Halloween Month (2025)

Sorry for the delay; the end of the year is always busy. It was scary movie season. Granted, I don’t watch many scary movies, but I do enjoy the occasional creepy flick. As I’ve mentioned in the past, there are several default movies that I watch every October, if I can fit them in, because I enjoy checking out other films. Here are the default (perhaps even classic?) films I watched this Halloween month.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Psycho
• Army of Darkness
• Gremlins
• Ghostbusters
• Beetlejuice

Here are the other selections for the month (it was a busy month):

• Warm Bodies
• The Gorge
• Fright Night (2011)
• Blink Twice
• Knock Knock
• Death Becomes Her
• Casper

Warm Bodies (2013)

Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich
My Rating:

This film is the first time I saw Nicholas Hoult in a leading role. I really enjoy this movie. It’s a bit of an unusual take on zombie lore, but it takes its cues from the book (of the same name). It’s a somewhat unusual choice for a Halloween movie, being a romantic comedy with zombies. I still quite enjoy it. The ability to act simply by emoting really shows Nicholas Hoult’s acting talent in this film. Rob Corddry also does an excellent job acting via emoting.

The Gorge (2025)

Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver
My Rating:

This is another kind of unusual monster horror slash romance movie, that came out on Valentine’s Day (2025). A gorge in an unknown region of the world holds a mystery. The gorge is guarded by two people, one on each side, to ensure that whatever horrors live below remain there.

This was pretty good; I quite enjoyed it. They do foreshadow quite a bit but the story is engaging and the acting is pretty good. Miles Teller is far better in this than he was in the Fantasic Four movie from 2015 (which we don’t talk about).

I think this movie is still available to watch on Apple TV+.

Fright Night (2011)

Directed by: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Ferrell, David Tennant
My Rating:

This is a proper Halloween movie. It’s got vampires, some jump scares, but it’s not overly gory. This is a remake of a 1985 movie by the same name. In fact, the original Jerry (Chris Sarandon) makes a brief cameo. This movie is much more serious and not overly cheesy, unlike its B-roll predecessor. This version features a stellar cast and impressive acting.

In addition to the top three billed names, it also has Toni Collette, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Dave Franco. It’s great to see Anton Yelchin in something other than Star Trek, and it’s sad to know that he had such a promising career ahead of him. RIP. If you’re looking for a fun vampire movie for Halloween, it’s worth checking out.

Blink Twice (2024)

Directed by: Zoë Kravitz
Starring: Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater
My Rating:

In case you are wondering, yes, the director is THAT Zoë Kravitz. Lestrange from Fantastic Beasts, Christina from Divergent, Selina from The Batman and daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz. This movie is her directorial debut and I think she did a fine job; I’d watch it again.

I think Channing Tatum is making a big career comeback. I’ve enjoyed several of his latest films, including this one. He’s a billionaire playboy who owns an island where he hosts parties. This parties take a haunting turn when one of the guests discovers his dark secret.

This movie unites two Star Wars alumni. The lead character is played by Naomi Ackie and she was Jannah in The Rise of Skywalker. Another character is played by Adria Arjona who was Bix in the Andor (and probably my favorite character in that series).

Knock Knock (2015)

Directed by: Eli Roth
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas
My Rating:

Keanu Reeves is one of those actors who is great in some roles and cringeworthy in others. He’s cringe in this movie. He plays a doting father and loyal husband who is left alone while his family is gone for the weekend. Two stranded young women show up late, and the night turns deadly.

A couple of notes about this movie. I didn’t not like it. In fact, I’d probably watch it again; I just wasn’t that impressed with Keanu Reeves. He tries to be endearing during the scenes with the children, but he just didn’t sell it good enough for me. Also, I didn’t need the Keanu sex scene.

Izzo and de Armas, on the other hand, were good. They played the psycho women really well. Also, fun fact, this is Ana de Armas’ first English-speaking role. This also has one of those uncommon thriller endings.

Death Becomes Her & Casper

I grouped these two because they should probably be considered classics. Granted, I have enough films for the Halloween season, which I consider classics, that I could fill the whole month just watching them. Therefore, I may have to do some kind of rotation in the following years so I can still get in some other movies.

Be that as it may, Death Becomes Her (1992) has a classic starring cast. Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and the legendary Bruce Willis. This might be one of my favorite non-run-down-cop Bruce Willis movies. He shows a lot of versatility in this movie. Casper (1995) is a live-action adaptation of the beloved cartoon from our childhood starring Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci. This is a well-done adaptation of the friendliest ghost in town. It might also be one of the films when I developed a bit of a Hollywood crush on Christina Ricci.

Bonus & Special Event Movies

There were no bonus movies in October. Again, we just didn’t have the time to get out to the theaters, nor was there really anything we were dying to see. However, October 21st is Back to the Future Day. Great Scott!

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Halloween. Now on to musicals!

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