FrightFest 2025
Another October, another month of scary movies. This year had some bangers we watched before it was officially spooky season, like SINNERS and WEAPONS and the cannibal action movie 40 ACRES, but here is the official list. If you start watching now, you should be done by Thanksgiving...
BEAST OF WAR (2025)
Extremely loosely based on true events during WW2, survivors of an Australian troop transport sunk by the Japanese in the Timor Sea desperately try to survive long enough to be rescued, and spend days fending off enemy planes, each other, and an enormous great white shark eating them one by one. Was it the best shark movie of the year? Nope. That award goes to DANGEROUS ANIMALS. Predictable, but still pretty damn good. Great shark effects.
BLACK SABBATH (1963)
Gotta love an anthology movie, and this one from Mario Bava has a lot of cool bits and pieces to it, including serial killer chiller THE TELEPHONE, classic monster/zombie period piece THE WURDULAK, and the best (and shortest) of the lot, the haunting A DROP OF WATER. And all of it intro'd and outro'd by Boris Karloff himself. Make sure you watch the original Italian version, as the American version shifted around the order and cut out a vital lesbian subplot in one of the stories.
BRING HER BACK (2025)
After the gruesome death of their father, siblings refuse to be separated from each other and end up paired with the world's craziest foster mother, Sally Hawkins. The witchcraft she is performing using the other foster kid living in the house, a mute boy who is hungry in ways you don't want to know about, is way way too much. Been a long time since I had to hide my eyes from a movie so often, but similar to TALK TO ME, this directing duo's last movie, this one really ties it together in the end and has a truly emotional finale.
BURNT OFFERINGS (1976)
An extremely 70's THE SHINING riff, all done up in soft focus and slow zooms, with incredibly hunky Oliver Reed instead of Jack Nicholson, and equally sexy Karen Black instead of Shelly Duvall. Then mix in Bette Davis and Burgess Meredith. Speilberg and Tobe Hooper surely had this one in mind when they made POLTERGEIST, right down to the haunted swimming pool. Great fucking ending.
BURN, WITCH, BURN! (1962)
A handsome, snotty professor realizes his wife is a witch practicing black magic to help his career, then angrily throws away all her spells and enchantments, and, well...that was a really shitty idea. As his life gets worse and worse, his wife grows ever more desperate (and dangerous). It was pretty clever and also had a giant evil bird in it that reminded me of Eagly from PEACEMAKER.
CEMETERY MAN (1994)
Rupert Everett at his youngest and hottest stars as the owner of the cemetery in a small Italian town that has one tiny problem – after a week or two, all of the bodies keep coming back to life. This one is a blast, gory, raunchy with gratuitous Italian sex and nudity. But it makes no sense, it shouldn't work, it is full of half-thought out ideas and scenes, with a tone stolen from WITHNAIL AND I, from BRAZIL, and foreshadowing SHAUN OF THE DEAD. Hard to explain, truly not for everyone, but entertaining.
DANGEROUS ANIMALS (2025)
Creepy Australian serial killer movies + shark attack movies + PEEPING TOM = sign me up! I hate to spoil too much, but just take my word this is a sleezy instant classic. The director of this one is operating well above what's necessary for the assignment, and I am excited to see what they do next. After this, BEAST OF WAR and MAKO: THE JAWS OF DEATH last year, maybe I just need to have a shark attack movie on my list every year from now on?
DARKMAN (1990)
In this over-the-top comic-book style horror melodrama, scientist Liam Neeson is tortured and left for dead in his burned-out lab by mobster Larry Drake, but he survives with the help of an experimental skin treatment that can barely work in the daylight, and boundless rage and violence and strength that can't be stopped – and he is out for revenge. This is the movie where you can see EVIL DEAD II Sam Raimi transforming into SPIDER-MAN Sam Raimi.
THE FLY (1986)
Studio: Did you make that gross-out body horror monster movie?
Cronenberg: Sure did boss, real fuckin sexy just like you asked.
Studio: what?
You know the story – mad scientist accidentally mixes up his own DNA with a fly, and hijinx ensue. I haven't seen this one in probably decades, and it remains a majestic achievement. It's a romance for the ages, and a monster movie classic. Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis have never been hotter. It has some of the most disgusting body horror effects in the final third, and they absolutely hold up. You can't look, and you can't look away.
THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (2016)
In the midst of a zombie outbreak, a research facility studying children born as zombie-human hybrids is overrun, and soldiers and scientists try to save one surviving test subject, who might hold the secret to a cure. Starts creepy and mysterious, turns into a rockin' gorefest, then ends on an apocalyptic note in the midst of a destroyed London that will keep you thinking long after its over. Also a real lesson in how to stretch a VFX budget to the limit. This was a real stand-out.
GRABBERS (2012)
In an isolated island off the coast of Ireland, the residents – and straightlaced cop Ruth Bradley (currently in SLOW HORSES) – learn that the only way to survive an invasion of rampaging alien sea monsters is by tainting their blood with massive amounts of alcohol. Very funny, very gross, and the effects hold up.
MARBLE HORNETS (2009-2010)
Found footage YouTube classic about filmmakers accidentally discovering Slenderman. Is it a movie? Is it a random art experiment? Was it boring but also insanely creepy? Yes to all.I saw this courtesy of Ryan Broderick of PANIC WORLD (like and subscribe!) at Jon Wilson's new movie theater in Ridgewood, which was a treat. Still, it was likely scarier when watched alone on a laptop late at night, after stumbling across it on YouTube, tbh.
SCANNERS (1981)
Hidden from all of us, there is a secret war going on between armies of "scanners," telepaths who can read minds, physically and mentally control others, and even somehow control phones and computers. I remembered only two things about this movie – the head explosion scene, and the kickass poster. Viewers, let me tell you, it is so much more than that. It is incredibly Canadian, incredibly weird, and so very Cronenberg, even on a shoestring budget and with some, let's say, iffy acting.
THE TOXIC AVENGER (2025)
Down-on-his-luck janitor Peter Dinklage is dunked in sludge and transformed into the rampaging title character, out for vengeance. Just absolutely ridiculous. God bless Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, and Elijah Wood for fully committing to the bit. Fires everything at the wall it can find like it is the NAKED GUN of gross-out horror. Not sure what convinced Macon Blair to slum it for this, but thanks for doing it.
X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1961)
Scientist (and eye doctor...I think?) Ray Milland develops a vision serum and uses himself as a guinea pig and, well, the movie does what it says on the tin. In a brisk 75 minutes, this Roger Corman cheapie somehow speed runs through Poe-style horror, swinging 60s Hammer horror, NIGHTMARE ALLEY carnie creepiness, an extended OCEAN'S 11 section in Vegas(?), and a banger of an ending. Oh, and it might feature the best Don Rickles performance you will ever see. Modern movies with their slow-developing bullshit could learn a lot from this one.
