Halloween is on the last day of October but the entire month of October has come to be associated with horror films. Cinemas in October always have horror films: arthouse and indie cinemas show older classic films, multiplexes show newer Hollywood horror films. You can be sure there will cinemas in North America that will program The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which will take on a more emotional note this year with the passing of Tim Curry. Streaming platforms curate Halloween/horror films in October. Even the Criterion Channel gets in on the act every year.
The Horror genre has been present from the earliest days of cinema, with German, French, Swedish cinema of the 1910-20s packed with examples of horror films. The genre hasn't ever gone out of style with each decade adding a new twist or subgenre to the mix ranging from body horror, folk, psychological, supernature, sci-fi, teen, supernatural, found footage to name just a few. The last few years has seen another surge in horror films and especially low-budget horror films which have drawn huge crowds to cinemas.
In the spirit of the spooky
season, I plan to watch a diverse range of horror films over the next week until
the clock strikes Oct 31.
Horror Film Spotlight
Folk Horror:
Two British countryside selections, one older and one contemporary,
while the other looks at 1630s New England in the new American countryside.
The Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy)
Enys Men (2022, Mark Jenkin)
The Witch (2015, Robert Eggers)
Body Horror:
When it comes to Body Horror, David Cronenberg’s name
is the first that comes to mind. To raise the stakes slightly, this spotlight
gets two Cronenbergs: father and son.
The Brood (1979, David Cronenberg)
Possessor (2020, Brandon Cronenberg)
Sci-fi horror
A meteorite falls near a farm and leads to strange
mutations. And the film stars Nicolas Cage. If there was a description that
felt like a good old fashioned B-grade horror film, then this is it.
Color Out of Space (2019, Richard Stanley)
Survival Horror / Zombie
The Night Eats the World (2018, Dominique Rocher)
Highway horror
The Cars That Ate Paris (1974, Peter Weir)
Part of Criterion Channel’s Highway Horror series.
Psychological horror / Found footage
Backrooms (2026, Kane Parsons)
Psychological horror / Supernatural
Possession (1981, Andrzej Żuławski)
Part of Criterion Channel’s Possessions series.
Supernatural Horror / Comedy
A Useful Ghost (2025, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke)
