previous winners of this award (thanks to Robert Pattinson’s goofy performance and some reasonably well executed action). Other contenders include Eddington and After the Hunt, both pretty blunt instruments, though each of them has some redeeming sense of subtext or subversion or provocation I think. All in all, this year’s crop of didactic films was actually pretty good, especially when compared to the last few years.
The Terrence Malick Memorial Award for Elegiac Visuals :Train Dreams. Yes, yes, I know that Terrence Malick is still alive, but he hasn’t made a movie in a while and Train Dreams is so clearly Malickian that I had to do something here in the Arbitrary awards. It’s also one of the most beautifully photographed movies of the year, and probably should have been nominated for the standard Most Visually Stunning award (I’ll stand by the winner announced last week, but this is a clear runner up).
It’s a decent enough movie too, I choked up a couple of times towards the end, but this sort of gorgeous but amorphous story generally isn’t my thing.
Best Animal Actor of the Year:Indy in the aptly titled Good Boy. There are lots of good dog performances out there, but how many of them can boast being the lead actor in their film? (Not counting CGI doggos, of course). In a movie whose high concept is that it’s told entirely from the perspective of a dog, including low camera angles and even doggy dream sequences (nightmares, even), the dog performance is paramount… and Indy is clearly up to the task. Little dude probably hit his mark better than most human actors. I’ve already made the joke that this is probably Dean Koontz’s favorite movie of the year, but the big reason for that is Indy’s performance.
The Proximity to Jason Voorhees Award for Heroic Stupidity:28 Years Later. It’s a movie I actually like a lot, but there are several eye-rolling moments of heroic stupidity throughout the film. Granted, several are made by a young pre-teen, but I’m always kinda, sorta surprised at the lack of hyper-vigilance in these 28 x Later movies. Like, how do you get into a situation where one of the slow, crawling rage zombies can, like, sneak up on you? Anyway, this is far from the worst “winner” of this annual Arbitrary award, and I’m happy to report that the sequel is actually better in this respect (even if it’s somewhat lacking in zombie mayhem). Would also give an award to this movie for “Best Ossuary of the Year” or something, but that might have to wait for next year.
Twin Movie Phenomenon of the Year: Titan: The OceanGate Disaster and Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster. It’s a somewhat morbid topic, but utterly fascinating and instructive. I feel like it’s somewhat rare for this Twin Movie thing to be documentaries, but here in the streaming era, they do seem to be cropping up more often (remember the Fire Festival docs?)
The Rube Goldberg Memorial Award for Most Convoluted Death Sequence:Final Destination: Bloodlines. Very strange that the sixth movie in a series as formulaic as this generated so much buzz this year, but there is something kinda comforting about this series, and after a couple of stumbles, this establishes itself as one of the better entries in the series. Nothing really beats the second movie, to be sure, but there’s several well executed set pieces here that are, sure, convoluted, but quite entertaining.
Best Genre Shifted Sequel of the Year:M3GAN 2.0. Alright, clearly the shift didn’t go over so well with fans of the original, but I rather enjoyed the shift from goofy horror to goofy sci-fi action. But I’m weird about sequels.
Most Unfortunate Hair Style of the Year:Flight Risk. The movie isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but I have to hand it to Mark Wahlberg for really going for it and embracing the unfortunate hairstyle of the film’s villain. Wahlberg has limited range, but this is the sort of role he’s perfect for, and good on him for not letting his ego get in the way of a goofy bald cap.
The Abbott and Costello “Who’s on first?” Award for Dumb Comedy Routines:Fackham Hall contains an extended take on the “Who’s on first?” bit, this time involving variations on a character named “Watt.” This is another comedy that seemingly flew under the radar last year that I recently caught up with. A parody of Downton Abbey style period pieces, it’s not exactly perfect (and I don’t really watch a lot of the genre being parodied), but I really appreciated the joke density and reliance on visual gags, as well as the wordplay like the spin on “Who’s on first?”, the Bechdel sisters (who only ever talk about men), and “The World’s Fastest Tailor” shop, called “Tailor Swift.”
Best Stage to Screen Adaptation:Henry Johnson. Alright, I’m far from the best person to judge stage to screen adaptations, not least of which because I haven’t seen most of them, nor have I see the stage versions. That being said, I did want to throw some love to the underseen Henry Johnson. David Mamet’s still got it, baby! It very much feels like a stage adaptation, but in this case that seems to fit the material, and Mamet’s facility with crackling dialogue shines here. I’m not usually won over by performance-oriented movies, but this one features several standouts, but especially the extended opening sequence with Chris Bauer and Evan Jonigkeit. It’s a real corker. As a whole, the movie can’t really stand up to scrutiny, but the dialogue is so sharp and quick-witted that it’s still quite engaging to watch. Worth seeking out.
Achievement in the Field of Interrogation: The character of Danvers in One Battle After Another was played by James Raterman, a retired real-life Department of Homeland Security Investigations Agent and former Secred Service Agent, and he is chilling. Just perfectly executed interrogation sequences.
Should Host the Oscars: Varang from Avatar: Fire and Ash. This is a tough choice, because Gladys from Weapons would also be pretty great, but from their respective performances, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Varang is more of a showman than Gladys (and besides, Gladys has already won Best Villain/Badass).
That does it for the 2025 Arbitrary Awards, but stay tuned, moar 2025 movie recaps incoming, including the traditional Top 10 list (this will probably take a couple weeks) and the usual Oscars commentary…
The nominees for the 2025 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week, and today we announce the award winners. In accordance with tradition, this is happening about a month or two later than most publications’ year end roundups, but I’m not a critic with access to screeners and don’t attend every film festival, so I’m still catching up with a lot of 2025 movies, even now. But I’ve certainly seen enough to give out these silly little awards, so let’s get to the main event:
Best Villain/Badass: Gladys, played by Amy Madigan in Weapons. I mean, how can it not be Gladys? She’s such a bizarre contrivance of a character that is neverthless fully realized and kinda terrifying. I’d wager a big part of that is Madigan’s performance. And, uh, the costume design and makeup. Unbelievably absurd, and yet note perfect.
A clear runner up in Varang, played by Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash, a truly unexpected delight in a movie (and series, for that matter) that I’m decidedly mixed on. Kinda hilarious to feature an athiest on a world where their god literally and provably exists, and yet it kinda works, and she’s weirdly attractive. I’ll… just leave it at that. Also of note, Jai Courtney is clearly having a blast in Dangerous Animals, and it’s one of the more underrated villainous performances of the year. Probably worth mentioning one of the highlights of the DTV action scene this year, Marko Zaror’s villainous turn in Diablo is quite entertaining. Overall, a moderate year for villainy, but these standouts are really quite great.
Best Hero/Badass: Smoke / Stack, played by Michael B. Jordan in Sinners. Maybe the dual performance is a bit of a cheat, but who cares, the twins who just want to put on a big party but get waylaid by vampires (and more) are pretty great characters. Truth be told, I’m not as ecstatic about this movie as a lot of others are, but I still have to show it some love here.
Plenty of other heroes to choose from. Ana de Armas was pretty good in the underseen Ballerina (which suffers a bit from being a John Wick spinoff), Josh Hartnett fulfills his obligations under the “Everyone gets a John Wick” Act of 2014 with his action oriented performance in (the also underseen) Fight or Flight, and Alban Lenoir reprises his vehicular heroics in the French actioner Last Bullet (third and final in a fun little series). Baby Assassins: Nice Days features a duo of heroic performances, even if I only nominated one of them, and the series as a whole is worth seeking out. Of note: in both “badass” categories, there are decidedly less in the way of superhero nominees (a genre that used to dominate these awards). Sure I could have included Thunderbolts* here (Florence Pugh probably fits), but I also could have left off the Superman noms. Anywho, a pretty solid year for heroics.
Best Comedic Performance: Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun. I’ll admit, I was skeptical. I’m not generally a fan of reboots/remakes like this, and Liam Neeson isn’t exactly known for his comedy (though he has done some small bits here and there in a similar Leslie Neilson straight-man register, so maybe I shouldn’t have been too surprised), but this worked incredibly well. It’s the funniest movie of the year, though I must say that the pickins are slim. It’s bleak out there for comedies these days, especially theatrical comedies.
I will admit that I revised the nominees earlier this week because, after seeing the dearth of good nominees, I explicitly sought out comedies that I might have missed. I quite enjoy Tim Robinson in his television work, and he’s still quite good in Friendship, even if I find that movie excruciating. Keke Palmer and SZA have amazing chemistry in One of Them Days, such that I’d love to see them develop into a famous comedy duo over the course of a dozen movies, but I’m guessing that’s not in the cards. Neither of these latecomers really carry the laugh quotient that The Naked Gun does though. The other nominees are mostly real stretches. Like, I enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio’s exasperated arguments with the guy on the phone in One Battle After Another, and there are other comedic moments in that movie (Sean Penn’s bit about not paying for his jet ski – “It was defective. I abstained from payment. I’d do it again. I have no regrets.” made me laugh), but it’s far from a comedy. Anywho, the takeaway here is: we all need to support comedies in theaters more. And I’m including myself in this.
Breakthrough Performance: Josh O’Connor in Wake Up Dead Man and The Mastermind. Yeah, I suppose I’m a little late on this one. I wasn’t particularly impressed with Challengers as a whole, which perhaps made me downplay his performance there, and I haven’t seen some of his earlier successes, but he did truly have a breakout year this year. He’s exceptional in both movies, for different reasons, and I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of him. Runner up is probably Chase Infiniti in One Battle After Another, which is kinda hilarious because having someone with the name Chase Infiniti in a (very loose) Pynchon adaptation is just perfect. Also, she’s pretty good and I think we’ll be seeing more of her in the coming years (and this truly was one of her first performances).
Most Visually Stunning: One Battle After Another. There are two types of movies that usually populate this category. One is the special-effects-laden spectacle (a la Avatar: Fire and Ash), and the other is filled with impeccably photographed cinematography. One Battle is obviously the latter, and I suppose we could add a third type here, which is “shot on film.” Plenty of movies have great digital photography, but there’s often a flatness or lack of intentionality that comes through with digital photography that really just bugs me. One Battle was shot entirely on 35mm VistaVision film, a high resolution, horizontal format that hasn’t really been in wide use since the 1960s. And it looks phenomenal, especially when you get to that car chase sequence.
Sinners and Frankenstein both also look fantastic, and I’ll throw some love towards Reflection in a Dead Diamond‘s trippy visuals as well (even if I didn’t particuarly care for the movie itself). It does seem like this award is in decline these days, but there are still some good things happening if you seek them out.
Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film: Presence. Steven Soderbergh’s experimental haunted house movie told from the perspective of the ghost came out early in the year, but man has it stuck with me, and I truly love the way this movie unfolds. Lots of other worthy nominees, but I wanted to mention Final Destination: Bloodlines, Weapons, Companion, and Bugonia here because not all of them will get a lot of attention later and are all well worth your time. Alas, the Science Fiction contingent is truly lacking this year. Part of this may just be that I didn’t seek it out hard enough (I usually manage to find obscure micro-budget or foreign stuff that qualifies, but have came up dry thus far), but SF has been falling off in recent years after a pretty good run in the teens.
Best Sequel/Reboot/Remake: Baby Assassins: Nice Days. Always a difficult category, but this movie really does up the ante in the series (which are all great, to be sure) and quickly became one of my favorites of the year.
Generally a pretty good crop in this category, which is perhaps not surprising given the industry’s reliance on IP and series in recent years, though I still generally prefer original work. Still, there migth end up being two sequels in the top 10, which is pretty good.
Biggest Disappointment: The Old Guard 2. I know it’s hard to concieve of a sequel to a Netflix original as being a movie that’s really worth getting too excited over, but I really enjoyed the first film and it ended with such a great tease for the villain of the second film that I was genuinely curious to see how it played out. Boy was that a mistake. The other nominees were also quite disappointing, though I will make special mention of Sniper: The Last Stand. Again, hard to believe the eleventh movie in a DTV action series with more than a few bad entries would generate much excitement, but the last three movies had sorta turned a corner. I suppose the more fun, comedic elements weren’t for everyone, but I genuinely enjoyed the last three movies and was kinda surprised that they abandoned that tone, returning to a more dour, serious feel. Even the action felt a bit off, at least for me.
Best Action Sequences: Havoc. This movie features a pointless and bizarrely convoluted plot with interchangeable cardboard characters and it takes a little too long to get to the action, but once it gets there? Absolutely bugnuts in the best way possible. There are a few small sequences, but two extended set pieces that are just spectacular. Close runner up with Baby Assassins: Nice Days, which has several great martial arts sequences with a clean, kinetic feel to them. It might sound a little stupid to say this, but F1 really does have a tremendous amount of racing sequences in it (a lot of movies like that will have a couple of race sequences and an interminable amount of post-or-pre-race drama, but F1 actually shows a ton of racing). Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has one astounding set piece (the ending biplanes sequence), but I found some of the others less engaging (and I realize this is also ridiculous, but one of the big set pieces strained believeability). I didn’t even nominate One Battle After Another, but I will give a shoutout to the climactic car chase sequence, which is one of the best things put on film all year (but this award is for the totality of action sequences, not the best individual sequence).
Best Plot Twist/Surprise: Companion. This one starts out predictable, even through the twist.. but then it just… keeps throwing new twists out there. The other nominees have more meaningful, thematically relevant twists (Presence, Bugonia, Wake Up Dead Man) and I suppose I could easily pick one of them on another day, but the sheer volume of twists and the fun nature of them (and trying to spread out the love) made me go with Companion. I will also mention Clown in a Cornfield as having a couple of genuine surprises, though in that case it’s probably more a case of me underrating the movie going in and coming away pleasantly surprised (but that movie has such bad reviews, and I don’t think it deserves the hate it gets).
Best High Concept Film: Zodiac Killer Project. Always a weird category to pick a winner for, I have to admit that this is maybe the first time a documentary manages this sort of high concept. This documentary is a recounting of a documentary the filmmaker wanted to make, but never got the funding for. This allows him to mercilessly examine and skewer the true crime documentary format. Neat idea and great execution. Presence is also a strong contender here, a new high-concept way to make a haunted house movie by portraying the action through a unique and unusual perspective. Speaking of which, Good Boy is another movie that tells a story using a unique perspective, this time from the point of view of a dog (there’s even little doggie dream sequences and nightmares). It’s probably Dean Koontz’s favorite movie of the year!
2025’s 2024 Movie of the Year: Dead Talents Society. A really fun, crowd pleasing tale of ghosts who compete at haunting the living. Delightful stuff, and would almost certainly have made the honorable mentions last year (and maybe even the top 10) if I had been able to see it in time. Snack Shack is a pretty solid coming of age story that’s worth checking out, and of course Baby Assassins: 2 Babies was quite enjoyable (though I think Nice Days, as mentioned above, is an improvement).
Congratulations to all the 2025 Kaedrin Movie Award winners! Next up, things get arbitrary!
Welcome to the 2025 Kaedrin Movie Awards season, which we’re kicking off with nominees in our standard categories! The idea is to recognize films for achievements that don’t always reflect well on top 10 lists or traditional awards. There are lots of formal award categories and nominees listed below, but once those are announced, we’ll also leave some room for Arbitrary Awards that are more goofy and freeform. Finally, we’ll post a traditional top 10 list (usually sometime in early/mid-February). But first up is the awards! [Previous Installments here: 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024]
Standard disclaimers apply: It must be a 2025 movie (with the one caveat that some 2024 films were not accessible until 2025 and are thus eligible under fiat) and I obviously have to have seen the movie. As of this writing, I have seen 111 movies that could be considered a 2025 release. This is a little ahead of where I was last year, but there are still tons of films I want to catch up with. I’ve probably seen less movies that a lot of critics, but more than your typical moviegoer and certainly enough to populate the nominees. I think that’s enough preamble, let’s get to it:
Best Villain/Badass Yet another moderate year for villainy in 2025. There are certainly less options than we have for Heroes, but then again, there are two strong standouts for me, and several other good options… In accordance with tradition, my picks in this category are limited to individuals, not groups (i.e. no vampires or zombies as a general menace, etc…) or ideas. Sometimes I have to stretch the definition of villain to fill out the category, but most of these are pretty unambigously villains, so there is that as well.
The Heart Eyes Killer, played by [redacted] in Heart Eyes
Best Hero/Badass A better year for heroism, certainly better than villainy, and the list grew quite long, though not quite as long as recent years. The standouts aren’t as distinct from the crowd here though, which is interesting (i.e. this is going to be a harder choice than the Villains). Same disclaimers as the villains: limited to individuals and not groups/creatures.
Best Comedic Performance Bleak times for comedy! This is sometimes a difficult category to fill out because so many comedies rely on an ensemble of funny characters and this award is targeted to an individual, but this one was hard to populate because there were so few noteworth comedies. I had to do that annoying Golden Globes thing where include movies that aren’t much of a comedy just to have enough nominees. We need to bring back comedies! I suppose the choice for this award will end up being pretty easy, but I’d much rather have better nominees and thus a tougher time choosing.
Breakthrough Performance This used to be a category more centered around my personal evaluation of a given actor (rather than a more general industry breakthrough), but it’s trended more towards the youngsters breaking through as time has gone on… That being said, there’s a couple of well established folks here that are only now catching my eye, so whatever.
Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film It’s always nice to throw some love to genres that don’t normally get a lot of recognition in end-of-the-year lists. As an avid SF fan, it’s sad that the genre usually has to be combined with Horror in order to come up with a well rounded set of nominees in this category. For a while, SF was mounting a pretty good roster, especially amongst small or independent releases, but this year was pretty sparse in that respect. Or I just haven’t found them yet.
Best Sequel/Reboot/Remake Always an awkward category to populate, especially given my normal feeling on this sort of thing (i.e. I’m not a huge fan of sequels), but there’s a pretty solid slate this year.
Biggest Disappointment A category often dominated by sequels and reboots, but the occasional original film makes an appearance. Note that these movies don’t necessarily need to be “bad” in order to be a “disappointment”. Basically, these movies scored poorly on Joe Posnanski’s Plus-Minus Scale.
Best Action Sequences This award isn’t for individual action sequences, but rather an overall estimation of each film. As with the last few years, this category is pretty easy to populate. The added accessibility of streaming DTV actioners has been a boon to this category.
Best High Concept Film Always a bit of a nebulous concept for this category, but there’s some good stuff worth recognizing here because they took chances on a weird concept.
2025’s 2024 Movie of the Year This is a weird category that is sometimes difficult to populate. The idea centers around movies I never caught up with last year during the Kaedrin Awards season, but which are worthwhile in their own right. A shorter list than usual this year as I neglected my “should have seen” list more than normal, but i also amended my Top 10 list after posting it with the coveted Quantum Jury Prize, awarded to three films I caught up with later than I should have (but which were really fantastic). That said, what remains still represents a solid list.
So there you have it, please congratulate all of the 2025 Kaedrin Movie Awards nominees! Stay tuned for the winners (probably not next week, but you never know), followed by the Arbitrary Awards and (eventually) the traditional Top 10 list. I’m still catching up with a bunch of movies, because that’s just how we do things around here. Time and accessibility matter, I don’t get screeners like critics do, and so on. These awards typically come out in line with the Oscars, which is good enough for me.
Tis the season to draw up a list of 2025 movie releases that I want to catch-up with before embarking upon the traditional Kaedrin Movie Awards, Top 10 List, and other year ending nonsense. Of course, the professionals are releasing their Top 10s and year end summaries right now, but for us normals who don’t go to Sundance and Cannes or get screeners and other such opportunities, it takes a bit longer. So the Awards happen in January and the Top 10 usually in February (hey, at least we’re faster than The Oscars!)
As of this moment, I’ve seen 80 movies that could be considered a 2024 release. This is… exactly where I was last year around this time. While we are past the slump caused by the writers/actors strike of 2023, there does still seem to be strange gaps in studio releases this year. Indie flicks and streaming slop seem to be taking up a little slack, but I’d rather some of this stuff be available in theaters.
In any case, it’s traditional around here to take stock of the year so far and take a look at what I missed as well as what’s coming soon. The end of the year usually results in a deluge of prestige pictures looking for Oscar nominations, but this pattern is not quite as solid as it was pre-pandemic. Still, there are plenty of big releases and under-the-radar stuff that’s worth seeking out. Standard disclaimers apply: I consider some 2024 movies a 2025 release if it didn’t get distributed in the US until 2025. This list is not comprehensive. I probably won’t watch everything on this list. I will probably watch things not on this list. I started compiling this post a couple weeks ago and have already seen some of the movies on it. And so on. Let’s get to it:
Blockbusters
Wicked: For Good – Whelp, this movie is facing some strong headwinds in my book. To start, I’m not a very big fan of musicals. Next, I saw the first one and didn’t like it very much. Then you have to contend with the fact that even the biggest fans of the show acknowledge the the second half is not as good as the first (and the early reviews of the movie bear that out). Also, to paraphrase Bill Ryan, the digital post-processing filters they use on these movies look like someone took a shit in a pillowcase and then told you to look inside. Which is a real shame because the production design, costumes, and other craft that goes into a movie like this do look top notch. Anywho, I really try to go into every movie with high hopes, but I don’t think I’ll manage to make it to the theater for this sucker (137 minutes? Oof.) I’ll give a try if it shows up on streaming though.
Avatar: Fire and Ash – I’m not especially a big fan of the first two movies, but it’s hard not to admire the ambitions of James Cameron, and while I find these stories ham-fisted and messy, I have to admit that the spectacle of the thing is generally amazing to look at.
Who knows, maybe Cameron will surprise me. At minimum, I’m expecting some phenomenal set pieces and well staged action, which is probably enough.
Tron: Ares – If this didn’t come out during the Six Weeks of Halloween, I probably would have taken a flier on this, if only to see what a feature-length Nine Inch Nails video would be like. Reviews were not very kind, but this seems like the sort of dumb action that is good to mix in with the end of the year prestige stuff.
Elio – Pixar’s flop can’t possibly be that bad, can it? Has everyone fallen for one of the classic blunders (never go in against Pixar when an Oscar is on the line!), or is this genuinely bad? Honestly, even if it is bad, I’m kinda curious to see what Pixar bad looks like.
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t – These movies are so dumb and they never really add up, but there’s some weird alchemy going on such that it sorta slides by on star power and charm. Who knows if I’ll get to the theater in time to catch this (though i guess it does seem like the sort of thing that’ll get shuffled to streaming soon enough).
Good Fortune – Studio comedies are a rare thing these days, and this actually doesn’t look too bad, even if it did bomb at the box office.
Anaconda – This is another studio comedy, though i suppose it has a weird IP focused high concept going for it that might work. The talent involved certainly looks solid, and I’m kinda looking forward to this more that, um, all of the above? Huh, that’s strange.
Streaming Exclusives
Becoming Led Zeppelin (Netflix) – Well, I love me some Led Zep, so this high profile documentary charting their rise sounds like fun (I see that this got some sort of token theatrical release earlier this year, but I’m including it here in the streaming exlusive section because I don’t really feel like investigating further).
Play Dirty (Amazon Prime Video) – Shane Black made a direct to streaming adaptation of Richard Stark’s (aka Donald Westlake’s) Parker novels? Sign me up. Update: I’ve seen it! It’s not Black’s best, Marky Mark is miscast as Parker, and it’s a tad long, but it’s a perfectly cromulent caper film that I wound up quite enjoying.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix) – Rian Johnson’s third Benoit Blanc mystery movie. I am a huge fan of Knives Out, but was a little disappointed by Glass Onion (even if it remains quite enjoyable, it doesn’t really approach the first film). Hoping for a return to form, and I’m also hoping to see this sucker in the theater. Update: I have indeed managed to see this in the theater. I liked it a little better than Glass Onion, but still not as much as Knives Out. I admire the way Johnson has tried to do something quite different with each outing, making them all distinct experiences with very different goals and themes each time out. This one manages to tackle our current moment without being as blunt as the others, but it’s also the longest of the three and feels like it too.
Train Dreams (Netflix) – I know very little about this except that it’s supposed to look gorgeous. I assume it involves trains.
I dunno, general buzziness amongst film dorks, so I’ll check it out.
The Lost Bus (Apple TV+) – An under-the-radar (as most Apple TV+ stuff manages to be) Paul Greengrass thriller staring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera, sounds pretty good!
Independent, Foreign, and Art House
Anniversary – I know nothing of this except that a coworker who is also a Regal Unlimited member told me that he was pleasantly surprised, so I threw it on my wathlist. It’s no longer in theaters, but I’m guessing I can catch up with it on streaming at some point.
After the Hunt – Luca Guadagnino in full on provocateur mode, or at least, that’s what it seems like from someone who hasn’t seen the movie. I never seem to fully connect with Guadagnino’s movies, but I have to admit that he’s always interesting.
Sovereign – Nick Offerman stars in this thriller about the sovereign citizen movement. Another hot button provocative topic, but this one checks some boxes that might work for me.
Henry Johnson – David Mamet lives! I don’t know much about this except that it stars Shia LaBeouf and takes place in a prison or something like that. I’m guessing it’s also going to be somewhat provocative given Mamet’s recent travails.
Mickey 17 – Bong Joon Ho’s long awaited follow-up to the Oscar winning Parasite bombed at the box office and received mixed reviews, but even though I rarely love his movies, he’s usually pretty interesting.
Caught Stealing – Darren Aronofsky back in what seems like straightforward thriller mode (though it’s probably thorny enough to be more than that might seem).
I’m not sure why I didn’t catch up with this in theaters, but it’s obviously too late, so here I am waiting for it to show up in streaming.
Materialists – I wasn’t as taken with Past Lives as most critics, but Celine Song is clearly talented and interesting and I should probably check out her latest.
The Smashing Machine – The Rock goes prestige drama with indie darling director Benny Safdie (sans brother), this got solid notices when it came out, but seemingly fizzled at the box office. Still, it’s definitely worth a look.
Marty Supreme – The other Safdie brother, Josh, directs this Timothée Chalamet vehicle that is getting even better reviews. I’m sure I’ll find some time to get to it…
Die My Love – Another indie darling director Lynne Ramsay, teaming up with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson (and Sissy Spacek and LaKeith Stanfield and Nick Nolte), I guess I have to check this one out too.
Roofman – Channing Tatum comedic thriller thing that bombed at the box office (seriously, I didn’t even know about it until it was too late, and I pay attention to these sorts of things), but seems to be generally well regarded.
Hamnet – Chloé Zhao returns to her indie roots with story of Shakespeare’s son or something. It’s got great ratings, but also seems strangely divisive.
The Secret Agent – Brazilian thriller that seems to be generating a lot of buzz, good enough for me.
Lost in Starlight – An animated, South Korean, Sci-Fi Romance, I guess I’m into it.
Good News – South Korean thriller based on a true story about a plane hijacking or something, sounds promising.
Zodiac Killer Project – Documentary about an abandoned true crime documentary. Seems right up my alley, but it’s unclear when this movie will actually be available to watch anywhere.
The Stone – Thai thriller about the rough and tumble amulet appraisal business. Or something.
Miscellaneous, Genre, Mutant Fam, etc…
Osiris – Director William Kaufman has built up a reputation as a master of tactical gunfights in cinema (his work on the Heat clone The Channel amply demonstrates this), and this time he takes those gunfights to invading aliens, or something like that. Update: I’ve seen this, and it does indeed have some wonderful gunfights and action… but boy does that script fall flat. I get that this is low budget DTV stuff and it works on that level, but if someone could get Kaufman a better, less derivative script someday, he’s capable of making a real action classic.
Alphas – Another DTV action guy, Liam O’Donnell (who made some pretty fun, action packed Skyline sequels), made this thriller about sharks vs killer whales or something, it sounds like a lot of fun, but I heard about this several months ago and still have no idea when or even if it’s coming out… It’s probably not fine cinema, but it sounds like a whole boatload of fun.
Together – Dave Franco and Alison Brie star in this weird looking elevated horror flick that seems to be well regarded.
Good Boy – Horror movie about a nice doggy who protects his family from supernatural forces or something like that? A very good boy indeed.
Eddington – Ari Aster wrote and directed this topical thriller that seems to be polarizing due to, I dunno, MAGA shit or something. I should probably catch up with it and find out though.
Last Breath – Woody Harrelson leads this underwater rescue movie, apparently better than it sounds…
Flight Risk – Mel Gibson directed this low-stakes thriller with Mark Wahlberg wearing a bald cap. Or something. Pretty bad reviews, but it’s one of those things where everone talking about it, even when they don’t like it, makes it sound fun.
Prisoner of War – Look, you can’t include a bunch of DTV action flicks on a list like this and NOT include the most recent Scott Adkins entry (and a collaboration with director Louis Mandylor, who has made a few of Adkins’ more solid movies).
Forbidden City – An Italian thriller that seems to have the soul of a Hong Kong action flick? A strange combination of elements, but let’s go! Availability seems spotty at the moment, but I’m in.
Transcending Dimensions – Japanese action thriller that I have been told is a “blind buy”, but doesn’t seem to be out just yet.
Reflection in a Dead Diamond – Stylish looking Euro-thriller about a disappearance and an ex-spy or somesuch, I’m in.
They Call Her Death – It’s a US movie, but everything about the marketing screams Spaghetti Western, which, like, cool. Let’s do it.
Welp, that’s a hare over 40 movies I want to catch up with, so I think that’s enough for now.
The Six Weeks of Halloween may appear to be a movie watching exercise, but all is not what it appears: the Halloween season is filled with other nominally spooky activities like hayrides, haunted houses (and haunted dining establishments and haunted mini-golf and haunted bonfires/cookouts, you get the picture), pumpkin mutilation carving ceremonies, and of course, lots of Halloween Reading. This year’s selections have a mix of old and new, classic and… not so classic (and everything inbetween).
Halloween Reading Roundup 2025
Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley – I first read this novel when i was in eighth grade, and I remember being struck by the science fictional aspects of the story (imagine that, a young me interested in science fiction, will wonders never cease). Reading this again, er, a few decades later, and it’s almost comical how large those two pages loom in my mind. I kept scanning back and forward to see if I had missed something, but no, the sequence where Victor observes the decay of a dead body and has a conceptual breakthrough that would lead to the creation of life is indeed only a few pages. I don’t want to start a holy war here, but I guess there’s a reason this is generally classified under horror rather than science fiction. For the record, I’d say this novel (amongst other Gothic fiction) plays an important role in the evolution of Science Fiction, but claims that Mary Shelley invented Science Fiction are perhaps a little overblown.
The other holy war often associated with this book is which character represents the “real monster.” To my mind, there’s plenty of blame to go around, which is one of the many subtle brilliances of the novel. The whole point of the novel is that the line between humanity and monster (or “wretch” or “dæmon” as the novel refers to the creature) is blurry. Victor (or even society at large) is almost as much of a villain as his creation. I say almost because his sins represent more of a moral failure than the creature, who commits several horrific acts of wanton violence. Both engender sympathy though, which is part of the genius of the novel.
Not to steer too far back into movie territory, but when you look at Guillermo del Toro’s recent adaptation, he diverges significantly from the book by portraying the monster as an almost pure innocent. Yes, he is unnaturally powerful and commits many acts of violence, but always in self-defense. Victor thus becomes the “true monster” of the film. The film is slick, impeccably produced, with amazing production design that is gorgeous to look at, and the actors all give great performances, but the choice to portray the monster as a true innocent robs the source material of its power.
All of which is to say that this book is a classic for a reason, and absolutely worth reading (or re-reading) if you haven’t done so. Even beyond the petty internet arguments about influence or who the real monster is, it’s just a great story, well written and thrilling. The novel casts a long shadow, as evidenced by the fact that there are at least two major film adaptations out now or coming soon (the aforementioned del Toro, as well as the forthcoming The Bride), and it was a great Halloween season reread.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson – The other classic novel I picked up this year, I had never read this before, but of course I had picked up the story through general cultural osmosis. It’s not unlike Frankenstein in that way, and this books casts almost as big of a shadow. The themes about the duality of man and the primal, repressed enemy within are key elements in entire sub-genres, most notably the modern Werewolf story, almost all of which can be traced back to this (rather than pure legend or folklore).
While perhaps not quite as popular as Frankenstein or Dracula (which I reread last year), I was struck by the common DNA across all three. For instance, they all use an uncommon framing device for telling the tale. Dracula, of course, is epistolary in nature, but both Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde are stories recounted by one character to another. I don’t quite know why, but theres something important about this aspect of these three cornerstones of Horror relying on these unusual literary devices. Of course, there’s also thematic similarities, particularly with respect to the ethics of science. It carves its own path through identity and addiction as well, but these three novels make for interesting reading in close proximity.
As with Treasure Island, which I also caught up with last year, Robert Louis Stevenson seems to have a knack for establishing archetypes. I only read this story this year, but I should really tackle some of the short stories that were included in the edition I bought. Jekyll and Hyde is quite short (about 150 pages) and another quick read that’s worth catching up with for anyone even remotely interested in horror.
Theories of International Politics and Zombies, by Daniel W. Drezner – Inspired by epidemiologists who had done a paper about zombie outbreaks that went viral in the early days of social media, Political Science professor Daniel Drezner applied the concept to theories of international politics in a blog post, more or less as a joke. Naturally, he found that students were able to cotton to various ideas better if explained using zombies as an example. So he expanded the concept into book form, which has now been updated a few times to keep up with the times – notably including some thoughts on how these theories played out during Covid, and they pretty much do parallel how the public would have responded to a zombie outbreak. People would at first trust the powers that be, but as time goes on, things get weird. People start to develop conspiracy theories or deny it’s a problem at all, and even if we succeed in holding back the zombie hoards, people will start campaigning for zombie rights or aping zombie fashions.
Despite how this sounds, Drezner approaches the topic earnestly and seriously, which is why it’s often quite funny. There are some outright jokes, of course, but most of the humor just comes from logically playing out the consequences of various theories (for example, he includes “A 2×2 Table, as Required in All Political Science Research” which is pretty funny by itself, but all 4 values in the table are the same, which is hilarious). I’m not a foreign policy expert or anything, but he seems to cover the full gamut of international political theories ranging from Realpolitik all the way to Supergendered Politics and beyond. His movie and television references mostly hew to the highest profile examples like the Romero flicks, 28 Days Later, and The Walking Dead, but he does pull from some deeper cuts as well, like Juan of the Dead or Pontypool (book and movie) or Santa Clarita Diet. The only real blind spot seems to be Italian zombie flicks, which are certainly numerous, but then again, I don’t know how much insight can actually be gleaned from Lucio Fulci (I’ve tried! It’s not easy!) He also covers zombie books, an area I’m not super familiar with, but he does actually makes me want to read World War Z now, which is saying something. One last humorous Easter egg: the Index of the book is useful for tracking down thoughts on specific zombie movies (uh, which is the purpose of an Index, I know, but…), but nestled in there is a listing for “Bad zombie puns 1-143” (the meat of the book is 143 pages long).
A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny – Why had no one informed me of this until recently? It’s a perfect Halloween season read that is told from the perspective of Jack the Ripper’s dog. Yes, you read that right. Jack the Ripper’s dog, Snuff, is the narrator of this novel. The story also features an impressive monster mash, including werewolves, witches, Lovecraftian Old Ones, Dracula, and even Sherlock Holmes makes an appearance. Of course, most of these are oblique references (for instance, Dracula is generally referred to as The Count, rather than by name), but we primarily get to know them all via their famliars (for example, Dracula’s familiar is a Bat named “Nuts”). All of these characters are engaged in a great struggle whereby one faction seeks to open a portal to Lovecraftian Old Ones (thus remaking earth into an unspeakable hellscape or some such thing), and the other faction seeks to keep the portal closed. The familiars all sneak about, attempting to discern which characters will be allies and which will be foes in the great game.
Put simply, this is a delight and I had this almost perpetual grin while reading it. The familiars are all quite endearing, even when their masters wind up being enemies, they play the great game with honor. The references are all fun to suss out, and there’s more than mentioned here (for instance, the book’s title comes from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe). It’s not exactly hiigh art, but it’s fantastic, and an absolutely perfect Halloween season read. Highly recommended that you check this out if you haven’t read it.
Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove – Another monster mash told from an unconventional perspective, this is set in the far future where the spaceship Demeter continually runs afoul of various monsterfolk who keep murdering the passengers during interstellar travel. Naturally, given the name of the ship, the first and most prominent attacker is Dracula, and naturally the ship’s AI seeks revenge. Along the way, it’s also attacked by a werewolf (which is affected by any moon, not just Earth’s moon), Lovecraftian fish men, and others, while gaining unexpected support from a mummy, a different werewolf, and Frankenstein. Demeter’s AI and its medical AI must team up with its allies to find and destroy Dracula before Demeter can be decommissioned by the corporation who owns it (and is presumably fed up with losing crews and passengers).
It’s a neat idea, putting the monster mash in spaaaace, but Truelove’s science fictional elements are mostly just window dressing and don’t really stand up to scrutiny. But that is one of the challenges in mixing Science Fiction and Horror. Often the story will veer one way or the other, and balance is difficult to achieve. This one skews pretty heavily towards a sorta YA horror perspective, which is all well and good, but i kept hoping for more. This might be unfair, and the book has quickly generated fans (it’s a finalist in the Goodreads awards this year, for instance), but I ultimately found it a bit disappointing, even if I managed to have fun with the monster mash elements.
Between Two Fires, by Christopher Buehlman – A disgraced knight shepherds a young, innocent girl across France during the Black Plague. Along the way, they must contend with sea monsters, demons, and least we forget, other human beings, paranoid and desparate due to the plague’s ravages. The little girl claims the plague is just one part of a larger battle between good and evil, heaven and hell, angels and demons. The knight has lost all hope and faith, but maybe this little girl holds the key to a brighter future.
This is quite well done, and though it leans heavily towards grimdark fantasy tropes, it has some nice horror elements as well. That being said, the horror, while vivid and imaginative, seems to only be there because the author likes certain imagery or cool monsters, and not due to a natural outgrowth of the story. For instance, the book relies heavily on surreal dream sequences for its scares, and that sort of thing rarely works well for me.
It’s an episodic story, though it does hold together fairly well as a cohesive whole. Its unflinching look at violence an desperation during a seeming apocalypse is well done, though not exactly fun to read. It’s one of those things where I think you need to be on it wavelength in order to really get a lot out of it.
I like it just fine, but I was a little baffled by the ecstatic praise i kept seeing for the novel. Then I learned that this was an early BookTok sensation, which I guess explains some things. Not for the faint of heart, and certainly far from the best book in this post, but I think this might hit hard for a certain type of reader. Alas, I’m not sure that reader is me.
Clown in a Cornfield, by Adam Cesare – After watching the movie earlier in the 6WH and enjoying it quite a bit more than the conventional wisdom would have it, I took a flier on the audiobook. There are plenty of differences to note, most notably the sense of humor that the movie brings to the story (which to my mind is an improvement over the book), but the book doesn’t quite fall into the culture war trappings as much as the movie (which is a point in the book’s favor). The other thing worth noting here is that there’s a key inciting incident that opens the book, but is only referenced offhand in the movie, and that seems like an odd choice. Neither the book nor the movie are masterpieces, but they’re both pretty good for different reasons and in different ways, making this one of the few books that is rivaled by its adaptation. Apparently there are several sequels to this book, which I will likely seek out in the coming years (especially since it doesn’t seem likely that the movie will get a sequel), which I suppose represents something of an endorsement.
The Terror, by Dan Simmons – A fictionalized retelling of Franklin’s lost expedition, a doomed attempt to find the Northwest Passage by two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror. Stuck in arctic ice for two years, the men must face the endless freezing cold, depleted or spoiled rations, a dwindling supply of coal, scurvy, and eventually mutiny and cannibalism. Oh, and there’s this thing on the ice that is killing the men. A monster of some kind. There’s also that.
Simmons is an interesting author, one of the rare few who is comfortable operating in both Science Fiction and Horror genres. Here he is is clearly focused on the latter, and he’s also evoking historical fiction, not to mention a certain salty sea dog energy. His science fiction side comes out a bit when digressing on the pragmatic realities of the challenges our sailors face, including detailed explorations of survival, like how they are going to stretch their rations for another year, or why said rations are spoiling in an unexpected way. These digressions and info-dumps might turn some folks off, and Simmons does have something of a longwinded style, such that you do feel the long length of the novel, but he has an undeniable knack for generating tension when he wants to, and he can do so via several avenues ranging from mundane survival details (particularly with respect to surviving in extreme cold), to mutinous tensions, to several encounters with the monstrous thing on the ice.
Its a long book, so the digressions and numerous flashbacks do muck with the pacing a bit, and I must admit to finding some stretches a bit of a slog, but it does eventually get to some more interesting, fantastical places later in the novel. For some, that may be too little too late, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was kinda assuming that thing on the ice would anticlimactically turn out to just be an abnormally large polar bear, but it’s got a more interesting origin than that (whether it’s a satisfying origin is another thing, but it worked well enough for me). Of course, this is a famously doomed expedition, so it’s not exactly a crowd pleasing story, but I found myself liking it more than other Simmons that I’ve read in the past. I may have to check out more in the future. While I’m not quite as hot on this as a lot of other readers (this is another book with rapturous reviews, though at least this time I can see where they’re coming from, even if I didn’t get there fully myself), I ultimately wound up enjoying the book.
The Wine-Dark Sea, by Robert Aickman – I only discovered Aickman a few years ago, but was so enamored with that first short story collection that I went out and bought this one immediately. That I’m only getting to it now is more a feature of a rather long book queue than anything else, but I’m really glad I jumped back aboard the Aickman train again this year. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Aickman bristled at the “horror” label and preferred to call his stories “strange tales.” Most of the time, I’d consider this sort of thing to be a pointless distinction, but these stories really do capture something ineffable and, yes, strange. I generally come away from these stories a bit flummoxed, but in the best way possible. It’s hard to shake these sorts of stories, and its difficult to describe why. Any plot descriptions would make them sound ordinary, but they most definitely are not that.
I have not quite finished this collection yet, but I’m quite enjoying it. Compared to Dark Entries, this collection is considerably longer, mostly because each story is longer. They’re still short stories though, and they fit with the season quite well. I’d recommend starting with Dark Entries if you’re looking for something a little unusual next Halloween season, but in my experience thus far, you can’t go wrong with Aickman.
So there you have it: Six Weeks of Halloween, 9 books read (or listened too, I’m a cheater). This represents the close of this year’s festivities, a little later than usual (apologies, my Sundays have been busier than usual of late). Expect posting to be spotty through the holiday season, but I will likely get going again for the traditional Movie Awards in January/February…
Time flies when you’re terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. The Six Weeks of Halloween went as fast as ever this year, and now the big day has already passed. In accordance with tradition, this is when we engage in a Speed Round of brief thoughts on films I watched during the 2025 marathon, but haven’t otherwise covered. Usually because it didn’t fit with a weekly theme. Or maybe I just didn’t have much to say about it. Or I had too much to say about it, but the moment and/or inspiration has passed. Or it’s a rewatch of an all time classic (or, uh, a non-classic) and you don’t need anyone, let alone me, telling you more about it. This year, my web hosting company had a hardware failure that cut down on some posting, and some movies originally planned for a mid-week post got delayed until now.
Here at the end of the 2025 Halloween season, I’ve seen 59 horror or horror-adjacent films. This is pretty much on par with most 6 weeks of Halloween celebrations over the years (with a pandemic fueled exception in 2020), so we’ve settled into something of a groove. I usually also tackle some television during these six weeks, but honestly not as much as originally planned (I was going to have a mid-week post about televised horror, but ultimately decided to just incorporate it here in the Speed Round).
Our custom around here is to have one final 6WH post next week about the horror books I read during the 2025 Halloween season, but for now, let’s dive into this 2025’s Speed Round:
Six Weeks of Halloween 2025: Speed Round
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? – Incredible performance by Bette Davis as a former child star who torments her paraplegic sister while desperately attempting to regain her former stardom and glory. Genuinely creepy, if not exactly a traditional “horror” flick, and probably still depressingly relevant to this day. It is a tad on the long side (alright, it’s very long for what it is) and I must admit that I generally don’t get as much out of performance-led movies like this, it’s still rightly regarded as a classic. I originally planned a mid-week Bette Davis/Robert Aldrich double feature, but basically ran out of time. ***
The Conjuring: Last Rites – This series continues to coast on the general comforting presence of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson. Whatever you may think of the real life hucksters these movies are based on, their presence is always welcome during the Halloween season.
This movie posits the possibility that we’ll see a new generation of paranormal investigators, but I don’t think the kids in this have the charisma or gravitas to carry the series. Alas, it’s also sad that this series (and its general cinematic universe) never really established a better bench of directing talent. Director Michael Chaves is better than he used to be, but he’s nowhere near James Wan. Overall, this is fine, but nothing special. **
The Toxic Avenger – I’m still not convinced that Toxie needed a remake, but this hits some nice notes and the talent in front of and behind the camera is impressive. Peter Dinklage is great and Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon are clearly having a lot of fun. It’s fine, but I almost forgot that I even watched this (to be fair, I’m cheating a bit in that I technically watched this a little bit before the 6 weeks officially started, but still). **
Slaughter of the Innocents – James Glickenhaus directed this bizarre serial killer thriller starring Scott Glenn as an FBI agent (this came out not long after Silence of the Lambs, so I guess he’s cashing in) who tracks a Religious nut who thinks he’s a new Noah with the help of his annoying son. The procedural bits and weird serial killer are decent enough in an airport thriller kinda way, but the child is just obnoxious. **
The Church – Technically this is third Demons movie, and while I can appreciate the visual flare and general gore, I have never been on this series’ wavelength. I only really watched it because it was one of the movies presented in the The Last Drive In. *
Frankenweenie – Tim Burton’s early short film about a boy who brings his beloved pet dog back to life after an accident is cute and fun, though I think the expanded, animated version is better (and probably the last movie Burton’s made that I like). Still, it’s nice to see an early look at Burton’s sensibility. ***
Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva – I watched the first movie last year, a neat little found footage flick about a hiker who disappeared in the Nevada desert under suspicious circumstances. This sequel covers two additional disappearances, but generally leverages the same faux documentary format with heavy doses of creepy found footage. It’s a little slicker than the first film, but still clearly limited and a little disjointed by covering two different cases. Still, enjoyably creepy. **1/2
Horror in the High Desert 3: Firewatch – A guy heads to the high desert to investigate what happened to the guy who disappeared in the first movie (and to a lesser extent, the two women from the second movie) and quickly finds himself in a dangerous situation. This is a little more like the first movie in that it is less disjointed, and it starts a little slow while building towards an undeniably creepy final act. It looks a little better than the first two movies, but still limited by the found footage/faux doc format, which I guess is kinda the point. These movies should probably be more popular than they are, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that they are setting up a bunch of mysterious stuff that will basically amount to “There’s crazy hillbillies that live in that there desert, and they’ll stalk and kill you if you aren’t careful.” **1/2
Shaun of the Dead – Revisited this on 4K and it looks as great as ever. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but it holds up quite well. One of those rare parodies that is also a great example of the genre being parodied, this is very funny and has a lot of heart, probably something I should revisit more often… ***1/2
Borderline – Obsessed escaped mental patient develops a plan to kidnap a famous pop star under the delusion that they’re going to get married. A little messy and over the top, but overall quite enjoyable, with some darkly comedic elements, particularly in the latter half.
Elevated a bit by a great cast, including Samara Weaving and Ray Nicholson, and a script that keeps you guessing. I quite enjoyed it, but I can see why some elements might rub some folks the wrong way. Still, I think this deserves to find an audience, even if it’s a niche one… ***
Resurrection – Shameless ripoff of Se7en that is probably most notable for reteaming Christopher Lambert and Russell Mulcahy. Not strictly good in any real sense, but Mulcahy leans hard enough into the rainy, smoky atmosphere to keep things visually interesting, and the supporting cast (including Se7en alum Leland Orser) elevates this above your typical Criminal Minds episode. It’s pretty dumb and mostly deserves its “largely forgotten” status, but enjoyable in an airport thriller kinda way. **
Sole Survivor – After inexplicably surviving a plane crash, a woman learns that she was supposed to die and that death is sending its minions to correct the mistake. Sound familiar? It’s basically a more artsy version of the Final Destination formula, and it’s mostly interesting because of that. It moves a bit slow, but generates some genuine chills in the last act. While Final Destination is the clear reference point, it also prefigures It Follows in a neat way. Mostly interesting because of its relationship with those later films, but it has its charms. **1/2
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – This 1931 adaptation is only really notable for two reasons. One is that the transformation effects involving makeup and camera lens filters are pretty effective. The other is that everyone pronounces Jekyll as “Jee-cull.” Alright, there is some other interesting camera work, including extensive use of POV shots and transitions using split screen, but the pacing is awful and even at 96 minutes, the movie is far too long. I read the original Robert Luis Stevenson story this year (more on that next week), and meant to watch more adaptations, but never got around to it… **
A Televised Interlude
Haunted Hotel – Super enjoyable animated Netflix series that rides a line somewhere between Bob’s Burgers and Rick and Morty (apparently the series creators have worked on both shows). It’s got a lot of heart, but tons of horror fiction references and it’s a lot of fun. Really happy to see a second season is coming, it’s always great to have a short comedic show to watch during the season.
Friday the 13th: The Series – This series has nothing to do with Jason or the movies, but it does take on a format that I always find myself enjoying. In this case, it’s the “cursed artifact of the week” formula, where our intrepid heroes who have inherited an antiques shop from their demonic uncle (or something, it’s not that well explained) seek to retrieve cursed objects their uncle sold people. It’s… not the highest quality show, but once they get going there’s some neat cursed objects. Obviously later shows like The X-Files or even Warehouse 13 are much better at this sort of thing, but I appreciate this one and will continue to progress through the seasons of the DVD set.
Alien: Earth – I’ve watched a few additional episodes, but am still only halfway through the season. It’s fine, but clearly hasn’t really inspired me to keep watching (a lot of these new IP focused shows are like that for me – whether it be Star Wars, or Marvel, or whatever). I will probably watch more of it, but I’m clearly not as taken with it as some audiences.
Moar Speed Round
Mute Witness – We’ve been singing this movie’s praises for decades at this point, and it’s nice to see it getting a bit of a revival of late. Last year Arrow put out a great 4K restoration, and this year Joe Bob featured it on The Last Drive In. Fantastic little film. Incredible cat and mouse stuff, lots of twists and turns, and comedic elements that don’t detract from the susspense. Underrated and highly recommended! ***1/2
Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U – I rewatched both of these a couple years ago and I really enjoy them. This year, I listened to the commentary tracks on both, which mostly consist of director Christopher Landon and actress Jessica Rothe goofing off and discussing various details about how characters were developed along with general production anecdotes. Pretty standard stuff, and you’re probably better off just watching the movies, which are a whole boatload of fun, but it was interesting enough. ***
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein – What a strange artifact. Not only are such crossover events seen as generally cheesy, but crossing over between Universal Monsters and famous comedians? Ludicrous. What’s more? This is probably the best Monster Mash movie that Universal made. It’s certainly the most memorable. Despite the title, Dracula and the Wolf Man (played by their original and best actors Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. respectively – the only actor missing is Boris Karloff as the titular monster) are along for the ride as well, and the whole thing is a boatload of old-fashioned fun.
I had originally planned to have a classic horror comedy mid-week post, but that went out the window when my web host experienced a hardware failure. In any case, this is great, and I’m really glad I have finally caught up with it (definitely a big blind spot for me). ***
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken – Don Knotts isn’t exactly my favorite, but I have to admit that this movie won me over by the end. This was the second classic horror comedy that I watched but didn’t get to write about as planned. It’s cozy and charming, more goofy than funny, but maybe that’s just the old-fashioned comedy style that’s clearly out of step with modern takes. Still, I found it quite enjoyable (if not as good as the previously mentioned Abbott and Costello monster mash) and it’s always nice to throw some comedy in the mix of Halloween season (which has a tendency to get a little dreary). **1/2
Ick – Aliens have arrived in the form of “the ick”, basically weird little plantlike growths that are seemingly innocuous. But of course, during the course of the movie (decades after the ick has arrived), we see the ick start to possess people in a sorta zombie-like, body-snatchers way. Pretty rote stuff, but I like director Joseph Kahn and lead Brandon Routh, and there’s some comedic bits that work. Unfortunately, I never really, truly comes together in the way you might hope. A little disappointing because Kahn’s Detention is a fantastic and underseen take on formulaic horror, and this never really gets there. Go watch Detention instead of this. **
The Silence of the Lambs – The annual rewatch of one of my favorites, I actually watched it twice. Once because I love it, and another time with the new-ish commentary track from Film Historian Tim Lucas on the Kino Lorber 4K. A little dry, but lots of good info about the book and movie, etc… ****
The Keep – Bizarre but fascinating slice of cinema history. Much better than I remembered, but still largely a mess, particularly in the latter half. Vinegar Syndrome 4K looks gorgeous, greatly enhancing the atmosphere of dread and paranoia, not to mention a few of the better conceived set pieces, which certainly helps (as does having read the book). Not for everyone, but I’m so glad it got this loving 4K treatment. I watched this earlier this year when I finally got the Vinegar Syndrome package, so I took the opporunity to listen to the commentary track this time. Also relatively dry, but some good info, particularly around the book and the adaptation. Would love to have seen the original cut of this, as the latter half of the movie is clearly rushed and awkward, but I guess that cut is lost forever… **1/2
Marshmallow – What starts as a pretty typical kid goes to summer camp and spooky things happen story takes some twists and turns in the latter half that put an interesting spin on old tropes.
I’m not entirely sure it sticks the landing, but it gets a lot of points for creativity and I wound up quite enjoying this, which is one of the more underrated and underseen takes on horror this year. ***
Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer – A struggling writer in the midst of a divorce befriends a serial killer… who accidentally becomes the couple’s marriage counselor. Fun little dark comedy starring Steve Buscemi, Britt Lower, and John Magaro. The ending is more than a little odd, but I had a lot of fun with this underseen and underrated flick. Would make for an interesting, tonally weird double feature with the aforementioned Borderline. ***
Let the Wrong One In – Nice little Irish vampire comedy with copious amounts of fake blood and some heart behind the laughs and gore. Not perfect, but writer/director Conor McMahon is someone to look out for… **1/2
Spontaneous Combustion – Generally considered to be “minor” Tobe Hooper and indicative of the iconic directors decline, but despite having a couple of classics under his belt, most of Hooper’s filmography could probably be described in the same way.
This is certainly not his best, but I don’t think its as bad as its reputation, and there’s some banger sequences sprinkled throughout. Brad Dourif is in fine mega-acting mode, and Hooper manages some nice compositions throughout. It doesn’t quite come together entirely, but it deserves more of an audience than it’s got. **1/2
Bring Her Back – Well appointed A24 “elevated horror” from the Philippou Brothers. It’s bleak and unrelenting, but it looks great and is very well executed. It hits those elevated horror tropes about grief pretty hard, but if that’s your jam, this will work quite well. It’s not slow, per say, but it takes its time establishing a genuine sense of dread that culminates in an emotionally unsettling way. A big swing, won’t work for everyone, but I liked it. ***
The Final Terror – Early Andrew Davis jam about campers running afoul of backwoods folk. Or whatever. It’s not quite as formulaic as that sounds, and it does some atypical things, but it never really comes together the way it should. It definitely drags quite a bit until the ending, which is at least a little more eye opening. Great cast though, including a pre-Splash Daryl Hannah, Adrian Zmed, and of course, Joey Pants. Watched as part of Joe Bob’s The Last Drive in, and I’m glad I caught up with it because I like Davis and it’s interesting to see where he started, even if he would go on to bigger and better things later in his career. **
Lake Placid – I had somehow never seen this killer croc flick before, and wound up having a great time with it. It’s got a killer cast including Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, and Betty White. It’s pretty dumb and relies on bad CGI, but the script has some humor and that cast executes perfectly, especially Platt and Gleeson, who are delightfully bitchy to each other throughout. It’s not exactly fine cinema, but I had a lot of fun with it. **1/2
A Nightmare on Elm Street – Part of AMC Fearfest, I watched with Joe Bob Briggs’ commentary, and it’s always fun visiting with Freddy. I’ve gotten so used to Shudder’s more lenient timing that Joe Bob’s segments seemed a bit rushed in this format, but it was still a pretty good time. The movie remains a classic. ***1/2
Freddy vs. Jason – The second part of the AMC Fearfest double feature, it does seem like this crossover has been generating some buzz from fans of late. I enjoy the movie just fine, and there’s lots to like about it, but it ain’t exactly great either. Let’s not get carried away. But it’s got its moments for sure. **
A House of Dynamite – Not exactly a horror movie, but it’s a new Kathryn Bigelow movie, what was I going to do? Not watch it? Pfft. It’s a fascinating nuclear war thriller with a unique structure that I’m not entirely sure works… but plenty of procedural bits keep things interesting, and the performances from a stacked cast are all top notch. As a parable about the agony of needing to make decisions with incomplete information where all of your options are bad, it works really well.
Unfortunately, the repetitive structure detracts a bit from the tension, and I have my questions about this specific scenario (in particular, the lone missile thing makes me suspicious – I don’t think you should act before you’ve confirmed that it will actually go off, but they seem adamant that the response happen before it even hits.) It’s not Bigelow’s best, but it’s a sold entry in the ouvre. **1/2
Jack-O – Part of Joe Bob’s Splatterween special, I know this is a favorite of Darcy the Mailgirl, but I had trouble getting into this. It’s got some atmosphere and a couple of nice visuals here and there, but the acting is awful and the story is nonsense. Certainly not the worst thing in the world, but I couldn’t get into it. *
Trick ‘r Treat – An annual Halloween night rewatch. ***1/2
Halloween – Duh. The big day wouldn’t be complete without revisiting the classic. ****
Another successful Halloween season in 2025, and I already have ideas for the 2026 marathon. In the meantime, stay tuned, as we’ll cover some Halloween season’s readings next week. I hope everyone had a great Halloween!
Something about cats just fits perfectly with the horror genre. Maybe it’s their aloof, mischievous nature, or perhaps Edgar Allan Poe just set the template with his short story The Black Cat. Indeed, the latter has spawned numerous adaptations, most of which are only loosely (sometimes very loosely) based on the original, but elements of the story crop up all the time (indeed, we mentioned one such case just a couple of weeks ago). Anywho, this week we watched three movies involving Feline Frights (only one of which was directly inspired by Poe).
Cat People (1982) – Paul Schrader’s remake of the Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur classic has its fans, but remakes are often controversial, and I think this one is even moreso because it comes from an auteur of Schrader’s notoriety and it came at a time when other well respected directors were successfully updating staid B-movie classics (notably Carpenter’s The Thing this same year and Cronenberg’s The Fly a few years later). It certainly has some striking elements, but I don’t think it really succeeds in updating the classic to modern times. On the other hand, adapting this story to modern standards might be a fool’s errand.
The story of a young woman cursed to turn into a panther and kill the man she loves is told, in the original film, with remarkable restraint and elegance. The repressed sexuality and desire present in the film was a perfect foil to Hays Code restrictions at the time. This gives the original a dated feel for sure, and it’s easy to see why a guilt-ridden pervert like Paul Schrader was attracted to the idea of updating it, but his focus on explaining and literalizing the plot while showing everything results in lots of quality nudity and unsettling gore but it also removes any hint of subtlety or restraint. There’s something to be said for that approach, but it takes what was originally a unique play on the Jekyll & Hyde story and turns it into a more routine entry. Indeed, it feels a lot like a Werewolf movie (which was also going through a bit of a moment when this movie came out), but that does it no real favors.
The one area where this definitely shines above the original is the David Bowie/Giorgio Morodor soundtrack, which is phenomenal. I mean, clearly dated, but still perfectly suited to the movie. Visually, Schrader does pretty well too. He takes a more stylized approach, and he was clearly able to show more than the original. Your mileage may vary, especially if you’re not a fan of the original’s black and white, but I’d still call this a push. This movie is also quite a bit longer, so you lose the economy of the original (which was only 73 minutes long) while not adding very much. I don’t know, this movie is made well by talented people, and it’s a pretty good watch, but I think I prefer the boring ol’ original. **1/2
The Black Cat (1981) – People in a small English village start to suffer terrible accidents, and Scotland Yard suspects a local medium (and maybe a black cat).
This is not one of Lucio Fulci’s more famous movies, but it’s dripping with gothic atmosphere, tons of POV shots, and plenty of Fulci’s trademark gore. Still, the whole thing feels a bit muffled. Fulci is not known for making well plotted films, and there’s lots of nonsense here, but while the whole package is quite watchable, it never fully gels into something great.
I feel like I should have more to say about this, but I’ve never been a huge fan of Fulci’s theatrics, and this isn’t really an exception. It has its moments, and is certainly worth a watch if you are a fan. Otherwise, you’re probably better off exploring one of Fulci’s gory zombie flicks… **
Cat’s Eye (1985) – Lewis Teague, fresh off of adapting Cuju, takes on Stephen King again with this anthology film. Two segments are well known stories from Night Shift, and the third was written exclusively for this film. They’re all tied together by a cat wandering through the stories, trying to save a young girl (played by Drew Barrymore in the final segment). It’s a better framing device than most anthologies, and allows Teague to make cheeky references to other King adaptations of the time. For instance, the opening of the film sees the cat chased by Cujo and nearly run over by Christine.
Indeed, that cheeky, almost silly tone wends its way through all three segments in a way that I find strangely appropriate for Stephen King. He’s a consummate storyteller, but some of his ideas work better on the page than they do on the screen. The first and third segments are particularly goofy, and even the second is played a little dopey.
The first segment is an adaptation of Quitters, Inc, about a company that uses draconian methods to get people to quit smoking. It’s one of those heightened premises that feels a little daffy on the page but works well enough. On screen, it’s more than a little ridiculous, but I will say that the performances from James Woods and especially Alan King really help sell the segment, which winds up being quite entertaining with a perfect button at the end.
The second segment is based on The Ledge, one of my favorite Stephen King short stories, in large part because it is so grounded. I mean, it’s a little weird, but it taps into primal human fears of height. For whatever reason, any depiction of this sort of thing where someone could potentially fall from a high place gives me a low grade panic attack. My hands get a bit clammy, and my heart beats a bit faster. Unfortunately, Robert Hays isn’t the greatest lead and Kenneth McMillan plays the villain a little cartoonishly. Still, it’s a solid segment, even if it’s not the best adaptation of the source material.
The third segment is known as The General, and is based on an original idea from King. The wandering cat has found Drew Barrymore and is determined to protect her from a tiny soul-sucking troll that comes out at night. This is the kookiest segment, by far, but it’s also quite entertaining. Barrymore is more comfortable here than her other Stephen King role in Firestarter, the horrible mother character is played well by Candy Clark, and the effects work in animating the little troll is remarkable. The cat wrangler also did a pretty great job, and the segment ends pretty well.
Like all anthologies, some of these segments are stronger than others, and the whole package is a bit of a tonal mess, serious and silly at the same time, but it actually does come together pretty well if you can get on its wavelength. It’s not top tier King, but it’s a nice introduction, and if you caught some of this stuff on cable in the 1980s like I did, it’s got a bit of nostalgia going for it. **1/2
Hard to believe it’s already the sixth week of Halloween. Keep an eye out for some Televised Horror on Wednesday, and while the big day is on Friday, the traditional Speed Round post will likely still be on Sunday.
Those who celebrate the Halloween season do so in many and varied ways and hard as it may be to believe here in 2024, they even maintain blogs to document their celebration. Here, we do the Six Weeks of Halloween horror movie marathon, but there are lots of other approaches.
As with last year, I goofed off with some AI image generators using the prompt “Fellow Travelers in the Halloween Ways” and this is what it spit out.
Not too shabby. Anyway, let’s take a look at some other like-minded, pumpkin-headed Halloween bloggers:
Old Hands
Film Thoughts – Zack, previously the only other practitioner of the Six Weeks of Halloween, has continued to expand his marathon to the full two months of September and October. As per usual, his output is prolific, typically covering two movies and a smattering of television episodes nearly daily. He’s also quite thoughtful and insightful in his reviews, and his curation is eclectic (always find new things to watch reading his blog). This year, Zack is also tackling a sorta condensed 50 from 50 challenge. A couple years ago, I watched 50 movies from 50 different countries, and what took me 12 months, Zack is on track to finish in just two. Well done!
Horror Movie a Day – Brian doesn’t post every day anymore and his output this Halloween season has been somewhat limited, but the man watched and wrote about a horror movie every day for several years, so his archives are invaluable this time of year. I often find myself looking up an obscure movie I never heard of and finding that he wrote a review of it, like, 10 years ago.
Hellowe’en Horror -Well curated collection of images, posters, screenshots, and gifs from various horror flicks, still marching along with the season…
Final Girl – Stacy had the interesting idea to revisit her first ever Shocktober shenanigans in honor of the 20 year anniversary. Unfortunately, she’s had to cut her festivities short due to some sort of family emergency. Hopefully everything’s ok, but in case you can’t tell, she’s got decades worth of archives that are also quite entertaining this time of year.
New Hands
Cinematic Catharsis – Some interesting stuff here, including the intriguing Hammer-Amicus Blogathon (which, for some reason, is scheduled for November 7-9, but whatever).
Classic Horrors Club – Lots of movie reviews ranging from the obscure to the popular to the… not popular… (as all Halloween movie marathons should be!)
Dispatches from the Macabre Republic – I’ve included this one before (so not entirely a new hand), but regardless, there’s lots of reviews of horror literature and short stories here, amongst the usual oddball stuff. Plus, he liked Clown in a Cornfield too.
Severed Hands
Wonderful Wonderblog – Spreading the love beyond just movies and into various spooky versions of stuff like lottery tickets and records and whatnot.
Halloween Mixes – Well, technically, this blog is titled “The Murderer’s Plague Of The Phantasmagoric Beast Of The Haunted Screaming Horror Of The Mad Scientist’s Monster’s Bride Of The Vampire’s Bloody Psychotic Alien Werewolf Curse Of The Ghost Of The Zombie That Ate The Return of Dav’s Ultimate Halloween”, but uh, yeah it’s got an archive of nice playlists of Halloween themed music (including a recently compiled 2025 list)
Countdown to Halloween – Long list of blogs and websites doing some sort of Halloween theme… Apparently I missed the announcement and forgot to get myself included this year. Drats!
So there you have it. Halloween blogs are still a thing, kinda. It’s not just me. Stay tuned, we’ve got some Feline Frights coming your way on Sunday…
