SHOCKtober: 592-565

So many one-vote-each perfect movies on today's chunk o' list that my pants are completely full. Of what, exactly, I leave to your imagination.

592. Mansion of the Doomed -- 1976, Michael Pataki

591. Maniac Cop -- 1988, William Lustig

590. Manhunter -- 1986, Michael Mann

589. Magic -- 1978, Richard Attenborough

588. Madman -- 1981, Joe Giannone

587. Mad Monster Party? -- 1967, Jules Bass

586. The Machine Girl -- 2008, Noboru Iguchi

585. M3GAN -- 2022, Gerard Johnstone

584. Love Massacre -- 1981, Patrick Tam

583. Lord of Illusions -- 1995, Clive Barker

582. Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby -- 1976, Sam O'Steen

581. Lo -- 2009, Travis Betz

580. Lifeforce -- 1985, Tobe Hooper

579. Let Us Prey -- 2014, Brian O'Malley

578. Left Bank (aka Linkeroever) -- 2008, Pieter Van Hees

577. The Last House on the Left -- 1972, Wes Craven

576. Las poquianchis -- 1976, Felipe Cazals

575. Lamb -- 2021, Valdimar Jóhannsson

574. Lake Placid -- 1999, Steve Miner

573. Lake of the Dead -- 1958, Kåre Bergstrøm

572. The Lair of the White Worm -- 1988, Ken Russell

571. Lady in a Cage -- 1964, Walter Grauman

570. La tentación -- 1991, Enrique Gómez Vadillo 

569. Kolobos -- 1999, Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk

568. Kingdom of the Spiders -- 1977, John "Bud" Cardos

567. King Kong -- 1933, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

566. Killer Bees -- 1974, Curtis Harrington

565. Killdozer! -- 1974, Jerry London

• How do I love Lady in a Cage? I would say "let me count the ways" but honestly, counting to infinity would not be enough. It is batshit in all the right ways and whether you've seen it or not, you should watch it. You deserve a treat! Sayeth one reader (who obviously has exquisite taste!): "Maybe the best home invasion ever, I feel so guilty about having eyes that let me see how sexy James Caan is here because that young man is no good." Here, just for you, reader, and all you beefcake enjoyers:

• I somehow have never seen Maniac Cop, but I have seen Psycho Cop. Does that count? (And yes, that is just another scintillating tale from your friendly (?) neighborhood Final Girl.)
• Please note, the reader who submitted Lord of Illusions meant the Director's Cut of the film!
• A reader on Love Massacre: "Like a Rothko/Donald Cammell love child. Desperately needs a restoration, but even the YouTube copy with hard to read subs delivers. The cut from the opening scene to the title card kicks so much ass."  
• I don't know about you, but I'm waiting for the day some thinkpiece when one of the kids these days discovers Lifeforce.
• The reader who submitted La tentación pointed me to its poster and for that alone I am eternally grateful. The movie also sounds like a horny-trashy-homoerotic(y) bonanza, so there you go! 

• I am sure I do not need to tell you how I feel about Kingdom of the Spiders at this point! But I've never mentioned how I feel about Killer Bees. However, given that it's directed by Curtis Harrington and it's made-for-TV and it features Kate Jackson...OH AND GLORIA SWANSON AND THE TITULAR KILLER BEES, I'm sure you can accurately guess how I feel about it. Kino Lorber, if you're listening, where is the Blu-ray??
• Love to see love for Kolobos. Another movie I could have sworn I reviewed around here, and yet nada. What is happening? Is there some alternate universe Final Girl where all this missing reviews exist and I keep switching between the two? Probably. Anyway, check out Kolobos why don'tcha?

SHOCKtober: 620-593

Ah, dippin' into the 500s today...still so many movies to go. The first time I did this I thought there'd be, like, 125 movies on the list. The lesson here is, I'm a moron. But we all knew that, so let's just get to today's films, each of which received one vote.

620. Prometheus -- 2012, Ridley Scott

619. Possum -- 2018, Matthew Holness

618. Poison for the Fairies -- 1986, Carlos Enrique Taboada

617. Piranha -- 1978, Joe Dante

616. Parents -- 1989, Bob Balaban

615. ParaNorman -- 2012, Chris Butler and Sam Fell

614. Panic Room -- 2002, David Fincher

613. Pan's Labyrinth -- 2006, Guillermo de Toro

612. Open Water -- 2003, Chris Kentis

611. Only Lovers Left Alive -- 2013, Jim Jarmusch

610. Occult Bolshevism -- 2018, Hiroshi Takahashi

609. Obsession: A Taste for Fear -- 1987, Piccio Raffanini

608. November -- 2017, Rainer Sarnet

607. Nothing Bad Can Happen -- 2013, Katrin Gebbe

606. Noriko's Dinner Table -- 2005, Sion Sono

605. Nightmare Sisters -- 1988, David DeCoteau

604. Nightbreed -- 1990, Clive Barker

603. Next of Kin -- 1982, Tony Williams

602. My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To -- 2020, Jonathan Cuartas

601. Mister Frost -- 1990, Philippe Setbon

600. Mr. Boogedy -- 1986, Oz Scott

599. Moontrap -- 1988, Robert Dyke

598. Midnight Offerings -- 1981, Rod Holcomb

597. Memories of Murder -- 2003, Bong Joon Ho

596. Medusa -- 2021, Anita Rocha da Silveira

595. MaXXXine -- 2024, Ti West

594. Mausoleum -- 1983, Michael Dugan

593. Mary Reilly -- 1996, Stephen Frears

• PIRANHA RULES, THE END
• You know what, Prometheus gets a bad rap but that one reader and I don't care! I went to see it in the theatre with my parents (which I had not done since I was a child, literally) and it was fun and I live for those spacesuits. So sue me!
• Mausoleum, hooo, now we're talking. A nonsensical good time featuring not only corn teeth but also my man Marjoe. Has any movie ever given us more?
• A reader on Mary Reilly:

  There are a whole series of movies that came out when I was 15/16 between 1996-1997 that were so weird and I was so obsessed. I'm sure they have turned me into the strange person I am now. I was going through a John Malkovich phase and he stomped a child. What joy. There is also a scene where they skin an eel. I've never recovered and just googled if it was real or not.

  First of all, I love that they leave us hanging about the eel. Also, this anecdote sums up rather well why it's so much more interesting for y'all to submit your favorites instead of whatever you think is "best," even if there is sometimes overlap.

• I could have sworn that I wrote some kind of review or something about Next of Kin, because I watched it for the first time a couple of years ago and I loved it loved it loved it. But I am coming up blank! Oh well, I'm sure it was just way too many words to say "I love Next of Kin, you should check it out." 
• Not sure how it is that I was so excited when the MaXXXine stinger happened after the credits of Pearl and I was so excited and couldn't wait to see it, and yet here I am now, still not having seen it? Hmm, I contain multitudes I guess.

SHOCKtober: 648-621

A rather varied chunk o' list coming at you today, so let's get to it! The following films received one vote each.

648. Signs -- 2002, M. Night Shyamalan

647. Sick of Myself -- 2022, Kristoffer Borgli

646. Shock (aka Beyond the Door II) -- 1977, Mario Bava and Lamberto Bava

645. Shivers -- 1975, David Cronenberg

644. The She-Creature -- 1956, Edward L. Cahn

643. Shadow in the Cloud -- 2020, Roseanne Liang

642. Séance -- 2000, Kiyoshi Kurosawa

641. Scream and Scream Again -- 1970, Gordon Hessler

640. Scream VI -- 2023, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

639. Scream 3 -- 2000, Wes Craven

638. Scared Stiff -- 1987, Richard Friedman

637. Scarecrows -- 1988, William Wesley

636. Scare Me -- 2020, Josh Ruben

635. Saw -- 2004, James Wan

634. Saw II -- 2005, Darren Lynn Bousman

633. Satanic Panic -- 2019, Chelsea Stardust

632. Satan's School for Girls -- 1973, David Lowell Rich

631. Satan's Cheerleaders -- 1977, Greydon Clark

630. Saloum -- 2021, Jean Luc Herbulot

629. Saint Drogo -- 2023, Ahern, Miller, Perras-Sanchez, Dalpe, Gonsalves, and Jensen

628. Safe -- 1995, Todd Haynes

627. Ricky 6 -- 2000, Peter Filardi

626. Return to Oz -- 1985, Walter Murch

625. [REC] 2 -- 2009, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza

624. Rear Window -- 1954, Alfred Hitchcock

623. R-Point -- 2004, Su-chang Kong

622. The Queen of Black Magic -- 2019, Kimo Stamboel

621. Quatermass and the Pit -- 1967, Roy Ward Baker

• Heck yeah, Safe! Love seeing it here. This kinda showing is why this list is the best and Final Girl readers rule. 
• YES Saint Drogo had six directors!
• I love Shock so much. A li'l possession, a li'l haunted house, a li'l mystery, a lotta Daria Nicolodi, and that incredible jump scare.
• It occurs to me that I've never actually seen Scream and Scream Again. But I have seen And Now the Screaming Starts. Not that that matters, I'm just saying because my mind sort of conflates and/or confuses the two.
• Speaking of scream(ing)...we go from Scream 3 to Scream VI. The series swaps between Arabic and Roman numerals, just like the Friday the 13th series does. Wow, Scream really is meta!
• A reader on Return to Oz: "I genuinely think seeing this as a child was my gateway into horror." They may be the lone voter, but I bet they're not the only one who feels that way about this movie.
• R-Point kinda got lost in amongst all the other great Korean offerings during the mid-aughties "Tartan Asia Extreme" wave, which is too bad because it's so good.
• A reader on [REC] 2: "The first one is obviously better but this one doesn't get enough love because it's sillier (but just as fun)." You know what? I agree. I think this would have been better received if it didn't have the burden of following The Adventures of Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-Reporter and All-Around Hero Ángela Vidal. And yes, that is [REC]'s Christian name. Heck, I'll even go to bat for [REC] 3: Genesis, which is also a lot of fun. [REC] 4: Apocalypse though...(Mariah Carey voice) I don't know her. Although now that I say that, I kind of want to revisit it...? That's the power of Ángela Vidal, baby!

SHOCKtober: 676-649

I don't know about you, but my list of "aw man I gotta check that out" movies is growing day by day thanks to some of y'allses faves. When the month is all said and done, I'll make the entire list available for download in a handy PDF or something. And then who among you will watch one of the listed films every day for the next 2+ years? 

Well, that is then. Now is all about the following movies, which received one vote each.

676. Terminator 2: Judgment Day -- 1991, James Cameron

675. Tenderness of the Wolves -- 1973, Ulli Lommel

674. Teeth -- 2007, Mitchell Lichtenstein

673. Tarantula -- 1955, Jack Arnold

672. Tales from the Crypt -- 1972, Freddie Francis

671. Symptoms -- 1974, José Ramón Larraz

670. Sweeney Todd -- 2007, Tim Burton

669. Summer of Fear -- 1978, Wes Craven

668. Summer of 84 -- 2018, François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell

667. Stoker -- 2013, Park Chan-wook

666. Stigmata -- 1999, Rupert Wainwright

665. Stay Alive -- 2006, William Brent Bell

664. Starry Eyes -- 2014, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer

663. Spookies -- 1986, Genie Joseph, Thomas Doran, and Brendan Faulkner

662. Spontaneous -- 2020, Brian Duffield

661. Splinter -- 2008, Toby Wilkins

660. Spider Baby -- 1967, Jack Hill

659. Speak No Evil -- 2022, Christian Tafdrup

658. Sorry to Bother You -- 2018, Boots Riley

657. Sorority House Massacre 3 (aka Hard to Die) -- 1990, Jim Wynorski

656. Something Wicked This Way Comes -- 1983, Jack Clayton

655. Solaris -- 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky

654. Slaughter High -- 1986, George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, and Peter Mackenzie Litten

653. Slash/Back -- 2022, Nyla Innuksuk

652. Sissy -- 2022, Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes 

651. The Silent Scream -- 1979, Denny Harris

650. Silent Madness -- 1984, Simon Nuchtern

649. Silent Hill -- 2006, Christophe Gans

• I'm sorry, did I write that Stay Alive is a movie that got one vote? I meant to write that it is the number one movie! I will someday release a 600-page tome about how it is the best; If you do not feel like waiting for that day, you can read that back issue of Rue Morgue where I wrote about it. I will never stop loving it!
• Am I the only person in the world who didn't know that Wentworth Miller wrote Stoker?
• Stigmata ranked #666 is unintended perfection.
• A reader on Speak No Evil: "From the moment the car pulls into the driveway of Patrick and Karin, with the accompanying musical sting, I was hooked. This story ratchets up so quickly and while you might be screaming at the screen at Bjorn and Louise’s sometimes inexplicable choices, anyone who has ever felt bound by social constraints of being polite, of being nice despite their own discomfort, will understand this film. An instant classic for me."
• How have I never even heard of Silent Madness? (I mean, I guess the madness is silent, so...) 1984? The Devil's Daughter's Belinda Montgomery? Viveca Lindfors?? I need to get out from under this rock!
• Slash/Back is terrific, a kind of Kidz Bop The Thing centered on a severely underrepresented location and demographic. It's for everyone, but it's especially recommended if you've got horror kids who need something to watch. 
• I am going to make it a point to finally watch Symptoms some time this month. And to rewatch Tales from the Crypt; Just thinking about the Joan Collins segment and corpse Peter Cushing's corn teeth really sends me. And Summer of Fear, too. I really can't believe I've never seen it. See? The "aw man I gotta check that out" just won't stop growing.

SHOCKtober: 704-677

You know the drill! Drop and give me a bunch of movies that got one vote each!

704. The Deadly Spawn -- 1983, Douglas McKeown

703. The Day of the Triffids -- 1963, Steve Sekely and Freddie Francis

702. The Curse of Frankenstein -- 1957, Terence Fisher

701. The Conjuring -- 2013, James Wan

700. The Conjuring 2 -- 2016, James Wan

699. The Conference -- 2023, Patrik Eklund

698. The Company of Wolves -- 1984, Neil Jordan

697. The Children -- 2008, Tom Shankland

696. The Cell -- 2000, Tarsem Singh

695. The Caller -- 1987, Arthur Allan Seidelman

694. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari -- 1920, Robert Wiene

693. The Burning -- 1981, Tony Maylam

692. The 'Burbs -- 1989, Joe Dante

691. The Brain -- 1988, Ed Hunt

690. The Blue Hour (aka Onthakan) -- 2015, Anucha Boonyawatana

689. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage -- 1970, Dario Argento

688. The Bermuda Depths -- 1978, Tsugunobu Kotani

687. The Believers -- 1987, John Schlesinger

686. The Bay -- 2012, Barry Levinson

685. The Attic -- 1980, Gary Graver and George Edwards

684. The Appointment -- 1982, Lindsey C. Vickers

683. The Apostle (aka O Apóstolo) -- 2012, Fernando Cortizo

682. The Amityville Horror -- 2005, Andrew Douglas

681. The Addiction -- 1995, Abel Ferrara

680. The Abominable Dr Phibes -- 1971, Robert Fruest

679. Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- 2022, David Blue Garcia

678. Terror Train -- 1980, Roger Spottiswoode

677. Terrifier 2 -- 2022, Damien Leone

• I've never actually seen The Curse of Frankenstein, but Christopher Lee as The Creature is iconic. That Famous Monsters cover in particular is burned into my brain, either because Final Mom (a certified Christopher Lee stan) had it or because it was advertised in another issue we had lying around the house. It cannot be overstated how much growing up with easy access to issues of both Famous Monsters and Fangoria played into making me who I am today. It cannot be overstated! So don't ask me to overstate it.
• I am going to resist the urge to go on a big tear about all the magazines of my yoot, the horror mags and the teen mags with posters and pinups and the music mags and of course Mad Magazine. And extra of course the Lillian Vernon catalogues and Parade Magazine at gramma's house. See? I'm resisting.
• I'm kind of surprised that the Conjuring films don't get a lot of love in the list? 
• A reader on Texas Chainsaw Massacre: "I may be utterly alone in this, but I think it's a solid film with good performances. It's not the original, but it's a damn sight better than many reboots. And I liked Mark Burnham's performance as Leatherface. He has an imposing stillness mixed with a volcanic rage. Plus, there is an actual massacre, with a chainsaw."
• You may be alone in the list, reader, but I see you! To my great GREAT surprise, I actually loved Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I thought it was an absolute blast, just a dumb, gory good time. And I honestly dug what it did with Sally Hardesty (until it did her very, very wrong). 
• I love The Children! What a mean movie. (I say that with total heart eyes.)
• A reader on The Bermuda Depths: "Another of my 70s crushes was Leigh McCloskey, who stars here with Connie Sellecca and Carl Weathers in a sort of Jaws/Godzilla rip-off. Despite the subject matter, this one had a surprisingly haunting tone and I remember it leaving me feeling sort of melancholy when it ended."
• In some SHOCKtobers past I've sprinkled a couple of special guest Top 20 Faves lists here and there; Well spoiler alert, that isn't happening this year! This is because I was too lazy to do it.  However! Fear not, for one enterprising horror blog pal (you guys remember horror blogs?) done went and made a post all about his Top 20: I'm talking about Jay over at The Horror Section. One of his faves is featured in today's list-chunk, so when you're done reading here, why not head over there and check out the rest of his list and what he's got to say about all of it?
• FYI I'm also going to resist the urge to go on a big tear about horror blogs, but let me just say that I love 'em.

SHOCKtober: 732-705

We are blasting through this list like a...like a...thing that blasts. Listen, I am only half-a-cup of coffee into what is looking to be a way more coffee than that day, okay? My words aren't all here yet! And YES, before you ask, I am drinking pumpkin spice. As expected my body rejects all other flavors during SHOCKtober.

Also as expected, each of the following films received one vote.

732. The Invisible Woman -- 1940, A. Edward Sutherland 

731. The Invisible Man -- 2020, Leigh Whannell

730. The Innocents (aka De uskyldige) -- 2021, Eskil Vogt 

729. The Initiation of Sarah -- 1978, Robert Day

728. The Incredible Shrinking Man -- 1957, Jack Arnold

727. The Hunt -- 2020, Craig Zobel

726. The House That Jack Built -- 2018, Lars von Trier

725. The House That Dripped Blood -- 1971, Peter Duffell

724. The House by the Cemetery -- 1981, Lucio Fulci

723. The Hourglass Sanitorium -- 1973, Wojciech Has

722. The Hills Have Eyes -- 2006, Alexandre Aja

721. The Grudge -- 2004, Takashi Shimizu

720. The Girl with All the Gifts -- 2016, Colm McCarthy

719. The Gate -- 1987, Tibor Takács

718. The Fourth Kind -- 2009, Olatunde Osunsanmi

717. The Final Terror -- 1983, Andrew Davis

716. The Final Destination -- 2009, David R. Ellis

715. The Fifth Cord -- 1971, Luigi Bazzoni

714. The Feast (aka Gwledd) -- 2021, Lee Haven Jones

713. The Eye 2 -- 2004, Danny Pang and Oxide Chun Pang 

712. The Endless -- 2017, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

711. The Dunwich Horror -- 1970, Daniel Haller

710. The Devil's Rejects -- 2005, Rob Zombie

709. The Devil's Rain -- 1975, Robert Fuest

708. The Devil's Carnival -- 2012, Darren Lynn Bousman

707. The Devil's Backbone -- 2001, Guillermo del Toro

706. The Devil Commands -- 1941, Edward Dmytryk

705. The Devil (aka Diabel) -- 1972, Andrzej Zulawski

 

• Ooooooooohhhh I can feel it! The mere mention of The House by the Cemetery has got me in my Fulci feelings. I'm gonna have to indulge in some weird nonsensical gross magic soon. Also, Bob kind of looks like all the members of ABBA smushed into one person. Bob? BOB!
• The House That Dripped Blood is such a great title...something about it just stirs up all kinds of monster kid vibes.
• I need to revisit a few movies on this list-chunk: The Devil's Rain and The Final Terror to name a couple. I remember being kind of lukewarm on the former, but it stars Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, and Ida Lupino (amongst a shitton of other names) and there are Satanists and peoples' faces melt off, so I don't know why I wasn't completely in love with it like one reader clearly was.
• Speaking of one reader, here is one reader on The Hourglass Sanitorium: "Very heavy mood, like a nightmare you can't wake up from. Accomplishes horror way better than many genre 'horror' films do."
• I think The Invisible Man and The Invisible Woman should get married and have The Invisible Baby <3 <3
• I love The Initiation of Sarah, it's so much fun. And Robert Hays, Morgan Fairchild, Kay Lenz, Shelley Winters, and Tisa Farrow? Please. Flawless. (Also, fun (?) fact: Gaylords of Darkness did a li'l feature on the Arrow Blu-ray of this movie talking about how very delightful (and oft gay) it is. That means you can hear me through your television speakers if that is how you watch Blu-rays.)
• Though it is now 20 years old (dafuq), I have still somehow never seen The Grudge. I know! I've been mulling over doing something about all of those mid-aughties remakes of Asian horror films, but so far I've yet to talk myself into it. I also want to do something with the Ju-on series, at the least finally untangling the actual order of them because man, it might even be more confusing than the order of the Zombie films.
• Oooh! Zombie! There go my Fulci feelings again...

Chilling Classics Cthursday: SCREAM BLOODY MURDER (1973)

I hesitate to call the 1973 exploitation flick Scream Bloody Murder a gem, but surely it qualifies as at least gem-adjacent. After all, this is a movie in which a young boy runs over and kills his father with a piece of farm equipment, only to promptly fall and lose his hand after being run over by the very same farm equipment...all in the first minute of the movie, before the title pops up.

Okay, yeah, by the end of this post I might just be calling Scream Bloody Murder a straight-up gem.

The young boy in question, Matthew, is promptly sent to an institution run by strict-looking nuns of the Silent Night, Deadly Night variety (as opposed to the fun-having nuns of the Sister Act variety, or the hot nuns of the Whichever Annabelle Movie That Was That Had the Nun In It variety). They replace his missing hand with a hook and eventually send him back home. Everyone in the movie continues to call Matthew a "boy," and he certainly speaks like a boy, but actor Fred Holbert was 28 at the time and looks every year of it. So who's to say what's going on with Matthew? Maybe it's none of my business.

One thing you can say about Matthew with total certainty, however, is that he was and continues to be a stone-cold hater. He hates that while he was away in the institution, his mother met an married a nice man and they sometimes touch each other in their private no-no parts, so he promptly kills his new stepfather and then accidentally kills his mother...all in the first ten minutes of the movie.

Matthew goes on the lam and is picked up by some kind newlyweds. They all stop to frolic in a stream (as you do) and when the newlyweds hug...well, you might figure out where this is going. That's right, Matthew is not just any hater, he is a sex hater who has tasked himself with "saving" women from the gross advances of men, whether the women enjoy said advances or not. He kills the men and he's plagued by weird visions of his dead mother Daisy, so then he kills the women, too. A Hater and a Killer: The Matthew Story.

Matthew goes on the lam 2.0 and ends up in Venice, where he meets a cool artist-prostitute named Vera, and well, you might figure out where this is going.

Vera is super chill, meeting johns in her house to pay the bills so she can spend the rest of her time painting. Matthew immediately becomes attached, and Vera is okay with being friends with him, but she's not interested in being saved: "You stay a nice little boy and I'll stay Vera who throws it down for a couple of bucks." 

Again I say: "little boy"? Whatever you say, Scream Bloody Murder! 

Matthew isn't happy taking "I'm happy" for an answer, however. He's concocted a wild tale, that he's from a wealthy family and lives near a mansion nearby, where Vera--whom he now calls 'Daisy' after his mother--can live out her artistic dreams without having to do all that gross sex stuff. He murders one of her johns and then sets out to make his wild tale a reality.

There is nobody Matthew won't kill to make this happen: innocents, old women, dogs...anyone that stands in the way of this dream will end up dead. After he clears the house of its rightful owner, Matthew brings Vera over for a visit, one he demands will be permanent. Vera, of course, says no thank you, so as you might expect, Matthew kidnaps her.

She continues to be ungrateful, even when Matthew points out the lengths he goes to to make her happy: "See what I do for you? I get groceries and clothes and art stuff and kill people."

This is the point when Scream Bloody Murder peters out a bit. Vera's tied up, and we get all the standard someone's being held captive sequences: the foiled escape attempts, the missed phone call, the missed visiting neighbor, and so on. One of these sequences features a pre-Tall Man Angus Scrimm, but I'll have to take imdb's word on that one because I didn't recognize him at all. 

Then again, I also didn't recognize that the same actress plays Vera and Daisy! In my defense, the print for this film is terrible and at times, faces (and end credits) aren't much more than a smear.

It all picks up again during the climax, which finds Matthew on the lam 3.0, literally running from his demons. It's got a somewhat bonkers end that sorta predicts the end of the 1980 Maniac, though Scream Bloody Murder's finale features 100% more cackling and a score that can only be called "church organ madness." 

Like Maniac, Scream Bloody Murder is not as exploitative as you might anticipate. More often than not it's having fun with its premise, which is remarkable because in a parallel universe this movie about a man who murders sex-enjoyers and takes a sex worker captive could be an uncomfortable watch to say the least. Instead, it's got some truly humorous sequences (a montage of one of Matthew's crime sprees is a delight) and Vera is really the rad hero of the hour-and-a-half. 

Like I said from the very start, Scream Bloody Murder is a straight-up gem!

SHOCKtober: 760-733

Folks, let me just say that I love the list. I love the list! During submissions month and every day of SHOCKtober proper, I get so pumped for horror movies. I want to watch everything right this minute--all the things I should have seen by now but haven't, the things I've already seen a million times, the things that are completely new to me in every which way...it's just the best. So let's get to today's chunk-o-list and get jazzed, shall we?

Each of the following films received one vote each.

760. The Shallows -- 2016, Jaume Collet-Serra

759. The Sender -- 1982, Roger Christian

758. The Satanic Rites of Dracula -- 1973, Alan Gibson

757. The Sadness -- 2021, Rob Jabbaz

756. The Ruins -- 2008, Carter Smith

755. The Return of the Vampire -- 1943, Lew Landers

754. The Raven -- 1963, Roger Corman

753. The Prophecy -- 1995, Gregory Widen

752. The Poughkeepsie Tapes -- 2007, John Erick Dowdle

751. The Perfection -- 2018, Richard Shepard

750. The Outwaters -- 2022, Robbie Banfitch

749. The Ninth Gate -- 1999, Roman Polanski

748. The Night Strangler -- 1973, Dan Curtis

747. The Mummy -- 1959, Terence Fisher

746. The Mummy -- 1999, Stephen Sommers

745. The Mothman Prophecies -- 2002, Mark Pellington

744. The Midnight Hour -- 1985, Jack Bender

743. The Mafu Cage -- 1978, Karen Arthur 

742. The Mad Magician -- 1954, John Brahm

741. The Lure -- 2015, Agnieszka Smoczynska

740. The Legend of Lizzie Borden -- 1975, Paul Wendkos

739. The Legend of Hell House -- 1973, John Hough

738. The Legend of Boggy Creek -- 1972, Charles B Pierce

737. The Legacy -- 1978, Richard Marquand

736. The Last Voyage of the Demeter -- 2023, André Øvredal

735. The Last Man on Earth -- 1964, Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow

734. The Killer Shrews -- 1959, Ray Kellogg

733. The Keep -- 1983, Michael Mann

• Just look at that ad. Just look at that cast. Just look at me, sitting here wondering why I've never seen The Midnight Hour when it feels like it was assembled from the magnetic poetry of my mind.
• How is The Lure almost ten years old? What is time? PS if you have never seen the absolute manic delight that is The Lure...stop whatever it is you're doing after reading the rest of this scintillating blog post and go watch The Lure! PLEASE!
• A reader on The Killer Shrews: "No budget, but lots of gumption. Has one jump scare that always gets me."
• This list always gives me big ideas about future SHOCKtobers and non-SHOCKtober events. You know, like "Ooh I should do all Vincent Price movies!" or "Ooh I should do all the Corman Poe movies!" or "Ooh a made-for-TV month!" or "Ooh a black and white month!" or or or. 
• Will I ever see The Sadness? I am intrigued but I think it will be too much for me. 
• I LOVE THE LEGACY! Yes, I had to shout that. There is just something about it that induces seriously good feelings. I think I saw it on a creature double feature or something when I was a kid and it really got me: the swimming pool scene, the creepy beef jerky fingers reaching out from behind the curtain...the whole thing was eerie English countryside vibes. It's still so good but now, of course, I'm really into the sweaters. And Sam Elliott and Kathryn Ross. And the beef jerky fingers. And, as I wrote once upon a time, all the ways Nurse Adams compares to Rebecca's Mrs Danvers. But did Mrs Danvers ever turn into a cat? NO. Checkmate, Daphne DuMaurier. The Legacy rules.

SHOCKtober: 788-761

Well well, we meet again. What say we take a peek at some more list, hmm? Each of the following films received one vote! (Spoiler alert we are going to be in The Land of the Single Vote for quite some time.)

788. Tower of Evil -- 1972, Jim O'Connolly

787. Tourist Trap -- 1979, David Schmoeller

786. Torso -- 1973, Sergio Martino

785. Tombs of the Blind Dead -- 1972, Amando de Ossorio

784. To Die For -- 1988, Deran Sarafian

783. Thundercrack! -- 1975, Curt McDowell 

782. Three...Extremes -- 2004, Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook, and Takashi Miike

781. This House Possessed -- 1981, William Wiard

780. Thelma -- 2017, Joachim Trier

779. The Wolf House -- 2018, Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León 

778. The Witches -- 1990, Nicolas Roeg

777. The Witch Who Came from the Sea -- 1976, Matt Cimber

776. The Witch (aka La bruja) -- 1954, Chano Urueta

775. The Whisperer in Darkness -- 2011, Sean Branney

774. The Void -- 2016, Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski

773. The Victim -- 1972, Herschel Daugherty 

772. The Vast of Night -- 2019, Andrew Patterson 

771. The Unknown -- 1927, Tod Browning 

770. The Undertaker and His Pals -- 1966, T.L.P. Swicegood 

769. The Uncanny -- 1977, Denis Héroux 

768. The Twilight Zone: The Movie -- 1983, Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller, and Steven Spielberg

767. The Thing That Couldn't Die -- 1958, Will Cowan 

766. The Thing from Another World -- 1951, Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks

765. The 10th Victim -- 1965, Elio Petri

764. The Strangers -- 2008, Bryan Bertino 

763. The Stone Tape -- 1972, Peter Sasdy

762. The Stepfather -- 2009, Nelson McCormick 

761. The Skeleton of Mrs Morales -- 1960, Rogelio A. González

• Ooh Tombs of the Blind Dead! I...haven't seen it. But I have seen the third Blind Dead film, The Ghost Galleon, and lawdy I loved it. The aesthetics (and the gay) are right up my alley, and after seeing The Ghost Galleon I immediately wanted to inject all those shuffling, crusty Knights Templar films into my eyeballs. So why haven't I? Because I am waiting for the world to grace us with a Blu-ray box set. Has it been announced or even hinted at? No. But I have convinced myself that it will come to fruition one day, so I wait. It just makes sense, right? That DVD box set in the coffin-shaped package is long out of print. The movies seem scattered amongst different distributors and a couple have gotten modern-day releases. Anyone who is reading my Chilling Classics Cthursday series knows that pretty much every garbage movie has been reissued in like 10000k. So where are my Blind Deads in a box? WHERE? I'M WAITING.
• Thank you for letting me get my Tombs of the Blind Dead feelings out.
• Hey, The Uncanny! I just mentioned that yesterday. What a world.
• A reader on The Thing That Couldn't Die: "Taut little potboiler has more simmering under the surface than simply a disembodied head trying to find its body."
• The Victim is terrific: A made-for-TV film starring Elizabeth Montgomery, what more could you ask for?
• BESIDES A TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD BOX SET I MEAN
• Some of you imposed a ruleset on your submitted list: no "classics," all made-for-TV, that kind of thing. One reader included a shitton of Mexican horror films to get them some representation; I'd only seen a couple of them but they all sound intriguing and I'm fixin' to dive in. (Everybody knows that Mexican horror from all eras is lit and legit.) A couple of those titles appear in today's chunk o' list, so I guess it's time to start my homework.

It's the Time of the Season...

...for you-know-who! That's right, it's her, the almighty SHOCKtobra has risen from the depths to bring us all...uh, you know. SHOCKtober!

Y'all answered the clarion call and all month we are going to be counting down the hits, aka your favorite horror movies. There are a shitton of them! 816 to be exact. I didn't even know I could count that high.

This is the fourth time I'm running this little exercise and every time I'm, well, shocked to see how many films I ain't never heard of. I mean, I have a blog, you know. A horror blog. And there are times I feel like I've seen everything there is to see that was born before...mmm, let's say 2020. And then here you guys go, schooling the crap out of me with your faves. I love it.

Now then, the usual caveats: There could well be errors in this list. I don't think there are, but maybe there's some alternate title I missed or something. If that's the case, be gentle! We should all count ourselves fortunate that I can manage this thing at all, really. This is only the second time I've done this using a spreadsheet! The first two iterations found me writing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of titles in a fucking spiral notebook and somehow keeping track, like what?? Madness. I have no idea what I was thinking. Or not thinking, I guess. The point is joining the computer age has made it easier but my eyes do still fall out of my head from time to time, so forgive me if I screwed it up somewhere. 

Anyway, they're listed mostly--but not exclusively--alphabetically in order of votes received. So yeah, film #816 and film...I don't know, #600 each received the same number of votes and should technically be tied, but a huge list is more fun. 

So! Let's get this thing going and begin the month-long journey counting down to this year's most favoritest movie. I wonder who will wear the crown?? (I actually already know, mua ha ha.)

Each of the following films received one vote each: 

816. Zombies of Mora Tau -- 1957, Edward L. Cahn

815. Zodiac -- 2007, David Fincher 

814. Young Blondes, Stalked and Murdered -- 2024, Nick Funess 

813. You Won't Be Alone -- 2022, Goran Stolevski 

812. YellowBrickRoad -- 2010, Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton 

811. Wolf Creek -- 2005, Greg McLean 

810. Wolf -- 1994, Mike Nichols 

809. Winterbeast -- 1992, Christopher Thies 

808. Willow Creek -- 2013, Bobcat Goldthwait 

807. Willard -- 2003, Glen Morgan 

806. Whistle and I'll Come to You -- 1968, Jonathan Miller 

805. When Evil Lurks (aka Cuando achecha la maldad)-- 2023, Demián Rugna 

804. Werewolf of London -- 1935, Stuart Walker 

803. We're All Going to the World's Fair -- 2021, Jane Schoenbrun 

802. Waxwork -- 1988, Anthony Hickox 

801. Warlock -- 1989, Steve Miner 

800. Vertigo -- 1958, Alfred Hitchcock 

799. Verónica -- 2017, Paco Plaza 

798. Vampire -- 1979, E.W. Swackhamer 

797. Unsane -- 2018, Steven Soderbergh 

796. Uninvited -- 1988, Greydon Clark 

795. Underwater -- 2020, William Eubank 

794. Uncle Was a Vampire (aka Tempi duri per i vampiri) -- 1959, Steno 

793. B'Twixt Now and Sunrise -- 2022, Francis Ford Coppola 

792. Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness -- 1986, Tim Ritter and Yale Wilson 

791. Trouble Every Day -- 2001, Claire Denis 

790. Trilogy of Terror -- 1975, Dan Curtis 

789. Tragedy Girls -- 2017, Tyler MacIntyre

• Speaking of movies I ain't never heard of, this 1979 made-for-TV Vampire; Look at that cast! Not listed: Joe Spinell! And Barrie Youngfellow of television's It's a Living! Boy, I tells ya. 1979 was quite a year for vampires, eh? Made-for-TV, theatrical, romantic and handsome, gross and gross...pretty much whatever flavor you wanted you could find. What a time.
• Did I know that Mike Nichols directed Wolf? Huh.
• A reader who submitted Warlock: "I started a Warlock fan club in the 6th grade." I love to see that it's still going strong.
• I am always surprised when I see (or remember) that Uninvited, the cat-on-a-cruise-ship George Kennedy movie, came out in 1988. I feel like it should be older than that, although maybe that's just me thinking about that cats-in-an-anthology Peter Cushing movie The Uncanny, which was released in 1977. That's not an interesting story, I am just saying.
• A reader who submitted Underwater: "It is dumb, but it is entertaining, except for T.J. Miller's 'Paul' who is annoying. Kristen Stewart is really good at this kind of quiet, subdued emotionally intense performance." Agreed!

Chilling Classics Cthursday: LADY FRANKENSTEIN (1971)

Let me spoil this review by saying right up front that I really loved Lady Frankenstein and I'm glad I did...because I finally saw The Substance recently and it was so good--like, "the best thing I've seen since...maybe Suspiria?? and I'll be digesting it and thinking about it forever" good--that it would have been extra excruciating if I'd pulled something terrible from the Mill Creek Entertainment 50 Movie Pack Chilling Classics 12-DVD Collection. Know what I mean? So I guess bless Lady Frankenstein extra hard for being such a delight. 

I was in it to win it pretty much from the jump, when the title card popped up. I mean, just look at her!

Those fonts told me everything I needed to know, and what I needed to know was that this movie was going to be a drive-in dream. And was it, ever! It's the off-Hammer monster movie I never knew I wanted or needed, but it immediately earned its place in the ongoing spooky season rotation here at Stately Final Girl Manor.

By the early 70s, the iconic Joseph Cotten was in the "I love to work, gimme work!" phase of his career, where he'd class up joints left and right, often alongside his storied contemporaries. He featured in Airport flicks, Italian Airport knock-off flicks, made for TV horror films (including The Devil's Daughter and The Screaming Woman, where he reunited with his Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte co-star (and perennial Final Girl fave) Olivia de Havilland)...you name it, Joseph Cotten would appear in it. Here he steps into the lab coat of one Baron Frankenstein--perhaps the most genial Baron Frankenstein you'll ever meet. He makes paying for corpses and experimenting with dead bodies seem like stuff you just do, a passion as normie as woodworking or latch hook rug-making. 

Soon his daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri, appearing here as "Sara Bey") returns home, having completed her medical studies. Yes, her medical studies. Tania was studying to be a surgeon, like her father, and her father is very proud of her for it and they're both like "fuck yeah, we're Frankensteins and we are both surgeons and it's hard being taken seriously as a woman, never mind as a woman in medicine, never mind as a woman lady Frankenstein in medicine."

When I tell you that I fell off of my couch when I got a whiff of the feminism in Lady Frankenstein! To not have to go looking for it, even...for it to be right there in the text because director Mel Welles deliberately wanted to have feminist themes at play...honestly. I was told that politics in horror was a new thing because woke...? And here I must hear Lady Frankenstein roar? You can keep it!

Keep it in my eyeballs and earholes, that is, Lady Frankenstein rules.

But hey, you can still enjoy this movie even if you hate women because it's just that much fun.

The Frankenstein family lab is full of all the sorts of lab equipment you'd expect, from the bzzt bzzt machine to the bubbling bottles to a...clock. 

Frankenstein's assistant Charles (Paul Muller) warns the Baron that the brain they're trying to reanimate is too damaged to be good--something about the hypothalamus and science-sounding jargon and look, I have never claimed to be a Lady Frankenstein, okay? I will take Charles's word for it. The Baron, however, is tired of waiting and forges ahead with his experiment. One lightning strike (and two flaming eyeballs) (it was so good) later, and you know how it goes: It's alive.

The Monster promptly kills Baron Frankenstein and fucks off into the night, where he clomp-clomps around the countryside and kills a bunch of people. 

Charles professes his love for Tania, and she's like...yeah, I love you too, but you're old and unattractive, and so what if your brain was in the hot young body of our simpleton groundskeeper Thomas? 

She makes a compelling argument and Charles agrees. But let's face it, Tania is a babe and so Charles probably would have agreed regardless. And so Tania fires up the bzzt bzzt machine, not only to see to her """womanly needs""" but also to launch her mad scientist pyramid scheme. After all, the best way to kill The Monster is to create a better Monster. 

I will leave it to you to see how things suss out, though yes, rest assured there is some Monster vs Monster action before the abrupt-as-hell-but-kinda-nuts ending. Lady Frankenstein is so much fun--more fun for me, honestly, than most of its Hammer ilk. It's taken me a while to admit that I love the Hammer aesthetic and the idea of many a Hammer flick more than I love actually watching them. So sue me! But this Italian drive-in cheapie has the atmosphere (the soundtrack in particular adds a great mood), the right amount of light-sleaze (besides all of her other crimes, Tania's only real crime was being horny!), and a better-than-it-should-be cast (including Mickey Hargitay as the dashing police captain) that hits all the right notes. If you've never seen it, the time is right. If you have seen it, the time is right to see it again. Bzzt bzzt!

Keeping your ear holes busy

I know, I know--you came here to read, not to listen. Well, let's compromise: Read about listening, and then do what you will!

Hopefully what you will do will be checking out the latest episode of the esteemèd podcast The Faculty of Horror, which features moi talking with hosts Alex West and Andrea Subisatti about some movie from 2018 called Suspiria.

I could talk about Suspiria all day! Or even for 31 days, as I did during SHOCKtober 2019. But what a treat to discuss it with the Fack icons of horror podcasting. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, of course, or listen directly on the Faculty of Horror website. Love FoH and man, Suspiria rules.

Would you say that Suspiria is one of your 20 favorite horror films? Or mayhaps it is not? Either way, you can make your voice heard by sending me a list of your 20 faves for the forthcoming 2024 SHOCKtober celebrations! The deadline fast approacheth: Tuesday, September 24th, after which my email inbox will turn back into a pumpkin. If'n you need to know the hows and whats of what I'm talking about, please read this post. And a huge thanks to everyone who has sent in a list so far! I can't wait to spend all next month counting down the results. (And thinking about Suspiria.)

Oh and PS, we're 'round-bout the big WHO KILLED LAURA PALMER reveal over on The Detective and the Log Lady, so if you enjoy Twin Peaks and podcasts and Mike Muncer and me, then get ye to the show. New episodes every Monday! (Hey, maybe Fire Walk With Me is one of your 20 favorite horror movies...?) (PLEASE DON'T SPOIL ANYTHING FOR ME, WE HAVEN'T GOTTEN THERE YET! I'M A TWIN PEAKS NOOB)

Hmm, that's about all the news from around Stately Final Girl Manor, I think. Unless you'd like to hear about how excited I am for all the new Real Housewives episodes we're getting lately and---hey wait, come back!

Look what's happened to your podcast feed

Hello! You know, I think we are all super pumped about Spooky Season this year, right? Perhaps you see it as a reprieve from bad times and strife, or a balm against bad times and strife that may yet come...or maybe you are just ready to fuck up some candy corns! Whatever the reason, it sorta feels like we are all ready already. Thanks to those of you who have already sent in your lists of favorite horror movies--there is plenty of time left for anyone still ruminating (as I am). I can't wait to celebrate SHOCKtober, it's shaping up to be a great month even now.

(If you're sitting there thinking "favorite what?" or "list who?" you can read all the what whats and who whos right here!)

Now then! I'm also here to clue you in to the fact that to my very own delight I recently guested on the podcast The Monday Afternoon Movie, hosted by Sam Pancake. Sam and his guests jibber jabber about made for TV movies from the 70s and 80s, so you can probably guess how excited I was to be on the show. We discussed the absolutely insane 1976 flick Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, a movie that probably shouldn't exist but man, I'm so glad it does! It's a mess and a half, but it features Tina Louise as the owner of a "Castle Casino" so you know I love it.

You can listen to our episode right here or wherever you get your podcasts. Curse the day you don't check it out. This episode is the shocker you've been waiting for since the day you were born! Maybe. Just look at that cast.