C. M. Rosens

It’s that time of year again! And while I’m posting interviews from indie authors of all genres, I’m also watching some cool films that I thought I’d share with you all. If you’re new to the 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days challenge, it was started by Sarah Stubbs, a Letterboxd patron, and the rules are simple: aim to watch 100 new-to-you horror films between 1st Aug and 31st Oct. They must be listed on Letterboxd or IMDB as “horror” to count for the challenge.

This is 2022’s list (one film is missing from Letterboxd): 100-horror-movies-in-92-days-2022/

This is 2023’s list: 100-horror-movies-in-92-days-2023/

This year I’ve decided life is too short to watch films that don’t do anything for me, so I’m DNF’ing some and not counting them towards the challenge. Click the button to go to this year’s list!

Films 1-10

The Ghost Walks (1934) dir. Frank R. Strayer is the oldest film I’ve watched so far. It’s a fun, comedic kind of horror/thriller with no actual ghost, but there is an awful man who is the actual worst, trying it on with the unwilling heroine.

A ghostly and deadly dinner party, which at first turns out to be an elaborate staging of a new play for the benefit of a Broadway producer, becomes a true mystery when the players start to go missing.

Son of Ingagi (1940) dir. Richard C. Kahn is a piece of cinematic history; the first Hollywood horror film with an all-Black cast and a Black screenwriter. It is billed as the sequel of the racist Ingagi (1930) dir. William Campbell, which is set in Africa (and shot there). The premise is an African woman had sex with a gorilla to produce a gorilla-man, Ingagi. In this film, Son of Ingagi, there is a gorilla-man living in the basement of a doctor’s house, and he goes on a rampage once she’s used him For Science. It’s not related to the original 1930 film except the title, which was to attract audiences.

Terror reigns when the giant of the jungle breaks loose! A newlywed couple is visited by a strange old woman who harbors a secret about the young girl’s father.

Kiss of the Vampire (1963) dir. Don Sharp is one Hammer Horror I thought I had already seen, but it turns out I hadn’t. It’s set in the same house with the twisty pillars and opulent Gothic decor, and has everything you can expect from a Hammer Horror. I found the whole thing on YouTube and really enjoyed it, even if it cuts off the very end a bit abruptly.

Shocking! – Horrifying! – Macabre! Honeymooning in Bavaria, a young couple becomes stranded and is forced to stay the night in the area. Doctor Ravna, owner of the impressive chateau that sits imposingly above the village, invites them to dinner that evening. Their association with Ravna and his charming, beautiful family is to prove disastrous.

Nightmare (1964) dir. Freddie Francis is another Hammer I haven’t seen before. This one is psychological horror in the vein of Gaslight, with family drama and terrible men. Again. I’m going in cold on all of these and yet there are terrible men everywhere. In this case, it’s also terrible women, though, so this balances it out. It’s tragic and vicious and I was pretty happy about the ending.

A young student is haunted by recurring dreams of her mother murdering her father, but her nightmare is just beginning as she tries to prove to her loved ones that she is not insane.

怪談 / Kwaidan (1964) dir. Masaki Kobayashi, is another one I can’t believe I haven’t seen before. I was sure I had, but nope. It’s so gorgeous, with 4 Japanese folktales reimagined for the screen. I think my favourite was the Snow Maiden, with the eyes in the sky and the magical feel of the winter world. Oh, and terrible men.

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning “ghost story,” this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior’s reflection in his teacup.

Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält / Mark of the Devil (1970) dir. Michael Armstrong, Adrian Hoven was my first “witch trials” horror of the challenge, and this critiques the secular powers as well as the Church, and especially looks at the abuses of the gentry and local elite during this time for their own socio-political and economic gains (the accusations against the young male heir to a lot of lands, for example). It’s also a tragic love story, where the materialist views of the main female protagonist are also subtly critiqued; she is not rewarded by the outcome of the film, and in fact is the architect of her own tragedy by stirring up violent protest against the powers-that-be. Make of that what you will. I think this is a really good one to watch alongside Czech New Wave film, Kladivo na čarodějnice/Witchhammer (1970) dir. Otakar Vávra, and The Witchfinder General (1968) dir. Michael Reeves.

In 1700s Austria, a witch-hunter’s apprentice has doubts about the righteousness of witch-hunting when he witnesses the brutality, the injustice, the falsehood, the torture and the arbitrary killing that go with the job.

Tutti i colori del buio / All the Colours of the Dark (1972) dir. Sergio Martino is the first giallo of the challenge. I think I picked a good one. It’s psychological, the usual sex and death and pregnancy/miscarriage drama that drives women to hysteria, and a breathtakingly gorgeous woman inexplicably with an awful man who doesn’t deserve her. Tale as old as time, really. I was fully expecting something sapphic with the neighbour.

After a car accident that caused the loss of her baby, Jane experiences an increasing amount of nightmares that shake her to her core. After seeking professional help, her haunting visions turn into an even more frightening reality, one full of black magic, blood orgies, and murder.

Morgiana (1972) dir. Juraj Herz was my first Czech New Wave film of the challenge. This was a really fun Gothic Horror, with close focus on a sister relationship that has distinctly Cinderella/Snow White vibes. Morgiana is the name of the evil sister’s cat, and I’m sure the cat is somehow symbolic of the sister’s psyche or something, but she’s also a really pretty cat. Not to ruin the film, but the cat’s fine.

Jealous of her vapidly “good” sister’s popularity, poisonous Viktoria doses pretty Klara’s tea with a slow-acting fatal substance. As the latter grows hysterically weak, the former finds success increasingly compromised by guilt, blackmail, and the pesky need to kill others lest she be exposed.

Dr Caligari (1989) dir. Stephen Sayadian was a fun glimpse into the buttoned-up and deeply repressed USian psyche where it comes to the female orgasm, but if Richard O’Brien has already done it, it’s fine to leave it alone. It’s a more stylistic (if possible) USian version of Shock Treatment (1981) dir. Jim Sharman, with the medical horror amped up to 11 and men getting sex-mad women’s brain juices implanted in their craniums. Horny, incest-y, and also came off as pretty transphobic and annoyingly hetero, which Shock Treatment managed to avoid while still getting the incest in. Also, Shock Treatment has catchy songs, and Pat Quinn is back in the incest sibling role.

The MAD doctor is in. Mrs. Van Houten has shown signs of losing touch with reality, and her husband discusses possible treatment with Dr. Caligari, who says Mrs. Van Houten has a disease of the libido.

Laurin (1989) dir. Robert Sigl is a gentle German Gothic drama about a young girl who is becoming a teenager while her entire life falls apart. No magical periods here, she’s a bit too young for that, but she is struggling with the death of her pregnant mother, her father’s absence at sea, and her grandmother’s deteriorating health while her classmates go missing. It’s more magical realism with a pitch-dark core than straight horror, so don’t go in expecting a slasher or a supernatural tale.

In a small port town at the end of the 19th century children are disappearing. A mysterious man in black who stalks the town may be Death itself. And nine-year-old Laurin is suffering terrifying dreams and hallucinations of a man carrying a sack and frightened children calling for help from behind closed windows.

As we get into the 1990s up to present day, I aimed to watch fewer Hollywood and big Anglophone studio-made films, but also fewer things made in the US in general. Even in the UK, US-made stuff seems to dominate the streaming platforms, and I want to watch more films from elsewhere. More British and Irish horror, even.

That’s not to say no US-made films. I’m just being a bit more conscious in branching out.

As of now, I have no 1990s films in my list! So we jump straight ahead to the 2000s.

Films 11-30

• The Gathering (2002) dir. Brian Gilbert – a Christina Ricci and Ioan Gruffudd film I hadn’t seen. I liked the concept of this but the theology was weird and the whitewashing of the crucifixion scene frankly bizarre, but there we go, that’s what you get for watching a religious-themed horror from the 00s. The ableism and lazy mental health motive of “hurt people hurt people” is also a reason I won’t be re-watching this one.

Cassie Grant (Christina Ricci) is a young girl from the United States who is wandering through England on foot. On her way to Ashby Wake Cassie is hit by a car. The driver of the car, Mrs Marion Kirkman (Kerry Fox), immediately calls an ambulance. During an examination at the local hospital the doctor comes to the conclusion that Cassie only has some scratches and not even a concussion, but Cassie has lost her memory due to the accident. She only knows her name and mother country, but she does not know which town she comes from, who her family is and why she is in England.

• Lake Mungo (2008) dir. Joel Anderson was a much better pick, and my first Australian horror of the challenge. I loved how Weird this was. I went in cold and didn’t expect it to be a documentary-style mixed with ‘footage’. I really enjoyed it, and I can see what people mean about it getting under your skin. The build-up was really well done for me. And again – family drama and men being terrible.

After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns in a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice’s secret past emerges.

• Cropsey (2009) dir. Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio is an actual documentary, but worked fairly well paired with Lake Mungo. Fact is also pretty scary, and I liked how the documentary wove the serial killer story with a common urban legend.

Realizing the urban legend of their youth has actually come true, two filmmakers delve into the mystery surrounding five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearances.

• The Thing (2011) dir. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. is the prequel to The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter, but nothing will ever beat Mason Hawthorne’s classic, Am I The Thing That Pounded Me In The Ass In Antarctica. This masterpiece of m/m erotica is not a movie yet, but it would probably be better than this prequel. That said, I didn’t hate the prequel, I actually kind of liked it. The body horror is more gloopy and sticky and visceral, the effects not amazing, but it was fine. Also, was that Thormund from GoT????

When paleontologist Kate Lloyd travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.

• Shadows on the Wall (2014) dir. Benjamin Carland was my first Sci-Fi/Cosmic Horror of the challenge, and not a great one to start with. Largely forgettable, but a good one to watch alongside The Resonator and other Miskatonic U films. You can find a list of these here, and I’m always adding to it so feel free to recommend things. The blurb for the movie is also a bit odd; it mentions that the protag has “personality disorders” but he’s clearly autistic-coded. Make of that what you will.

A modern day sci-fi about Palmer Marshall, a struggling engineering student that’s flailing through his personal life, classes, and career. Palmer is on the cusp of a potentially huge discovery and he devotes every waking moment to the challenging, and often fruitless, pursuit of creating something that might change the world. But Palmer soon learns that the road to success is long and fraught with failure. Despite crippling anxiety and personality disorders, Palmer perseveres and creates the one – the dream machine that he’ll be remembered for. 

• Hüddam (2015) dir. Utku Uçar is the first in the franchise, and very low budget and not great in terms of acting. My tolerance is higher for Turkish films than English-language films, mainly because even though it’s not great, there’s usually enough drama to keep me entertained. I think the D@bbe films did the haunted village and possessed family member thing better.

Can and his mother Derya live an ordinary country life. But after a while his mother starts to exhibit strange behavior. Intrigued by Derya’s enigmatic behavior Can begins to wonder about his mother’s childhood.

• Hagazussa (2017) dir. Lukas Feigelfeld for me did a better job of exploring a woman’s journey through the horrors of her rural society and social ostracism into embodying the figure of the witch (the hagazussa of the title) than Eggers’ New England dark fable did. It could work with The VVitch (2015) dir. Robert Eggers as a double bill, but it would also work alongside Gwen (2018) dir. William McGregor. I think it would also work with Sator (2019) dir. Jordan Graham thematically. It’s really all about how much despair you can tolerate in one sitting, I guess. Most of the films in my Folk Horror list would be good with it, in fact.

In the 15th century, a young goatherd living alone in a mountain hut feels a dark presence in the woods.

• Cold Skin (2017) dir. Xavier Gens is if The Shape of Water was gender-flipped and about an abusive relationship in the context of genocidal mania and the onset of World War I. The futility of the battles between the lighthouse keeper and the fishmen are the strangest WWI allegory I’ve ever seen, and the whole thing – uneasy alliances, resistance, collaboration – was all really unsettling and an interesting watch.

A young man who arrives at a remote island finds himself trapped in a battle for his life.

• Muere, Monstruo, Muere/Murder Me, Monster (2018) dir. Alejandro Fadel was … not for me. But it was a weird monster thing that should have been for me. But it wasn’t. I don’t know what to tell you. I really liked the shots of the Andes.

A rural police officer investigates the bizarre case of a headless woman’s body. The prime suspect blames the crime on the appearance of a legendary monster.

• The Tokoloshe (2018) dir. Jordan Pikwane was much more for me. I really liked the social injustice angle interwoven with Busi’s supernatural issues, but I kind of wish the ending had been a bit more dramatic and emotional. This one has strong warnings for CSA and attempted rape of an adult.

Busi, a young destitute woman with dangerously repressed emotions, lands a job as a cleaner at a rundown hospital in the heart of Johannesburg. Desperate for the money so she can bring her younger sister to Johannesburg, she must cope despite the predatory and corrupt hospital manager. When Busi discovers an abandoned young girl in the hospital, who believes she is tormented by a supernatural force, Busi must face her own demons from her past in order to save the child from the abusive monster that pursues them both relentlessly.

• Cin Tepesi/Haunted Hill (2018) dir. Furkan Düzen, Fatih Hasanoglu – found footage documentary horror, like Lake Mungo, but really not that great. In the same sort of league as Hüddam. The ending wasn’t very satisfactory for me, but also I’m not sure how they could have ended it. They also needed to stop summoning cin ffs.

Fatih and Furkan are two young [men], investigating paranormal events for social media. They went to a region called as “Haunted Hill” by the public in a small Turkish village. They’ve obtained real gin images there. But their cameras weren’t good enough. So they decided to get help from a professional team and go back to the “Haunted Hill”.

• 8/The Soul Collector (2019) dir. Harold Hölscher is a South African folklore film oozing with those good, dark folk horror vibes. I really enjoyed it. I do like horror where the protagonist is a child, although in this case she wasn’t the protagonist but a main character whose perspective we don’t actually get, as we see her mostly from the perspective of the adults in her life, while she tries to navigate the loss of her parents and her precarious position as she’s adopted by her aunt and uncle. I do like the relationship she builds with the Soul Collector, and the ending was pretty good.

An old man, fated to collect souls for eternity, seeks atonement after trading his daughter’s soul.

• Kandisha (2020) dir. Julien Maury, Alexandre Bustillo was the worst film I’ve seen so far. I should have known better that to watch a French film that made an [Islamic] jinn its antagonist, as if 2020 wasn’t its own red flag. I’ve yet to find something good that came out of that year. This film is a gender-flipped Candyman, pretty much scene for scene, especially the ending. Even her name has ‘Candy’ in it when you say it out loud. I am not a big fan of the whole thing where the white girl saves her family while her two friends – a Black girl and a French-Moroccan girl – both suffer and have their families destroyed by Kandisha. Also, I’m not a fan of the “Arab men are violent misogynists” stereotype, which is literally the white girl’s boyfriend and the catalyst to her summoning Kandisha to kill him. There’s just a lot going on in this film that just didn’t sit right with me.

One summer evening, three childhood friends invoke the spirit of Kandisha, a vengeful creature from a Moroccan legend. The game quickly turns into a nightmare when their loved ones begin to disappear.

• The Outwaters (2022) dir. Robbie Banfitch was probably the worst film for me in terms of visceral scares, in that I felt sick after watching it, and now it’s burned into my brain. I had to mute and fast-forward through some of the scenes. I thought that was very effective, but it really affected me. I won’t be re-watching, that hit my body horror limit even though you don’t see very much. I thought the desert scenes were great, and the whole weird timey-wimey thing. I can’t rate this one, though. No idea where I would start. If you like fucked up found footage that’s also very slowburn and atmospheric and the body horror is mostly implied soundscape with gorey flashes of reveal, this might be for you.

Deep in the Mojave desert, under a scorching blood-red sun, four travelers have set up camp to make art. One fateful night, the group is thrust into a feverish tornado of flayed flesh and mind-boggling monstrosities, the likes of which mere humans simply cannot fathom.

• H. P. Lovecraft’s Witch House (2022) dir. Bobby Easley – second worst after Kandisha of the films I’ve seen so far. Acting is not great, and similar to the Turkish movies. We do get an extended sapphic soft porn scene that was a real highlight of the film, filmed for the male gaze rather than the gaze of actual sapphics, but it happens.

Graduate student Alice Gilman is running from an abusive past. She seeks refuge in the infamous Hannah house; a historic home with an ominous past. Determined to prove the possibility of alternate dimensions, she unknowingly unlocks a gateway to unimaginable horror. Based on the H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Dreams in the Witch House.

• Raging Grace (2023) dir. Paris Zarcilla is one of my favourites so far. While the film is really about the mum, Joy, the title refers to Joy’s daughter Grace, who is acting out throughout the film in rebellion of the way they are forced to live, and after being manipulated and betrayed by adults she is choosing for her paternal figures. It’s a slow drama with all the trappings of Gothic Horror, not supernatural but where the horror comes from the dynamics between the characters. It explores the power imbalances between the characters and has a number of twisty reveals, one of which made my stomach drop. [There is no CSA.]

An undocumented Filipina immigrant lands a job as a careworker for a seemingly terminal old man, securing a better life for her and her daughter. But a dark discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s strived for and holds dear.

• A Song From The Dark (2023) dir. Ogodinife Okpue was the first film of the challenge for me, and it was a great one to start with. It’s a micro-budget supernatural British-Nigerian horror-fantasy film that does all it can with what it’s got, and goes hard on the family drama angle. Some scenes made me cry.

Ashionye, a reluctant Nigerian Shaman living in the south of England, who has been hired by an old family friend, Isioma Williams, to investigate and expel a malevolent spirit that has been tormenting her family after the death of her estranged husband, Magnus. To the chagrin of her demon hunting partner, Marv Taylor, Ashionye reluctantly accepts the job as a way to repay an old debt she owes Isioma. As Ashionye digs deeper into Isioma’s family situation, she finds herself standing against a familiar force that brought about her trauma since childhood.

• Fanga / Belle (2023) dir. Max Gold is now my favourite Beauty and the Beast film alongside Panna a Netvor, as long as we ignore the fact that an Icelandic farm girl is called by a French name. What I loved about it was that there is no CGI or prosthetics; the change is a psychological one, from man to beast, and he is also cursed to only eat human flesh. It’s also got a good spin on the sorceress, who is a character throughout the film not just a catalyst for the story, and her arc is tragic too. Iceland as the setting makes the whole film go from low budget to million-dollar epic, just by the landscape shots looking amazing.

Belle works on the family farm and cares for her father after he falls severely ill. Desperate to save him, she journeys in search of a mythical rose believed to be a cure. She must surrender herself as a prisoner to a vicious beast as payment for the rose. Battling the beast’s spell and the two toxic relationships in her life, Belle’s true journey is only just beginning.

• Kisah Tanah Jawa: Pocong Gundul (2023) dir. Awi Suryadi was a bit uneven supernatural ghost story, but I loved the main two characters and their platonic relationship. It was also my introduction to the pocong! It has some jumpscares and body horror moments, and I enjoyed it to the end. I’d watch it again I think, and I’d be up for watching another film that had the Hao and Rida in it solving supernatural mysteries.

HAO has retrocognitive ability, an ability to see past events. With his ability, Hao helps SARI, a vocational school student, who was kidnapped by ‘Pocong Gundul’ – a evil pocong figure with a bald head. Together with his best friend RIDA, Hao manages to save Sari, but Hao’s actions ignites anger from the Pocong Gundul. Terror after terror threatens Hao’s life. With his ability, he travels into Pocong Gundul’s past and finds out that in his past, he was a black shaman named WALISDI. An evil man who performs a dangerous ancient ritual, a ritual that turns him into ‘Pocong Gundul’. If Hao does not do anything, Pocong Gundul will roam around and take more victims. Hao must do his best to stop Pocong Gundul’s evil plan, even though his life is at stake.

• शैतान / Shaitaan (2024) dir. Vikas Bahl is a film you can relax into. It has a slow build-up of the family’s dynamics prior to meeting the antagonist, and I enjoyed getting to know them and getting a feel for them. The song is a banger, also. The actual concept is fine, and it reminded me of a few other things (not necessarily with supernatural compulsion involved, but where people are driven by others to do whatever the antag says). It went hard at times. I enjoyed it.

Kabir and his family’s fun weekend retreat takes terrifying turn when an intruder takes over the control of the body of his teenage daughter, putting her at the mercy of his increasingly sinister orders.

That’s it for Films 1-30 of the challenge so far!

I hope that you have enjoyed the trip, and I’ll be back with the next batch later on, like last year.