October People
October People
scary films, spooky songs... and a tech request (the villain from the films Tech Request and Tech Request II: They Turned It Off... and Turned It On Again)
Creatures, the midnight hour is close at hand! In this edition of your devilishly dancing Dragon, some underrated horror films for your October pleasure; my 2024 Halloween playlist; and a volunteer request. We’ll do the last thing first, sorry.
What Did You Learn in the All-Volunteer Army?
If you have extremely basic technical skills, you would like to help Building Catholic Futures make a brighter future for gay Catholics, and you are free this coming Saturday from 1 – 3pm Pacific time, email me eve@buildingcatholic.org!
Last Videocassette on the Left
I love Shocktober. Shocktober is the yearly project of Stacie Ponder, the Final Girl; she polls her readers for their top 20 horror films of all time and creates a massive master list, posting a segment a day all month, like a giant human centip—you know, it was bad enough that I name-checked Last House on the Left, we’re just completely stopping this sentence in its tracks. Moving on! This year is the most international Shocktober ever! Plus some people did themed lists, which I might do next year, e.g. I know one person did a Mexican horror theme.
I sent in my own top 20, and I don’t want to reveal all, but I will say that I am the lone lover of these one-vote wonders: Vertigo (my #7), The Tenth Victim (#19), The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920; #4), The Addiction (the Abel Ferrara one; #10), Sorry to Bother You (#20… I think people praised this movie so much for the politics and satire that they sort of forget its bonkers aesthetic—if you like the more catawampus or punk films of the 1980s, Liquid Sky and Population: 1 and all that, give this a spin and vice versa), Flatliners (#18), Blood Quantum (#12).
I am also one of the TWO count ’em TWO votes for I Walked with a Zombie (my #9) and one of THREE votes for Wolfen (my #8).
There are some phenomenal films on the Shocktober ’24 list. The Wolf House… Threads… His House… Cruising! But there’s also this category, and I think October is perfect for this kind of thing, of movies that may not end up on anybody’s top 20 but that give a unique pleasure. Odd little films, sometimes marginally horror, easy to miss… fingers curling around the edge of the door. Here are eight of my little strangers.
#horror (this movie is underrated because it is absolutely impossible to google unless you know e.g. the director’s name, Tara Subkoff)
La Llorona (not the new one)
Come play with them… forever!
The Future Is a Vampire
Every year I do a Halloween playlist. You can find previous years here. Without further ado, the singing skulls present: Halloween 2024!
Eartha Kitt, “I Want to Be Evil” (via BDM)
The Black Eyes, “Deformative”
The Handsome Family, “Far from Any Road”
Hidden Citizens, “I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight”
Elvis Costello, “Goon Squad”
They Might Be Giants, “Turn Around”
Harrison Lemke, “NPC”
Galavant (tv show), “Dance Until You Die”
Berlin, “Masquerade”
Sufjan Stevens, “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!”
Janelle Monae, “Many Moons”
The Handsome Family, “The Bottomless Hole.” But until I hit the bottom, I won’t believe it’s bottomless. Many such cases….
Ceramic calaveras photographed by “Gzzz,” via Wikimedia Commons and used under a Creative Commons license.
OMG, Eve -- Flatliners!! I love that movie. No one else ever does, or so I thought before I saw your post. (THANK YOU) Plus, when I saw it in the theater in 1990, I was in the middle of high school and Kiefer and Julia were hanging out in the Flathead, where I'm from. Felt surreal to see them on screen as people were seeing them cavorting all around our small mountain valley...before it all fell apart.