I have had a lifelong obsession with horror. Back when I was a kid my Mum, who has always had a great sense of the macabre, would go all out for Hallowe’en and an evening of apple bobbing, pumpkin carving and the obligatory scary sound effects tape would inevitably culminate in me and my brother being allowed to watch a film that was a bit too scary for us.
Among the list of parent-approved horror films was the original Halloween, The Omen, American Werewolf in London and a smattering of others. My taste in horror has slowly evolved since then, my teenage years were (predictably) concerned with seeking out the goriest films possible. This led to an obsession with zombies and splatter-fests like Day of the Dead and Braindead which was well timed for the arrival of a second wave of zombie cinema following 28 Days Later. One of my favourite zombie films, Zombie Flesh Eaters led to an enduring interest in stylish Italian horror and giallo.
As I moved towards my 30s I became less interested in gore and instead sought out slow burn chills and creeping dread. Paranormal thrillers such as Ju-on: The Grudge, The Blair Witch Project and The Changeling (1980) became firm favourites. A lot of the best ghost films were from the old BBC A Ghost Story for Christmas series and this led to a renewed interest in what had since been coined folk horror. The Wicker Man, which incidentally was one of the aforementioned parent-approved horrors, has become my favourite film of all time.
I thought as it’s nearly Hallowe'en I would share three of my favourite horror films to watch in October.
Firstly, some honourable mentions:
Session 9
Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
The Tenant
The Fog
Hausu
Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre
The Signalman
Dead of Night (1945)
For me, ghost stories have the ability to deliver chills like no other genre. Sadly very few film makers know how to wrap up a ghost movie and - however strong the start - most of them inevitably end up in a silly showdown with lots of strobe lights and a wind machine. This is why the anthology format of Dead of Night works so well. Each short section ramps up the horror a little more than the last (with the exception of a skippable comic relief story) but none come crashing down under their own weight. It is best known for it's notoriously creepy ventriloquist dummy segment but it is, I think, the sudden climax of the linking narrative that packs the biggest punch of all.
Arcadia (2017)
Not a conventional horror film but rather a haunted patchwork of archival footage that tells the story of man's steady detachment from the natural world. Parallels are made between ancient pagan rites and modern dance subcultures whilst elsewhere footage of archaic farming practices clash with images of children huffing glue beneath concrete cooling towers. It's pure poetry in the form of film collage and all set to a killer original score by Goldfrapp's Will Gregory and Portishead's Adrian Utley. Autumn is the perfect time to watch.
Mad God (2021)
So you know Phil Tippett? You do. He's the guy that did all the stop motion animation for the AT-AT Walkers in Star Wars, ED-209 in Robocop and the arachnids in Starship Troopers. Well, when he wasn't weaving his magic on all these classic films he was busy working on his own independent stop motion feature film, Mad God.
The film follows a masked figure on a journey into a decaying underworld populated by tortured souls and twisted mutants. To be reductive, think Dante's Inferno meets Wallace and Gromit. It's very difficult to describe. It took 30 years to make and a year before it was finished Tippett suffered a complete mental breakdown.
It is very rare that we get to witness a vision of this scale rendered with such purity. It's the real deal.
