EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Baz Luhrmann, 2026): 4/5
Redeems Elvis’ Vegas years in the same way that Get Back rehabilitated the Beatles’ Let it Be sessions. We see him arrive in Las Vegas in 1970—just two years after his super-sexy and tight ‘68 Comeback Special. He spends plenty of time woodshedding and rehearsing with the band, and he and the band are in good form and focused. Thereafter the film is mostly performances and Elvis coming on and off stage. Certainly the fresh-to Las Vegas white jumpsuit Elvis completely rips, but the chubby and drugged-out blue jumpsuit Elvis is also pretty lovable. Elvis covers the Beatles (Get Back!),Dylan (I Shall be Released), and Joe South (Walk a Mile in My Shoes) and other highlightsw in the most free and relaxed way.
* Street Fighter (Kitao Sakurai, 2026): 2/6
Jack was very psyched about seeing this movie, which is broad, cartoony, and perfect for a 12-year-old. Without exaggeration, at least seven people are hit so hard they smash through a wall. Jack thought it was OK.
The Christophers (Steven Soderburg, 2026): 3.5/5
A performance by (Sir) Ian McKellen that is so staggering and physical that it made me seriously wonder whether I had ever seen this guy act before (outside of Tolkien and X-men crap). Let me be the first to say then that this guy is legit. Michaela Coel: also a revelation. I’m not certain the script has much on its mind, but just watching two great actors stand duke it out in a character-driven drama is a pure pleasure.
Hooptober 2026
For the second year in a row, I selected films for October based on the rules set out by Hooptober. https://letterboxd.com/cinemonster/list/hooptober-the-13th-the-final-chapter/
The beginnings of the reviews indicate the categories fulfilled. The results are decidedly mixed, since watching bad movies is part of the agenda, but it’s nice to have a program.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, rw (Tobe Hooper, 1974): 5/5
Always a Tobe Hooper + “Massacre” in the title. In the conversation for the best horror movie of all time. And it’s probably the best horror movie title, and somehow it lives up to it. The soundtrack is a horrorshow of scary sounds. The acidic parody of the American family around the dinner table is supreme. And it undoubtedly features the best first kill (sliding door slams) and most horrified last girl. A grotty and sweaty, violent and grotesque masterpiece. When she is tied to a chair, the arms of which are made of human arms, and her hands are spasming in fear above someone else’s dead hands? Chef’s kiss.
The Housemaid (Kim Ki-young, 1960): 4/5
Six Countries. An intense psychological thriller, and yes, horror story. Like Fatal Attraction turned up to 11 and mostly taking place in one cramped and nightmarish house—like the inside of our protagonist’s head. Where it’s always pouring rain outside and there’s rat poison in the cupboard. Where the stairs alone become an arena of desire and death. Part of Scorsese’s World Cinema Project.
Barbarian, rw (Zach Cregger, 2022): 4/5
Free choice. After loving Weapons, a return to this movie raised it a half-star. Like that film, this is genuinely scary, funny and fun (in that order). Looking forward to Resident Evil.
Oculus (Mike Flanagan, 2013): 4/5
Cursed object. Father brings home an ornate mirror and starts to change. Flanagan moves The Shining to a suburban setting, and it’s a far better engagement with the film than shit-ass Ready Player One. Clever storytelling where we follow narratives of the characters when they are 10-12 years old and when they are 22-24, in the same house—and sometimes the scenes overlap and intermingle actors, times and situations. The brother and sister are simultaneously reliving and resolving their childhood trauma. Very competent, and that aint nothin’.
Bad Taste, rw (Peter Jackson, 1987): 4/5
Six Countries. Just as when I watched this 30 years ago, I find the first half-hour exhilaratingly homemade, fun and inspiring—and the rest pretty horrible. Made with friends over weekends with a wind-up 16mm camera.
Terrifier 2 (Damien Leone, 2022): 3.5/5
Sequel. Pushes the gore effects to an upsetting level, but at its best the humorous glee that Art the Clown takes in his work lightens the load. Definitely goes all the way and beyond.
Bride of Re-Animator (Brian Yudza, 1990): 3/5
Special effects by Screaming Mad George (born Joji Tani) + sequel. Overheated and self-conscious silliness, skating by on fun practical effects and stop motion. Culminates in a scene of fun mayhem in a basement lab that includes a police detective zombie, a head with bat wings, and “Tissue Rejection!!” These are hats on hats, but the Bride herself is pretty great. As tradition dictates, she’s stitched together of different body parts, but dang the seams really show. She pointedly rejects not Frankenstein’s monster but Frankenstein himself, the real monster.
The Legend of Hell House (John Hough, 1973): 3/5
Haunted building + Six Countries. Two psychics and a physicist walk into a bar … I mean a haunted mansion. It’s the kind of set-up I love, and indeed it provides some nice British-brand chills. But the conclusion, where Roddy McDowell (!) solves the neurosis of the spook? Just no. The following year, Hough made (the pretty good!) Dirty Mary Crazy Larrywith Peter Fonda and Susan George (!), which my parents took me to see in a drive-in when I was six.
The Blackening (Tim Story, 2022): 3/5
Black director. Funny characters exploring various black identities, and the comedy that comes out of the characters is sharp and enjoyable. Not particularly effective as horror, mystery or parody.
Hush (Mike Flanagan, 2016): 3/5
Free choice. “A home-assault where the lone woman inside the house is deaf” makes for a perfectly cromulent thriller where basically the whole movie is final-girl stuff. But the movie mostly wastes the deafness of the protagonist. I mean, it begs for some formal tricks involving silence — things that only she would experience, things only she would know to do, putting the audience in her precarious position due to POV silence. But they either don’t come, or don’t land. [Ed note: I just read a Letterboxd review by Flanagan himself saying that they released a “Shush cut” with “almost no score” and yes that’s exactly what I mean.]
The Devil (Andrzej Żuławski, 1972): 3/5
Devil in the Title + Six Countries. Superficially resembles Andre Rubelev, but completely exists within a world of madness, immorality, chaos, and a shit-load of hysteria. In a time of war, our hero is sprung a cell in an asylum that is a bedlam of shrieking nuns and soldiers killing in waves. He escapes thanks to a character that might be the devil (spoiler: it is). He searches for his fiancé and finds an adulterer. He searches for his father and finds a suicide. He searches for his sister and finds her insane. He searches for his mother and finds a whore. Then the devil proposes a solution: a clean-up job.
Two Evil Eyes (George A. Romero, Dario Argento, 1990): 3/5
Romero + Tom Savini + Adrienne Barbeau film crush. Argento directs Harvey Keitel, as a cat-killing crime-scene photographer. Romero directs Barbeau. None of these favorites are at the top of their form, but the one-hour run-times are very forgiving.
Maniac Cop (William Lustig, 1988): 2.5/5
Lustig’s Manias was amateurish and grimy (not necessarily negatives), but this one is competent and relatively well funded, lit, and acted (which do not a good movie make). Maybe I’ll like Maniac Cop 2 better.
Jaws: The Revenge (Joseph Sargent, 1987): 2/5
Lowest-rated unseen ‘80s + horror at sea + sequel. The scariest thing about this movie is Mario Van Peebles’ Jamaican accent. A decade earlier, Sargent had directed the perfectly good White Lightening with Burt Reynolds followed by The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Fucking Three. This is of course not the worst movie of the 80s, which according to my Letterboxd are Captain EO (if that counts), Cujo (poor doggie), Return to Oz, Let’s Spend the Night Together (the Rolling Stones live document of the god-awful Tattoo You tour, made so Mick Jagger and poor Hal Ashby could buy more coke), and Mississippi Burning.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (uh…Wes Craven, 1990): 2/5
Meta horror + sequel. The lighting is good and everything is prestige, but the emotion is not there, and it’s not scary. At one point our protagonist is at the grave of her recently dead husband, and her son is dragged into the open grave by Freddie and the dead husband’s corpse grabs her and it’s like a commercial for insurance. I don’t care what Tarantino says: the 80s are nice-and-grotty and the 90s suck. The last 20 minutes here are a series of horrible special effects and ridiculous sets that make me long for the day, not far in our future, when crap like this will all be rendered in beautiful AI.
Slaughter High (George Dugdale, Peter Mackenzie Litten, Mark Ezra, 1986): 2/5
Music by Harry Manfredini. Rudimentary April Fools Day-themed 80s slasher mostly taking place in an abandoned high school where all the high school stereotypes have been invited to fake reunion. Just plum chock full of jump scares. I could have sworn Alex Ross Perry cited this among his favorite slashers, but I can find no evidence, and it just can’t be true.
Faust: Love of the Damned (Brian Yuzna, 2000): 1.5/5
Special effects by Screaming Mad George (born Joji Tani). Truly bad in concept and execution. Some idiosyncratic practical effects though!
BOOK NOOK
The Troop (Nick Cutter, 2014)
Some Halloween-y fiction and quite entertaining. Heavy early Stephen King vibes, where it’s really the characters that drive the horror. Lots of great interior monologues and memories that deepen connection and make the horror-to-come affecting. I actually considered fast forwarding a couple of scenes (but didn’t) —something I have never for a moment considered for a movie. It seems that a book is way more invasive/immersive/personal for me.
