Crazy trips, must be 2026!

Boy oh boy, you’d think that it’d be some kind of prerequisite to see every notable vintage slasher movie that centers around a specific date or holiday—you know, the most stereotypical kind of slasher movie—if, say, one wanted to start a blog about slasher movies or write/draw a comic about slasher movies or go around telling everyone they encounter about how much they love slasher movies. YOU’D THINK THAT, RIGHT.

Well, you wouldn’t be wrong to think that, but of course thinking that would not take into account my fast-paced and cutting-edge busy lifestyle, planetary/solar alignments over the years, a woman’s prerogative, etc. 

Yes, that’s right, I was referencing myself, specifically about how I only just saw the 1980 slasher film New Year’s Evil in the last 24 hours even though 1) it came out 45 years ago, 2) Final Girl came out 20 years ago, 3) I came out (of my mom)…hmm I’m not exactly sure when, to tell you the truth, because I was mummified in 2009 and I don’t really know how mummy years work. The point is, New Year’s Evil is so basic it's like Slashers 101, and yet I made a comic literally called Slashers 101 without having seen it! This despite the fact that it’s the only slasher movie that stars Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly...as far as I know. See? "As far as I know"? Man, where do I get off even having this blog!

(PS, yes, Leather Tuscadero was always way cooler but I will take any Tuscadero I can get, especially in a horror movie!)

On the bright side, I’ve now seen New Year’s Evil. On the less bright side, it was only okay. On the even less bright side, it was only okay sometimes. 

It started so promising, too, when the words “Cannon Group” and “Golan/Globus” appeared. If you are anything like me, all of that will get you pumped over the possibilities for action and horror and, though it’s admittedly a long shot, Lucinda Dickey with a can of V8 (where are my Ninja III: The Domination homies at!). I continued to be pumped as the movie began and there was Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly as Diane “Dee” Sullivan, aka “Blaze,” a DJ/proto-VJ with magenta eyebrows and magenta blush so thick it looked like a couple of magenta Colorforms slapped on her cheeks. Yes, I was immediately drowning in a wave of New Wave: Blaze with her magenta madness, men with black lipstick, women with pink bangs, studded bracelets and chokers everywhere—New Year’s Evil was looking to be the New Wave big sister slasher counterpart to the Eurotrash New Wave gross-out Demons and the naked Trash (get it) New Wave zombie delight Return of the Living Dead. I clutched New Year’s Evil to my magenta bosoms (don’t ask) and told it that while it took us forever to find one another it didn’t matter because our forever was only just beginning.

In case you didn’t know, Blaze is so hot and so cool she was dubbed “The First Lady of Rock” and as such, her duties included rocking in the new year with a live edition of her show Hollywood Hotline in a Los Angeles hotel. She is very busy and important (much like me!) and therefore she has no choice but to kind of ignore her son Derek, who wants to tell her about a part he just won on a television series. Derek is pretty strange, to be honest. And oh, it seems that his father (and Blaze’s husband), who has been “sick” and is supposed to be in Palm Springs, can’t be reached. HMM. 

We are then treated to the musical stylings of a group called Shadow. We will also be treated to the musical stylings of a group called Made in Japan. We will be treated to both musical stylings often, and some songs will repeat repeatedly. What initially seems like a somewhat unique gimmick that renders New Year’s Evil into a quasi-concert film will likely wear on you as you wait for some slasher in your slasher.

Behind her on the stage there are a few seated ladies answering telephones, like some younger, hipper version of a Jerry Lewis telethon wherein viewers can call in and…uh…say stuff, like what they think the #1 song of the year will be. A few moments into the show, Blaze answers a call from someone who goes by the name “Evil” because he’s…you know, evil. He says he’s going to kill someone that Blaze knows whenever midnight hits in all the time zones across America—and the new year is about to ring in for folks on the east coast, oh no!

I would be remiss were I not to mention that Evil uses a voice changer that is so ludicrous I can’t tell whether or not it’s supposed to be funny. Whatever the intent, Evil and the dude from Fulci’s New York Ripper should have teamed up. And yes, I kind of wish I were talking about this on Final Girl After Dark rather than writing about it on Final Girl because I would love to imitate Evil’s phone voice for you.

So in quick order we meet Evil in person, and he looks like a Dollar Tree Jeffrey Combs. He poses as a doctor so that—in a shocking twist of typical horror movie events—he can break into a sanitarium. There he meets a nurse who looks like a Dollar Tree Lisa Kudrow. They find a quiet room, decide to Do It, and then when things get hot and heavy, Evil busts out a switchblade and kills Dollar Tree Lisa Kudrow. He records the murder, and when midnight strikes he plays the tape over the phone for Blaze; he’s all (Evil voice) “See? I told you!” and promises to call with another murder update in an hour.

The police initially dismiss Blaze’s concerns, but when the body of Dollar Tree Lisa Kudrow is found, they decide to let no one else into or out of the hotel. You know, for safety. Meanwhile, Evil digs deeper into his bag of costumes and dons a fake moustache. It makes him look like a Dollar Tree Tom Sandoval, which is really saying something (where are my Vanderpump Rules homies at!). He picks up some girls in a bar, there’s a chase, some switchblade poppin’, some murder, he puts on a priest costume, cure more musical performances.

Derek, meanwhile, has been alone in his hotel room downing pills for his “headaches” (though the actor doesn’t actually swallow said pills and you can see them in his mouth which kind of ruins the movie magic illusion) and getting weird with fabrics and hat pins.

Evil makes his way to the hotel and surprise as completely expected from the moment he is mentioned, he is the killer. Why? What could possibly drive a man to murder, to torment his wife and eventually try to kill her? Well you see, he broke into that sanitarium because he used to be a patient there…but also simply because he hates women! Especially his wife, who has emasculated both Evil and his son Evil Jr Derek! “You castrated me,” says Evil, “And that is not nice.”

Again, I am not sure whether or not New Year’s Evil is meant to be funny…? 

What I am sure of, however, is that this film gets occasionally weird but steadfastly refuses to lean all the way into it, which is a big shame. It leaves people like me a-wonderin’ in a puzzled way when I should be a-wonderin’ in an awestruck way, you know? The slasher bits aren’t compelling—it’s tough to make a “regular guy” an interesting killer in this genre, as made evident by films like The Slumber Party Massacre, The Dorm That Dripped Blood, and He Knows You’re Alone. I’m not saying you have to have a mask, but if you don’t wear one I think you need to go full wackadoodle, like Billy in Black Christmas. I love a bag o' costumes and a fake moustache as much as the next lady, but Evil was way creepier in the few moments when he sported a grotesque Stan Laurel mask.

New Year’s Evil is full of bits-n-bobs that may have been marginally refreshing in 1980, but they’re so rote nowadays that it’s tough to get excited. A killer who spent time in a mental hospital? A killer who hates women? A survivor not finding safety in an ambulance? Honk shoo honk shoo! (That’s a snoring sound, by the way.) There were no shocks, no scares, no surprises, no suspense. Not even any interesting kills to jazz the place up.

Maybe it would have dazzled me if I’d seen it decades ago, who knows. In its opening moments, with all the magenta and studded accoutrements everywhere, I did think that I probably would have loved this movie if I’d brought it home from the video store or seen it at a sleepover or something. But alas, alack, those days are gone and New Year’s Evil is really just something that I’ve seen, if you know what I mean. (“It’s about time, poser!” — you, probably)

a few things!

While I won't be able to return to regular posting 'round here until next month, there are a few things that will maybe tide you over until then! Or at least this post about those few things will occupy you for the next ~14 seconds, which is better than zero seconds. Well, I guess that depends on what's actually happening during those seconds, no? I can think of a few things that would be a terrible way to spend even such a small amount of time, like, say, watching ~14 seconds of one of those David Gordon Green Halloween movies. Unless they were ~14 seconds that feature em-bang-ened hero Lindsey Wallace, as portrayed by icon/Real Housewife Kyle Richards, of course.

Sorry, I've had more coffee today than I really realized whilst drinking it all, so now I'm going on and taking up more than ~14 seconds of your time! Also, obviously, using both "icon" and "Real Housewife" to describe a woman is redundant. But...on to the things!

THING 1:

I wrote an essay that's included with the recent fancy Blu-ray release of Asian horror anthologies Three and Three...Extremes from Arrow Video. In it, I examine what the loaded term "extreme" means in relation to Asian horror, as well as the ways the represented regions of Three (South Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong) differ in their approaches to horror filmmaking and the supernatural.

THING 2:

Also from Arrow come a new, fancy Blu-ray release of Wes Craven's 1986 film Deadly Friend, and I'm on the commentary track alongside Alex West of The Faculty of Horror, The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle, and mucho more. This might be a UK-only release? Someone start a change.org petition if so! (btw I loooove the alternative cover art so much.)

THINGS 3 & 4:

Of course these are the two ongoing things, my column (and assorted other work) in Rue Morgue magazine and my podcast Final Girl After Dark. Both of these things get me pumped UP! So I hope you enjoy them as well, should you partake.

Hahaha remember those Halloween movies! Terrible.

pressing pause

Hi everyone! Just a heads up, there are family matters I need to attend to (yes, that rascally Urkel has done it again!) that necessitate my pressing pause on SHOCKtober here at the blog and on the podcast for the immediate future. Very sorry and hope to be back here (and at the pod) before too long. Thanks for understanding.

***ETA 10/22: Sorry to say I'm still not back to a regular schedule. I gave a wee update on things over at Final Girl After Dark (listen at the link or wherever you getcher podcasts). As I said there, it's safe to say that SHOCKtober is a bust both here and on the pod; I may push the Final Girl content into BLOODvember, barring any more unforeseen circumstances. At any rate, I appreciate all the thoughtful comments and messages--as always, you guys are the best!

****ETA 11/18:Once again I am thanking you for your messages and comments during the HECK of the last few weeks...months? However long it's been. Well, at least the podcast has returned! For the moment at least! The blog will return to regular posting in December, barring any other disasters, etc. OOOH what if I did DISASTICEMBER

Day 3: AMERICAN GOTHIC (1987)

By 1987, the slasher movie heyday was dunzo and the subgenre was on its last legs--legs that would prove weirder and often more interesting than the formulaic flicks that put the glory in the glory days. Case in point: American Gothic, a wacked-out joyride that's got a real heart of darkness beneath its gingham...uh, finery. 

Cynthia (Sarah Torgov) is released from the mental hospital where she'd been treated for a breakdown caused by the accidental drowning of her baby. Her husband Jeff (Mark Erickson) is understanding and happy to have his wife back, telling her they'll have more kids and it wasn't her fault. Now look, I don't think making her feel any guiltier than she already does is the best thing for her, of course, but Cynthia left the baby unattended in the tub so it pretty much is her fault...? I am just saying.

The couple decides a little vacay is in order, so they hop in Jeff's seaplane along with two other couples. The plane soon starts a-sputterin' and a-smokin', forcing the group to land on an island that seems to be deserted. But when they go exploring, they discover that it ain't. They find a house that seems to be frozen in time, with clothing and records and decor straight outta the 1920s. The group makes themselves right at home, cranking the tunes, wearing the clothes, and Charleston-ing it up. The owners return and let me tell you, they aren't nearly as put out as I would be if I came home and found a group of strangers wearing my wigs and muumuus and listening to my Chuck Mangione records! But I guess the down-home duo of Ma (Yvonne De Carlo) and Pa (Rod Steiger) are better people than I. (Hmm, being so taken aback by their chill attitudes and Jeff's exceedingly forgiving nature, I guess I am learning a thing or two about myself. But don't worry, whatever I learn won't stick!) While Pa is a taciturn scripture-spewing buzzkill, Ma is quite genial, excited to have some new "kids" to join the Clean Plate Club at the dinner table.

Not that she doesn't have kids of her own, mind you: There's Fanny (Janet Wright), Woody (weirdo horror movie mainstay Michael J. Pollard), and Teddy (William 'Jek Porkins' Hootkins), all of whom are clearly decades older than they act or claim to be. Pa promises that help should be coming to the island soon but it's doubtful that the gang of stranded folks will survive in the company of this wackadoodle family. I mean, it's a slasher movie, after all.

In my review of this film during the inaugural SHOCKtober, I mentioned that it was a video store shelf staple but I'd never seen it and rarely heard mention of it. Twenty years later, it seems that American Gothic still has yet to find its audience, which surprises me because it's fucking weird and it's fucking fun. These religious isolationists are your classic kind of horror movie nutso family, à la the Wrong Turn gang, Leatherface's brood, the Firefly clan, and so on and so on. Those are all well and good but none of them feature Yvonne De Carlo now, do they? They do not, and it's a shame because she's having a grand ol' time here, gleefully delivering aphorisms, whipped potatoes, and a kindly menace. Rod Steiger occasionally seems to wonder what movie he's in, but delivers his Big Acting Moments with gusto (again, perhaps unaware of what movie he's in).

Director John Hough has a filmography that's a series of random peaks and valleys, ranging from the likes of The Legend of Hell House to The Watcher in the Woods to Howling IV: The Original Nightmare. While the material is often pitch black (drowning babies, mummified babies, incest, necrophilia), Hough keeps it as light as possible, leaving details and specifics off-screen and in our imaginations. I wonder if this and the general lack of explicit violence are what have kept American Gothic in the realm of the unknown and/or underseen? Hmm. Keeping the uncomfortable in the realm of implication and the killings largely off-screen aren't marks against it for me: The uncomfortable is still hella uncomfortable even if you don't see things play out, you know? And ultimately the whole thing is on the bleaker side of bonkers--exactly what I'm looking for in a late 80s slasher. Who knows, maybe other folks'll join The Clean Plate Club of Loving American Gothic some day yet!

Day 2: PHONE (2002)

Back in 2005, Phone was one of a slew of East Asian films to hit the Western market thanks to Tartan Asia Extreme DVD. While some were lauded and deemed instant classics, such as A Tale of Two Sisters, The Eye, and Ringu, many more were (fairly or not) relegated to the "eh, it's more of the same stuff" pile and left there--and unlike their more famous brethren, most have yet to earn a home release since that Tartan DVD.

I was quite taken with Phone way back in 2005, so much so that I didn't really get into specifics about it--rather, I just told folks to go watch it. While last night was the first time I watched it since that lofty "review," I'd certainly thought about it from time to time, though all I really thought about (or even remembered) was the performance of young Eun Seo-woo as Yeong-ju, a girl who gets possessed. I couldn't remember why she got possessed, or by whom or what. The circumstances, the plot, all of it washed away by time! But her acting--by turns adorable, terrified, and terrifying--remained in my brain place. And while I was taken with the entire film (I see why I recommended it in The Olde Days), Eun Seo-woo's performance is still the highlight. She's just straight-up terrific and gives some of the most delightful stank faces I've ever seen.

Thanks to the work of intrepid reporter (be still my heart!) Ji-won (Ha Ji-won), several men are charged and arrested for sex crimes involving underage girls. Soon after she receives a series of incresaingly threatening phone calls and stalking incidents, prompting her to relocate for a while to a house owned by childhood friend Ho-jeong (Kim Yu-mi) and her husband Chang-hoon (Choi Woo-jae). One evening, Ji-won's laptop goes all The Matrix-looking and a phone number appears on the screen. Ji-won starts receiving indecipherable calls and text messages from the same number. Whilst unattended, Ho-jeong's daughter Yeong-ju answers one of these calls to Ji-won's phone and begins acting very strangely--she also seems to harbor an obsessive (and way beyond inappropriate) attachment to her father Chang-hoon. 

Plot threads and time tangle and disentangle as we learn the story of the voice on the other end of the cell phone and the victims who have come before while the fates of Ji-won and her dear ones lie in the balance. There are ghostly presences, disturbing imagery, and some genuinely chilling sequences throughout a narrative that twists and turns and then twists and turns some more; As mysteries get solved and questions get answered, Phone might rely a bit too much on flashbacks to fill us in, but this is a fairly standard structure for Asian horror--particularly Korean horror--and I don't mind it a whit. As also expected from a K-horror feature, there's some high melodrama and a lot of melancholy tied to a kind of depressing inevitability to events. I ain't complainin'!

I ain't complainin' about none of it, in fact. Phone looks fantastic, with more intriguing visuals and color palettes at play than many of its (often kinda cheap-looking) DV-era contemporaries. Blessedly there's only one or two decidedly 2002 CGI shots, and they're not ghost-related. 

It's no surprise that director/co-writer Ahn Byeong-ki (Apt, Nightmare, and the Bunshinsaba series) cites Hideo Nakata's Ringu as an influence for Phone, particularly during the film's climactic sequence--and honestly, the ghost's big moment is a pretty worthy successor to Sadako emerging from the television if you ask me. And speaking of that ghost, oooh it is angry and vengeful! Not only against the ones who did it wrong, but against...kind of anyone, really, including the poor, random souls who happened upon the cell phone by happenstance. 

Phone doesn't dive as deep into the realm of "hey, what's up with this new technology and should we be afraid of it...?" as films like Pulse (aka Kairo) and One Missed Call do--here, the phone feels more akin to a Ouija board or a séance or that kind of horror movie trope of yore. But still, the cell phone was still a fairly new commonplace technology at the time, and it's fun to watch the ways Ahn uses it to inflict terror on his characters.

So yeah man, this one still holds up--not only thanks to the work of Eun Seo-woo, but because it's just some solid Korean horror, you know? Sometimes that's the only thing that hits just right, and hit just right it did. Here's hoping it eventually enters the modern media age and gets some love (beyond me posting about it every 20 years).

Day 1: ALICE, SWEET ALICE (1976)

Not only is Alice, Sweet Alice the film that kicked off my first SHOCKtober event in 2005, it also figured into SHOCKtober 2019 when I reassessed it. Now here we are, meeting again during this highest of holy seasons. I ain't complainin'!

As I've mentioned time and again, when this blog started in 2005 my focus was slasher films. Every horror blog, it seemed, had a niche regarding subgenres or gimmicks and slashers were a bit underserved. I pounced because hey, the "Final Girl" slasher trope made for a mighty name title for a blog! But mostly it was because it was the subgenre I felt I knew best. I grew up part of a horror-loving family and slashers were the stuff of my youth; But unlike Hammer films or haunted house movies or creature features or any of the other flicks I watched and loved, slashers felt like they were mine, perhaps owing to the fact that they were aimed at and featured characters who weren't adults yet. 

But as many as I'd seen, once I started Final Girl I realized how many more were waiting for me out there. Movies from before my time or more obscure titles that'd been unavailable to me or I'd missed on video store shelves. In those early days, when I wasn't writing posts or watching things I anticipated writing about, I spent most of my free time poring over reference books and a handful of dedicated websites in the hopes of finding some treasures...or, at least, films I'd never seen. Honestly, it was mostly books checked out from my local library, such as John Kenneth Muir's Horror Films of the 1970s and Adam Rockoff's Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film. It was a different internet then--a dial-up one, at that--and there certainly wasn't so much content on it. Slashers were an old world for me, but also, I discovered, an entirely new one. How exciting it was to have so many movies waiting for me to discover!

The point is that this was how Alice, Sweet Alice came into my life as something I simply had to see. What luck, then, to pick up a VHS tape for $1.50 and finally get my eyeballs on it. I gave it an 8/10--8 out of 10 catholic nutjobs, to be more precise--back in 2005 (I was rating things then, what folly), but regardless I think I found it a little disappointing because it wasn't solely the slasher film I was expecting. It's not fair to judge a film by one's expectations of it, of course, and I do think the killer's translucent mask/St Michael's Church-branded rain slicker creeped me out enough to make up for its other perceived "shortcomings."

In 2019, I'd upgraded from that $1.50 VHS tape to a caseless $0.50 DVD copy and, knowing what to expect (or not to expect) of Alice, Sweet Alice, I appreciated it much more than I did the first time, even if there was no number rating to prove my feelings. In that review, I wrote:

Alice, Sweet Alice is a deeply unpleasant film, and I'm not necessarily referring to the violence, which occurs fairly seldomly. Of course, when kill scenes do arrive, they are shocking and brutal for sure. It's more the atmosphere of the whole thing–it's all drenched in decrepitude and sleaze, and everyone is so damn loud all the time, yelling at one another and clomping up and down the stairs of the small apartment building where Alice lives with her mother (and sister, before her death).

It's a very crass and nasty kind of film in many ways--often, that's the point of it--and to be honest I think the 108 minute version on the DVD is perhaps a titch too long and the 98-minute VHS cut might be preferable. (No, I still haven't upgraded to the Blu-ray...given my history with this film, I suppose I'm waiting to find it for under $2.) Maybe I've just seen it too many times now?

Regardless, in the trashfire that is 2025 it feels more relevant than ever. The film points to the dissolution of American institutions we have always held up as aspirational, as protectors and safe havens...or more likely, it points to the fact that those institutions have always been rotten. "We're not even safe in the church!" a character laments after young Karen is brutally murdered during a Communion ceremony. Many have never been safe in the church, be they victims of abuse or sexual minorities or believers in another religion. The police in this movie are reprehensible, from the nudie pics plastered all over the walls of the detective bureau to lewdly commenting on 12-year-old Alice's body and suggesting she wants a cop to "feel her up." In the Kennedy era, when the film takes place, this rot was only known by a few--obviously, a gay man like Alice, Sweet Alice writer/director Alfred Sole was amongst those few. Now in 2025, the rot and hypocrisy are impossible to ignore.

She is nigh!

You know who I'm talking about, Willis! That's right, I'm talking about Miss SHOCKtobra herself, uh...SHOCKtober. I can't believe she is nigh and getting nigher by the moment. If you listen to my podcast Final Girl After Dark, then mayhaps you heard me announce my plans for this year already. If you don't listen to my podcast, well don't worry, I'm going to tell you my plans for this year in this post. Also if you don't listen to my podcast, I will assume you do not have ears because why else wouldn't you listen! Podcasts are all the cool rage this year, and I know you like to partake in cool rage activities (and, come Thanksgiving time, Blood Rage activities of course). 

I will have you know that I took some time mulling over whether or not to have another go at my super big mega countdown list of y'allses favorite horror movies. "It's been a couple of years since I did that," I thought, and then I actually checked and it turns out I did it last year. It felt so long ago and I was so floored that it'd only been a year! I went full slapping my cheeks Home Alone-style when I saw that it was the 2024 celebration. Honestly, I am kind of still slapping my cheeks Home Alone-style over that revelation; I am not sure if my not knowing it'd only been a year points to my brain beginning to fail me, or that time has been seriously fucked since 2020 (or 2000) or what, but regardless...YIKES.

So what to do then? Well, as 2025 is indeed a big year 'round these parts, seeing as it's the 20th anniversary of this blog and all, I thought it might be fun to go back to where the annual Miss SHOCKtobra Pageant began: the very first SHOCKtober of 2005. I watched and reviewed a movie every day during October 2005, and this year I'm going to be watching and reviewing all those same films again. (There are exceptions, which I'll get to in a moment!) Some of them I literally have not seen or even thought much about since I watched them in 2005. Others have become favorites, or simply movies I've seen a few times over the past 20 years. Here is the list, in case you want to watch along:

1. Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
2. Phone (2002)
3. American Gothic (1987)
4. He Knows You're Alone (1980)
5. Body Bags (1993)
6. The Brood (1979)
7. Toolbox Murders (2004)
8. Dead & Buried (1981)
9. Graduation Day (1981)
10. Opera (1987)
11. The House on Sorority Row (1982)
12. The Sentinel (1977)
13. Stepfather II: Make Room for Daddy (1989)
14. Fade to Black (1980)
15. On this day in 2005 I did a marathon of the Friday the 13th franchise...I am not sure yet what I'll be doing on this day this year, but I can tell you I will not be doing a marathon of the Friday the 13th franchise!
16. The Ring Two (2005)
17. Of Unknown Origin (1983)
18. The Boogey Man (1980)
19. Raw Meat (aka Death Line) (1972)
20. Night School (1981)
21. The Prowler (1981)
22. The Final Terror (1983)
23. Girls Nite Out (1982)
24. Hide and Go Shriek (1988)
25. Frightmare (1974)
26. Night of the Living Dead (1990)
27. Pumpkinhead (1988)
28. On this day I watched a very bad movie called Miner's Massacre (it had Karen Black in it, okay!!) but that movie doesn't seem to be readily available anymore and I'm not about to go searching too hard or spending any money on a copy. I think we will all be okay without a revisit to Miner's Massacre! In its place, I've asked Final Mom to choose the movie I review. I don't know what that is yet, but I'm willing to bet it will be better than Miner's Massacre! (Sorry to all the Miner's Massacre fans out there.) (And to Karen Black.) (RIP.) (You know what, I bet she would agree with my stance re: Miner's Massacre.)
29. On this day in 2005 I did a marathon of the Halloween franchise...I am not sure yet what I'll be doing on this day this year, but I can tell you I will not be doing a marathon of the Halloween franchise!
30. Demons (1985)
31. Alone in the Dark (1982)

So there you have it! What a month, eh? Ah, I remember how pumped I was all those years ago as I geared up for this. I bought a bunch of random shitty VHS tapes of stuff, lined up my Netflix DVD queue, and made several trips to the video store. What a different time it was! Watching all the films pile up, ready to be watched--the majority of them for the first time--and say something about them on The Internet! It felt like such a monumental endeavor and it was honestly very exciting.

And I'm excited for this go-round. Just...the joy of talking about horror movies, you know? We could all use some of that, I think. Things are pretty dire out there and The Internet is really just an eternal Two Minutes Hate machine nowadays, so I'm really looking forward to lighting this place up like it's 2005 all over again. And of course there will also be new episodes of Final Girl After Dark every Wednesday--to celebrate SHOCKtober, I'll be talking about a horror movie starring a Real Housewife each week. Now That's What I Call Exciting, Volume Podcast!

Some of these movies I've talked about so many times in so many places (I'm looking at you, The Sentinel) that I'm honestly not sure how much I'll have to say about 'em when it's their turn to shine, but we'll see. I'm curious if my feelings will change one way or another about films I haven't seen since 2005 (I'm looking at you, Toolbox Murders) (And you, The Boogey Man.). I can't wait for Stepfather II and Of Unknown Origin! Also wow, the list is so slasher-heavy...but when I started this blog it was solely about slasher flicks so I guess it makes sense, doesn't it? Lawd, I can't believe I did two 24-hour franchise marathons amongst everything else. Again what a different time it was!

I said it all the way back in 2005 and I'll say it again now:

Lock your doors...bolt your windows...pull up your pants...it's time for...

SHOCKtober!