My #31daysofhalloween challenge 2026

Well well well, it is that time of the year again and once again I have been keeping up my yearly tradition of watching at least 31 horror movies in the month of October i.e. at least one per day, and a bunch of other horror media which I will get to. So here is what I’ve been watching and what I thought.

First off, The Movies:

1. Mononoke the Movie: Chapter III - The Curse of the Serpent
Third and final part of the film spin offs from the Horror-Anime with an incredible art style and absolute horror vibes for days. If you love dazzling art direction and Asian culture then this is a big rec from me, though I think you’d need to watch the first couple at the very least or start off with the series which is excellent too.

2. Dr. Terror’s Gallery of Horrors

Eh, American made anthology very much in the spirit of the Amicus EC comic adaptions but nowhere near as good. Roger Corman would have been ashamed to put this one out.

3. Daughters of Darkness
Man. Don’t you just hate it when you watch a UK cut of a Euro-erotica with all the fun sexy bits cut for the BBFC? I’m sure there’s probably a much more fun version with all the good stuff left in kicking around somewhere hopefully with subtitles but this ain’t it chief. Would not recommend.

4. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy
Meh, not bad if you like Jump Scares. As an Irish film maker I honestly wish I could get behind Cronins work a bit more but this is passable dumb fun, not bad by any means just not much to write home about.

5. Exit 8
If i had a quid for every horror movie based on a computer game to come out this year that I've seen that is about a protagonist dealing with the anxieties of prospective fatherhood id have two quid, but isn't it weird that it's happened twice? Pretty good tho, made me want to play the game too so fair play.

6. Frankie Freako

From the absolute legends at Astron-6, this is some top tier comedy horror for lovers of practical effects and a penchant for 80s nostalgia. It might not be quite up there with Father’s Day or Psycho Goreman but its still pretty good by anyone else's standards. I had a blast and I defy anyone who has a love of the whole wet-puppets trope in classic pre CGI horror not to have an absolute blast.

7. Monster House

Childrens animated horror that is in the vein of The ‘Burbs but for kids. The CGI animation might be sowing its age a bit but if you have preteens and you want something you can all watch for a bit of crack in the spooky season (and you’ve already rinsed the Henry Sellick / Laika ouvre) then you can do a lot worse. Good voice cast too.

8. Obsession

I actually missed this when it was out at the cinema and having now seen it, yeah its dope AF. Not quite my bag but I can see why the young’uns all like it and the fact that it has done gangbusters are the box office is a good sign for the health of the genre. Great central conceit, well executed, great turns by al the main cast (none of whom I think I’ve seen in anything before either) and gives you a lot to chew on after. Everything a good horror should be.

9. Perfect Blue

Rewatch of one of my absolute favourites by arguably the greatest mangaka / Anime director to ever do it. Brilliant. If you’re reading this and you’ve never seen this then what are you even doing with your life?

10. The Ugly Stepsister

Gloriously twisted darkly humorous body horror take on Cinderella. I have to say this got pretty fucked up in certain parts, like it made me gag a little and I’m hard as f’ing nails in general so be warned.

11. Let the Wrong One In

Irish Vampire comedy horror. Pretty good, there’s a bit where a guy takes a Vampire’s heart out with a Hurl and shouts “Up The Dubs” as he hits it like a sliotar into the sunlight to kill the vamp. Also notable for one of the last performances of the late great Anthony Head.

12. The Empty Village

I always like to hit a new watch from each continent, today I'm doing a new one from Ghana. Not bad. It is a bit odd though that it has the name of the production company being imposed in every frame (i'm guessing that's for copyright, even though its free to watch on youtube).

13. Mārama

Māori gothic horror which is not technically out in the UK until the end of the year but I would consider worth keeping an eye out for. As someone with Māori kin its great to see the culture being depicted on film and this is some excellent work.

14. Hokum

Rewatch for me, another top quality Irish one from the team that brought us Caveat and Oddity, which presumably did well enough that they got the budget to hire Andrew Scott from Severance and numerous other big American TV shows for the lead. Nice wee spooky Irish yarn with an intriguing mystery plot and great creepy vibes all round.

15. Nosferatu

Again, a rewatch but I hadn’t seen it since release and had a fun time introducing it to my family, who all had a great time with it. Totally forgot that its technically a Christmas film and probably should have waited til then, ah well…

16. An Evening Of Edgar Allen Poe

Vincent Price monologing 4 Poe stories. No filter, just Price on gull scenery chewing form and the raw text. Essential for fans of either.

17 PVC-1

This years visit to South America. A Columbian horror-thriller based on the true story of a woman who has a bomb collar attached to her neck by terrorists looking to extort her family. A solid 85 minute shot as a 1-er that never lets up the tension for a single second. Genuinely terrifying. Available to watch for free on Youtube here.

18. Good Boy

From the people that did Skinamarink, which I thought was really interesting but respected more than I enjoyed. This is a horror film about the cutest wee dog experiencing the death of its owner as a haunting and all from the perspective of the dog and has some of the best animal acting you’ll ever see. Very well done and if you’re a dog owner yourself this will fuck you up.

19. Die Säge des Todes (aka Bloody Moon)

Prolific euro-erotica director Jess Franco doing a slasher thriller with some inventive and amusing kills and a plot that is actually a lot smarter than I give it credit for. Like I thought I was just watching a stylish, cool and very horny late giallo but there were a couple of twists and turns that I genuinely didn’t see coming.

20. The Boxer’s Omen

Really weird bit of spooky Hong Kong action-horror. Very very Asian, to the point where its basically nonsensical if you’re not immersed in southern Chinese Buddhist magick lore. That said, it is an incredibly fun ride with some cool action, fever-dream visual sequences and really gnarly gore effects, all practical obviously with it being from the 80s. It’s about a triad-adjacent kick-boxer who has to become a Buddhist monk to fight demons, and that is about all you need to know.

21. Jennifer’s Body

A rewatch. I haven’t seen this for a long time and I always remembered liking it, nice to be confirmed. The scary bits are scary, the body horror is suitably squicky and as a dark, blackly comedic teen drama, aye it rules. The two leads Amanda Seifreid and Megan Fox are quite believable as two girls locked in a toxic friendship, Diablo Cody’s dialogue is just consistently sparkly and funny. I’m glad it has obtained the cult classic status and recognition for its brilliance it richly deserved all these years.

22. Lost Boys

Continuing my binge of classics that I’ve not seen in a bit nor written about here before, the Joel Schumacher Teen vampire horror comedy 80s classic Lost Boys. I have a good mate for whom this is his post-party hangover comfort film and I get it. Great story, lie Jennifer’s Body it could almost be in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe, looks great, had vibes for days and the soundtrack is pure gold.

23. The Witches of Eastwick

Another 80s classic I can’t say I’ve seen since the turn of the century, another Hollywood 80s cinema classic with a packed cast and tons of style. Based on a novel of the same name the writing is clever, the dialogue endlessly quotable and there are great turns from all involved. Good fun.

24. The Lair Of The White Worm

Ok, I might have written about this before in one of these lists but I will never tire of this film, or any other Ken Russell film I’ve seen. Considered one of his lesser works, this was one of the first of his I ever saw (actually probably the first, I’m sure I saw this before Tommy) this is a charming tribute to the classic British technicolour horror tradition and a banger horror comedy in its own right. Did I see anything in the film this time that I hadn’t seen before? Eh, no, but it does have a lot of 90s Amanda Donahoe running around being all sexy and evil so IDGAF.

25. Tremors

Probably the first time I have seen this since I was a kid. This is just a very fun tribute to the classic American creature feature tradition, might be my favourite Kevin Bacon performance too. Constantly inventive with how it scares you, and keeps you on your toes in the sense of characters (that are all very well realised and you genuinely care about) getting themselves in and out of monster related scrapes. Tight, efficient storytelling and again just a lot of fun.

26. Arrebato (aka Rapture)

Art house movie-about-movies from the late 70s. It’s barely a horror except in an existential sense up to the last act. Kind of like 8 & ½ if Fellini was a junky. It’s a study of how one can allow oneself to be consumed by obsession, whether that is with an addictive substance or the process of artistic creation. A dark but nonetheless sincere love-letter to the medium of cinema. I liked it a lot, even if it wasn’t literally scary.

27. Necronomicon: The Book Of The Dead

Oh, a Brian Yuzna project I’ve not seen before. And it’s in one of my favourite formats the classic Amicus-style Portmanteau. And it’s also loosely based on HP Lovecraft stories, which capture the vibe and imaginative cosmic horror of the originals without Herbert's weird sexist and racist peccadillos. Yeah, very enjoyable and goes harder on the gore and practical SFX than it needed to, like this was 1993 essentially the peak of all that stuff before the CGI blight on cinema got underway, like had it been a year or two younger it would all look like dogshit now.

28. Clayface

Wee trip to the pictures for this one. Loved it. As amusing as it is that it's set in the Battinson DC Universe and that Colin Farrell, Paul Dano and Barry Keogh are also out there in this universe doing villain stuff, really you can watch this as a stand-alone and be very entertained. Didn't catch any DC Easter eggs / references or even nods but I did catch the odd one to other stuff I adore like Darkman being the big one, a little Theatre Of Blood and a bit of Yuzna in its creative DNA.

29. The Devils

The long awaited 4k restored full directors cut is now finally with us and it is truly a glory to behold! The story, based on true events in 1630s France this is a historical gothic about the intersection of sex, religion and political power that hasn’t been available in its intended form, with one particular scene considered the philosophical, moral and theological heart of the entire project by the director finally restored with no small thanks to the efforts of the critic and friend of the director Mark Kermode, who did a live introduction at the premiere showing I attended. This will go down as one of my best cinematic experiences of the year.

30. Necropolis

A sexy blonde multi-breasted reincarnated VVitch returns to stalk the streets of New York in the 80s. Set in the then-contemporary “The Deuce” era when Times Square was full of junkies, pimps and their ho’s it feels like there’s some sort of social commentary being attempted here amongst the fan service but its hard to tell exactly what’s being said and it lacks the raw scrungyness and charm (not to mention the incredible soundtrack) of Liquid Sky which did much of the same things better and on a much lower budget. Still, its fun and thankfully short at a tight 77 minutes.

30. Vampire Hunter D

I decided to finish the season by binging a couple of old OVA Anime Horror classics beginning with the legendary Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Vampire Hunter D, first time watching in quite a few years and its as good as I remember. This has big nostalgia vibes for me because I recall that first wave after Akira when all these Japanese cartoons for adults with swearing, blood and titties started hitting the west and that style to us was what anime was supposed to be. Anyway, this was great, the plot is ridiculous and the dialogue is very silly but the vibe and animation are still fire, gorgeous all these years later and now basically impossible to replicate since the generation of people who could do hand drawn cell animation have decidedly aged out of the industry and life itself. It’s wonderful a capsule of another time.

31. BAOH

This one I haven’t seen. Based on the Shonen manga by Hirohiko Araki who would later become world famous as the creator of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure this is essentially an extended origin story for a series that would never get made. Its good fun, basically The Gyver but with a lot more gore and body horror. The art, character design and animation are all in that classic 80s-90s OVA style so much of what I’ve said above about D goes here too.

So that’s the 31 day film challenge.

Other than that I have been reading Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudon, the basis for the Ken Russell film see above which is actually a work of non-fiction but considering the subject matter very season appropriate. Its great, a long non fictional work, interdisciplinary before the term was much of a thing in academia it is both a work of history that also includes long discursive chapters on theology, philosophy and the psychology of mass hysteria. That took me longer than anticipated so the only other book I managed was Chuck Tingle’s first non-Tingler Camp Damascus which while not quite having the sophistication or polish of his later sci-fi horrors is nonetheless excellent and you can see in it the promise of what was to follow.

I watched all of the latest season of Haunted Hotel, a cool little animated horror comedy which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also saw Poor Devil another animated comedy horror series about the antichrist living in present day New York. It was pretty good, lots of contemporary satirical humour and the penultimate episode about the downstairs neighbour who is barely in the rest of the series is one of the finest single episodes of anything I think I’ve seen all year. And of course it wouldn’t be October without a new Mike Flanaghan project and this time he’s doing a modern adaption of Stephen King’s iconic debut novel Carrie but a very loose one that’s been brought up to date to the age of social media. It was cracking, the long 8 hour miniseries format gives it a lot of time to breathe and really flesh out some of the characters that were a bit one note in the original, like the bully and Mrs White are given enough material that even if you still hate them you actually completely get who they are and why. I can see the King purist super fans hating it for all of that and while I have an issue or two of my own with the ending for the most part this is one of the best things on TV all this year so far.

And that was my October. I did see a bunch of other non-horror related stuff and made it to the theatre a couple of times too, which I may write about again in the near future. Until next year, happy spooky season.