The Unseen from this year's Octoberfest (well, my Octoberfest)

Another October, another 31 nights o' horror. This time I wanted to push all the well known bangers to the weekends and concentrate on films new to me and from cultures other than American and I did pretty well. This list of brief reviews collects both categories.

My Best Friend's Exorcism

Significantly weakened movie adaptation of superb novel reigns in both the shared culture of the friends (crucial to the depth of their friendship) and the laugh out loud comedy of teenage perception. Even the horror elements are diluted to family-safe levels. I wanted Grady Hendrix and I got Mean Heathers. (Prime)

We're All going to the World's Fair

A haunting evocation of the vulnerability of being young and lonely in the great sargasso sea of the internet. Anna Cobb's naturalistic performance adds a fragility that feels unsettling. Her anonymised correspondent JLB delivers a monologue at the end that is either an account of real events or pure fantasy and it's creepy either way. Highly accomplished lo-fi film making that begs your patience and then rewards it. (Shudder)

Deadstream

There are a few live-stream movies out there, enough to constitute a subset of the found footage genre. This one dares you to get on board by giving a manic and difficult to love host. This is an effective ploy on the part of the filmmakers, though, as it gives the character an uphill stride to pick up your empathy. Once the stakes are raised you are with him, despite his hyperactive simpering. Some fine turns and twists and the willingness to plunge into genuine horror while the comedy is on high. Top notch low production. (Shudder)

Dark Glasses

Decent if mild mannered giallo by one of its former masters. Argento has made far worse than this. Points for being possibly his most compassionate films. (Shudder)

Hellraiser (2022)

Another one that will force a production date to be appended to make deadly sure no one thinks you're praising the remake (see also The Haunting (1963)) Good looking dreck without a breath of dread for all of its overlong two hours. Not skerrick of empathy possible for any of the characters and a lot of content that seems concocted to generate essays by media students. Meh. (Binge)

Satanic Panic

Very funny and campy yet willing to dip into harder horror. This is how a Grady Hendrix movie should play. (Shudder)

V/H/S/99

Better than the early entries. Even the lesser entries of the five stories are pretty good. (Shudder)

Grimcutty

Kids horror but keeps its scares and dread squarely at its audience age group. Not bad but not great. (Disney+)

Dashcam

Until you see the point of the protagonist being so infuriatingly puerile she's very hard to take. Happily, the film itself gets some early blows in before the reason for the persona emerges. Far better than a sequal to the same team's lockdown horror Host, Dashcam absorbs the themes of the times themselves and finds greater threats lurking in the shadows. Very funny but also very atmospheric and scary. (AppleTV)

Werewolves by Night

Pleasant fun and seductive design and black and white cinematography but little more. (Disney+)

Satan's Slaves

In which Joko Anwar covers James Wan and makes a possession/haunted house movie in every way superior to its inspiration. (Shudder)

Grave Robbers

Fine old school supernatural fun as ancient malignant spirit resumes human form to roam the land on a rampage. Little new but nice to see it in a different culture. (Shudder)

Witchhammer

Grim and depressing historical tale of a witch hunt in middle Europe in the 17th century. An opportunistic charlatan is indulged by the local aristos until his tribunal keeps expanding well beyond its calling to something more institutional. The original audiences in the Czechoslovakia would have recognised a lot of this in their post-Prague-spring oppression. (All the Haunts be Ours boxset)

Saloum

Highly atmospheric genre-hopping tale goes from political heist thriller to an eerie folk horror in an isolated community in Senegal. (Shudder)

The Dreaming

More atmosphere than scares in this folk horror where the bad guys return from historical oblivion to do more damage, rather than the kind of revenge plot of the ghostly sailors in The Fog. Made (like the next entry) in Australia's cenntenial of colonisation, 1988, with strong resonance of the horror visited on the land and people by the Europeans. (All the Haunts be Ours boxset)

Kadaicha

Small means but strong conviction make for an effective revenge slasher, again with historical resonance (again from 1988) as a group of suburban kids fall foul of the local spirits. (All the Haunts be Ours boxset)

Slumber Party Massacre II

Sequel to effective '80s slasher manages to improve on it with iconography from the history of teen music. The '50s/'80s Elvis with the drill guitar has to be seen (and heard) to be believed. Fun! (Shudder)

Leptirica

Serbian folk horror about local vampiric traditions resurrecting in the village. Some knockabout Breughelian humour manages to avoid spoiling the underlying dread which rises effectively in the third act and climax. (All the Haunts be Ours boxset)

Till next year ....