‘Tis the season to watch something spooky.
For the last decade, I’ve spent the month of October ping-ponging between my couch and the cinema, marathoning horror movies in the run-up to my favorite holiday. We call it “The Halloween List” and on occasion I’ve shared my autumnal advent calendar with readers of the publications where I work, most recently in 2018.
That was also around the time we reached peak TV. And in the years since, I’ve added shows like “Stranger Things” and “The Haunting of Hill House” to the list.
Of course, there are a few rules to composing these lists. Here they are:
- Every day features a different horror, thriller or mystery movie or TV show.
- Sundays are for themed double features. This year, the wife and I are watching a pair of Spanish zombie movies, two ‘50s B-horror classics, exploring Ridley Scott’s “Alien” universe and embarking on what we’ve decided is a dimension-hopping adventure through the cinematic universe spawned by George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.”
- We always end the month with a movie from the “Halloween” franchise.
- Finally: the calendar is more of a guideline than a rule. Sometimes life happens and we don’t get to the movie of the day. We either drop it from the list or move it to next year.
Without further ado, here’s this year’s Halloween List:
Oct. 1: ‘The Substance’
At least once a year, I choose one horror movie to go into fully blind, and this year it’s “The Substance.” Don’t tell me anything about it.
In theaters.
Oct. 2: ‘Agatha All Along’
We’ve already gotten three episodes of the “Wandavision” sequel series, and so far Aubrey Plaza is definitely holding it down alongside Kathryn Hahn. I’m just not looking forward to the inevitable pivot toward the typical MCU tomfoolery that’s hampered practically every Marvel project since “Avengers: Endgame.”
