My first 20 films of the challenge are watched! We’re on track for a quarter of them. Catch the audio versions of these posts, and listen to the bonus episodes, via the Eldritch Girl Podcast.
Go to Sarah Stubbs’ website: Full guidelines for the challenge.
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- Plenilunio/Fullmoon (1993) dir. Ricardo Islas, written by Ricardo Islas. Honestly, the teens in this act their hearts out. You can tell people enjoyed making this film. What great fight scenes, as well. They gave it everything. The werewolf’s lines go so hard. I also love that it was edited by the director later to avoid the werewolf costume ruining the vibes. Bloody crimes shake a little village. A bunch of teenagers discover the cause of these killings is a werewolf that has arrived to stay. Things turn real wild when the werewolf discovers them. Watched on YouTube (revamped version). {Uruguay}
- The Pack (2015) dir. Nick Robertson, written by Evan Randall Green. I genuinely found this a tense one because I can suspend disbelief for days, and I’m already running at peak anxiety as baseline, so I was on the edge of my seat for this family. An extra star goes for the dog actors. They were real dogs, having the time of their lives. I respect that sort of film making. Man’s best friend becomes his worst nightmare when a horde of bloodthirsty wild dogs descends upon a family’s farmhouse in a fang-bearing fight for survival. {Australia}
- Never Let Go (2024) dir. Alexandre Aja, written by Ryan Grassby and Kevin Coughlin. I really appreciated the psychological aspect of this one, and the ambiguity of the situation. The kids were superb actors, definitely both are stars to watch out for. As an evil takes over the world beyond their front doorstep, the only protection for a mother and her twin sons is their house and their family’s protective bond. {USA}
- Ecologia del delitto / A Bay of Blood (1971) dir. Mario Bava, written by Filippo Ottoni, Mario Bava, Giuseppe Zaccariello, and Gene Luotto, from a story by Gianfranco Barberi and Dardano Sacchetti. I cannot believe I’ve never seen this before. It’s a seminal work!! I have to say, the opening is a banger of a scene, and I do prefer the Italian title (trans. Ecology of Crime) to the English one. I love the insect vs squid-killing conversation. Such good dialogue in this. All the characters are shady, and it’s a real ’70s joy. An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp out in a dilapidated building on the estate.
{Italy}
- Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) dirs. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. Been saving this one for the challenge so I knew I had something I’d (hopefully) enjoy, and I love Samara Weaving, and I love the first Ready or Not. So I was up for it. I went in as cold as possible (I saw part of one trailer and no discourse), so it was a real new-to-me treat. Watched in a watch party. Moments after surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game — and this time with her estranged sister Faith at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive, and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins rules it all. {USA}
- Rituals (1977) dir. Peter Carter, written by Ian Sutherland. A classic Canadian wilderness survival horror. I enjoyed the set up, and getting to know the doctors in question, the slow build up of the character dynamics and personalities, and then the descent into the unravelling and drama. Really liking the era of proto-slashers; A Bay of Blood (1971), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and now this one (1977)… I feel like I’ve now seen a proto-slasher seminal trio. This one is a character-focused piece. Five doctors go camping in the remote woods of Northern Ontario. When their boots are stolen they begin to suspect they are being stalked. casual mention/description of an ex-boyfriend from one of the main characters – he is not defined by his queerness, and his sexuality is a non-issue with his friends & has no bearing on the plot or outcome.
{Canada}
- La notte dei diavoli/The Night of the Devils (1972) dir. Giorgio Ferroni written by Eduardo Manzanos, Romano Migliorini, and Gianbattista Mussetto, based on the short story ‘The Vourdalak’ by Aleksey Tolstoy. I loved the recent French adaptation of this story, La Vourdalak (2023), and the 13min animated version from the series Red Iron Road. I haven’t seen this version, which sets it in the contemporary 1970s, but the English dub is atrocious. I couldn’t change it. The French subtitles were wildly different to what they were saying in the dub, and probably much closer to the actual lines (in Italian), so I switched to the original audio with French subtitles so I could read them, and auto-translated to English. In this adaptation of Tolstoy’s story the Wurdulak, a mentally ill patient known as Nicola flashes back to horrifying experiences that he encountered while driving through the country. Upon damaging his car, Nicola sets out for help, only to meet a mysterious family that lives in total fear of someone or something. This evil force slowly penetrates the household and thrusts each of its members into a frenzy of absolute terror. {Italy}
- 三更客栈/Midnight Inn (2024) dir. Chen Jiaolong, written by Cui Zouzhao. An anthology of strange and macabre tales with a framed narrative that is also a mystery, in Mandarin. Listed as horror on IMDb, but not on Letterboxd. The Midnight Inn, a place that operates around midnight, serving as both a mortuary and a rest stop, reopens after ten years, drawing in unexpected guests. Each one claims a strange connection to a corpse that’s been dead for years, giving rise to a complex weave of enigmas. {China}
- 白雲齋怪話 /Baiyun Ghost House/Weird Stories of Baiyun Zhai (2025) dir. Li Zhiwen, written by Li Zhiwen. A fun horror-action plot, Taoist exorcisms and rituals, and lots going on! TW: domestic abuse. Rumour has it that calamity befalls anyone associated to the coffin shop called Baiyun Ghost House. First, Liu Mazi is killed by a water ghost in the well, and then the butcher is possessed by a ghost and his whole family is killed. As bizarre things happen one after another in the town, Mr. Ma, who wanders the mountains, decides that it is necessary to visit Baiyun Ghost House to exorcise evil. {China}
- Nightshift (2020) dir. Yam Laranas, written by Yam Laranas. Part undead horror, part meditation on the nature of death and the afterlife. A lovely bit of Roman Catholic guilt and resurrection anxiety, as a suicidal nurse slowly unravels during a night shift that never ends. I love the framing of a person’s death as their own apocalypse. This is my second Laranas film! I watched Aurora for a previous challenge and very much enjoyed that. I’d like to see more by this director. A young woman is stuck in the morgue – on her first day – working as an assistant to a pathologist when the dead begin to manifest signs of resurrection.
{Philippines}
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