Horror Movies for the Fall, Pt. I

I always say I'm going to watch a ton of horror during the year and there usually ends up being a few things that tickle my fancy, but rarely do any of the previews make me yearn for more. A few movies piqued my interest in the last few years, but I've also not been watching a ton of movie-length stuff recently. 

I'm trying to change that. 

So here are a few of the horror/suspense/terror movies I've had on my list to watch for awhile and have finally gotten around to watching. I'll try to do one of these a week purely so you can have good options leading up to Halloween. 

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"Cuckoo" (2024)

3/5

[In Theaters]

I wouldn't consider this pure folk horror, but it definitely leans pretty heavy toward that way. The trailer was good, the movie was...interesting. The pacing was good and, while there were some interesting concepts within, I left the theater feeling pretty 'meh' about the whole story. Some smoothing out of narrative heavy-handedness in places would've really made this a much better movie, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. 

The Menu (2022)

5/5

[Amazon Prime]

My dumbass thought this was just another movie about cooking (like "Chef," "Burnt," or "No Reservations"), so I never bothered to check out the trailer. Then some friends recommended it as a horror/suspense suggestion and I finally decided to check it out. 

Holy. Crap. 

The format of including "Chef's Table"-esque cut scenes really helped seal the movie's vibe for me. Ralph Fiennes is perfect as the chef. Honestly, the casting is perfect from top to bottom and the plot was pretty great (not a unique premise, but definitely uniquely explored). There were a couple small things about the plot I took umbrage with, but overall, a really fantastic movie with an incredibly satsifying ending. 

The tension in this one started early and just stayed steady, which is my wheelhouse. I don't like to be made comfortable during a movie like this. I was not let down by any stretch of the imagination. 

Without ruining anything, here's one (of MANY) great quotes from the film: 

"It matters to the artist who's work turns to shit inside your gut." 

Deadwax (Series: 2018)

1/5

[Shudder]

An 8-episode "season" of 10-20 minute narratives. Fun, but not unique, concept. Bad writing, rough acting, absolutely absurd side-plots. Like it was written by someone who had a single good idea, but didn't know how to get there in a meaningful or valuable way. Surprisingly high production value considering. Desperately wanted this to be good, but it was so definitively not. Had to bail on episode four when it became weird purely for weird's sake. 

Give it a watch if you've got nothing else to do. Otherwise? Hard pass. 

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024)

3/5

[In Theaters]

Was the original scary? No. Would I still consider it a horror film? Probably in the same way you might consider "The Witches" or "Hocus Pocus" horror film-adjacent. They're seasonal fun. This second one still fits that vibe, even if it wasn't as good as the original. 

I appreciated the various styles of animation used throughout, and the story was (admittedly) ludicrous...it was still a fun watch. Some parts were phenomenal while others were....suspect. I'll say though that the way they brought back "Banana Boat Song" was pretty hilarious, though it was hard to tell if the hilarity was intentional or not. 

Fun for the season, but totally skippable. 

In a Violent Nature (2024)

5/5

[Shudder]

I wanted to see this one as soon as I saw the trailer. I thought the premise of the camera following the killer the entire time was a good one, and worth checking out. 

In the first five minutes, we watch as a golden pendant is removed from the remains of a collapsed fire tower in the woods and then the sounds of bubbling and gurgling are the only things we can hear until a figure emerges from the leaf-littered ground beneath. And then our boy is off hunting for his pendant and we get small bits of backstory here and there. 

This movie is patient, almost agonizingly so. But I think this makes for better viewing. The cinematography was excellent and the death scenes? Holy fucking crap. Some of the death scenes are just....incredible. And just really well done. Unsurprisingly, the least interesting parts (for me personally) were the ones where dialogue was involved. 

Will I watch this again? Probably not unless it's with someone who hasn't seen it already. 

  

The Void (2017)

5/5

[Amazon Prime]

The Void is not a new one for me; it's one of my favorite horror movies ever. It starts off immediately with action that just snowballs and snowballs into more and more "what the fuck"-ness until the very end. It's got body horror, Lovecraftian/cosmic horror, strange robed cultists, and some incredible set dec design toward the end of the film. 

Phenomenal watch. 

Vivarium (2023)

4.5/5

[Amazon Prime, $3.79]

This one immediately called out to me when I first saw the trailer. It is DEEPLY unsettling from start to finish and even goes to places I didn't expect, which made my skin crawl. While you'll find that it's a pretty thinly-veiled metaphor about the nuclear family, I found the execution of it to be thoroughly enjoyable and rattling from start to finish. 

I wish there had been just a little...more?...at the end, but I'm also pretty happy with how it ended as well. 

Poor Things (2023)

5/5

[Amazon Prime, $3.99]

Sonically and visually, this movie made me feel as if I was living in Bjork's brain while she hallucinated a kind of Frankenstein story in a steampunk setting. Like Tim Burton and Wes Anderson had a deformed baby. Less a flat-out horror movie and more palate-cleanser, what with how many legitimate laughs it elicits. Emma Stone is fucking aces in this and delivers a great performance. Super heady, super delightful, super weird. Bound to get a number of real interesting conversations going between viewers after. An absolutely stunning movie. 

[End of Part I]

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