Passport to Pimlico (1949)

  Happy All Souls Day!

A handful of children accidentally explode a piece of German ordinance and uncover a treasure trove of the Duke of Burgundy, which includes a document stating that their street is actually not part of England.  The local shopkeeper, Mr. Pemberton (Stanley Holloway), hires an expert (Dame Margaret Rutherford) to authenticate and declare that since the decree had never been rescinded, their neighborhood in London is rightfully the Duchy of Burgundy and thus, no longer subject to His Majesty's rules.  The citizens initially celebrate the end of post-war rationing, but soon find self-governance tricky.  There's borders and customs, currency issues, and national defense to think of, and that's before some French guy (Paul Dupuis) shows up, claiming to be the descendent of the last Duke.  

This is a very cute Ealing comedy that perfectly captures the British wartime spirit.  The characters feel like slight exaggerations of real people, not quite archetypes, but familiar enough to be instantly recognizable.  It's still very much a product of its time so the dialogue is a little antiquated, but well worth seeking out.  And you don't have to look very far, either.  It's streaming for free on Tubi.

Oops! All Horror - Day 31 - Lake Mungo (2008)

 Happy Halloween, everyone!  We're finishing strong with a stunner of a film.   Content:  drowned corpse

An Australian family is devastated when 16-year-old Alice (Talia Zucker) drowns during a family vacation.  Soon after, the family begin experiencing disturbances around the house, leading them to seek out a local psychic and radio personality (Steve Jodrell).  

Okay, I am late to the party on this one, which is very well-regarded in horror circles.  I was initially hesitant because of the words "found footage" but this is not shaky-cam.  This is a spectacularly done documentary-style film that's a little like Presence mixed with Ghostwatch.  It is so well-executed I can see someone believing that it's a real episode of a haunting show.  The performances felt really natural, all the "twists" were exactly like the ones you'd see in a documentary, and it has just enough verité to make you wonder.  I am going to get a little spoiler-y so as always, highlight the text to read it.  **SPOILERS FOLLOW**  One of my complaints about Presence was the "time is a flat circle" nature of the haunting which reads as predestination and inability to escape fate.  I don't love that.  Lake Mungo neatly sidesteps all that by making Alice see her fetch, a death omen from Celtic folklore.  Maybe that's the same effect for you, but for me, adding a slightly supernatural element made it seem less philosophical and therefore less depressingly nihilistic.  **END SPOILERS**  

Lake Mungo is streaming on AMC+, Shudder, and Amazon Prime.

Oops! All Horror - Day 30 - Practical Magic 2 (2026)

  It's witches and witches are Halloween-y.  Shut up.  Content warning:  suicide

After the curse-related death of Gary (Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film), Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) renounces her magic and removes the memory of witchcraft from her two daughters, swearing her sister, Gillian (Nicole Kidman) to silence.  Ten years later, Sally's daughters return home for the wake of Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Kylie's (Joey King) boyfriend (Xolo Maridueña) shows up to surprise her, running straight into the consequences of the Owens curse.  Devastated and angry that her mother hid her heritage, Kylie takes one of Jet's books and leaves for the Owens' ancestral home in Thornfield, England to try and break the curse.  Sally and Gillian follow, meeting Professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace), to help unblock Sally's magic.

I was extremely skeptical of this when it was announced because I am a huge fan of the original movie.  It didn't need a sequel and I was very worried this was going to be some sort of horrible nostalgia-farming cash grab.  

Fortunately, it manages to keep enough of the charm that made the original great so that I'm not mad at it.  It still probably didn't need to be made but it's fine.  It's cute.  Lee Pace is a major upgrade from Aiden Quinn although I do feel a little bad that Sally has had three major love interests and Gillian only got a psycho ex.  Likewise, Antonia (Maisie Williams) also gets short shrift in the film.  There's just not enough story to go around.  Still, I don't mind an underbaked cookie as long as it's appropriately gooey, and this was a fun, easy watch.  It just came out on digital and if you wait a month or so, it will be on one of the streamers.  I bought a copy, though.  And the soundtrack.

Oops! All Horror - Day 29 - Dolly (2025)

  Content warning:  blood, gore, dolls, vomit, forced breastfeeding

Chase (Seann William Scott) takes Macy (Fabienne Therese) on a hike, planning to propose, but is distracted by the sound of a child's toy.  He accidentally interrupts Dolly (Max the Impaler) at a private ceremony and is attacked and left for dead.  Macy goes looking for Chase but only finds Dolly, who kidnaps her.  Macy has to learn the rules of Dolly's game in order to survive and escape.

This is not reinventing the slasher genre but it's at least a decent new addition.  Production values are good, character design is solid, and it has a couple of surprisingly famous names in the cast.  If I hadn't seen Barbarian, I might have liked this more.  As it is, it could still be a really good time for you, a group of friends, and low expectations.  

It's a Shudder original, but it's also on Hulu.

Oops! All Horror - Day 28 - Cronos (1993)

  Content warning: blood, bugs

Jesús Gris (Frederico Luppi) is just a mild-mannered antiques dealer in Mexico City when he discovers a strange artifact in the base of a wooden statue. The golden device takes a small amount of Jesús's blood and imbues him with new vitality. Obviously, something like that is in hot demand and Jesús begins to be harassed by a gangster (Claudio Brook) dying of cancer and his nephew/goon (Ron Perlman).

Guillermo Del Toro sprang fully-formed from the head of Calliope, I'm pretty sure. This is his first feature film and you can already see the director he would become. Now, whether you are on board with that or not is up to you.  Personally, I love it even if I would have liked a different ending. I can see the vision, though! 

Perlman is the most recognizable name in the cast for English speakers and he is so very young and brash. It is adorable.  Luppi was in all three of Del Toro's Spanish-language films, so aficionados may recognize him as well.  This is unfortunately not streaming anywhere except to rent or buy but it is well worth tracking down.  

Oops! All Horror - Day 27 - Harpoon (2019)

 Content warning: dead animal (fish, seagull), blood, mild gore

Jonah (Munro Chambers) and Sasha (Emily Tyra) join their abusive friend, Richie (Christopher Gray) on his boat for a day trip, unaware that all their secrets and resentments are about to be revealed.

This is billed as a dark comedy horror and I guess.  It's very light on the horror for my tastes.  Minus one scene, I would classify it as just a black comedy.  That being said, it's also not very funny.  For me, black comedies only work if they are based in irony or schadenfreude and at least one of the characters hasn't done anything to deserve what happens to them.  It is like the fourth movie I've seen this month to flirt with cannibalism so I guess it's on theme?

It's streaming on Prime but there are better options out there.

Oops! All Horror - Day 26 - Detention (2019)

Not to be confused with the 2011 film Detention starring Josh Hutcherson that is borderline unwatchable.  Content warning: blood, executions ( hanging, gunshot), suicide, domestic violence (off-screen)

Wei Chung-ting (Tseng Ching-hua) finds himself trapped in a recurring dream while being tortured by the Chinese regime in Taiwan.  His school had been secretly copying banned books and someone dimed them out to the authorities.  Wei must discover what happened while avoiding the monsters roaming the halls of his school.

I was a little worried I wasn't going to get my yearly dose of Asian horror.  We're coming up on the end of the month, after all, and pickings have been fairly slim this year but Taiwan delivered with this nasty little cautionary tale about authoritarianism.  You don't really even need the ghosts to make it effective, although one could make the argument that the ghosts are needed to keep it from being a little too effective.  For that, you're going to want to skip straight to The Act of Killing.  But instead of making ourselves depressed, let's just focus on the ghost story.  

Apparently this is based on a video game.  Which is fucking wild.  Parts of it do feel like gameplay, especially some of the hallway scenes, but just the concept of turning your national tragedy into a video game is crazy to me.  

Anyway, this is streaming on The Criterion Channel or on Tubi for free.  Choose wisely.

Oops! All Horror - Day 25 - Tales from the Hood (1995)

  Content warning: blood, gore, child abuse, gang violence, archival footage of lynchings, cross burnings, hate crimes, racial slurs

Three men (Joe Torry, Samuel Monroe, Jr. and De'Aundre Bonds) are sent to retrieve it shipment of drugs mistakenly picked up by a mortician (Clarence Williams III) and are treated to a series of tales about the bodies on view.

This was a very good anthology marred only by a weak framing narrative.  I'm sure it was intended to be funny, but I found it grating.  Best individual performance has to be David Alan Grier, playing waaaaay against type.  If you grew up seeing him on In Living Color, this would be kind of a shock.  Best segment of the anthology is "KKK Comeuppance," which is basically a remake of The Trilogy of Terror segment with a miniature "native" doll that menaces Karen Black.  Except this time it's a racist Southern senator (Corbin Bernson) being attacked by the spirit of murdered slaves.  So much better.  

It's currently streaming on Starz, which I thought I had but apparently don't, so I watched it...elsewhere. I can't speak for the sequels but I definitely recommend this one. 

Oops! All Horror - Day 24 - Channel Zero - Candle Cove (2016)

  I've managed to get through a surprising amount of TV this year.  Content warning:  child death, teeth (?), puppets/dolls

Mike Painter (Paul Schneider) lost his twin brother, Eddie (Luca Villacis), when they were 12-years-old in part of a series of unsolved murders.  Afterwards, his mother (Fiona Shaw) sent Mike away to live with his dad.  But thirty years later, after a disturbing series of visions, Mike returns to Iron Hill at the same time a strange show only visible to children called Candle Cove returns to TV.  

I was very excited about the monster design on this one, but I have to admit, the first half is better than the second.  It's only six-episodes long and it is still really good; I just felt like it couldn't sustain the energy of the first couple of episodes.  Still, Shaw is a great actress and anchors this cast.  It's an anthology show so it is a complete story and I'll watch the other seasons, but probably not this year.

Oops! All Horror - Day 23 - The Mummy (1933)

  Content warning:  animal death (dog (off-screen)), blackface

My friend Lauren is kind enough to let me walk her through the Universal horror classics.  We've seen Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and now Boris Karloff's Mummy.  I will admit, I'd never sat down and actually watched it before.

A terrible discovery during an archeological dig sends one man mad (Bramwell Fletcher) and another into retirement.  Ten years later,  Frank Whemple (David Manners) comes to Egypt to continue his father's work.  An enigmatic local named Ardeth Bey (Boris Karloff) leads him to the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon.  At a party in celebration of the find, Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann) falls into a trance and attempts to break into the museum where the remains of the princess have been taken.  Frank and Helen's psychiatrist/occultist, Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan), theorize that Helen is the reincarnation of Ankh-es-en-Amon.  Dr. Muller is immediately suspicious of Ardeth Bey, believing him to be the resurrected mummy Imhotep from the first disastrous expedition.

I was a little surprised at how much overlap there was between this and the 1999 The Mummy.  The Fraser/Weisz version is vastly superior but I love it even more now, knowing how they incorporated the original story.  Even the white cat!

The makeup work is phenomenal but the performances are only so-so.  It's barely over an hour long but it dragged in places.  Stick to the remake, but if you're curious, be prepared to shell out some money because this isn't available for streaming except to rent or buy.  

Oops! All Horror - Day 22 - Buzzkill (2026)

  Content warning:  blood, vomit, alcohol use

Nora (Siena Agudong) witnessed the murder of her sorority president, Sarah (Frances Sholto-Douglas), but was black-out drunk and doesn't remember who did it.  So she keeps getting black-out drunk every night, trying to piece together what happened, writing clues on herself with Sharpie that she then has to decipher the next day.  Her fellow sorority sisters are sick of her antics and hit her with an ultimatum:  stay sober or get kicked out.  But on the night of the annual Greek House Pub Crawl, Nora is sure she can solve the murder if she can just get her hands on some Jell-O shots.

This is obviously meant to be funny but it comes off as promoting irresponsible and unhealthy drinking habits.  The whole "drunk me did this for sober me" joke was played out like a decade ago on Tumblr.  Otherwise, it's a fairly decent sorority slasher that avoids most of the really gross/exploitative tropes.  There are some nods to Black Christmas and Slumber Party Massacre which show that the filmmakers did their homework; they just have questionable taste in humor.  The cast is game, though I don't know if anyone here is destined for the A-list.  I could be wrong.  All in all, not bad if you had a group of friends watching.

It is streaming on Tubi.

Oops! All Horror - Day 21 - Ravenous (1996)

  Content warning: blood, cannibalism, some gore, animal death (horses)

Captain Boyd (Guy Pearce) is a reluctant Spanish-American war hero who is exiled to Fort Spencer, California, a decrepit bastion holding one of the Sierra Nevada passes.  On a snowy night, a stranger stumbles into the fort bearing a tale of desperation.  Father Calqhoun (Robert Carlyle) was traveling with a wagon train when they were led astray and forced to winter in a cave.  Hunger beset them and they turned to murder and cannibalism.  Colqhoun tearfully recounts his flight, certain that he would have been the next victim.  The fort commander, Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones), immediately puts together a rescue party but the local guide, George (Joshua Running Fox), warns Boyd of the legend of the Wendigo, a man with an insatiable desire for human flesh.

This is one of those movies that is just so fun to watch it makes up for any flaws.  Pearce and Carlyle have incredible chemistry together, although Carlyle alone could carry this movie.  The soundtrack is so bouncy and jovial, you'll forget you're watching people flee for their lives.  If the tone doesn't work for you, I get it.  I love horror comedies and it's by far the funniest cannibalism movie I've ever seen.  The folklore elements are pretty spot-on and it actually casts Native actors in Native roles, which is better than a lot of its 90s peers.  

I saw this a long time ago, about a year after it premiered, and I've kept my copy ever since then.  It's absolutely worth the money, but if you just want to stream it, it's also available on Amazon Prime.

Oops! All Horror - Day 20 - Stranger Things season 5 (2025)

  Content warning:  blood, child endangerment, some gore, eldritch monstrosities, mangled limbs

The town of Hawkins, Indiana is under martial law, quarantined after the confrontation with Vecna/Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower) split the town into four sections.  A resistance network has formed, with Hopper (David Harbour) and the boys leading crawls into the tunnel network under the town, connecting with the Upside Down in an attempt to locate Henry, while Eleven/Jane (Millie Bobby Brown) trains her psychic powers for a final confrontation.

We are ending a lot of things this year.  I didn't get into the fandom around this show but I enjoyed it for what it was.  I know the finale got a lot of flack from people but I think any ending is going to be divisive.  It went pretty much the way I expected.  A two-hour run time is crazy, though.  

There are probably easier ways to get kids to play Dungeons & Dragons, but it's streaming on Netflix.

Oops! All Horror - Day 19 - Buffet Infinity (2026)

  Content Warning:  mild gore

Buffet Infinity has opened in the town of Westbridge, Alberta, Canada.  It's got everything.  Just ignore the sinkhole out back.  And the weird, pervasive noise.  And the lack of staff.  And the constant expansion.  

The entire movie is a series of local commercials and news alerts that somehow tells a coherent narrative.  It's possibly the most original film I've ever seen and certainly the most original this year.  And I feel like it'll come and go and no one will have ever heard of this outside film festivals and gorehounds like me.  It is 100% not for everyone.  If someone channel-surfing sets your teeth on edge, for example.  If you've never been up late and flipped through all the infomercials in a kind of mindless haze, best to skip this.  But if you have a weird nostalgia for the shitty used cars ads that were kind of like mini-serials, or the box collections of CDs for people you've never heard on a radio, please watch this.  Please reward this kind of ingenuity.  I promise you it's worth it.

It's streaming on Shudder/AMC+.  It's got the sauce.

Oops! All Horror - Day 18 - I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

  Content warning:  dead animal (sheep), passive racism, suicide (drowning)

Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is a young Canadian nurse who accepts a position in the West Indies to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner.  Jessica (Christine Gordon) had a severe fever that left her mind impaired.  She can eat and walk unaided, and follow simple commands, but cannot talk or have any real agency.  Betsy finds herself drawn to Paul (Tom Conway), Jessica's sullen husband but is warned off by his half-brother, Wesley (James Ellison), who claims Paul drove Jessica mad before her illness.  Desperate to restore Jessica's mind, Betsy turns to a houngan, a Vodou priest, for a cure.

Why, yes, it is a more racist Jane Eyre.  Apparently by design.  It was based on a magazine article about Haitian plantation workers' drug use destroying their minds but obviously, that wasn't sexy enough for RKO.  Creative liberties aside, the movie is beautifully shot.  It is also edited down to the bones, clocking in at a speedy 68 minutes.

Gordon is a vacant-eyed doll but dressed impeccably.  Even her voodoo doll looked great.  The men kind of suck but I typically don't care about men's fashion.  Women looked great though.  Conway is the only one in the cast with an English accent which I would probably not have cared about if the movie hadn't tried to explain it as "uh, he and his brother went to different boarding schools."  

If you're looking for vibes without gore or jump scares, here's one for you but you're going to have to whip out the VPN or pay real money to rent or buy.  

Oops! All Horror - Day 17 - Misery (1990)

  Content warning:  some blood, mild body horror

Novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is excited to start a new era.  He has finally killed off his previous bestselling character, Misery Chastain, and is starting a brand new series.  He is on his way to deliver his manuscript to his editor (Lauren Bacall) when his car goes off the road during a blizzard.  Fortunately, Paul is rescued by a nurse, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who just so happens to be a fan.  His number one fan, you could say.  As Paul begins to recover, Annie gets more demanding, more controlling.  The only way to pacify her is to write a new Misery Chastain novel.

There's something being said in the film about the parasocial demands of fandom that feels very prescient, given the well-publicized outcries about popular media, like the series finale of Stranger Things or the recent-ish Disney Star Wars sequels.  Apparently, the kid who plays Percy Jackson in the Disney+ show had to ask fans online to stop sending death-threats to his potential prom dates.  So there's a lot of angry, entitled people out there who only want to consume very specific things and when they don't get them, they take it personally.  

But also, there's something very ick about the villain in this movie being a woman who physically dominates a man.  It's infuriating because the way Paul walks on eggshells around Annie is just daily life for a lot of women in abusive relationships.  So is this an entry in Women's Horror, my pet category of Only Horror Because It's Happening to a Man?  I'm going to say no.  I think it's just garden-variety misogyny that the scariest thing a man can imagine is a woman having power over him and treating him the way he would treat her if their roles were reversed.  

Obligatory feminist rant out of the way, this is a very well-done film.  Caan and Bates are performing their asses off, and the banter between the sheriff (Richard Farnsworth) and his wife (Frances Sternhagen) feels very vintage William Goldman/Rob Reiner.  Barry Sonnenfeld was the Director of Photography and I had forgotten how good he was at capturing movement without feeling like you were going to hurl.  And no shaky-cam!  All in all, you could do much worse if this is your favorite horror movie.  It's a solid thriller that holds up even 35 years later.  It's streaming on HBO Max but only until the end of the month.

Oops! All Horror - Day 16 - In the Tall Grass (2019)

  Content warning:  blood, mild gore, animal death (crow, dog)

Becky (Laysla De Oliveira) and her brother, Cal (Avery Whitted), are on a cross-country trip to San Diego.  They stop by a field of tall grass so pregnant Becky can throw up and hear a boy (Will Blue, Jr.) calling for help inside.  Cal rushes in and Becky reluctantly follows.  The siblings soon discover that the field is seemingly endless, able to shift distances and sound, even time itself.

A good chunk of this movie is characters yelling each others' names, which very quickly got boring, but then Patrick Wilson showed up and improved it immensely.  It's kind of like Children of the Corn, if there wasn't even anything to eat.  Like, sure, you have a murderous cult but at least you weren't going to starve.  Wilson is obviously the standout here.  I love him in everything, but he is never better than when he is unhinged.  Fans of the show Lioness will recognize De Oliveira but the film doesn't really give her a lot to do other than be pregnant and yell.

It's fine.  There's some decent horror imagery, some straight out of a Renaissance triptych.  Vicenzo Natali is a solid director.  I just think the material is a little weak and relies too heavily on religious symbolism.  But it checks the box for Environmental Horror and it's streaming on Netflix, so at least it's convenient.  

Oops! All Horror - Day 15 - The Transfiguration (2017)

  Content warning:  blood, animal death (cow)

Teenaged Milo (Eric Ruffin) goes to school, tries to avoid the bullies and the gangbangers, and then goes out on the full moon to hunt strangers and drink their blood.  And then throws up, because he's not actually a vampire, just a serial killer.  But when Sophie (Chloe Levine) moves into his building, Milo begins to realize that there might be more to life than undeath.

I have...complicated...feelings about this movie.  I love vampires so I am disappointed this is not actually a vampire movie.  It is definitely horror, though.  The ending feels slightly too hopeful (?) and yet also correct.  Like, I approve, but I also find it a bit of an unrealistic note.  But I'm not an expert on serial killers, so what do I know.  

This is one of those movies that critics liked and audiences didn't and I get it.  If you're just trying to enjoy a horror movie, this is slow, too sad, and too much like real life.  If you're trying to critique a horror movie, this is "deliberately paced," "emotional," and a gritty, realistic take on vampire lore.  So bear that in mind when you're making your choices this spooky season.  It's currently streaming on Tubi with ads.

Oops! All Horror - Day 14 - Nope (2022)

  Content warning: blood, animal death (chimp, horses (off-screen))

After the death of their father (Keith David), siblings O.J. (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) are struggling to keep up their family business of horse wrangling for Hollywood productions.  O.J. has even resorted to selling off stock to the rodeo/amusement park next door, run by former child actor, Jupe Park (Steven Yuen).  Jupe has been touting a new attraction, only available in the evenings, and O.J. realizes that Jupe has been courting a predatory force hiding in the clouds, luring it in with the horses.  He and Emerald decide to film the creature, hoping for fame and fortune.

This is the weakest film I've seen from Jordan Peele, but it's still not bad.  It's a little unfocused for my tastes, but it's at least an original sci-fi horror story with an impeccable cast, including the late Michael Wincott, who was one of my favorite character actors.  

I'm not mad at it; I just didn't love it.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Oops! All Horror - Day 13 - Interview with the Vampire season 1 (2022)

  Normally, it's way too hard to watch an entire season of a horror TV show, but I've been watching this the past few weeks with my neighbor and we finished in time for this list, so it's getting included.  Content warning:  racism, gore, blood, dead animals (rats), injured animals (pigeons), suicide

Twenty years after publishing a best-seller featuring an interview with a real vampire, journalist Daniel Malloy (Eric Bogosian) is flown out to Dubai to have the record set straight.  Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) regrets some of the editorial choices made in his previous recollections and is willing to grant unprecedented access to his home and his memories, no matter how painful.

The show makes some departures from the book, moving up the timeline to the 1920s and adding new characters.  Purists will no doubt have an issue with this, but I think these are improvements.  Anderson has so much more agency with this new backstory and made Louis so much more entertaining for me, because you know how much a self-hating vampire irritates me.  I still can't watch the 1994 film because Brad Pitt's version was such a whiner.  Also, Sam Reid is electrifying as Lestat.  A truly excellent portrayal.  

It's available on both AMC+ and Netflix but the AMC+ version has behind-the-scenes commentary where there would be commercial breaks.  Fine if you're doing a rewatch but I wouldn't recommend it for first-time viewing.  The Netflix version is just the show.