October is the best month. Though, as the month of my birthday, it is one of the more expensive months of the year for me (mostly because of car registration and inspection), it is also LGBTQ+ History Month and the month of Halloween, giving us an excuse (as if we needed one) to talk about all things horrific, occult, weird, and wondrous. As someone who loves the weather and scent of autumn in the Northeastern US, it is also just a lovely time to bask in the beauty of cool, crisp weather and the beautiful scent of dead things returning to the soil.
Here, before the month gets too far ahead of us, I simply want to list a few recommendations for horror or horror-esque films that are currently on the various streaming platforms and which you may want to indulge in during this time. My recommendations are necessarily limited to what is available in the US, so availability may differ elsewhere, but Justwatch can probably help you find what’s available in your region. (I may do a post later about DVDs/Blu-rays, but that’s going to require a bit more sifting and searching, so for now just streaming.)
1. For my money, The Criterion Channel is the best streaming service. They’ve really gone all-out this October with curated series of ’90s Horror (not my favorite decade for horror films, but each to their own) and Pre-Code Horror, which is an excellent collection of pre-1934 films (if you’re unfamiliar with this era and its wonders, be sure to watch the introduction by film historian Imogen Sara Smith.) I have not yet watched Svengali, Thirteen Women, or Murders in the Zoo, but I know all the others well and there’s not a clunker among them. There’s also Art-House Horror, a large collection spanning everything from Häxan (1922) to Suicide by Sunlight (2019). Most of these are very well known films, at least to aficionados, but the strength of the collection is not so much quality as range: the term “art-house horror” ends up including indisputable artistic triumphs and also two films by Paul Morrissey. Continuing on from last month is High School Horror, a small but powerful collection, and Noir by Gaslight, which isn’t strictly horror but bumps some of the same geese (see also British Noir from a few months ago, now somewhat reduced from its original 12 films, but still worth checking out).
2. One of the most chilling films I’ve ever seen has just come to Criterion, though it is not a “horror movie” in the typical sense: The Devil, Probably written and directed by Robert Bresson. (Paul Schrader tried to pick up on some of what The Devil, Probably was up to with his film First Reformed, but the best I can say about Schrader is he is no Robert Bresson.) The Devil, Probably is not a movie to sit down to with a bowl of popcorn and a bunch of friends looking for a good fright. It’s a movie to bring all your existential angst to, all your misanthropy, all your despair. It will help you expand them.
3. Shudder continues to be a good service for horror movies, though at the end of last year there were fears its days were numbered, since its parent, AMC, had laid off many of the staff members who made Shudder special. I haven’t been as impressed this year with their selections as I was before the layoffs, but there could be lots of factors affecting that, and the core of Shudder is still a strong, diverse library of films. For instance, the two collections inspired by (but not entirely replicating) box sets from Severin are wonderful: the Folk Horror collection and the House of Psychotic Women collection. And given that October is also LGBTQ+ History Month, the Queer Horror collection is worth checking out.
4. The challenge of Shudder’s collections, though, is that they often are not especially discerning with regard to quality, so they’re pretty hit-or-miss. Here, then, my own pick of some favorite films on the service (and most are not exclusive to Shudder, so you can find them elsewhere as well — I’ll link here to their Justwatch pages):
- A Dark Song, which is my favorite occult horror film. My love of it has only grown with each viewing. When I first saw it, I loved a lot of it and did not like the ending. I have now come to appreciate the ending, mostly. I may even one day accept the one thing that still seems to me the film’s greatest flaw: the rather ridiculous, but mercifully brief, image of a god/demon near the end.
- Day of the Dead: The third of George Romero’s “Dead” movies, this one gets less love than its predecessors Night and Dawn (the latter of which is difficult to find for petty, complicated reasons of one producer withholding the rights). But Day is right up there with the other two, and it boasts many of Tom Savini’s greatest make-up effects.
- Lake Mungo: a faux-documentary that has terrifying moments and certainly uses all the props and tools of horror movies, but ultimately proves to be something even greater.
- Il Demonio: a study of paranoia, mass hysteria, misogyny. Not an easy film to watch, not entertaining in any traditional sense, but unforgettable and necessary.
- Clearcut: a powerful example of didactic fiction that is not simplistic. This is a movie that will challenge you, regardless of what position you might think you have regarding the exploitation of the land by humans.
- Possession: a classic example of a movie that is pretty much impossible to describe, partly because if you describe it faithfully it may sound like a comedy, and it is the polar opposite of that. It’s an astonishing, discomforting film and I don’t know of anything else like it.
- Tigers Are Not Afraid: a powerful film that gets the balance astonishingly right between real and supernatural horrors. A model of how horror can strengthen rather than trivialize important stories of the world we live in.
5. Now let’s delve into specific films rather than specific streaming services. First, you need some Hammer Horror in your life. Seek out The Curse of Frankenstein, their first color horror movie and the first in the generally strong Frankenstein series starring Peter Cushing (with Christopher Lee as the monster in this one). Hammerheads will argue over which of the Frankenstein films is best, which Cushing/Lee film is best, etc., but few will argue that Curse is a solid starting point.
6. Going back in time a bit, if you haven’t watched The Invisible Man recently, check it out — I had forgotten how misanthropic and disturbing it is. Not a happy movie in the least, and I think it’s notable that it fits into the pre-Code horror time, having been released in 1933, just before the Production Code started really to be enforced. An excellent piece of popular filmmaking, efficient and effective.
7. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t point out that Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem is available on a bunch of streaming platforms right now. I know you will probably never love it as much as I do, and that’s okay, but still, give it a chance. It just might infect your dreams.
8. Speaking of infected dreams,The Eyes of My Mother is one of the few horror movies to ever give me dreams. It’s one of those movies that sneaks up on you. I think it’s a masterpiece.
9. Not a masterpiece, but maybe worth your time, is The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism, an excellent example of a movie that doesn’t even try to live up to its title, but is nonetheless pretty great for what it is. The title was created to entice people to buy tickets, and they were probably disappointed, because instead of a shockingly transgressive story you get a pretty good little gothic tale with some lovely cinematography. They sold it as a Christopher Lee movie, but he clearly was only available (or affordable) for a few days of shooting. Still, I was far more entertained than I expected when I first put it on, my curiosity piqued by the title.
10. Pulse is maybe my favorite Kiyoshi Kurosawa film. Unless it’s Cure. Or maybe Charisma (not streaming, alas). Pulse is the one that’s most available, though, and if you haven’t seen it, it is really quite something, maybe the closest to a film not by David Lynch feeling like it’s by David Lynch — but in a good and not derivative way.
11. The Body Snatcher is not the best movie Val Lewton produced (for me, that’s I Walked with a Zombie), but it’s very good and stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, which ought to be enough to get you to watch it once if you’ve never seen it before. It would make an excellent double feature with The Flesh and the FIends, a great (truly!) Peter Cushing film.
12. Audition allows you to play a fun joke on friends who don’t know anything about this movie. Invite folks to watch it and don’t tell them it’s a horror movie. Tell them it’s a drama about a man’s search for love. By the end, your friends may not speak to you for a few days or weeks or maybe even ever again … but it will have been soooo worth it!
13. The greatest horror movie of all time is the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. One day I might write about why, but it seems so self-evident that I hardly know where to begin. It is everything.
That’s 13 ideas and far more than 13 movies. If you want more, I recommend Slant magazine’s list of 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time, which you will certainly disagree with (it’s a list; even the list makers I’m sure disagree with it! and Alice, Sweet Alice deserves to be far higher than 96! no Blood on Satan’s Claw?!) but it’s well informed and will steer you in good directions.
