Round-up 31: The Spooky Season Continues...

I have really stuck with the horror the vibe the last couple of weeks. Of course, all in between my schedule involving running around between school and work. That being said, the headless chicken routine has been yielding some decent results. I’m very grateful for the advancements I’ve been making in my personal and professional careers, it’s important to take a moment to appreciate those sometimes. I often need to remind myself of that. That being said, I’ve been taking more time for movies instead of football, and breaking into basketball too now that the NBA has finally kicked off. Halloween may have come and gone, but the vibes have remained. Let’s break it down.

A couple of days before the big holiday, as I was really feeling the Halloween mood, I made a point of rewatching Saw (2004), the original, of course. The first time I saw this film, I was at a sleepover in late middle school, and I did not enjoy it, at all. However, retroactively speaking, my dislike for it had much more to do with the environment, because, having been a great number of years since then, my enjoyment in the comfort of my own room was ten-fold. The story, for the two people who don’t know, follows two sets of characters; two men mysteriously chained to a dank and disgusting bathroom that neither of them are familiar with, and a pair of police detectives hot on the trail of a serial killer on the loose, a man who captures and tortures his victims with depraved games of life and death. What struck me the most during this viewing was how much passion comes across, especially given the lack of a budget. The effects stand up, the dialogue is genuinely gripping, and the finale has a twist that I completely forgot about and only solidifies it in the pantheon of great openings to otherwise overextended horror franchises.

I got around to watching the new film produced by Jordan Peele, HIM (2025), starring Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, and the ever-hated Julia Fox. Given the common reception by critics and horror fans alike, I went into this with relatively low expectations. I think this approach allowed me to enjoy it more than I otherwise would have, because I actually did not hate this. It’s definitely very weak compared to some of the competition over the last few years, and in no way stands up to any of Peele’s self-directed efforts, but is not without its own merit. The story follows a young man with promise to be drafted into a fictional professional football league, and a draft combine he’s personally invited to by his idol star player, played by none other than Marlon Wayans. It quickly spirals into a body horror and dramatic dissection of the male ego as it relates to the football and sports realm overall. It had a lot of promise, and the aesthetic, casting, and even a couple of entire sequences are very well made, but the lack of a truly strong lead, and a final twenty minutes that rapidly fizzles out ends up making this a pretty forgettable flick by the time the dust settles.

Every Halloween demands a viewing of the always iconic Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). There’s not much to say about this one that hasn’t already been said a million times over, but I must speak my piece. Each time I view this classic, I get a little more appreciation for the cultural impact it made, and not only that, but the time in which it was released. It goes without saying that the counter-culture influence is more than visible, but it’s the clear sexual transgressions against the mentality of the time that continue to inspire me. Tim Curry’s performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter steals the show and could arguably be said is the primary reason the film’s legacy has remained so relevant today, that and the endlessly catchy soundtrack too. Being the introvert that I am, I don’t see a world where I would ever attend a live showing of this one, but dammit can I respect the culture surrounding the people who refuse to let this cult classic die.

About a year ago or so now, I forced myself to watch (at the time a new release) The Substance (2024), written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. I went into it expecting not to care for it, especially given the body horror nature of it all, but ended up leaving it with a newfound respect of the genre. This primarily had to do with the respect Ms. Fargeat brings to the body horror approach, and it is this approach that she started her career with. All this to say, I’d been meaning to watch Fargeat’s directorial debut from 2017, Revenge, another body/splatter horror feature starring a female lead. The story follows a rich business owner’s mistress, and a vacation gone awry with the affair. After a romantic getaway with just the two of them is interrupted by a pair of morally corrupt friends of his, the heroine is raped, beaten, chased, and left for dead, impaled by a tree at the bottom of a cliff. From there, it becomes a survival thriller centered on the heroine getting her revenge on her assailants. Similarly to The Substance, this film is not for the faint of heart. Graphic sexual content, violence, and splatter horror are littered throughout. But it is never done in an exploitive way; the heroine, portrayed by Matilda Lutz, commands the screen throughout. I can’t say I’ve seen her in anything else, but this performance made me go on the lookout. The climax is one of the tensest, thrilling, and blood splattered conclusions I’ve seen in a while, especially given how many of the splatter/body horror types of things I’ve been watching lately. And I loved it. I strongly recommend this to the horror crowd.

My next watch was one I’d been kicking the can around on for a couple of years now. One of my best ole pals has been pushing me to watch Trick’r Treat (2007), and while I do remember starting it a year or so ago, probably around Halloween as well, and giving up early on after a particularly disturbing vomiting sequence. My buddy convinced me that this was the year I get over that nonsense, especially given that I somehow sat through A Serbian Film (2010) not two weeks prior. I was not disappointed. Trick’r Treat is a dark comedy, horror, anthology film, running less than ninety-minutes. It follows three different sets of characters on Halloween nights as they uncover horrifying realities of ghouls, child predators, and demon children hellbent on murder. Brian Cox and Dylan Baker have the standout performances, really stealing the show with every scene they have respectively. As described by my aforementioned buddy ole pal, it’s like “Pulp Fiction: Halloween”. For me, a new staple of the holiday. I was not prepared for how funny this one was!

For Halloween night, I was torn on what I should spend the time watching. Typically, Halloween evening is reserved for a yearly viewing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). This year, I was feeling like something different. I was recommended to revisit Monster House (2006), an animated children’s horror film, written on a team with the legendary Dan Harmon and directed by Gil Kenan. The story follows a trio of young teens as they uncover the horrifying truth behind the house across the street; it is in fact alive, and seemingly hungry for them. It is wicked good fun. The effects hold up surprisingly well, especially for being all computer generated, and from two decades ago, now. Great voice acting is paired with a not-so-shockingly well-written story by Harmon and team. This paired with Trick’r Treat makes for a fantastic Halloween evening that covers all the bases.

Following the holiday, I did take a short break from movies in general. Watched some NBA and have sunk a clean twenty-plus hours into Battlefield 6, now that that’s been released. Once the urger returned, I was definitely feeling something out of left field. Something I wouldn’t normally watch, and more specifically, on the goofy side, to recover from the horror of the previous couple of weeks. A good friend of mine strongly recommended that I get into the Twilight Saga, something I honestly never considered in a million years. This being said, I couldn’t argue that it perfectly met the criteria I had set for myself. So, I gave in. My only true exposure to the saga was through my mother’s engagement with the novels back when they were popular, I recall her going to see at least the first couple of films, and quickly distancing herself from the fandom. This, I’d like to think, had more to do with the parasocial dichotomy between the fans and the fiction, but regardless, I understood it to be bad. I was not wrong, these are not good movies, but God dammit are they a good time. It’s soapy teenage love stories with a fan fiction sort of vibe to them. I can definitely see why these had so much hype around them for so long, especially amongst certain demographics. I have rated the first three installments of the series at a clean two-out-of-five stars on Letterboxd. That being said, the events of the first two films set up the climactic tone of Eclipse very well, making it easily the most enjoyable so far. Very strange to see a young and naïve Robert Pattinson, especially considering the dramatic turn his acting career would take in the years to come. And then you have Kristen Stewart’s acting; which is some of the worst I think I’ve ever seen, sincerely laughable, especially during critical moments.  My thoughts on Breaking Dawn parts one and two will be coming soon, as well as how the entire saga functions as a whole.

I finished the week off with the most recent assignment from my film and literature class. We were assigned to read Mount Analogue, written by Rene Daumal, a novella following a group of ordinary people desperately seeking spiritual understanding. They hear tell of a mysterious mountain beyond an invisible veil in the ocean, and team up to venture to its summit. I found this short story to be incredibly engaging and full of wonder. Those familiar with the piece know that it ends abruptly, due to Daumal’s untimely passing. Mount Analogue is the most commonly referred to source text for Alajandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist, avant-garde, experimental film that loosely adapts Daumal’s novella. I have mentioned this film a number of times in my journeys, primarily because of the stranglehold the concept of it has had on me. Needless to say, I finally got around to it (so I can get a good grade). I was not only mesmerized and unable to peel my eyes off the screen, but my expectations as a whole were completely shattered, in the best way possible. The Holy Mountain follows a thief, cleverly dressed as Jesus Christ, venturing through a heightened reality filled with religious zealots, Nazis, and bizarre tourists. The first section of the film is almost entirely devoted to worldbuilding and establishing the tone of the events to follow. Then, the thief meets an alchemist who sets him on a journey toward self-discovery, nirvana awaiting him.  His quest is explained by the alchemist before we meet the other travelers who will accompany him on his quest for the “Lotus Island”, all equally bizarre caricatures of stereotypes based on the different planets in the solar system. The story culminates in the group arriving to Lotus Island to be confronted with their fears, desires, and fate, a graphic and shocking conclusion that interestingly adapts the sudden ending of the source novel. I cannot say this strongly enough, this was one of, if not the most fascinating film I have ever laid eyes on. If you’ve been following along with my entries, you’ll have likely picked up on a common theme of the “fucked up” films I’ve been drawn toward, especially in the last couple of months. This film scratched that itch and more, not only presenting the audience with provocative imagery that tests the limits of our comfortability, but simultaneously asks a slew of rhetorical questions on our relationship with religion, sex, and history as a whole. This is exactly what cinema should be. Jodorowsky has lives up to the hype. This is truly high art. With how much is going on in almost every frame of the film, it demands to be watched again, and again, and again. I expect this one will earn its own private review.

The darkness is falling, or as some would say, “winter is coming” … This time of year, is always a bit rough for me, but I feel like this newfound schedule of evening movie watching with the occasional basketball or football game keeps me with something to look forward to at the end of the day. I’ve also set up my whiteboard to have a list of films I’ve been kicking around for when I get too indecisive and unsure of what to watch. As always, comments, opinions, arguments on the films discussed are always encouraged. What have you been watching? What’s stood out to you? Until next time, be good, and watch a movie.