Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 11 (Sinners)

Well, holy god damn. Every once in a while you come across a film that just floors you. Surprising nobody who read the previous two sentences, Sinners is the latest film to do that for me. Yet here I sit, baffled about what to say regarding it. It is at once vast and infinite in its intricacies and meanings, and also exactly what it says on the tin. There are angles I can come at the movie, but we have to deal with the main thing upfront: I'm white and this isn't my story or struggle. It's why I did not cover a movie like Get Out on this here marathon, despite it also being spectacular and having a lot to say. That aspect is hugely vital to Sinners, anyone can see it, and I have. I'm just putting the disclaimer here so you know that if I missed something, it's out of privilege and not malice. With that out of the way, let me try and do this film justice.

Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 10 (V/H/S 94)

Alright, here we go, another deadly dance with the found footage franchise. So far, me and the VHS series (I'm not typing it out with all those slashes in the post, deal with it) have had up and downs. The original VHS film was one I did not care for, being real sicknasty towards women with a particular cruelty and straight up just doing one as a goddamn Skype call in a haunted VHS tape movie. VHS 85, on the other hand, kinda ruled. A nice variety of segments, spooky and gross and intriguing, and a movie that did not overstay its welcome. This is a movie with Mexican death gods, technopaganism, and dreams about a serial killer recorded onto analog tape. It's kind of crazy but kind of fun. I was going to give the newest entry, VHS Halloween, this slot. Unfortunately that one is getting sort of mixed reviews, so maybe another year. For now, we picked VHS 94. How is it? It's pretty good. Not quite as good as 85, but nowhere near as dire as the original. Let's talk about it a bit.

Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 9 (The Monkey)

It's shocking how good 2025 has been when it comes to the tried and true Stephen King cinematic adaptation. This along with The Long Walk already out, and a new version of The Running Man due out in the cinema soon. That and a goddamn It spinoff series coming some... time? Too spooky for me. Which leaves us here, with an adaptation of an old short story from the 80's done by that guy what done Longlegs. That was one hell of a movie, as is this. I actually read The Monkey before sitting down with the picture, just as a curiosity. It's a simple enough concept, and King uses the fear and dread of this toy that kills people when you wind the key well. A nice 30 pages of scares and frights and trying to get rid of this cursed object. Osgood Perkins takes that idea and runs with it in different and exciting directions, and the result is one hell of a horror picture.

Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 8 (Dolores Claiborne)

(TW: discussion of CSA)

I'd like to tell you a little story. It's one I've told on the blog before, but we're coming at it from a different angle this time, sort of a road not taken. Sometime in the late 90's our neighbor was getting rid of a bunch of old books and offered me first dibs on anything I wanted. That led me to be in their basement going through these things. The standout I remember taking back with me was The Secret Diary Of Laura Palmer, which led to its own odyssey. I've told that part before, but let me tell you about one of the books I passed on. I lifted up this hardcover novel to see a woman in a red dress looking down at me with what I assumed was malice and menace. I was looking at Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, and I put that down right away because it was Stephen King and Stephen King is too scary. Never mind that, with hindsight, Laura Palmer's diary is just as harrowing. There's a deep synchronistic meaning to the fact that I should encounter both of those books in the same basement. In a mad way, they deal with the same story, but from different worlds. So, even though it's not a typical Stephen King movie with ghouls and blood and scares, fuck it, it's my blog and I get to talk about whatever I want. (Okay, you'll get the typical Stephen King stuff next time. I'm nice like that.) Let's talk about Dolores Claiborne.

Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 7 (The Substance)

 Boy howdy, sometimes you just get blown away by a motion picture. That happened with me this afternoon watching The Substance. I went in expecting "something something body horror picture", and by God did I get that in spades. There is much of the body horror to be had, grotesque morphings of the human form and lots of ichor and orifices and bloody stuff. You will not be disappointed in that respect should you choose to view The Substance. What's shocking is the "something something" at the heart of it all: it isn't just set dressing to get you to the gross shit. No, it has some actual (and I do apologize) substance behind it, and some actual complex and heady layers to delve into. It requires a little bit of good faith and active imagination to really plunge in; not so much as, say, a David Lynch picture, but an amount certainly. That's what I've been spending not just the run time of the film, but the hours since, doing. So. Here we go. What's going on in between the lines here?

Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 6 (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Transylvania)

Indiana Jones vs. Count Dracula. That's what this is, on the tin. It feels pertinent to start with that pitch, and wonder just how in the hell we got here. The answer is my pal Mike, who asked for this. It turned out to be 45 minutes long, so what the hell, a little quickie to bang out on an off day because yesterday was full of six parts of Classic Who and then two hours of talking about it for the Internet. Where this comes from is a little bit interesting, though. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is, again, exactly what it says on the tin. A prequel Indiana Jones series done on a TV budget, and from a brief glance at the Wikipedia episode summaries it seems like it does a lot of Quantum Leap-style kisses with history where the young Indiana Jones will meet some famous historical dude or lady. That kind of sort of happens here, except the historical dude is the actual Vlad Tepes who is an immortal vampire. From what I gather, this show was a fun little side gig for George during the 90's wherein he got to push special effects forward a little bit more to the digital age, before he went back to Star Wars near the end of the 90's. Let's not re-litigate that, I have enough horror to last me the month. Instead let's talk about INDIANA JONES AND THE VAMPIRES.

Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 5 (Phenomena)

The lady who loved insects.

We all deserve a little giallo, as a treat. Dario Argento is not a filmmaker I have seen much of, this film marking only my second encounter with him. That being said, my first brush with Argento was Suspiria, and that movie fucking ruled. Just a sea of bright colors, lurid murder, ancient witches, and 70's progressive rock. Better times with horror movies are few and far between. This isn't even my first time seeing Phenomena, as I was drawn to watch it back in May or so because of its lead and its premise, about which more in a second. It lurked in the back of my mind since then, it has just as much incredible power as it did in May, and now we get to talk about it.