19 days of nite - THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (Hooper, 1974)

There's no reason at all for me to watch this again, but my brother had never seen it, so I figured this would be a good way to experience it again. Because this is my favorite movie of all time, hands down, and I cannot watch it enough. I watch it maybe once a year, if that, but every time I feel like it gets weirder and stranger and more disturbing than the last time. It's an incredible black comedy with one of the best sound designs of all film ever. Watching it brings back memories of the first time I viewed it, in October of my first year of college. I had just been dumped by my first serious girlfriend. I was working at a gas station and feeling pretty much like I wanted to shoot myself in the fucking face. But this movie changed things and I walked through a cemetary after I watched it and thought about my dead grandfather, the only dead person I have in my life and I never even met him, and my perspective on death changed and it was an epiphany, and it was all because of this movie.

20 days of nite - JUST BEFORE DAWN (Leiberman, 1981)

Yet another stupid, stupid movie I've watched this month. I watched this on the recommendation of the Exhumed Films guys (more on them in a bit), as it was something they showed this summer. But it's pretty awful. I guess people love the cinematography in this or something, but I was blackout drunk when I watched it and I don't remember anything. Maybe the alcohol is the problem. Maybe the problem is the problem. MAYBE THE PROBLEM IS TRAVIS. Guys, my Halloween costume this year is so rad. I'm going as a zombie for the first time in a few years, but it's a special zombie, the most special zombie costume I've ever made. I am writing these mainly out of spite at this point, and because I am a man of ritual who no longer has any rituals. But each October, I watch 31 horror films, or I get close to it. Because I am, after all, a lapsed man of ritual.

21 days of nite - FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (Crabtre, 1958)

I don't know, this was somewhat underwhelming for me. Movies before 1960 are all kind of stupid, right? The stop motion animation in this was really pretty, actually, and things weren't really all SCIENCE IS EVIL! or whatever. And the sound design was pretty cool, but the performances just sort of ruined it for me. It's strange, because I can watch awful splatter movies and not care at all that the dialogue is wooden and completely mechanical, but if it's a black and white 50s sci-fi flick? I grit my teeth the whole time. I have a lot of these to write over the next couple hours, and I need to make my costume, so I'm going to be brief. The b&w white gore in this was great.

22 days of nite - INSIDE (Bustillo and Maury, 2007)

Well, pregnancy scare flicks are my favorites (so much so that I've started writing my own contribution to the sub-genre) and INSIDE is one of the absolute best. Eerie and atmospheric and all French and shit, this is really just a slasher flick turned on its ear. The Last Girl is really the Only Girl, and the Last Girl doesn't live anyway (oh, uh, spoilers!) The slasher is another girl, and the object of the slashing is not misguided sexual rage, but overpowering maternal jealousy. The filmmakers are sure to place all of the mayhem firmly in the context of social unrest and civil disobedience, and in this way it is comparable to Heneke's CACHE. It is also tonally linked to CACHE, which drew terror and fear out of urban dream dwellings and upper class intellectuals. But the films differ in the way that INSIDE is totally prepared to get as dark and gory as possible. This film is totally blood-soaked and everyone fucking dies. Great mix of low and high culture; it's difficult to tell where the filmmakers' ambitions essentially lie.

23 days of nite - OBSERVE AND REPORT (Hill, 2009)

Jody Hill is quickly creating a body of work that is bleak and utterly unconcerned with you liking his characters or not. Like its spiritual predecessor, TAXI DRIVER, OBSERVE AND REPORT is a horror film with very little violence throughout the course of its running time. While not as totally debased as EASTBOUND & DOWN, OBSERVE AND REPORT is not afraid to stare into human isolation and man's search for meaning. The problem comes from the fact that life has no inherent meaning; it's up to us to write all that meaning and definition into things. And some people write all kinds of negative shit into their life narratives: anger and bitterness and jealousy and rage and disappointment and arrogance. OBSERVE AND REPORT is a psychological horror film that examines the attitudes and values of the typical American male, and it hurts to watch at times, but it's all OK because it's all a joke. You have to accept all of Hill's work on its own terms and just expect amoral characters and unlikeable situations. But if you're willing to commit, there's plenty to laugh at. You either laugh or you cry; the essence of the horror film, I think, is that it laughs at death, brings death to light and shows us what it looks and sounds like, and, in the best of cases, what death feels like. OBSERVE AND REPORT shows us what the death of the American dream feels like - malls and bullshit jock cops and hideous violence bubbling just beneath the surface.

24 days of night - BEYOND THE DOOR (Assonitis, 1974)

Strange, apparently little-known Eyetalian horror flick that starts off all ROSEMARY'S BABY and then turns all EXORCIST. But there is some seriously beautiful camerawork here, and the editing and technical prowess on display is quite interesting. There are some strange, surreal sequences, and the use of sound in particular is unsettling and jarring. This is perfect for Philly at this time of year; it's been raining for weeks, and Temple University is warning its students that they're taking a 'zero tolerance' approach to any post-World Series riots like there were last year, and the public transit is going on strike maybe as soon as Saturday and how am I gonna get to class and I just got my hours cut at work so what are you gonna do, man. The apocolypse has been happening for years, anyway. BEYOND THE DOOR is pretty hilariously bad and sort of stupid, but while I was watching it, I was also convinced that it had moments of pure brilliance.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

As I mentioned in my review of [REC] a while back, I'm a huge fan of the faux documentary style horror movies. The forced acceptance of what you see as evidence of actual happenings, the candid yet simple performances, and the simplicity of story all add up to a terrifying experience when all of these elements mesh well.

As for Paranormal Activity..... Holy shit....

The movie follows the harrowing trial of a young couple, Kate and Michah (Kate Featherstone and Michah Sloat), as they struggle to understand and combat the demonic force that threatens their happiness.

The action picks up on a day when Michah buys a video camera in order to document the strange goings on. We find out that this is no ordinary haunting, as the paranormal activity has occurred off and on since Kate was a child and seems to be focused on her.

No matter where she goes, the weirdness follows.

At first, Michah acts out of a mixture of intrigue and amusement. Kate, on the other hand, is absolutely terrified. Out of desperation, Kate contacts a psychic (Mark Frederichs) to ask him to divine the truth of what's going on in the house. The plot then takes an obvious shift towards the sinister when the psychic informs Kate and Michah that what they are experiencing is no mere haunting; it is demonic activity.

Over the next few nights, the malevolent spirit makes its presence felt in a gradual wave of building tension and the mental and physical effects on the hapless couple is downright devastating.

I was pleased to see that the production staff and the director had done their Occult 101 homework, as it is common in folklore (see also Drag Me To Hell) for an incubus (a nocturnal demonic being) to repeatedly visit its victim and wear him or her down in order to make them more vulnerable to its influence.

When the final moments hit, they will smash your nerves like a ton of bricks.

The subtle effects, the honest performances of the cast, and attention to small detail all work to make Paranormal Activity a blood chilling affair that is worth your cash this Halloween season.

I don't think it is quite the instant classic that the hype makes it out to be, but it follows in the admirable spirit of The Haunting and [REC] by doing more with less and making your senses pay for it