For the past several years, I’ve treated October as an excuse to watch the Big Famous Movies (horror edition) that I’ve never gotten around to watching, plus some other ones thrown in that are on-theme. So far Natalie and I have done:
Draculas month, featuring:
- Dracula (1931). The One with Bela Lugosi
- Dracula’s Daughter (1936)
- Dracula (1958). Lee/Cushing, delightful
- The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974). Hammer Horror and Hong Kong martial arts crossover.
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). has also inspired a different project, “watch every film costumed or designed by Eiko Ishioka”
Zombies month, featuring:
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- Dawn of the Dead (1978)
- Day of the Dead (1985)
- Evil Dead II (1987). watching Evil Dead in the Draculas year inspired the zombie theme
- One Cut of the Dead (2017)
Aliens month (ongoing this year!), featuring:
- Alien (1979)
- Aliens (1986)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
- The Thing from Another World (1951)
- The Thing (1982)
So here’s where you come in: what are some important themes we could do? What goes on those lists? I’m largely looking for The Big Ones (like the Romero trilogy, Alien, Dracula, stuff like that), but give me any sleeper hits you think really should not be missed and what theme they go with. I don’t do great with loving depictions of torture or human-on-human violence, but if you think there’s something I really shouldn’t miss for cultural reasons, recommend it and let me know whether I should prepare myself going in.
Future themes we’re rotating in our minds include: Vampires (non-Dracula edition), Ghosts (The Shining, Poltergeist, etc), Horror Comedy (things like Evil Dead would go here), Witches, and Werewolves. Any major categories we missed? Recommendations for movies to add to theme year reprises are also welcome.
A Frankenstein month could be fun, since there’s approximately one billion Frankenstein movies (or if you want to go broader you could just do a Mad Scientist month).
If you’re gonna do a Witches Month you GOTTA make sure The Craft’s on the list.
For non-Dracula vampires, my all-time favorite vampire movie is Only Lovers Left Alive. It is not strictly speaking big-name or scary but it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced. Also The Lost Boys is a cultural touchstone.
What We Do in the Shadows could go in either vampires or horror comedy, but I would recommend putting it at the very end of the vampire month so that you can spot all the references to other movies.
There are apparently a lot of movies called The Lost Boys! Which one do you mean?
Don’t worry, I know which one
The Blob, and Creature from the Black Lagoon? Re-Animator maybe.
For themes, you could do Frankenstein adaptations. And in the future you could always do comedic versions, like Monster Squad and Young Frankenstein
Yeah! Love the idea of Creature Feature as an adjunct to aliens… that was some of the inspiration, and then I realized we’d named so many alien specific movies it could be its own entire month. And you’re right, there’s definitely a whole month worth of Frankensteins too…
You can do a LOT with Stephen King adaptations!
They are incredibly hit and miss overall, but I am a huge fan of the Purge series. I generally think of them as “75% smart” movies, but they’re good if you’re a fan of the more action-thriller style of horror that they’re going for. The First Purge (the movie called that, not the first movie in the Purge series, which is just called ‘The Purge’) is probably one of my favorite movie theater experiences I ever had.
Making a note of this! Do you have any thoughts about a category this might fit in? I’ve been rotating the idea of a Post-Apoc year (which I know this notably isn’t, but might be the closest vibe).
Yeah, they’re not EXACTLY post-apoc, so I don’t think that’s the vibe… honestly, they’re sort of variations on Haunted House or Home Invasion horror, in many ways. The first Purge movie is almost directly a “home invasion gone weird” story. Purge: Anarchy is “what if the whole city became a haunted house”, Purge: Election Year is really bad but it’s basically “what if you had to carry someone through a haunted city”, The First Purge is “what if an entire neighborhood was under attack”.
Yeah, maybe like, home invasion? Maybe that’s the best comp??? not sure.