Working Title's 3rd Annual Scary Movies For People Who Hate Scary Movies
Let's get a little spooky
The title of this edition of the newsletter is a bit of a misnomer, to be honest with you. As I’ve gotten older (and particularly in the last few years since COVID), I don’t really hate scary movies. I have gone on record as a Big Scared Baby, but that’s more of an act of self depreciation than anything. Not only do I not hate scary movies, I have come, in fact, to enjoy them. I’m not heading out to the theater for every single horror movie release by any stretch of the imagination, but I am going to quite a few of them every year. I have a subscription to Shudder (the horror movie streaming site) and I use it pretty often. Some of my favorite movie experiences recently have been horror films.
While the title maybe doesn’t reflect my feelings on scary movies, it does encapsulate the spirit of this exercise. I have always enjoyed Halloween time and fall and for a long time, felt like I was missing out on a crucial aspect by not sitting down to watch something spooky. On the flip side of that, October always gave me the opportunity to test my mettle and I felt a little more emboldened to give my nerves a workout with something I wouldn’t normally watch. I want other people to be able to do that and giving them a guide (whether they need it or not) is something I really enjoy doing.
I’ll start by giving the same caveat that I have given to each of the previous editions of this newsletter: the scare level I give each of these movies is totally subjective. What I think is not scary at all, you might find terrifying. There might be something I think is terrifying that you think is for babies. Everybody’s scare tolerance varies, but I like to think mine is a nice median for the average person.
Secondly, there will be some movies that you think are awesome and worth the list that I didn’t include. It’s because I don’t like you. It’s personal and I need you to know that. Or it’s also because I’m sleepy and don’t want to make a 30 movie list, take your pick. If you want, you can combine this list with the first edition or second edition of this newsletter and give yourself a pretty good and long list to work through.
You can find the first edition of Scary Movies For People Who Hate Scary Movies here.
You can find the second edition of Scary Movies For People Who Hate Scary Movies here.
Lastly, I always recommend a subscription to Shudder or AMC+ (which includes Shudder and a couple of other really cool services) around this time of year. These are add-on channels to Prime Video and you can usually get a one week free trial and bang out a bunch of movies before you have to start paying for it, although AMC+ is only an additional $8 a month and if you have the means, I find it extremely worth it.
Now, let’s get scared together.
Movie: The Beyond
Where To Watch: Peacock, AMC+, Tubi
Is It Scary: It’s really creepy and really violent. Very good though.
Last week I put out the Bad Vibes Movie List and there were a couple of movies that I wanted to include but didn’t because they were going to be included on THIS list. THE BEYOND was the first of those movies I held off on.
THE BEYOND is brought to us by the one and only Lucio Fulci who also made bangers like ZOMBIE and THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY.
The premise is pretty straightforward. A woman named Liza inherits a hotel in New Orleans and moves down from New York City to run and maintain it. Unbeknownst to her, her newly inherited business is built over one of the seven gates to hell. As you can imagine, things do not go well for Liza or anybody else who comes into contact with the hotel.
As mentioned above, the vibes on this movie are GNARLY but it absolutely rips. It’s shot on location in New Orleans and it the results are a treat. It’s really cool to see an Italian man take on a Southern Gothic horror movie and the spin Fulci puts on it are really fun.
Movie: It Follows
Where To Watch: Hulu, Paramount+, Prime
Is It Scary: Hell yeah, brother
Another one on the Bad Vibes list, IT FOLLOWS has become a favorite of mine and a lot of other people when it comes to horror. It’s an absolute heater and definitely one of the scarier movies of the last decade or so. I can’t believe that it’s almost 10 years old.
This movie starts off with a bang and really gruesome/awesome kill. You know kind of from the jump that you’re in for a bit of a ride. If you haven’t heard of IT FOLLOWS, it follows (lol) the story of young woman named Jay who has sex with her new boyfriend. Her boyfriend then explains to her that he has passed on what is essentially a demon through their sexual experience. This entity will pursue her and kill her unless she passes it on to someone else by having sex with them. The entity will only be visible to the people who’ve had it and passed it on. That’s the movie.
It’s a really original setup and the forms this entity takes are terrifying. There’s a really famous scene that’s been meme-d and GIF’d to death so you might have seen it already, but this movie is tense and scary from open to close. I absolutely love it. Highly recommend.
Movie: NOPE
Where To Watch: Prime
Is It Scary: Some intense moments, but not that scary imo
Breaking up the Bad Vibes run with a movie that has some ostensibly better vibes with Jordan Peele’s NOPE.
While GET OUT is heralded as Peele’s masterpiece, the more I have watched NOPE, the more I’m sure that it’s my favorite of his. I find it endlessly re-watchable for a myriad of reasons, one of them being the images in this movie that he creates. They’re remarkable and Peele really comes into his own as one of the great image makers in movies with this one. The blood soaked house. The shoe standing by itself. Jean Jacket. It’s all amazing.
This thing is also FUNNY man. It’s always nice to have a dollop of sugar with your horror and Peele reminds us that he cut his bones in comedy throughout this film. Keke Palmer is ELECTRIC in this movie and Brandon Perea is a scene-stealer when he’s on the screen.
While funny, this movie is definitely not a comedy and has some really good horror stuff going on. I love a sci-fi flavored horror movie and what Peele does here feels really original, even if the story itself is not. I think it’s also crazy that the scariest sequence in the movie might be the one that has nothing to do with things not of planet earth (nope). Peele’s cooking with this one.
Movie: Talk To Me
Where To Watch: very recently released, so you gotta rent this one
Is It Scary: In spurts, but it’s really fun
TALK TO ME is one of my favorite in-theater experiences of the year so far. I had an absolute blast with it. It follows a group of Australian teenagers who throw parties where they use the hand of an alleged Satanist to not only summon spirits but allow them to possess their bodies. There is a montage of this happening in this movie that makes being possessed look like a straight up good time.
What makes this movie so effective is that the rules of what you are allowed and not allowed to do when using the hand are established and established quickly. The point in the movie when those rules are broken comes fairly early on and you quickly realize “oh, these kids are kinda fucked” and then you just have to sit with that for a good 70% of the movie. That 70% is a great piece of horror filmmaking and features one of the scariest shots I’ve seen in a while. It also sticks the landing.
A good reminder that Australians are down there making some weird shit and releasing it onto the world. Definitely give this one a go.
Movie: The Night House
Where To Watch: Rent wherever you rent
Is It Scary: Big time
Another movie that was released during Covid, this is one that really snuck up on me. I was vaguely aware of it from watching the trailer before the movies that were in theaters before the shutdown (RIP) but didn’t give it a go until later in the year when it was put on streaming.
What makes this movie work so well is the performance by Rebecca Hall. She plays a woman named Beth who has lost her husband Owen to suicide. After Owen is gone she discovers an exact copy of her house that Owen had built, but in reverse. Once she begins to investigate that house and what Owen was keeping from her, this movie really kicks in. It’s very smart and pretty terrifying in large chunks. I think a straight up haunted house/ghost story is a really fun version of a horror movie to do and this one rocks.
Movie: Pulse (2001)
Where To Watch: AMC+/Shudder
Is It Scary: Very much so
Japanese horror is some of the best out there and PULSE comes to us from Japanese horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa. While it’s over 20 years old now, it is still one of my favorites. I have tickets to see it in a theater later this month and I cannot wait to do so.
PULSE focuses on ghosts invading the world of the living via the Internet and computer screens. It sounds overly simple or maybe heavy handed, but I assure you it is not. What makes this movie rock is that the horror is found in the power of suggestion and what you think might be happening or not happening. There is very little in the way of jump scares or blood and gore here. What it has by the boatload is creeping, sinister dread that you feel in every inch of your body throughout almost the entire run time.
This movie is still extremely relevant and was wildly prescient about the world we live in today. Horror is found in the most mundane and drab of places. In offices and on laptops and in machines that we use to make ourselves feel less lonely in a world that is filled with people but devoid of connections. PULSE still feels as fresh and as terrifying as it was when I first saw it. I doubt that will change anytime soon.
Movie: M3GAN
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime
Is It Scary: Not at all
I wanted to end this one with a movie that I don’t think is exactly good but that I do think everybody needs to watch. M3GAN (technically pronounced like the name Megan but that I simply have to pronounce as Em-Three-Gen) is an absolutely insane movie about a A.I. powered doll developed by a woman named Gemma who is also caring for her niece Cady after Cady’s parents died in an accident. M3GAN is paired with Cady and develops a maternal protection feeling towards her. Its that feeling that causes M3GAN to begin taking the order to care for Cady a bit to far.
This movie is hilarious. Allison Williams plays Gemma and she is truly going for it. I love that she’s found a lane in horror movies after this and GET OUT. It’s campy as hell and a ton of fun with a couple of great kills from M3GAN thrown in. It features two of the funniest needle drops I have ever experienced in a movie. I think this is the one for you if none of the other movies on this list were your speed. This is just a good time.
Seven movies (around 20 if you go through all 3 versions of the newsletter) to help scratch the horror itch and get you in the Halloween spirit. If you enjoy one of these movies, definitely hit the internet to see what other movies might be recommended to you and give those your eyes as well.
This is one of my favorite newsletters to write every year, so thank you so much for reading. I can’t wait for next Halloween season to do it again.
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