It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Welcome back to the October Horror Movie Challenge – that time of the year in which weirdos like me watch 31 horror films throughout the month, 16 of which are first time views (FTVs). If I can keep on track, unlike in previous years, I’ll put some capsule reviews here and possibly some longer reviews, too, if a particular movie strikes my fancy. Also, this year, my buddy Dr. AC of Horror 101 infamy is once again raising funds for a worthy cause this month, this time collecting donations to International Rescue Committee. The goal this year is to raise $7,500 and it looks like he’s well along towards meeting that goal. That said, every bit counts, so if you’re so inclined, click here to chip in and help us out.

And now, without further ado, here’s what I’ve watched so far for this year’s OHMC!

Bring Her Back (2025, Danny and Michael Philippou) – FTV
A partially-sighted girl, Piper, and her older stepbrother Andy are left orphaned after their father accidentally dies. They are placed in a foster home with Laura, an eccentric woman who is also fostering a strange boy named Ollie. What they don’t realize is that they’ve also landed right in the middle of an occult ritual Laura is conducting in an attempt to bring back her deceased daughter, who drowned in the backyard pool. While Bring Her Back is expertly shot and acted, especially by Sally Hawkins as Laura, the subject matter is difficult to negotiate. Children are placed in direct harm throughout, with instances of gaslighting, manipulation, and physical abuse. The special effects and body horror are incredible here, to the point where I cringed several times, and I think the story itself is compelling, although I’m a little burnt out on grief-horror. Overall recommended, but your mileage may vary.

Talk To Me (2022, Danny and Michael Philippou) – repeat
A group of teenagers play a party game that involves contacting and allowing brief possession by the spirit world using a severed, embalmed hand, but the game goes sideways when Mia makes connection with her deceased mother, who may or may not have committed suicide. This debut film from the brothers Philippou is outstanding, in my opinion. We’ve seen a million other “talk to the dead” movies but this one, despite my resistance to grief-horror, clicked for me and feels the most heartfelt. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still capital-H horror, with a few set pieces that are shocking and disturbing. The biggest issue I have with Talk To Me is that some of the characters make very stupid decisions, but I’m forgiving because they’re teenagers.

One Cut of the Dead (2017, Shin’ichinō Ueda) – FTV
A group of filmmakers are shooting a zombie pic at an abandoned water plant when an actual zombie outbreak occurs. In one stunning 37-minute-long take, we see the actors and crew battle each other and the zombies, until one is left standing, shown in a fairly impressive crane shot given the low-budget nature of the piece. When the credits roll, we see that this bit was a film within the film, also called One Cut of the Dead, as the story rolls back one month to show how One Cut was cast, rehearsed, and ultimately staged as a live broadcast to inaugurate a new TV channel dedicated to zombie-related programming. There’s a sweet family angle to all of this, as the director only takes the gig to get closer to his horror-loving daughter, who later volunteers her mother to step in to one of the acting roles after the original actress is in an accident. When a host of issues start to plague the live production, it’s a joy to watch how the director and his crew improvise to ensure the broadcast goes off as seamlessly as possible, including the final crane shot. To say much more would spoil the fun. Highly recommended.

Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright) – repeat
Shaun doesn’t have a lot going for him: a dead-end job, a relationship on the splits, tension with his stepdad, oh, and a zombie outbreak sweeping through London. What else to do but gather the gang and hit the pub? This film, Wright’s second feature, remains a classic horror-comedy, poking loving fun at the zombie genre and providing a few scares in its own right (or is it Wright? eheheh, boo, hiss). I hadn’t seen this in a few years, but it holds up well and deserves its place in the horror pantheon.

The Fog (1980, John Carpenter) – repeat
Antonio Bay is on the cusp of its centennial, but the discovery of the town’s true origins and a mysterious fog that carries the ghosts of the past threaten to bring the celebration to a deadly end. It’s safe to say that I haven’t watched The Fog in probably 15 years, but man, does it still pack a punch. Carpenter directs confidently here, with a cast led by Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Hal Holbrook, and a heavily-atmospheric story that could have come straight outta EC Comics or Tales from the Crypt.

They Live (1988, John Carpenter) – repeat
A down-on-his-luck drifter lands in Los Angeles and shortly discovers that there’s a huge alien conspiracy to harvest Earth for its resources by keeping humans blindly consuming and fighting amongst each other. For as timely as this film was in 1988, it feels almost too on the nose nowadays. That said, it’s still an entertaining watch, playing out like a cross between an action film and an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” And it features one of the greatest fistfights in film history.

The Monkey (2025, Osgood Perkins) – FTV
Twin boys, one good, one evil, inherit a cursed wind-up monkey from their absent father and discover that winding the key leads to death. Hal, the good twin, realizes that the only way to stop the monkey is to bury it forever, but Bill, the evil twin, attempts to use the monkey as retribution for the untimely death of their mother when they were children. Cue an ongoing series of bizarre accidental deaths across town that will finally bring the estranged brothers back together. I knew going into this film that it was a darkly comedic take on Stephen King’s short story of the same name, but I was not prepared to laugh so hard at one point that part of my soul was actually healed. Sometimes horror can be therapy, and just like with comedy, it’s all about the timing. Despite a bit of a drag in the third act, The Monkey is quite crackerjack. Highly recommended.