Myles Hughes
So we come, yet again, to the close of another spooktacular season of frights and fun! Regular readers and/or listeners of the Awards Radar podcast will know that for the past five years, my wife Kelly and I have committed ourselves to the #31DaysofHalloween challenge, wherein we watch a horror or horror-adjacent film every day for the month of October (the word “adjacent” is about to do a lot of heavy lifting in a moment). It’s been a wonderful seasonal ritual that has exposed us to all the many different kinds of thrills one can get from the genre.
2024 may have been one of our most successful years to date, not only as a fantastic showcase for just how much variety horror cinema is capable, but also in terms of the sheer quality of the films consumed. We had a number of hits from this year alone, and as can often be the way with these marathons, we found a number of recurring elements throughout the list. Themes of religious conflict came up frequently, as did stories about vengeful and/or demonic women, unconventional portrayals of exorcism, and an unexpected number of musicals thrown into the mix.
Without burying the lede any further, here are my micro-reviews of all 31 films that Kelly and I watched this month. Enjoy!
- Cronos (1993)
Dir. Guillermo del Toro
In many ways, this is the perfect feature debut for an auteur, with so many of Guillermo del Toro’s hallmarks already present and accounted for. A simple fable, well told without complicating itself. Frequent collaborators like Ron Perlman and DP Guillermo Navarro shine early on in their partnership with del Toro.
Spookiest Scene: For all the blood and bugs, the sight of sympathetic antique dealer Jesus (Federico Luppi) reduced to lapping blood off the bathroom floor is the one that sticks with me.
Rating: 3/5 - Mimic (1997)
Dir. Guillermo del Toro
For as big a fan of del Toro’s work as I am, there has always been one blind spot. Alas, now that I’ve finally seen it, I can confirm that it’s probably his weakest film, largely because it barely feels like it’s his most of the time. Well-crafted, but too dull and derivative to live up to the premise. Those CGI bugs sure haven’t aged well.
Spookiest Scene: The handful of times you see the human-sized bug in silhouette or in the distance do lend it a certain menacing quality. Right up until you get an intimate closeup on its horribly-rendered digital face.
Rating: 2/5 - The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
Dir. Guillermo del Toro
Perhaps del Toro’s most under-appreciated film. The lighter supernatural elements allow his dramatic storytelling chops to really flourish, showcasing his propensity for equally delivering bitter heartbreak and gorgeous imagery. Excellent work from Federico Luppi and Eduardo Noriega.
Spookiest Scene: The many heinous acts of Jacinto (Noriega) could easily warrant mention here, but his final undoing at the hands of his former victims is somehow just as chilling, especially with the irony of how his long-sought gold ultimately does more to kill him than any ghostly activity.
Rating: 4/5 - It’s What’s Inside (2024)
Dir. Greg Jardin
A blend of genres that has about as much horror as it has sci-fi, drama, romance or comedy. Juggling that much should break a film, yet this ingenious little thriller had me on the edge of my seat throughout, first by introducing a plethora of thorny character dynamics, then inverting them in raw and unexpected ways. Go in as blind as possible, and it’s hard to imagine you won’t have a great time.
Spookiest Scene: The first half or so plays like a humorous variation on a certain well-worn film trope, but then the tone shifts in a horrifying way to something far darker and more insidious. I won’t spoil the catalyst for this shift, but you will know it when you see it.
Rating: 5/5 - Blood Red Sky (2021)
Dir. Peter Thorwarth
Exactly what it says on the tin: essentially it’s Die Hard on a plane with a vampire, though the most interesting moments show our heroine attempting to balance bloodlust and motherhood with fluctuating success. Too long for what it is, and doesn’t fully stick the landing, but there’s fun to be had for action afficionados.
Spookiest Scene: Flashbacks revealing how Nadja (Peri Baumeister) became infected with vampirism, and her desperate early efforts to raise an infant child while coming to terms with such a disease are scary in a way that feels far more emotionally grounded than the rest of the film.
Rating: 3/5 - Apostle (2018)
Dir. Gareth Evans
Between Abigail, Cuckoo, and even Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kelly and I have been on a bit of a Dan Stevens kick this year, so naturally we had to make room for him this month. Curiously, he and The Raid’s Gareth Evans to be deliberately working outside their comfort zones here, with mixed but mostly positive results. The pacing is awkward and the squeamish should avoid it, but some great shots and nasty thrills keep it all moving.
Spookiest Scene: A few sequences of torture here wouldn’t feel out of place in any given Saw entry, particularly one that takes a corkscrew to a poor man’s scalp.
Rating: 3/5 - The Dead Zone (1983)
Dir. David Cronenberg
It’s hard to imagine this film working without Christopher Walken’s unique energy and cadence (“The ICE! Is gonna BREAK!!”), but paired with David Cronenberg’s earnest direction and Michael Kamen’s moody score, it all comes together quite well. An episodic and spiritual journey of a man coming to terms with how best to use his prophetic gifts.
Spookiest Scene: Viewed today, Martin Sheen’s character feels uncomfortably familiar. Author Stephen King has confirmed the influence, so when Walken sees a vision of President Sheen enthusiastically advocating for the launch of nuclear armageddon, it doesn’t seem all that unbelievable.
Rating: 4/5 - The Faculty (1998)
Dir. Robert Rodriguez
An outrageously overqualified ensemble (Josh Hartnett! Elijah Wood! Robert Patrick! Famke Janssen! Young Jon Stewart with a goatee!) gives this high school Body Snatchers riff more than enough juice to overcome the occasionally dated line of dialogue or garish visual effect. Repurposed invasion tropes translate to the high school setting in fun and playful ways.
Spookiest Scene: The revelation of the alien queen (as it were) is memorably handled thanks to a strong design and intelligent blending of CGI with animatronics, creating a truly threatening creature.
Rating: 4/5 - Pulse (2001)
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
One of the outright spookiest film we watched this month, all achieved with a thick atmosphere of dread and despair that gives the ghostly proceedings a real sense of terror through melancholy. This was my first experience with Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and it won’t be my last; we did try to include Cure on the list, but found it frustratingly unavailable. Better luck next year.
Spookiest Scene: This employs one of my favorite horror movie tricks, where you always want to be scanning the background of any given frame for signs of ghostly activity. Watching several characters literally succumb to the darkness while their friends aren’t looking sent untold chills down my spine.
Rating: 5/5 - Black Christmas (1974)
Dir. Bob Clark
While this OG holiday slasher did influence a lot of trends, and it is pretty fun that it comes from the director of A Christmas Story, I found myself mostly underwhelmed by this one, likely because I’ve just seen far too many of its techniques used more effectively in films that draw influence from it. Still, always nice to see Margot Kidder and John Saxon in a thing.
Spookiest Scene: The one element that I found distinctly unnerving were the repeated ominous phone calls our heroines receive from their sadistic stalker. There’s a viciousness to their delivery that feels just a little bit nastier than the rest of the film.
Rating: 3/5 - Terrifier 3 (2024)
Dir. Damien Leone
Give this fledgling franchise props for refusing to water itself down. The gore is as viscerally realized as ever, with the gallows humor scaled up and the nonsense lore scaled down, resulting in the strongest entry to date. Writer/director Damien Leone, scream queen Lauren LaVera, and slasher icon David Howard Thornton all step their game up from the previous installment.
Spookiest Scene: While the kills are predictably gruesome and widely distributed, the moment I had to look away from involves recurring side character Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi, really coming into her own here) and a shard of glass used in, shall we say, unpleasant ways. If you know you know.
Rating: 4/5 - Blithe Spirit (1945)
Dir. David Lean
A damning critique of a very particular kind of marriage and how it can be eroded by wealth and jealousy. But also, because it’s based on a Noël Coward play, it’s also constantly hilarious. The razor-tongued barbs kept coming and I kept laughing. Rex Harrison, Kay Hammond, and Constance Cummings are all a riot, while Margaret Rutherford steals the show as a delightfully quirky medium.
Spookiest Scene: The film is not remotely scary in the traditional sense, although its depiction of class politics is both deeply unflattering and, sadly, still quite relevant to this day.
Rating: 4/5 - Blood and Black Lace (1964)
Dir. Mario Bava
A sumptuous feast for the eyes and ears with beautiful costumes, a swanky score, a hokey murder mystery to get swept up in, and all the vibrant red mannequins you could possibly ask for. Giallo filmmaking at its absolute finest, with twists and turns abound before the film crescendos into a perfect final shot.
Spookiest Scene: The killings all have a brutal, intimate feeling to them, with a spiked glove playing into the most memorable of them.
Rating: 4/5 - Night of the Creeps (1986)
Dir. Fred Dekker
As a fan of every conceivable kind of 1980s horror, there’s a bit of everything on display here. After a jaw-dropping prologue sets the stage, things take a little while to get going, the final act that everything builds to is incredible. The kids are all mostly forgettable, but Tom Atkins is giving it 150%, delivering whatever the B-movie equivalent of an Oscar-worthy performance is.
Spookiest Scene: The core alien/zombie invasion is entertaining in a Slither kind of way, but the first and last beats of the film do a great job of selling the sheer cosmic insanity of which our characters have only glimpsed.
Rating: 4/5 - The Loved Ones (2009)
Dir. Sean Byrne
Despite its simple setup and minimal locations, there’s never a dull moment in this prom date from Hell. Probably spends a bit too much screen-time on the various subplots, most of which are only tangentially related to the main story. But Robin McLeavy commands your full attention whenever she’s on screen. A horror villainess for the ages that deserves far more attention.
Spookiest Scene: Pick your poison. Any and all of the torture that the protagonist endures could qualify depending on your particular level of squeamishness. For me, any time the hammer and nails came out always indicated a bad time to come.
Rating: 4/5 - Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Dir. Karyn Kusama
Though it lacks the heart of this year’s Lisa Frankenstein, there’s plenty to enjoy in Diablo Cody’s first stab at high school horror. As bloody a metaphor for deteriorating female friendships in the face of raging hormones as you’re likely to find, boosting by strong work from Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox in her most iconic performance.
Spookiest Scene: The succubus stuff is nice and bloody, but even though I saw this when it came out, nothing could have prepared me for the surprise appearance of a curly-haired, soft-spoken J.K. Simmons wandering into frame and waving a hook hand around.
Rating: 3/5 - Smile 2 (2024)
Dir. Parker Finn
As with the original, it only seems like a standard convoluted curse movie on the surface. But if you’re on its wavelength like I am, then this ambitious follow-up is a veritable endurance test of supernatural shocks. Logic will need to be left at the door, but the particularly cruel nature of this curse at the way it traumatizes its victims makes my skin crawl in the best kind of way. Naomi Scott is captivating.
Spookiest Scene: When Skye Riley (Scott) gets a late-night visit from her dance troupe, the results are so goddamn unsettling that I could barely watch. To say nothing of the other, far scarier intruder she has to deal with earlier.
Rating: 4/5 - Oddity (2024)
Dir. Damian McCarthy
I’ll give this film massive points for originality: even though it seems to center around fairly standard supernatural tropes, I never quite knew where it was going next. An intriguing protagonist (effectively inhabited by Carolyn Bracken), a foreboding atmosphere, an all-timer creepy central prop, and some truly arresting jump scares make it easy to recommend.
Spookiest Scene: The creepy wooden man at the center of the action eventually takes a more, shall we say, active role in the proceedings. But he is at his most startling when a simple jump cut reveals that he has shifted slightly in his chair, seemingly on his own.
Rating: 4/5 - The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Dir. Charles Laughton
Even by our generous standards, this one might stretch the definition of horror-adjacent, but it’s hard to care when I’m watching one of the greatest films ever made. From the dreamlike cinematography, to Robert Mitchum’s towering performance, to the complex themes about faith with no easy resolution, this is a timeless classic, the likes of which every self-respecting cinephile should seek out.
Spookiest Scene: There is almost no violence depicted on-screen, but the scenes leading up to and immediately following the death of Shelley Winters’ character are among the most haunting we saw all month.
Rating: 5/5 - The Wicker Man (1973)
Dir. Robin Hardy
Though I’m unfortunately familiar with the ridiculously schlocky Nicolas Cage-starring remake, I don’t know how I’ve spent my entire life not realizing that this was a musical of sorts. More than a little odd in its execution, and takes its time bringing the various plot elements into focus, but the religious conflict remains interesting throughout, and the whole affair really kicks into gear once Christopher Lee shows up.
Spookiest Scene: The revelation of the titular Wicker Man, and our doomed policeman’s gradual realization of his horrific fate are all the more disturbing for how they are juxtaposed with the mirthful harvest song being sung by the contented cultists.
Rating: 3/5 - Speak No Evil (2022)
Dir. Christian Tafdrup
Watching this after having already seen and thoroughly enjoyed the remake has led to the shocking discovery that I actually prefer the newer film in literally every way. Though certainly disturbing (with a far bleaker ending), the original is sorely lacking anything on par with James McAvoy’s charismatic presence to keep things entertaining between the darker stuff.
Spookiest Scene: I mean, yeah, watching what happens to the daughter happen, and then watching what happens to the main couple happen. I guess it would count as spooky, albeit upsetting in a way that I didn’t ultimately get a lot out of.
Rating: 2/5 - The Blob (1988)
Dir. Chuck Russell
Talk about a movie that knows exactly what it wants to be. All the small-town alien invasion cliches that you might expect are enthusiastically accounted for, frequently punctuated by some delightfully slimy creature effects and much gnarlier deaths than one might imagine in a film about an amorphous pink goo monster. Very easy to recommend.
Spookiest Scene: Jeffrey DeMunn plays a sympathetic sheriff with a crush on the local waitress. It’s a sweet little subplot that culminates in the grotesque visual of his face being stretched and pulled apart from inside the blob.
Rating: 4/5 - The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
Dir. Ken Russell
We’re all excited to see Hugh Grant sink his teeth into a meaty horror role with Heretic later this month. But this is why film history is so important, because I feel like if more people knew that Grant’s actual first horror film saw him cutting a snake woman in half with a giant sword (in slow motion) I just feel like they’d talk about it more. To be clear, I loved this from top to bottom, and especially enjoyed Amanda Donohoe’s deliciously campy turn as the duplicitous Lady Sylvia.
Spookiest Scene: Plenty of nightmare imagery abound, only occasionally overlapping with the characters’ actual nightmares. But while the scene where a snake fondles Jesus on the cross is likely to offend boring people, I personally loved Grant’s surreal airplane dream.
Rating: 5/5 - Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
Dir. Don Coscarelli
As a premise, Old Elvis and Black JFK fighting a mummy should be an easy slam dunk, but while the film is certainly enjoyable in spurts, the budget isn’t really there to make the most out of that concept. Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis are an excellent team though, and they keep things lively during the many slower stretches.
Spookiest Scene: The titular mummy isn’t especially intimidating, but the numerous explicit references to a growth on Campbell’s penis were definitely scary, especially once a certain cream massage is implemented.
Rating: 3/5 - Your Monster (2024)
Dir. Caroline Lindy
As a lover of monster movies, backstage drama, and unconventional romance, this really hit my sweet spot. Not just one of the best films we saw this month, but one of my favorites in all of 2024. Melissa Barrera is transcendent in what should be a true star-making performance, and Tommy Dewey makes for a charmingly offbeat companion with all the chemistry you’d need in a classic romcom. Be warned: this is also a surprise musical.
Spookiest Scene: It’s not hard to see the parallels between this story and any given iteration of Beauty and the Beast, and during the early scenes when the Monster of the title is establishing his dominance, Dewey manages to give his delivery a suitably terrifying boom.
Rating: 5/5 - Exhuma (2024)
Dir. Jang Jae-hyun
Despite the complex lore that demands your attention and an overlong third act, this is a deeply fascinating take on the exorcism subgenre that kept me invested thanks to strong internal logic and well realized characters, with Choi Min-sik and Kim Go-eun lending it real heart and stakes as we peel back each layer of the generational mystery.
Spookiest Scene: The spirit of a wealthy patriarch is let loose from his coffin, and it turns out he has an axe to grind with his extended family. His subtle appearances (or lack thereof) gave me goosebumps.
Rating: 4/5 - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Dir. Brian De Palma
A rockin’ 70s soundtrack lays the stage for this musical fantasia of industry greed dotted with plentiful classic horror touchstones. William Finley’s Winslow is a tragically iconic antihero, Paul Williams makes Swan is a detestable antagonist, and Jessica Harper is always a treat when she gets to show off her pipes as the radiant Phoenix. Guaranteed to be a new favorite in the Hughes household.
Spookiest Scene: Every time you think Winslow can’t be brought any lower, Swan finds a way to drag him down. Their final confrontation finds both characters at their most monstrous, though one obviously garners far more sympathy than the other.
Rating: 4/5 - 28 Days Later (2002)
Dir. Danny Boyle
It’s easy to forget what a shot in the arm this was to zombie cinema back in 2002, and while the grainy digital aesthetic is very much of its time, it also results in some strikingly beautiful imagery amidst the frenzied chaos. It’s also crazy how many careers were effectively launched here, from the stars like Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris and Brendan Gleeson, to the myriad craft heads that would follow Danny Boyle to Oscar glory with Slumdog Millionaire years later. Truly a time capsule, but also just a damn good movie.
Spookiest Scene: Brendan Gleeson is at his most chipper and cuddly in this film, which makes the scene where he gets infected and must attempt an emotional goodbye to his daughter while fighting through his newly violent impulses genuinely hard to watch.
Rating: 4/5 - 28 Weeks Later (2007)
Dir. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Basically the story of how Robert Carlyle ruined the apocalypse for everyone, over and over again. I jest, but that’s the only interesting plot thread here. Despite a few gripping moments, this drastically inferior sequel fails to generate interest in its new cast (even with future heavy hitters like Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne and Idris Elba). Overly reliant on the first film’s score and visual trappings to the point where it’s distracting.
Spookiest Scene: The military making the decision to firebomb the city after the outbreak can no longer be contained is a genuinely effective sequence, as we watch London slowly engulfed with flame.
Rating: 2/5 - Children of the Corn (1984)
Dir. Fritz Kiersch
With all due respect to the King of horror, this did nothing for me. It’s not unpleasant to sit through, with an effectively unsettling opening and an underused Linda Hamilton lending it occasional interest. But the creepy kid imagery wears thin pretty quickly, and the ending is so nonsensical that it’s impossible to engage in what you’re looking at.
Spookiest Scene: Honestly, and this is a rare one, but the opening credits do a really good job of establishing backstory and creating a decent amount of early tension, even if the rest of the film ultimately squanders it.
Rating: 2/5 - Day of the Dead (1985)
Dir. George A. Romero
The weakest of Romero’s original trilogy is still an enjoyable zombie flick with a unique scenario, even if the stakes can be a little vague sometimes. Takes too long to get going, but the top-tier gore effects by Tom Savini and the legendary overacting by Joe Pilato make it more than worth a look. Plus, Bub the zombie is a genuine icon of horror, and you owe it to yourself to see him in action.
Spookiest Scene: It feels cheap to say “the ending, when the zombies break in and everything falls apart,” but yeah, it probably is the ending when the zombies break in and everything falls apart. Some of those guys get torn apart real nice-like.
Rating: 3/5
Congratulations on making it to the end of the list! What was your favorite film I discussed? Leave a comment and let us know!
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