The first week of Horror Month is complete! Here is everything I watched. Feel free to list every horror related movie or series you watched as well, I’m always on the hunt for new titles to check out. Not on this list however was the one episode I managed to watch of Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix. My very short review of that is it was terrible.
HORROR MONTH 2025
Week 1
The Toxic Avenger – Out of all the movies releasing this month, this was the one I was most excited to see. But it was also the one that let me down the most. The gore was there, as it was over the top and cheesy, much like the original was. It really found a way to keep that old Troma feel. However, I found that a lot of the jokes in this didn’t work. Another thing that really bummed me out about this movie was the fact before the movie was released, they showcased every single over the top kill. So, you felt like you’d already seen this movie, as you knew what was about to happen. A real shame, so that means I have to rate this a RENT.
Night of the Reaper – I had no idea what to expect from this, as the trailer kind of felt like your typical slasher film. But this film isn’t what it seems. At first, I’d say I was getting kind of bored with the setup because they do such a good job making you think it’s just this typical slasher after babysitters thing. But then you start to notice things that the film is setting up. It takes forever for them to get to the payoff, making you think you must have imagined it. The twist is revealed and honestly, it really turned this movie around. I will say the movie isn’t perfect, because it takes so long to get to the twist, it sacrificed backstory on a few important things. Like motivation and how a character managed to figure this all out. With its flaws, what was going to get a soft rent is getting a SEE IT!
V/H/S/HALLOWEEN – Reviews are calling this the best VHS film in years and I agree. Every segment is good, which is rare as there’s always a few that suck hard. Last year’s VHS Beyond, which was sci-fi themed really outdid itself with the terrible shorts. This year even the wrap around segment is great. The wrap around is called Diet Phantasma, it’s about a soft drink company testing out their new soda that features a real ghost. However, it keeps killing the test subjects who drink it. The first short is called Coochie Coochie Coo. It was about these two college kids way too old to be trick or treating but want to do one last round before they are forced to grow up. But doing this comes with a warning, as anyone too old caught trick or treating gets taken by the witch. And of course that’s exactly what happens. The witch wants her baby back, so she makes anyone who enters her house a baby, breast feeding with her 6 saggy nipples. It’s a pretty good start. The two weakest ones were Funsize and Ut Supra Sic Infra, the last one however being directed by the director of the [rec] films. It was still a good short, but it had a lot of buildup to something that ends pretty quickly. Funsize had the issue of bad acting. So bad that maybe it was on purpose? But it reminded me a lot of that game streamers love to play Poppy Playtime. You only take one piece of candy from the bowl, if you take more, you get sent to the crazy factory that made the candy. The company mascot shows up and turns you into candy. The sickest short was Kidprint, about a child killer. It was very well done, like we were watching an August Underground movie or something. The best in the whole bunch for me was the final segment called Home Haunt, about a teen tired of his lame dad’s homemade haunted house he does every Halloween. This year the dad steals an old record and plays it in the haunt, turning everything in it real. But it still keeps that cheap homemade feel to it. It’s just really damn good and can see this being turned into a feature film. I give this film a big SEE IT!
Scurry – A lot of movies kind of like this came out after The Descent, and I’ve seen them all. Surprisingly they are all pretty good and this keeps up with that tradition. The film takes place in tight tunnels as our only two leads maneuver around these giant killer insects that have made their way to the surface, killing everyone. The main issue I had with the film was the camera, as it did a lot to hide the cheap budget of the film and the fact we’re stuck in a dark tunnel but doing so made things hard to see. The ending was also good if not dragged out. It seemed like they were padding things just to reach a runtime. But when things finally do start up again, it ends on a high note, making this film an easy RENT.
The Conjuring: Last Rites – Oh boy, same old thing, loud jump scares with a poorly done CGI monster, rinse and repeat. They’ve been using the same old formula since the first film, and it got old then too. These movies really aren’t my cup of tea. Their idea of scary really is just loud noises. Also, the Warrens really bring this film down. I don’t care at all about them or their daughter. Every scene with them in this movie bored me to tears. That’s not even including the plot of an evil mirror. It came off less scary and more lame. I was dozing off pretty good there, so I might have missed the part where they explained what was going on. There are three ghosts or demons, but they never explain any of it, right?
Glad it’s finally over, gets a SKIP.
HIM – It felt like they wanted to do some kind of allegory on toxic masculinity but also a commentary on how football coaches, team owners are like the new modern day slave owners (minus the fact the athlete get paid millions) but they couldn’t settle on just one thing, so they did all the things. Resulting in this film being a giant boring mess. It’s pretty generic story wise, as you’ve seen this done a million times. It’s Rosemary’s Baby but with football. It’s Suspiria with football. The only thing that really saves it from a skip, is the ending. You can’t go wrong with a slaughter. Because of that, I’ll give it a RENT.
Want EARLY access to our videos, uploads, and movie/script reviews? Members get them FIRST! Follow this link to our Discussion Forum.
