Favorite first watches ever (or in a long time) in this year’s Halloween movie list

Wow, I know. What a wordy title, but I feel like I have to make up for being too quiet on a partially horror movie dedicated blog during the entire month of October. Believe it or not, I was busy watching horror films religiously all September and October long. I know, hard to believe. So, today I’ll talk about some of my favorite first viewings ever, and first viewings in a long time, on my Halloween list from this year.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

This is the first time I’ve seen the 2003 TCM in a very long time, since I was a kid and watched it on late night cable TV, and my first time watching The Beginning ever and wow, these may very well be my favorite Texas Chainsaw movies in the whole series. I know, the purists are already groaning that I would dump on the 1974 Tobe Hooper classic like that but that’s my take, it doesn’t have to be yours. There’s no denying the impact of the ’74 TCM and the unsettling vibe it still creates to this day, but this is my favorite take on Leatherface and the cannibal family (known as the Hewitts in this version) of any of them. Leatherface is a truly hulking monster in these, and his skin masks are the coolest and creepiest versions of the mask to me. R. Lee Ermey plays a very creepy and sadistic Sheriff Hoyt to perfection, and the family is extensive and has more character and evokes more emotion (positive and negative) in these than any other version for me personally. I liked seeing a prequel story showing how the family acquired Leatherface and what led to them becoming a cannibal family in the middle of nowhere Texas in the first place because that had never really been touched on yet at that point either. Marcus Nispel directed the ’03 remake, he was also the director of the ’09 Friday the 13th which is another one of my favorite horror remakes of all time, so kudos to him on that. I’m Team Nispel for remakes, I guess. Overall, these were both very captivating and fun watches for me, and I’ll be coming back to them on the regular for some time.

Oculus

This was my first time watching the 2013 Mike Flangan project, Oculus, ever. This was one of his first projects in the genre before going on to make many more modern horror movies and was partially produced by WWE Studios, along with Relativity and E One, so that’s a little fun fact. I remember seeing the advertisements for this movie during Monday Night Raw back in the day and I have to say, this is my favorite WWE Studios movie ever, not sure that’s a huge accomplishment or not but it’s an accomplishment none the less. The story revolves around a cursed mirror inhabited by a violent spirit and that’s already a scary formula, mirrors freak me out man. I’ve seen too many horror movies to eff around with mirrors. This whole movie feels like a bad trip and once it sets into the unsettling vibe it created it doesn’t let you back up. The mirror can mess with your mind and make you see and hear and feel things that aren’t real or really there, and that is such a cool and messed up concept played so well throughout this whole movie. There’s quick cut away scenes from present day back to the past and vice versa the whole time, but it doesn’t really bother me here because it adds to the unsettling and frantic vibe of the movie and gives you more back story of things as they play out in real time. This was a really good, scary, modern supernatural movie and I certainly wouldn’t mind viewing it again in the future.

Bubba Ho-Tep

Holy smokes, I had so much fun with this movie! A 2002 Don Coscarelli horror-comedy with Bruce Campbell as a geriatric Elvis and Ossie Davis as a delusional old timer who thinks he’s actually JFK, add in an ancient Egyptian mummy with the style sense of an Old West cowboy, and we’re in business! The basic plot is a mummy terrorizing a Texas nursing home and eating the souls of the residents because they’re easy prey, in an attempt to restore himself. Enter a depressed and aimless Elvis and his handicapped JFK wannabe buddy (Ossie Davis), who begin to suspect something is up and take it upon themselves to investigate nightly in an attempt to stop Bubba and his soul sucking ways. This quickly became one of my favorite horror comedies. It combines horror elements, comedy, an old Elvis, and mummies? Right up my alley and so, so original. I get it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, there’s some teenage boy humor in here with the wiener and fart jokes, but I laugh at that stuff anyways, and not all of the humor in this felt like that. This will continue to be watched by me for years to come and I may end up writing a review for this movie on its own sometime in the future.

The Conjuring 2

I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed the viewing of this film this time around. I watched this movie at the drive-in years ago but didn’t remember anything from it besides a few bits and pieces and gained much more from it this time around. This focuses on Ed and Lorainne heading to Enfield, England to investigate suspected demonic possession of a young girl. The first Conjuring is still one of the creepiest movies I ever watched the first time I saw it, I had to show that movie to everyone just so they could experience the fear firsthand as well, so this movie had very big shoes to fill following up that one. I wouldn’t say it had the same impact on me personally, but it still stood on its own as a solid sequel to the first and a great addition to the Conjuring universe as a whole. This movie was the introduction of Valak, the nun who became a main antagonist and a staple of the series and did a good job of upping the stakes for the Warrens as well as Lorainne began to be terrorized by her before they even made it to Enfield to investigate. Madison Wolfe, who played Janet, did a stellar job at her possession scenes and garnering sympathy from the viewer as you just felt bad that this young girl had to go through this and got exiled from society because of it. This isn’t always going to fit the vibe of something I want to watch and I don’t personally put it on the same level as the original just simply based on the impact that film had on me the first few times I watched it, but this pleasantly surprised me of how well done of a sequel it was to the first and stands on its own as a solid, spooky film that I’ll look forward to checking out when I visit the Conjuring universe again.

Hellraiser (2022)

I was very pleasantly surprised in my first viewing ever of the 2022 Hulu original film “Hellraiser”. I was a bit skeptical coming in because this is the first film in the series that I’ve watched that didn’t have Doug Bradley playing the titular character of Pinhead, but Jamie Clayton more than filled the shoes and made the part her own in a sense, standing as just as good of a Pinhead as Doug in my honest opinion. I know, shameful to some of you, but I’m honest with my takes. I really enjoy the Hellraiser franchise as a whole, but the series lacks in having an abundant amount of actual quality films in it. I honestly believe this is the best Hellraiser film since the original 1987 Hellraiser and it may be just as good, if not better than that one for me personally. This film does something that most Hellraiser movies after the first like 4 stupidly did not do and that is actually focus heavily on the cenobites and the lament configuration and the struggle of the main character’s relationship with that and my goodness, what a refreshing and captivating concept that the fans have literally asked for for years now. I’m so down for more quality Hellraiser movies in this new era if they have good ideas and are actually able to execute them as well as they did here. Not that everything was even perfect in this, but it was so much fresher and truer to the original concept that I couldn’t see the argument for any true fans of the franchise not liking this movie. Clive Barker recently purchased the rights back to the Hellraiser brand so anything new that will be created will have to go through him and that leaves me very hopeful and excited for any new content in the future. I will personally be coming back to this film regularly I’m sure for years to come.