Spooky Season – including 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days and Nos Calan Gaeaf itself – has given way to Slaughter Month, and we are heading into winter preparations. Here’s a look back at everything I watched, listened to, and read, during the month of October!
Live Event of the Month
I had an AMAZING time watching The Haunting of Hill House this month, on its UK tour. Worth travelling to see. The cast were phenomenal, Theo (Sophie Lenglinger) was messy bi to the max, and Nell (Clancy Ryan) was amazing. I also loved how Mrs Dudley appeared on stage like the housekeeper in House on Haunted Hill (1959), just suddenly THERE, and mostly the cause of a lot of the jump scares by showing up stoically doing her job.
It was a really strong adaptation, where they made Nell’s grief and backstory as her mum’s carer the primary focus of the haunting, and the ending was BRUTAL. It was such a gorgeous piece of dramatic Grief Horror.
The real star was the lighting design – the whole thing would not have worked without the lighting, which formed a lot of the set, and aided the jump-scares. It was honestly some of the best work I’ve ever seen. Chris Davey (Lighting Designer) and Will Houstoun (Illusion Designer) did absolutely incredible work on this production.
Look out for this, because it’s coming to Liverpool, Edinburgh, and Cambridge in November!
Books & Podcasts
October is the time for #AScareADay Reading Challenge. This is put together by Dr Sam Hirst who runs the Romancing the Gothic project. Unsurprisingly, a lot of my reads for this month are off the #AScareADay list! I’ve done posts every day pairing the stories and poems with films.
Let’s not forget the Divination Hollow Reading Challenge either… 12 prompts to read more diversely!
A Scare A Day
I read 31 short stories for the challenge, some of which I began a little early (last month) for the purposes of scheduling my daily posts. These go live each evening at 18:30 on the website, with my thoughts on the story/poem, a summary of its plot (full spoilers), and the film I’ve picked to go with it. Here is the full list, with where to read each one, and a link to my post for each as well.
- October 1st – Joanna Baillie – Night Tales of Other Times – 1790 – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 2nd – Nikolai Karamzin – The Island of Bornholm – 1794 – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 3rd – Anne Bannerman – The Black Knight of the Water – 1802 – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 4th – William Harrison Ainsworth – The Spectre Bride – 1821 – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 5th – Charles Pigault-Lebrun – ‘The Unholy Compact Abjured’ – 1825 – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 6th – Mary Elizabeth Braddon – ‘The Cold Embrace’ (1860) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 7th – Amelia Edwards – ‘In the Confessional’ (1871) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 8th – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps – ‘Since I Died’ (1873) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 9th – Mary Elizabeth Coleridge – ‘The Witch’ (1893) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 10th – Arthur Machen – ‘The Novel of the White Powder’ (1895) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 11th – Gertrude Atherton – ‘The Striding Place’ (1896) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 12th – Elia Peattie – ‘From the Loom of the Dead’ (1898) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 13th – Mrs Wilson Woodrow – ‘Secret Chambers’ (1909) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 14th – W W Jacobs – The Well (1911) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 15th – Violet Hunt – ‘The Prayer’ (1911) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 16th – Rabindranath Tagore – ‘The Lost Jewels’ or Monihara (1917) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 17th – Ellen Glasgow – ‘The Past’ (1920) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 18th – Mikhail Bulgakov – ‘The Red Crown’ (1922) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 19th – John Masefield – ‘The Haunted’ (1923) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 20th – Elsa Morante – The Secret Game (1941) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 21st – Dorothy Quick – ‘After an Air Raid’ (1943) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 22nd – Mayra Montero – ‘Corinne, Amiable Girl’ (1991) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 23rd – Ahmed Khaled Tawfik – ‘The Wall’ – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 24th – Mariana Enríquez – ‘The Little Angel’s Exhumation’ (2014) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 25th – A. C. Wise – ‘The Stories We Tell About Ghosts’ (2017) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 26th – Brandon O’Brien – ‘The Lagahoo Speaks For Itself’ (2017) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 27th – Darcie Little Badger – ‘Those Hitch-hiking Kids’ (2023) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 28th – Tyler Sookralli – ‘The Devil Wears Skin’ (2024) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 29th – Eleanna Castroianni – ‘They Return’ (2025) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 30th – Ash Vale – ‘consumed’ (2026) – Read it here, my post is here.
- October 31st – Quincy Lee – ‘The Dark Follows Me’ (2026) – Read it here, my post is here.
Why yes, Just Chills makes a reappearance – I can’t stay away from the dulcet tones of Taesha Glasgow as she narrates spooky stories! Again, I listened to mostly women authors, but with some exceptions. These are marked with a sign (which doesn’t show up in the Mastodon post)
Episodes Listened To:
- “Robert’s Repairs” by Rene Rahn
- “The Phantom Coach” by Amelia B. Edwards (re-listen)
- “The Shadow” by E. Nesbit
- “Twin Identity” by Edith Stewart Drewry
- “The Story of the Rippling Train: A True Ghost Story” by Mary Louisa Molesworth
- “Kentucky’s Ghost” by Elizabeth Stewart Phelps
TV Shows & Mini Series
TV shows and mini series watched in the month of October. I’ve had some fun with them this month.
This month, I returned to Supernatural (1977) and all 8 episodes that I could find on YouTube. I re-watched the ones I saw earlier, and really enjoyed every episode! I really love Jeremy Brett’s maniacal performance as the self-absorbed Mr. Nightingale, and the werewolf two-parter, especially. I think I might buy this one from the BFI store.
Chilling anthology series where membership to the secret society, The Club of the Damned, is granted through telling horror stories.
I found Thriller (1973-1976), created by Brian Clemens, Anthony Skene, and Michael Zagor on YouTube, and I’m, well, thrilled.
I thought I’d go through the episodes and see where I got to, there’s some great ones. Some hold up better than others, but I enjoyed loads of these. Some are thrillers, some psychological horror, some supernatural. Quite a lot are in the British Gothic vein. I really loved the ones I watched.
Exploring the depths of human psyche through diverse tales of murder, suspense, and the supernatural.
Les Vampires (1915) dir. Louis Feuillade, written by Louis Feuillade.
There was a Romancing the Gothic talk about this, and I got hooked on it. Episodes are in glorious wibbly sepia, with green filters for Outside scenes and blue filters for night scenes. Such a lot of mime. It’s a crime thriller series with some fantastic moments – a rollercoaster ride every episode!
As a spate of grisly murders and mysterious disappearances terrorise Paris, the inquisitive reporter for The Globe, Philippe Guérande, and his loyal ally, Oscar Mazamette, embark on a peril-laden mission to expose the Vampires: a nefarious, well-connected organisation of arch-criminals preying on the innocent. But in this white-knuckle cat-and-mouse game of death, the dauntless companions are up against formidable adversaries, the Grand Vampires, and the sinister underground society’s murderous muse: the gracefully deadly assassin, Irma Vep. In the imminent, once-and-for-all final confrontation with the forces of evil, can valiant Philippe and Mazamette thwart the Vampire menace before more people have to suffer?
Season 2 of Haunted Hotel is out! I really enjoyed S01 and watched it a lot, so I’m looking forward to this. I know that Helluva Boss is out now as well, I just wasn’t quite in the mood for it.
I’m always in the mood for a haunted hotel, though!
A single mom with two kids operates a haunted hotel, aided by her late brother’s ghost who believes they can have ingenious ideas despite his ethereal state.
Films
Non-Horror Challenge Films
If it’s not new-to-me Horror, it’s here! I’ve had some fun this month with lots of films, and my Horror rewatches and non-Horror watches are all below.
I thought I was doing well with Hooptober (new film challenge I started last month) but it turns out I was on an old version of the challenge, and I’m way behind now on the real one, so I gave that up! Boo to me. I didn’t fancy the new prompts after I’d committed to the older ones. That’s so typical! Maybe next year.
Fackham Hall dir. Jim O’Hanlon, written by Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr, Steve Dawson, Tim Inman, and Andrew Dawson.
This was so stupid and so funny. It took me half the film to spot Tom Felton – just didn’t recognise him for ages. Face blindness wins again. My favourite detail was the family motto: Incestus ad Infinitum. And the masturbatorium having its bell yanked off.
Born to aristocracy. Bred for idiocy.
A new servant embarks on an unlikely relationship with the youngest daughter of a prominent English family. Simultaneously, rivalries are spilling over in the Davenport family, led by the Lord and Lady as they also weather the epic failure of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.
The Hitcher (1986) dir. Robert Harmon, written by Eric Red.
What an amazing gay romcom. The script is simmering with homoeroticism and the murder is *chef’s kiss*. Just a banger of a film. It’s a massive travesty that the remake didn’t understand what made the original great, and stripped it of all the good stuff. I really want to watch more Eric Red-written scripts, especially Near Dark.
The terror starts the moment he stops.
On a stormy night, young Jim, who transports a luxury car from Chicago to California to deliver it to its owner, feeling tired and sleepy, picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, who has appeared out of nowhere, thinking that a good conversation will help him not to fall asleep. He will have enough time to deeply regret such an unmeditated decision.
Videodrome (1983) dir. David Cronenberg, written by David Cronenberg.
Another comfort rewatch – I just wanted something familiar, and I was doing the wrong Hooptober prompts! But I’m very happy to have seen this again. I’ve seen this countless times now. This film inspired Cousin Sasha & her snuff film gig (along with The Vacancy). Really love it. Long live the new flesh!
First it controls your mind. Then it destroys your body.
As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon “Videodrome,” a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.
Hellraiser (1987) dir. Clive Barker, written by Clive Barker.
A comfort rewatch! I love this one. Just the tamest wannabe edgelord going in too deep with the queer little S&M freaks and chickening out. He’s too hetero for that shit. He would prefer dressing up in his dead brother’s skin to bang his niece. Weak.
He’ll tear your soul apart.
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.
La morte negli occhi del gatto/Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye (1973) dir. Antonio Margheriti, written by Giovanni Simonelli and Antonio Margheriti. It claims to be based on a book by Peter Bryan, possibly the Hammer director, but no such book seems to exist?
I’ve upgraded this to 5 stars because it has grown on me so much. I bought it on blu ray and I can’t describe to you how batshit this is. The poor cat is innocent! Just a ginger boi!
Death means NOTHING to a beast with nine lives!
In a small Scottish village, horribly murdered bodies keep turning up. Suspicion falls upon the residents of a nearby castle that is haunted by a curse involving a killer cat.
Red Riding (2026) dir. Craig Conway, written by Peter Stylianou.
We’ve got to champion our UK indie scene. It produces some great stuff. I really liked this. I did like the middle section, where it switches into the quiet dread of a girl being forced to medicate against her will, given her mother’s history of drug addiction, and because this is more a Gothic slowburn type of horror than an action-based horror, I didn’t feel like it lost anything. We get dark secrets, incest, cannibalism, and La Grande Dame Sans Mercy. What else do you want?? Bonus film – 102/100
This is no fairy tale.
After her mother’s overdose, teen Red Riding moves from London to her estranged grandmother’s Scottish estate, where dark family secrets, missing children, and a monstrous wolf blur reality, forcing her to fight for survival.
Le Bal des folles/The Mad Women’s Ball (2021) dir. Mélanie Laurent, written by Mélanie Laurent, Julien Decoin, and Christophe Deslandes, based on the novel by Victoria Mas.
I fancied a bit of spooky queer historical drama, and this is a great one for all that. Thoroughly depressing, and with a lot of sexual abuse and abuses of power going on.
A woman who is unfairly institutionalized at a Paris asylum plots to escape with the help of one of its nurses. Based on the novel ‘Le bal des folles’ by Victoria Mas.
- The Night Comes Too Soon / The Ghost of Rashmon Hall (1948) dir. Denis Kavanagh, written by Pat Dixon, based on a story by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. A charming little ghost story made on the cheap, with some radio personalities and some nice spooky atmosphere. When ghosts inhabit an Englishwoman’s home, Dyall, a ghost hunter of sorts, takes on the poltergeists. Developments reveal a trio of spirits that includes a sailor, the seaman’s late wife, and her lover, whom the sailor had shot. Watched on YouTube. (Bonus film – 101/100)
- Rumpelstiltskin (1987) dir. David Irving, written by David Irving. Part of the Cannon series. I quite liked it to be fair. Not my favourite tale, but it’s a decent and fun adaptation of it. A musical version of the classic story about a miller’s daughter who recieves help from a mischievous dwarf, then ends up over her head. Now, she and a mute servant girl may be the only hope for her baby son, John.
- Peau d’âne/Donkey Skin (1970) dir. Jacques Demy, written by Jacques Demy, based on the tale by Charles Perrault. I wasn’t sure how they would tackle the incest in this, but they went with the gifts as grooming, causing the princess to question whether she should just marry her dad after all. Thank goodness for the fairy godmother singing about genetic deformities, and that it’s not normal. It’s a musical fairytale that I really enjoyed. A fairy godmother helps a princess disguise herself so she won’t have to marry her father.
- Killing Ground (2016) dir. Damien Power, written by Damien Power. Australian camping horror with dual timelines – the baby death moment was brutal. There’s a lot going on in this, and it’s all grim. A couple’s camping trip turns into a frightening ordeal when they stumble across the scene of a horrific crime. (Bonus film – 103/100)
- Il signor Diavolo/The Devil of Venice/Mr. Devil (2019) dir. Pupi Avati, written by Pupi Avati, Antonio Avati, and Tommaso Avati. An Italian suspense film, a bit too slow for me, and didn’t do enough with the darkness fears and motifs for the ending to pay off. Not bad, though, if you don’t go in expecting a mystery; there isn’t really one, and until the final scene it’s very straightforward. That twist end is … weird, and I’m here for weird, but there’s also a bit of gap in the narrative that foreshadows it, so it becomes a twist for a twist’s sake, rather than a build up to something truly chilling. In 1950s Italy, a government official arrives in a rural town to investigate a grisly child murder. The culprit is a young boy who claims he acted in order to kill the Devil itself. (Bonus film – 104/100)
100 Horror Movies In 92 Days Challenge
The remaining 30 films for this challenge can be found here, highlights first, and listed down below. Here is my Letterboxd List: 100 Horror Movies In 92 Days 2026.
El fantasma de la casa roja/The Phantom of the Red House (1956) dir. Miguel M. Delgado, written by Miguel M. Delgado.
A very fun horror-comedy, complete with cute devil costumes and musical numbers. I watched a YouTube version, with English dubbing you can’t remove, but the voice acting is pretty good. It has The Cat and the Canary vibes, and a brilliant housekeeper. I laughed out loud in some parts.
A millionaire’s ghost watches while his heirs murder each other over his fortune.
Mortuary (2005) dir. Tobe Hooper, written by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch.
Well this is a fun one! I really enjoyed this one – some kid protagonists I didn’t mind spending the runtime with, and a creepy concept. I loved the reanimation and the sneaky little tendrils doing a feed.
When the dead break free all hell breaks loose.
A family moves to a small California town where they plan on starting a new life running a long-abandoned funeral home. The locals fear the place, suspected to be on haunted ground.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) dir. Alfred Hitchcock, written by Alfred Hitchcock and Eliot Stannard based on the 1913 novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes (expanded from a 1911 short story).
What a banger. The story is really engaging and fun, the energy is maximum effort, the inventiveness of the shots to communicate all the elements of the story is top tier. “He might be a bit queer, but he’s a gentleman!”
London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blonde women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.
An Taibhse/The Ghost (2024) dir. John Farrelly, written by John Farrelly.
This was apparently the first Horror movie to be released in Irish, but Fréamhacha/Frewaka had its wide release the same year. An Taibshe didn’t get a wider release of its own until 2026, when it was picked up by Prime. This is a rough watch – not perfect, but very atmospheric, claustrophobic, and disturbing. CSA & alcoholism alert.
The first horror film ever made in the Irish language
Amid the barren landscape of post-famine Ireland, a father and daughter struggle to survive the brutal winter as caretakers of a remote mansion, only to be driven to the edge of sanity by the horrors lurking within.
Saint Maud (2019) dir. Rose Glass, written by Rose Glass.
I knew this was going to be a rough watch, and it was. It’s a really interesting piece of Welsh Gothic though, and a very tense psychological horror. The deterioration of Katie/Maud is really disturbing, and it’s more about (I think) the consequences of untreated and unrecognised mental illness crossing into religious fanaticism, but leaning into the religious fervour and tension of Welsh Revivals as well. I liked this.
Your Saviour is Coming
Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye.
The Cat and the Canary (1927) dir. Paul Leni, written by Walter Anthony, Robert F. Hill, and Alfred A. Cohn, based on the stage play by John Willard.
As I really enjoyed the other versions I’ve seen of this (the Italian version, the British version, and the Mexican version), I thought I’d watch the OG version. This has some lovely moments and some very of-its-time elements, but overall enjoyable.
The mystery thriller of the stage filmed with new effects!
A group of potential heirs gather in a forbidding old house to learn which of them will inherit a fortune. Later, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose.
Austrian horror
- Blutgletscher/Blood Glacier (2013) dir. Marvin Kren, written by Benjamin Hessler and Marvin Kren. A really fun eco-horror that is basically an Austrian tribute to The Thing, Bats, Frogs, Slugs, and every other mutant animal movie you can imagine. Incredible scenes. The dog does not do well in this, though, so beware. At a climate research station in the Alps, the scientists are stunned as the nearby melting glacier is leaking a red liquid. It quickly turns to be very special juice — with unexpected genetic effects on the local wildlife.
Indian Horror
- মনিহার/The Lost Jewels (1961) dir. Satyajit Ray, written by Satyajit Ray, based on the short story by Rabindranath Tagore (the English translation, 1917, was a #AScareADay story!) I like how Mani is played really sympathetically, and you see how her mental health is deteriorating as she gets more and more fixated on the jewels that give her self-worth. The story revolves around a woman, who stays in a large mansion with her husband. She develops an obsession for her ornaments and refrains giving them to her husband as they face financial crisis. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. in 2007.
Irish horror
- An Taibhse/The Ghost (2024) dir. John Farrelly, written by John Farrelly. This was apparently the first Horror movie to be released in Irish, but Fréamhacha/Frewaka had its wide release the same year. An Taibshe didn’t get a wider release of its own until 2026, when it was picked up by Prime. This is a rough watch – not perfect, but very atmospheric, claustrophobic, and disturbing. Child abuse & alcoholism alert. Amid the barren landscape of post-famine Ireland, a father and daughter struggle to survive the brutal winter as caretakers of a remote mansion, only to be driven to the edge of sanity by the horrors lurking within.
Italian Horror
- Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh/The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971) dir. Sergio Martino, written by Vittorio Caronia, Ernesto Gastaldi, and Eduardo Manzanos. This one felt very Men Writing Women in a lot of places, and it hasn’t really aged well. I’m sure some women do see others as competition, but that’s not my scene. This is a well-shot giallo, though, with a plot that kept me engaged. The ending was fantastic, genuinely. Good for her. When socialite and heiress Julie Wardh begins receiving blackmail letters attributed to a mysterious serial killer, she suspects her cruel and sadistic former lover Jean is behind them. With her husband Neil frequently out of town, she falls into the arms of her friend’s cousin George, and as the unknown assassin begins to make his move, she fears that one of the three men in her life may be the killer.
- La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba/The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Tomb (1971) dir. Emilio P. Miraglia, written by Fabio Pittorru, Emilio P. Miraglia, and Massimo Felisatti. A very competent giallo – and I’m really enjoying the Gothicisation of Britain/England from an Italian perspective. A rich, mentally-unstable man with a penchant for playing deadly S&M games with women who resemble his dead wife, sparks off a chain of bizarre events after getting remarried.
Japanese Horror
- 編集霊 deleted/Henshurei: deleted (2023) dir. Seiji Chiba, written by Seiji Chiba. I don’t enjoy using facial differences or use of disability as a scare, but this is a competent indie horror movie aside from that. And I did like the ending for the ghost but the very last scene was a bit abrupt. An assistant editor and assistant producer discover a mysterious ghost in the footage of a movie project they are working on. As they work on the project a series of strange deaths begin to occur.
Mexican Horror
- El fantasma de la casa roja/The Phantom of the Red House (1956) dir. Miguel M. Delgado, written by Miguel M. Delgado. A very fun horror-comedy, complete with cute devil costumes and musical numbers. I watched a YouTube version, with English dubbing you can’t remove, but the voice acting is pretty good. It has The Cat and the Canary vibes, and a brilliant housekeeper. A millionaire’s ghost watches while his heirs murder each other over his fortune.
- The Bees (1978) dir. Alfredo Zacarías, written by Alfredo Zacarías. Mexican-US collab, eco-horror. I wasn’t sure where to put this – under US or Mexico. I’ve put it under Mexico for now. I really like 1970s eco-horrors for their messaging and their exploitation cinema vibezzzzz. This one is great. Corporate smuggling of South American killer bees into the United States results in huge swarms terrorizing the northern hemisphere. A small team of scientists work desperately to destroy the threat, but the bees soon mutate into a super-intelligent species that threatens the world.
Turkish Horror
- İfrit’in Diyeti: Cinnia (2016) dirs. Sahin Yigit and Özgür Özberk, written by Ibrahim Hakki Öztürk. Not the best, this one, but it’s a fun way to pass the time if you don’t mind Elif screaming every five seconds. I found it a bit choppy, but the twist did please me. Based on real events. What do you think will happen if three close friends decide to make a film, especially one about jinn, and ask for help from a Mühr-ü Vekil they don’t know? Murat and Yusuf are two good friends who share the same house and have a bond of destiny. Elif is Murat’s one and only love. These three young people decide to make a horror film centered on the theme of jinn. In search of a solid story, they seek the help of a Mühr-ü Vekil living in the area, unaware that they will become the main characters in the horror story they are seeking, and end up experiencing the horror of their own story.
- Siccîn 9 (2026) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. Wake up babe, the Bloodline Curse just dropped! Here’s the latest in the franchise, it’s as batshit as the rest of them, Orhan is back, and we’re basically facing two plots at once with a lot of surrealism weaving the viewing experience together into whatever this is. This one has pregnancy horror, and the curse is kicked off thanks to a violent act perpetrated by an intellectually disabled man. Lots of warnings. I would put the description of the film here, but neither Letterboxd nor IMDb actually accurately describe what the film is about or who anyone is in relation to each other, so that would just make it more confusing.
- Üç Harfliler: Nazar (2024) dir. Melodi Tözüm, written by Melodi Tözüm. (I’m going off her IG – I think the IMDb bio has mistranslated the Turkish neutral pronoun ‘o’ as ‘he’ when it also means ‘she’ or ‘it’.) This one tackles violence against women and girls, and the avenues open for their vengeance and reclamation of their agency. It’s worth noting that in the description of the film, the majority of what it describes happens with a broad brush in the first 10min. Zeliha makes a deal with the three-lettered ones in the hope of having a grandchild. However, she must give them her granddaughter Nazar when she reaches puberty and takes her first steps into womanhood. When the time comes, her son and daughter-in-law do not honor the agreement, so they are sacrificed by the three-lettered ones in exchange for Nazar. Facing a harsh fate, Zeliha renounces the spell and decides to dedicate her life to her granddaughter. That is, until Nazar is sexually abused and brutally murdered at the age of 17. The painful death of her granddaughter awakens a desire for revenge in Zeliha, but this time on a deeper and darker path.
- Üç Harfliler 3: Karabüyü/Three Letters: Black Magic (2016) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. Melodrama amped up to 11 with this one. I think I preferred Nazar, but this has Mestçi’s signature all over it and I enjoy that. I’m using the IMDb description as that makes more sense (edited by me . Kadir is a man victimized by his mother’s black magic to separate him from every woman, including his wife, that would ever think of approaching him But things go contrary to his mother’s expectations.
UK Horror
- The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) dir. Alfred Hitchcock, written by Alfred Hitchcock and Eliot Stannard based on the 1913 novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes (expanded from a 1911 short story). What a banger. The story is really engaging and fun, the energy is maximum effort, the inventiveness of the shots to communicate all the elements of the story is top tier. “He might be a bit queer, but he’s a gentleman!” London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.
- Saint Maud (2019) dir. Rose Glass, written by Rose Glass. I knew this was going to be a rough watch, and it was. It’s a really interesting piece of Welsh Gothic though, and a very tense psychological horror. The deterioration of Katie/Maud is really disturbing, and it’s more about (I think) the consequences of untreated and unrecognised mental illness crossing into religious fanaticism, but leaning into the religious fervour and tension of Welsh Revivals as well. I liked this. Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye.
- Schalcken the Painter (1979) dir. Leslie Megahey, written by Leslie Megahey, based on the story by Sheridan Le Fanu. A beautifully shot adaptation – TV Movie for the BBC. They don’t make ’em like this any more. Can Schalcken save his love, Rose, from the clutches of a ghastly suitor before it is too late?
Uruguayan Horror
- La casa muda/The Silent House (2010) dir. Gustavo Hernández, written by Oscar Estévez, from an original story by Gustavo Hernández and Gustavo Rojo, allegedly based on a true event that happened in the 1940s in a Uruguayan village. I saw the remake of this with Elizabeth Olsen that came out the year after, and after traumatising myself with An Taibhse, thought I’d watch this as well for compounded fractures to my psyche. Laura and her father Wilson arrive at a cottage off the beaten path in order to repair it since its owner will soon put the house on sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go on smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and gets louder and louder in the upper floor of the house. Wilson goes up to see what is going on while she remains downstairs on her own waiting for her father to come down. The plot is based on a true story that occurred in the 1940s in a small village in Uruguay. La casa muda focuses on the last seventy eight minutes, second by second, as Laura tries to leave the house unharmed and discovers the dark secret it hides.
USA Horror
- Mortuary (2005) dir. Tobe Hooper, written by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch. Well this is a fun one! I really enjoyed this one – some kid protagonists I didn’t mind spending the runtime with, and a creepy concept. I loved the reanimation and the sneaky little tendrils doing a feed. A family moves to a small California town where they plan on starting a new life running a long-abandoned funeral home. The locals fear the place, suspected to be on haunted ground.
- You Should Have Left (2020) dir. David Koepp, written by David Koepp, based on the novella by Daniel Kehlmann (origianlly in German, but translated into English). I really wish the film had gone more Weird Fiction with the impossible angles, or even made use of the Welsh setting in any way… I think that would have been a much better and more inventive story than what we ended up with. In Kehlmann’s novella, the house was built by a wizard, and Wales has a lot of wizard myth, and they went with something more prosaic by comparison. In an effort to repair their relationship, a couple books a vacation in the countryside for themselves and their daughter. What starts as a perfect retreat begins to fall apart as one loses their grip on reality, and a sinister force tries to tear them apart.
- The Cat and the Canary (1927) dir. Paul Leni, written by Walter Anthony, Robert F. Hill, and Alfred A. Cohn, based on the stage play by John Willard. As I enjoyed the British version, the Italian version, and the Mexican version, I thought we’d go with the original Universal Studios version. I didn’t find this one as funny as the British one, and obviously it’s nowhere near as slapstick as the Mexican one, and it’s not as batshit unhinged as the Italian one. I think I regret seeing it last, as it’s a good piece of silent cinema, but it’s not quite as thrilling for me as the others. Still, really good! A group of potential heirs gather in a forbidding old house to learn which of them will inherit a fortune. Later, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose.
Previous Media Round-Ups
September 2026 Media Round-Up
Everything I’ve read, watched, and listened to this month. It’s been a month of short stories, horror movies, and podcasts! Find out which ones…
August 2026 Media Round-Up
All the media I’ve read, watched, and listened to for the month of August. Also, the start of the 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days Challenge!
July 2026 Media Round-Up
Another month has passed, and here we are with another round up of all the things I’ve read, listened to, and watched! Dive into July…
June 2026 Media Round-Up
A round-up of all the things I read, listened to, and watched, over June! This month had a lot of travel, so there are way more books on the list than usual!
May 2026 Media Round-Up
My media round-up for May! Everything I watched, listened to, and read over the previous month, with highlights and recommendations.
Media Highlights: The Best of the Best
I began my media round-ups in Nov 2025, so I thought I’d do a media highlight post of my Top 5 books, short stories/collections, TV shows, and films from Nov-Apr. Find out what made the ultimate cut!
April 2026 Media Round-Up
Everything I’ve watched, read, and listened to in April! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists.
February 2026 Media Round-Up
What I read, listened to, and watched in the month of February! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists and my thoughts.
January 2026 Media Round-Up
My monthly media round-up for January 2026 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I’ve been enjoying this month!
December 2025 Media Round-Up
My monthly media round-up for December 2025 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I read/listened to/watched this month.
November 2025 Media Round-Up
I’m starting a new monthly series where I post a round-up of all the media I’ve watched/read/listened to for the previous month. Here is November’s media round-up!
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