Here’s What io9 Is Watching This Halloween

Halloween is on a Saturday this year, which means we can celebrate all day long. No need to wait until after work to go to a party, trick-or-treat, or watch a movie. You can get out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, and get the spooky vibes rolling right away. That is a lot more hours in the day to fill, though, and we at io9 figured we’d let you know what we’re watching this Halloween to potentially offer some inspiration. The poster for The Thing. © Universal The Thing I’m not big on costumes or parties, but it’s hard not to lean into the spooky vibes of this time of year through on-theme pop culture. I save my yearly viewings of Friday the 13th for Valentine’s Day, though, and Halloween just seems a bit too on-the-nose. So, this year, I’m cueing up John Carpenter’s 1982 classic The Thing. The visual effects are still gnarly all these years later, Ennio Morricone’s score perfectly captures the feelings of intense isolation and growing paranoia, and it stars Kurt Russell and Keith David. What more could you want from a movie? – Jen Lennon © Impegno Cinematografico Alien 2: On Earth Every October we declare “horror month” in my house, conveniently minimizing the fact that we watch a lot of horror year-round. This year’s pile contained several titles I hadn’t seen before, including the pleasingly sleazy Bloody Moon, from the reliably sleazy Jess Franco, and our Halloween night pick: 1980 Italian import Alien Terror, aka Alien 2: On Earth. That alternate title was clearly aiming to fool someone, anyone, that it had a connection to Ridley Scott’s 1979 blockbuster, which of course it did not. Already off to a good start. The plot follows a returning space mission in which all the astronauts have been replaced by monsters with explosive powers. That would be enough to go on, but it also features a run-in with a group of cave explorers, so hopefully we’ll be seeing splatter galore in a set crudely evoking an underground cavern of some sort. Plus, the enticing promise of poorly dubbed dialogue? Can’t wait. – Cheryl Eddy © Toho Pulse This Halloween, having friends with blind spots in their Letterboxd filmography means living vicariously through them while rewatching some cult classics. And what better classic to spin the block on than Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 techno-horror film, Pulse? Knowing I’m the Japanese cinema-head in our friend group’s little movie book club, they foolishly assumed I’d suggest Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (they only saw the American version and liked it enough) or Kurasawa’s Cure since they were subjected to hearing me yap about it before I wrote a retro review for it. Fools. We only do deep cuts in my apartment (with a sizeable investment in a home projector for such occasions). I chose Pulse as this year’s Halloween watch specifically because my friends all felt like the horrors on display from the Backrooms and Obsession—despite being a total vibe in their own right—left a little to be desired. I reckon Pulse will marry those have-nots for anyone who feels the same. But mostly, I chose Pulse because there’s one particular shot of a silhouette in the finale of Kurosawa’s film that is burned into my memory as one of the most unnerving scenes I’ve witnessed in a horror movie. It’s just as chilling as Nikki’s looming outline running in reverse in Curry Barker’s film. In fact, I’d put money on Barker taking inspiration from it. Like a crab in a barrel, it’s my civic duty to share prescient early aughts scares of Pulse with my friends this season, and invite you to do the same. – Isaiah Colbert © Artisan The Blair Witch Project Growing up, only a few movies truly terrified me. I loved watching slasher movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, and thought classics like The Shining and The Exorcist were amazing. But movies that actually made me uncomfortable? It was a short list. One was the original Halloween. Another was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. And then there was The Blair Witch Project. Mostly, that was because I saw The Blair Witch Project in early 1999 when marketing still didn’t make it clear whether it was real or not. I’ve written about this extensively. This year, though, I’m ready for a rewatch not because I need a good scare—I’ve gotten over that 25-year-old fear—but because the film means so much to me and is having a bit of a nostalgic moment. From its connection to internet culture, the way its sequels each failed in such unique ways, the behind-the-scenes battles, and even the upcoming reboot (or whatever), all of it just makes me yearn for simpler days when a $27,000 found-footage movie could take the world by storm and make hundreds of millions of dollars. That there are new physical media editions doesn’t hurt either. – Germain Lussier Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.