61 Nights of Halloween (2025 Edition)

[Lily Adler]

I wasn't expecting Bodies³.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

(The Elixir)

This was a pretty entertaining Indonesian zombie flick which is strange to say considering how dark and messed up this gets at times but the overall tone of this movie is surprisingly fun for the most part. It also helps quite a bit that they keep the carnage and gore going at a pretty steady pace.

I'd be down for a sequel too.

6.5/10



A fairly creepy and effective Thai horror film. It actually reminded me quite a bit of a Conjuring film at times and the main antagonist is definitely utilized in a way that's very similar to Valak with how the scares are handled. I just wish they went a bit crazier with the gore and violence in the third act but I wasn't expecting the ending we got for this film either.

7/10



I enjoyed the first two acts of this and it definitely has some creepy moments mostly helped by the music and the atmosphere but I was not satisfied with where this went in the third act and the ending was even less satisfying. It's worth a one time watch atleast especially if you want to see something different as far as Spanish/Mexican folklore horror films go.

5.5/10

 

[Sithborg]

Another duo of similar movies that came out the same year, both 90s remakes.

36. The Haunting (1999)

The remake of the movie based on the book that was the basis for a lot of us learning who Mike Flanagan is. Catherine Zeta Jones, Owen Wilson, and Liam Neeson. For some reason, I was thinking this did not have the iconic staircase from the original, but it was there. Zeta-Jones' Theo may be a bit more explicitly gay, as per the 90s, keep the obvious romance ques subtle. Very late 90s CGI, though the set design was great.

37. The House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Competing with The Haunting, House goes for the R rating. Hard. And a very 90s cast, with a very 90s soundtrack. Remember Chris Katan could get an "and" credit. Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen are quite fun, plus, MR Star Trek, Jeffery Coombs is ghosting around, if not very vocal. Bonus James Marsters appearance, with unbleached Spike Hair.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I wasn't expecting Bodies³.

Why not?

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Another duo of similar movies that came out the same year, both 90s remakes.

36. The Haunting (1999)

The remake of the movie based on the book that was the basis for a lot of us learning who Mike Flanagan is. Catherine Zeta Jones, Owen Wilson, and Liam Neeson. For some reason, I was thinking this did not have the iconic staircase from the original, but it was there. Zeta-Jones' Theo may be a bit more explicitly gay, as per the 90s, keep the obvious romance ques subtle. Very late 90s CGI, though the set design was great.

37. The House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Competing with The Haunting, House goes for the R rating. Hard. And a very 90s cast, with a very 90s soundtrack. Remember Chris Katan could get an "and" credit. Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen are quite fun, plus, MR Star Trek, Jeffery Coombs is ghosting around, if not very vocal. Bonus James Marsters appearance, with unbleached Spike Hair.

I totally forgot these came out the same year.

 

[Lily Adler]

Why not?

I was expecting something more obscure perhaps.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I was expecting something more obscure perhaps.

It's about as obscure as Bottoms.

 

[Link]

Episode 2 out of 8.

A quick, effective episode with plenty of claustrophobic anxiety and body horror — and it's funny too. The creature effects remain the real showstopper, and I can’t wait to see what ungodly monstrosities await in the episodes to come.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

 

[Luigi]

 

[Luigi]

1. Together (New)
2. Fear Street: Prom Queen (New)
3. Scary Movie
4. I Know What You Did Last Summer
5. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
6. Him (New)
7. I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (New)
8. The Strangers: Chapter 2 (New)
9. The Long Walk (New)
10. I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) (New)
11. Wolf Man (New)
12. Good Boy (New)
13. V/H/S/Halloween (New)
14. Bone Lake (New)
15. Werewolves (New)
16. Best Wishes to All (New)
17. Red Rooms (New)
18. Battle Royale
19. Cure
20. Scary Movie 5 (New)
21. Little Monsters (New)
22. Prey
23. Predator: Killer of Killers (New)
24. Lake Mungo (New)
25. Clown in a Cornfield (New)
26. R. L. Stine's Pumpkinhead (New)

Clown in a Cornfield

Passable slasher with some fun kills and comedic moments. Katie Douglas was a fun lead and she carried this thing along. Will Sasso's accent kept reminding me of his old MadTV skits haha.

R. L. Stine's Pumpkinhead

Very fun film that's reminiscent of 90s Goosebumps. And yeah, the ending is bleak but not that bleak by typical R. L. Stine standards. Especially compared to some of the endings on The Haunting Hour.

 

[Link]

October 20th:
Black Phone 2 (2025)

The Black Phone marked Scott Derrickson's return to horror after his detour into the MCU machine with Doctor Strange and its scrapped sequel. The film was a supernatural thriller with a promising antagonist in Ethan Hawke's menacingly masked Grabber and superb child stars who elevated the material at every turn. Now, the Grabber and the meddling kids are back for a second, more slasher-oriented adventure.

Black Phone 2 is kind of a hoot — extravagant and outrageous compared to the more measured tone of its predecessor. The Grabber is now a full-on supernatural threat, and the added stakes lean naturally into all the horror tropes freshly on display. Like the first film, it's rather moving, particularly thanks to returning stars Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw (both excellent) and newcomers Demián Bichir and Miguel Mora. The film is also surprisingly thoughtful about religion, and it feels appropriately woven into The Black Phone's themes. The kills are wild, and the way they're shot — with retro filters and eerie ambient music galore — makes it clear that Derrickson misses Sinister every bit as much as I do.

Speaking of music, the score was composed by Atticus Derrickson, the director's son. A nepo baby with purpose, his work is fresh and genuinely exhilarating. The intergenerational collaboration feels rather sweet, especially since the young Derrickson is undeniably talented. The film also features a killer Pink Floyd needle-drop that couldn't have hit harder; I was floating in the theater.

There are some flaws too. The first half of the film is tightly paced, but the second half gets unnecessarily wordy and bogged down by awkward exposition dumps. The green screen and fake snow-heavy sets also irritated a certified winter freak like myself.

To quote the Grabber, "I am a bottomless pit of sin," and I'd love for The Black Phone to be the next great long-running horror franchise — ten self-indulgent sequels or bust. Everything needed is already here. Hopefully Blumhouse feels it too. This could be iconic.

 

[Snow Queen]

 

[DyeLorean]

Bone Lake
It needed more sex.


It's a Wonderful Knife
It needed more blood.


The Hand That Rocked The Cradle
It needed more bisexual tension.


Dead of Winter
It had the perfect amount of Emma Thompson.

 

[Lily Adler]

 

[Drizzle]

Alrighty, I've officially completed a proper watch of the Thorn trilogy...

Halloween 4: The Return of Mike Myers
Watching it, I definitely recognized most of it from seeing it on (albeit edited) TV years ago, same with Halloween 5. I also realized I wasn't missing a whole lot that wasn't in the edited for TV version. It's a little boring compared to a lot of the franchise but it's also certainly not the worst in the series either. It's really worth watching for Donald Pleasance. That man deserved an honorary Oscar for hamming it up in this and 5.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Austin Powers
More of the same as 4, but even more boring. I felt like half the movie took place in that damn barn. I also just don't understand how they kept fumbling Michael's masks in these movies. It wasn't good in 4 but this has gotta be the least scariest mask in any of them apart from that one they used in H20. Seriously, the old man mask he wore when he was pretending to be that girl's boyfriend was infinitely scarier than his actual mask. One good thing about it is the clown music for the cops will never not be iconic.

Halloween: The Curse of Shrek
How does this movie have an "Introducing" credit for Paul Rudd when Clueless came out first? Actually it's probably a good thing Clueless happened because if it wasn't for that I don't know if Rudd's career would have survived this. Horror is not his forte. This one is obviously not the worst in the franchise because Resurrection exists but it's still pretty bad, although I do appreciate the supernatural lore around Michael in this particular branch of the franchise. I'm just glad it survived beyond this to give us some eventual better movies, which is to say all of them that came afterwards with the exception of the aforementioned Resurrection.

I guess since I have extra time I'll definitely try to not only do the DGG trilogy but also H20 and *sigh* Resurrection I suppose.



I also finished up just in time before the first episode of IT: Welcome to Derry too. Really silly that they didn't air the whole run before Halloween instead of just one episode but that's because the execs at WB are a bunch of (take it away, Dr. Jones)...

 

[Lily Adler]

NGL, all but the second are cute.

 

[Lily Adler]

Alrighty, I've officially completed a proper watch of the Thorn trilogy...

Halloween 4: The Return of Mike Myers
Watching it, I definitely recognized most of it from seeing it on (albeit edited) TV years ago, same with Halloween 5. I also realized I wasn't missing a whole lot that wasn't in the edited for TV version. It's a little boring compared to a lot of the franchise but it's also certainly not the worst in the series either. It's really worth watching for Donald Pleasance. That man deserved an honorary Oscar for hamming it up in this and 5.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Austin Powers
More of the same as 4, but even more boring. I felt like half the movie took place in that damn barn. I also just don't understand how they kept fumbling Michael's masks in these movies. It wasn't good in 4 but this has gotta be the least scariest mask in any of them apart from that one they used in H20. Seriously, the old man mask he wore when he was pretending to be that girl's boyfriend was infinitely scarier than his actual mask. One good thing about it is the clown music for the cops will never not be iconic.

Halloween: The Curse of Shrek
How does this movie have an "Introducing" credit for Paul Rudd when Clueless came out first? Actually it's probably a good thing Clueless happened because if it wasn't for that I don't know if Rudd's career would have survived this. Horror is not his forte. This one is obviously not the worst in the franchise because Resurrection exists but it's still pretty bad, although I do appreciate the supernatural lore around Michael in this particular branch of the franchise. I'm just glad it survived beyond this to give us some eventual better movies, which is to say all of them that came afterwards with the exception of the aforementioned Resurrection.

I guess since I have extra time I'll definitely try to not only do the DGG trilogy but also H20 and *sigh* Resurrection I suppose.



I also finished up just in time before the first episode of IT: Welcome to Derry too. Really silly that they didn't air the whole run before Halloween instead of just one episode but that's because the execs at WB are a bunch of (take it away, Dr. Jones)...

 

[Lily Adler]

 

[Snow Queen]

Best of the week:

Spoiler

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) dir. Dan Trachtenberg

The Addams Family (1991) dir. Barry Sonnenfeld

Chopping Mall (1986) dir. Jim Wynorski

Coraline (2009) dir. Henry Selick

Cuckoo (2024) dir. Tilman Singer

Doctor Sleep (2019) dir. Mike Flanagan

Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025) dir. Adam B. Stein & Zach Lipovsky

Had the pleasure of seeing this one with Lipovsky, Kaitlyn Santa Juana, and Gabrielle Rose with a Q&A after.

Halloween Kills (2021) dir. David Gordon Green

Halloween Ends (2022) dir. David Gordon Green

Hush (2016) dir. Mike Flanagan

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) dir. Jane Schoenbrun

It's What's Inside (2024) dir. Greg Jardin

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) dir. Henry Selick

No One Will Save You (2023) dir. Brian Duffield

The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick

Smile 2 (2024) dir. Parker Finn

The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter

Werewolf by Night (2022) dir. Michael Giacchino

Werewolves Within (2021) dir. Josh Ruben

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

NGL, all but the second are cute.

Gross.

She was right


And I'm 20 minutes into Chopping Mall and it is outrageous in the best way possible.

 

[Lily Adler]

Gross.

She was right
View attachment 151973

And I'm 20 minutes into Chopping Mall and it is outrageous in the best way possible.

Smirky judges you.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Gross.

She was right
View attachment 151973

And I'm 20 minutes into Chopping Mall and it is outrageous in the best way possible.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I finally am picking up what you guys are putting down.

This movie is entertaining.

 

[Lily Adler]

His name is Ferdy?