Season of the Witch 2009

Posted on October 3 2009 by Travis

Every year in October I make myself scarce to friends and family to enjoy an entire month of horror movies to further rot my rotten head. I generally kick off the proceedings midnight on October 1st and watch 1-3 horror movies every night until the 31st, which culminates into a marathon of 5-6 movies on Halloween. Usually I begin with the classic Universal monsters, but this year I decided to go with some of the more lesser known flicks along with the more well known classics. Many of these films you will not find available at your local Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, so you will either have to get a membership to Netflix (and even than some are missing there too) or be more creative and hit eBay or get into the torrent game. All movies are viewed on DVD wherever possible.

Day 1 12:01am October 1st
1. Dracula (1979)
Great performances by Lawrence Olivier, Frank Langella, Kate Nelligan, and an absolutely pitch perfect environment to shoot a Dracula movie keeps me coming back to this underrated classic. Sure it’s emphasis is on the sex appeal of Dracula and tries harder to be more appealing to women than to men, but it somehow still manages to avoid the romantic heavy handedness of the Coppola version from 1992.

Day 2
2. Zombieland (2009)
A soon to be cult classic. This one exceeded all my expectations. The less I write about the better off you are before you see it. See it!

Day 3
3. Count Dracula (1977 BBC)
Yup a BBC production of Dracula, this one obviously has its weaknesses, but it’s well worth watching to get a more complete telling of the Bram Stoker classic.

4. Pin (1988)
Is the dummy alive or is someone projecting their personality into the dummy? Yeah we all know the story and the twist, still not a bad movie.

Day 4
5. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
A low budget classic, before serial killers were in vogue.

Day 5
6. Alone in the Dark (1982)
Criminally insane inmates of an asylum escape and stalk a Psychiatrist and his family. Some of you may recognize this movie if you were one of the lucky few who rented the forgotten documentary Terror in the Aisles.

7. Dark Waters (1994)
This would be a perfect double feature with the 2001 Lovecraft inspired film Dagon. Both involve a creature from the depths of the ocean.

Day 6
8. The Exorcist III (1990)
You have to accept that this movie ties into the audiences obsession with serial killers of the time, still a little too heavy handed on the killer’s monologues with gory details aplenty, but a worthy successor to the 1972 classic.

9. Fear(s) of the Dark (2007)
Beautiful and moody old school animation techniques and some pretty good psychological horror thrown in.

Day 7
10. The Horror of Dracula (1958)
Village idiot, Jonathan Harker spends the night in castle Dracula in the guise as a Librarian in an attempt to kill the count, but things go array when Harker sneaks into the count’s crypt that evening and decides to kill Dracula’s bride instead….you may be thinking that this doesn’t sound like Bram Stoker’s story at all, and you’d be correct.

Day 8
11. Martyrs (2008)
Torture porn, not much to say, just lots and lots of torture.

Day 9
12. Nightbreed (1990)
Still a fun horror movie, more fantasy than horror.

Day 10
13. Monster club (1980)
The story with Donald Pleasance is the best in this horror anthology.

14. Dead & Burried (1981)
Grisly murders in a small California coastal town. Nice atmospherics and an original plot.

Day 11
15. Night Stalker (1972)
The original TV movie that later be made into a cult TV series. Nothing interesting to be said by the vampire as he is just a stalking, rampaging monster, Darren McGavin is still golden though.

Day 12
16. The Omen (1976)
What is creepier than a devil-child, nothing.

Day 13
17. Paranormal Activity (2007)

Genuinely scary movie. I can’t believe they were going to throw everything out and start from scratch.

Day 14
18. The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

Other than teaching me how to spell Connecticut correctly this was a pretty useless exercise.

Day 15
19. Cronos (1993)

An excellent and original vampire film, remains one of Guillermo Del Toro’s best movies.

Day 16
20. At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1963)

Brazil’s cult Icon’s “Coffin Joe” first movie. Interesting cultural study of what horror means to a Catholic nation.

Day 17
21. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999)

22. The Haunted (1995)

Day 18
22. Trick ‘r Treat (2008)

23. Playgirls and the Vampire (1960)

Day 19
24. Creepshow (1982)

Day 20
25. Castle Freak (1995)

26. Ravenous (1999)

Day 21
27. Legend of Hell House (1973)

28. Poultrygeist (2006)

Day 21
29. The Company of Wolves (1984)

30. The Hunger (1983)

Day 22
31. Blood for Dracula (1974)

32. The Haunting (1963)

Day 23
33. The Brood (1979)

34. The Boneyard (1991)
I really liked the relationship between the two leads. Interesting horror flick, this one is surprisingly less interesting when the monsters start to show up. Lots of gross out stuff.

35. Pumpkinhead (1988)
An instant monster movie classic when it was released in 1988. Stan Winston’s effects still hold up. I love the Southern Gothic touches.

Day 24
36. Rawhead Rex

37. Island of Terror (1966)
I loved watching Peter Cushing making a serious go at the ludicrous pseudo science.

Day 25
38. The Howling (1981)
I always wanted this to be a little more, but still a worthy werewolf movie.

39. Dog Soldiers (2002)

40. Ginger Snaps (2000)

Day 26
41. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Still the best werewolf movie ever made, in my humble opinion. That otherworldly howl of the monster is still creepy.

42. Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

43. Alien (1979)

Day 27
44. The Other
What the fuck Robert Mulligan? 90 minutes of boys running around in short shorts. I first saw this in the 1970s; this is not what I remember. “Don’t reveal the secret of the Other” the tagline of the poster says. You can’t be serious? You would have to be half asleep not to realize that his brother was dead the whole time.

Day 28
45. Lair of the White Worm (1988)

46. Repulsion (1965)

47. Big Bad Wolf (2006)
This actually improved after the first act, that’s not really saying much of course but it did go from being unwatchable to bearable.

Day 29
48. Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974)
Still trying to figure out why this movie is rated R. A G rating would have been more appropriate.