If you’re anything like me, you probably already have movies that you watch every October. Ones that bring on a sense of nostalgia, or ones that you know give you the creeps – if you enjoy that sort of thing! Maybe you even have a fall watch-list planned out for this spooky season of all your favorites already (I certainly do). However, if you’ve yet to make your watch-list, or if you’re looking for something new to add, you’ve come to the right place!
Talk To Me
Starting off strong, we have Talk to Me, which came out this past July and currently has the highest rating on Letterboxd out of all the horror newly released this year. It’s about a group of friends who find an embalmed hand and discover that they can summon spirits with the dismembered limb. Of course, they take their excitement about this discovery a little too far, and some pretty terrifying forces of the dead become free as a result. It was directed by the Philippou brothers, who’ve been creating comedic horror content on YouTube together since 2013 under the channel name, RackaRacka. At 7 million subscribers and counting, it’s no wonder that people went into theaters to watch this movie.
Late Night With The Devil
Our next film is Late Night With the Devil, which premiered in March starring David Dastmalchian, who you might know from the recent blockbuster hit Oppenheimer, as well as The Dark Knight and Dune. Laura Gordon, who’s known for her roles in other horror films like Saw V and Come Back To Me, also stars in the film. Late Night With the Devil is about a live TV broadcast for a talk show that took place in 1977. However, when the worst possible scenario happens, evil supernatural forces infiltrate viewers’ living rooms, and it becomes the most memorable (and terrifying) talk show of the century! The Cairnes brothers directed the film and expressed their desire for the film to really show and be true to the American history and pop culture of the time, despite the film being shoot in Melbourne, Australia. There’s a montage of the key events and people of the time in the film, including the Nixon presidency, the Vietnam War, the Charles Manson trial and more. Definitely a must for the retro horror lovers out there!
Sleep
Lastly, we have Sleep – Jason Yu’s debut directorial film that premiered just last month – a South Korean film that’s become a big hit in the horror genre. It’s about a young couple who’ve just had a baby, but the husband has problems sleep-walking. And not just, “Oh, when he sleepwalks, he’ll go and eat out of the peanut butter jar! How crazy is that?”. I mean, when he sleepwalks, he becomes a different person entirely. It scares his wife so much that she is terrified he is going to harm the newborn, and she stays awake throughout the night to protect the baby from him. She ends up robbing herself of sleep after just birthing a child, which is a horrible mixture. This is a horror film that is both darkly comedic and also scare-your-socks-off frightening, which is a great combination to have.
Horror movies are an essential for this time of year! If you’re too wary of the “scare reputations” of horror classics like The Exorcist or The Conjuring, new movies like these are a great place to start, since they haven’t had time to be put on a horror pedestal. Now, happy fall watch-list making!