There’s no shortage of recommendations for what to read or watch on this celebration of the Devil’s birthday1, but as a horror writer, I feel added pressure to go for the “deep cuts” that make me look like an erudite expert in the field.
At the risk of revealing my tastes as entirely pedestrian (perhaps misleading you to think my forthcoming novel A Scout is Loyal is the same), here are my recommendations2 for things to watch while trick-or-treaters wander to your street after looting the wealthier ones.
- Lake Mungo could well be my favorite horror movie, contemplative and multi-layered and structured like those paranormal documentaries I loved as a kid.
- Stir of Echoes is often mistaken as the lesser also-ran in the “kid can see dead people” category with its contemporaneous rival, The Sixth Sense. They’re both good, but I think Stir of Echoes edges ahead with a little more style and energy.
- Midsommar reinforces my vague sense that my Scandinavian forebears (Ha! Get it?) had depths of hidden (largely creepy) feeling that belied their cold personas.
- Yeah, I like The Blair Witch Project. What of it? It harkens back again to all of those paranormal documentaries like In Search Of, refusing to settle on an explanation that could only be disappointing.
- Speaking of In Search Of, the 1981 Jonestown episode scared the shit out of me as a kid and still does. You can watch it here with original commercials!
- Yes, yes, we concede your superior taste that the original is way better, but I also like The Ring.
- The Silence of the Lambs isn’t supernatural, but it’s certainly full of terror.
- The Orphanage is something of a rarity in film horror, rooted as it is in empathy and even tenderness.
- The Conjuring, despite hitching its wagon to the questionable scientific rigor of the Warrens, is still a lot of fun to watch. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are way more charismatic than their real-life subjects, that’s for sure.
- Late Night with the Devil turns schmaltzy 70s talk shows into sources of horror…or maybe it just reveals them. David Dastmalchian is fantastic in it.
- Last Night in Soho involves murder, the 1960s, and emotional time travel…in other words, completely my wheelhouse. It’s also a stylish and gorgeous film.
Tonight, we’re most likely watching Hokum which has been recommended to me. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome of this tremendous risk in novelty.
