Spooky Season 2022 Watchlist

It's The Most Wonderful Time of Fear! Here's My Official Watchlist for 2022.

Since it's officially October, let's get right into my official Spooky Season Watch List for October 2022.

If there is one genre of films that has only gotten better with the economic and social shifts of the pandemic, it's definitely horror. I remember sitting back and waiting to see all of the big movies that were releasing in 2020 and thinking to myself that these movies were slated to be real game-changers. I haven't seen 'em all as of yet (I'm actually still catching up), but that's mainly due to the lack of proper promotion from a lot of the studios trying to expedite to streaming platforms. Overall, though, there are a few things consistent in the genre that is making them more widely appreciated and impactful to the culture across the board.

The first is the theme of mental health. We aren't even close to really peeling back the layers of the collective mental health impact of the pandemic, but what we do know is that since Hereditary (2018), we've seen a lot more movies embracing the reality of our society's embracing of mental health, trauma, and grief. This topic is as Millenial and Gen Z as teenage premarital sex was as a theme in the old 80s slashers. It's our thing for Horror, and it makes for great storytelling, relatability, and familiarity across the board (because after all, how do you calmly tell your ex-wife your daughter is possessed by a spirit from a box she got at a yard sale? - Possession).

So, for this year's list, I kept the themes simple: The Horror Classics, Horror Noire, Uncomfortable Scares, New Age Horror, and Good Ol' Scares & Chills.

Oh, but before we continue...Spoiler Warning.

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The Horror Classics

For my true movie lovers, this theme calls us back to really appreciate some of the old gems that I have either never mentioned before, or those that I feel don't get enough credit for being dope in the genre.

Specifically, in this group, Event Horizon (1997) is my #1 Favorite. A movie that was widely ignored at its time, it stars Sam Neil and a young Lawrence Fishburn, Joely Richardson, and Richard T. Jones (Why Did I Get Married, Concussion). The movie is one of the earliest and only movies to give us possession stories in space, this time, the long lost Event Horizon ship returns from a Black Hole harboring demonic possession straight from hell that looks for nothing other than killing any crew members that make it aboard. The movie gets uncomfortable mixing the challenges of space travel and the old "abandoned ship" trope. It's definitely a must watch as everyone on this cast, including a very young Jack Noseworthy, act their asses off!

Rose Mary's Baby (1968) is also another classic that deserves its flowers to younger horror lovers who have never heard the title.

Horror Noire - Black Horror

We all know the movies where the Black characters die first - the list of those movies goes on and on again. But after watching the Shudder documentary Horror Noire, I just had to make sure to call out some good classics that deserve their own spotlight. For this section, there's a focus on movies that center either Black characters, culture, spirituality, or concepts. In a movie like these listed, a Black character dying first is normalized because - well, a majority of the cast is Black.

Stepping away from Get Out (2017) or Us (2019) or even Nope (2022), I wanted to take it way back. For this section, I'm highlighting The Night of the Living Dead (1968), which put movie-goers in a chokehold at the time as one of the first horror movies that focused on a Black character, while being marketed to White Audiences. George A Romero casting Duane Jones as the main character in the film made a huge social impact and quite likely brought horror into a greater focus for Black audiences. Literally debuting in theatres months after Martin Luther King Jr's death, Night of the Living Dead put Jones' character in control of his own fate as he and a small band of survivors held off against a swarm of zombies. Swinging a 2x4, calling the shots, and taking shit from nobody, Jones' performance is both empowering and inspiring for the time. While the ending calls us back to the reality of 1960s in America and in the world, the movie makes one hell of a statement in American culture and to date, remains a classic.

The Uncomfortable Scares

If a movie doesn't make me uncomfortable, will I even consider it true modern horror?

Because there are movies that make social commentary, there are movies that just hit you with the chill and scares, and there are other movies that take the gore to another level and then there are movies that do all three of those things really well. For yet another year, I have to reintroduce 2013's Evil Dead remake because of its Sam Raimi inclusion, and because I don't think a lot of remakes have quite done it like that. However, for this list, I'm going to narrow in on Green Inferno (2013).

There is no other movie that I've yelled, "Now yo' ass should've known better" like Green Inferno, and that is 95% of why I recommend this movie so much. The movie follows a young college activitist named Justine who wants to stick it to her privileged white background by going on a mission trip to South America to protect land owned by a native tribe that has never made contact with the outside world. As they go on this trip, things go terribly wrong and the same group they are protecting has now taken them prisoner.

Now, I am not a fan of cannibal movies because of poor portrayal of native groups and the idea of "cannibals" and all of that. However, the movie's plot twist let's it be known that the entire series of unfortunate events - which I must add, are freakin' MUCH - is all apart of a dream that scares her out of going altogether. It's a massive criticism on mission trips, activism, and privilege that I think worked well enough to remind us that most of what we think of native groups is made up in our mind and fears.

New Age Horror

While I will always love the movies I grew up on, I have to admit that so many new adaptions, some remakes, and new directors are really putting out good stuff. Of course, sticking with what I know and a lot of the new titles that have come out this year, I've kept a pretty small list for this section.

I love classic movie pacing, though. Forever example, most of Poltergeist's pacing is slow. It shows this suburban family just living their life and eventually escalates, goes back down, and escalates back up. It's great for a movie with 114-minute run time.

But these new movies. They're different. Upgrade (2018) initially feels like it's going to be a fun sci-fi ride, and ends up being a twisted ending that reminds us that technological advances can be scary as hell, too. Awake (2021) will literally have you popping melatonin because the idea of being awake nonstop starts to spark a real fear in your mind (especially for me, watching it at 3:40am).  

For this group, I call out Saint Maud (2019). Slow-paced. Eerie. And suspenseful. You're not sure if Maud hiding her allegiance to evil, possessed, or if she's only moonlighting as a God-fearing Christian nurse. But that's what makes it so damn good. Saint Maud is about this nurse Maud (previously Kate), who is assigned to nurse a woman dying with lymphoma. The two share a weird relationship that centers deviant pleasure, and eventually Maud gets fired for smacking the shit out of her in front of her guests at a birthday party. The movie spirals as Maud and Amanda, her patient, have tough recollections of the time they "experienced God together" - imagine scissors, but women.

The movie's pacing, flashbacks, and the ocassional frame of Maud "rubbing one out" makes this movie very WhatTheFuckedly a must-see. Think The Witch, but without the Arthur Miller "The Crucible" feel.

Did I mention it's an A24 film?

Good Ol' Scares & Chills

Enough of the essays, though. Good films are out there, and I wanted to be sure to introduce some new titles to you all while also being ready and down to experiene some of these films with you.

Smile, which released Sept. 30th, is an amazing new entry for horror and you can expect to see my movie review very soon!

Other entries that are either finally out include The Black Phone, Barbarian, and The Hatching. I'll be announcing group watch times and will also introduce a Twitter Space for group watching one of these movies.

Til' then, let me know your thoughts on these movies. What new movie are you adding to your list this October?