The spooky season is upon us, so while you carve pumpkins and for some reason decorate with cobwebs weeks in advance, here are some current Halloween film and TV releases to get you in the ghoulish mood.
Midnight Mass, Netflix
Netflix’s Midnight Mass is a slow burn, philosophical dive into the nature of death, bursting with well-drawn characters that reference the best of Stephen King. Written and directed by the superb Mike Flanagan, who also gave us The Haunting Of Hill House and Dr Sleep, this supplies horror, religious fanaticism and a moving rumination on life and death itself.
The Manor, Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime has a quartet of somewhat underwhelming low-budget horror films from the Blumhouse stable. The best of these is The Manor, which has Barbra Hershey making a rare acting appearance as a woman confined to a care home who discovers the care there may be in service of some supernatural power – or is she suffering from dementia? The crassness of the script is eased over by Hershey, and the well-intentioned film has something to say about the abandonment of the old but fumbles it.
Bingo Hell, Madres, Black As Night, Amazon Prime
Bingo Hell, meanwhile, has a community rising up against a devilish bingo hall owner with gore to match, in a rather cheap and tacky gaudy affair. Madres focuses on prejudice in a 1970s Californian farming community and Black As Night has a teenage girl battling vampires in New Orleans. None of these are particularly scary or successful shockers, more time-passers to have on while you’re dunking for apples.
Terrifying Tales, Disney+
For more PG-friendly fare, Lego have produced another Star Wars short, Terrifying Tales (Disney+) , for die-hard completists, an occasional chuckle is raised amidst a slew of references to Star Wars and horror classics like The Shining.
Halloween Kills, in cinemas
In cinemas, Halloween Kills is the jump-scare slasher to beat. Continuing the Michael Myers stabbing spree with political savvy (see also the new Candyman film), the hook-handed killer is afforded some contemporary relevance as he guts people.
Squid Game, Netflix
If none of these takes your fancy, then there is always Netflix’s Korean series Squid Game: a cultural juggernaut and a well-judged, fully-realised dystopian horror with characters to care about. Please watch with subtitles though as the dubbing is atrocious!
If all else fails, there’s a real-life horror story going on domestically and globally at the moment… although probably best to not think about that. Have a toffee apple instead.
words KEIRON SELF
