october movies

every october i have the tradition of watching (mostly) horror / thriller movies all month long!!!

so here i will list the one's i've watched. click on their titles to see my thoughts and comments. spoilers will be hidden!

2023

saw x (2023)
okay i didn't watch this on october but!!!!!! it was close enough to october for me to put it here. anyway i had a lot of fun with this one. i had been meaning to go on a saw marathon before going to the theater to watch this, but..... yeah let's just say that i got a bit busy with other things and just simply couldn't do it

i also took nessa to the theater with me. not cus i needed her or anything. i just wanted her to witness the masterpiece that i KNEW saw x was going to be. also in the previous months i've stopped giving a fuck about some things and one of those things is to bring plushies with me to places i go.

watched on september 28

noroi: the curse (2005)
thank god i watched this one with my boyfriend because man was i pretty damn lost throughout this one i had watched another movie from the same director called occult and it pretty much had the same type of "goofiness" to it. but i kinda couldn't invest myself into this one has much as i did with occult. it's a very interesting watch for sure! but if you'd like to experience a koji shiraishi film i'd def recommend the latter rather than this one.

watched on october 3

halloween III: season of the witch (1982)

FUCKING CRAZYYYYYYYYYYY. i absolutely did NOT expect this movie to go the route that i imagined it would have gone to. i had already known that michael was not going to be present here, because apparently halloween was supposed to be an anthology?? which i had found out mere minutes before watching this and thank god i did or else i was going to be asking my bf every 5 minutes "where's michael?"

ANYWAY. as i said this was fucking crazy to me and i enjoyed it a lot, actually!! it was very fun.

watched on october 4

the boogeyman (2023)

a pretty decent watch! i liked the protagonist a lot (will def search more abt the actress later) but the movie itself was kinda Just Alright. i liked the plot for the most part. but the jumpscares were very very predictable. but maybe i'm being a bit too harsh because most of the movies i will list here don't really scare me or unsettle me. but yeah it's just alright for me.

watched on october 6

orphan: first kill (2021)

i have watched orphan probably like.... 5 times or something cus we used to own the DVD for whatever reason AND I HAD KNOWN about this prequel since it came out but i never really got any motivation to watch it. til recently when i remembered this was a thing!

honestly i wished they had done something a bit more.... differently ?? don't get me wrong, the whole thing about leena faking to be an american family's missing daughter only for the mom to reveal that she always knew leena was faking to be her because SHE KILLED HER OWN DAUGHTER. which was a very interesting plot reveal, to say the least. but besides that its pretty much the same thing as the first one. go to family's house, trick them, kill them all, done.

before the plot twist reveal, i was actually starting to get worried this movie was going to be a waste of my time. but i think it held up quite alright. leena kinda slays imo. girlboss moment. and also i liked the credit scene with the painting and all that lol. erm not much else to say about these movies. we move on.

watched on october 6

cat people (1942)

i think this one is very crazy but mostly because i witness a couple get married AND get divorced without even sharing a first kiss. this is very important to the plot because the entire thing is that the lady cannot kiss her husband because she was afraid she would turn into a cat (a big ass cat) and kill him. everyone thought she was insane. but no :) she was actually telling the truth. idk about yall but if my partner turned into a big cat everytime we kissed i'd be pretty okay with it AND I THINK i would handle it well. because i'm different. and i love cats.

my thoughts: fun!!!!! i haven't watched an old ass movie in a good while. oh also, the poster goes crazy hard.

watched on october 6

the lost boys (1987)

the only thing i knew about this movie was that they're vampires and that gay people fucking LOVE this movie.

it wass pretty alright!! i did not expect it to be as funny as it was tbh.

as i was watching this, my dad came into my room (WITH HIS BACK FACING THE TV) and within 2 (TWO) seconds of hearing the audio he said "man i love this movie!" and it made me laugh so much okay dad.

watched on october 6

paranormal activity (2007) [rewatch!]

guys i have a very serious confession to make..... i genuinely really like this movie

i've watched it so many god damn times growing up and i know all the jumpscares and everything but honestly it never fails to make me uncomfortable. maybe it's the nostalgia?? idk but i think paranormal activity is very iconic and i am willing to die on that hill.

i think it was my first time watching this movie with headphones too and wow. i'm pretty sure you can still hear this if you have the volume pretty up on your speakers, but everytime there was some... paranormal....activity... going on, there would be this dense rumbling (???) background noise and i honestly kinda love that little detail that i forgot about this movie

i'm pretty sure i've watched MOST of the movies in this saga but i don't remember most of it. so!!!! this will be the only movie saga that i am willing to commit of watching them all throughout this month. i have a feeling they might not held up to the first one so i will lower my expectations a lot. but nonetheless, i am pretty excited to finally be watching this entire saga and see how it unfolds.

oh, i also need to mention that this movie would have lasted 10 mins if katie dumped her fuck ass boyfriend that treated her demon haunting like a joke. and she would have made it out of this not possessed BTW 🤓☝️ only real katie fans will get it.

watched on october 7

paranormal activity 2 (2010)

okay. this movie is definitely an upgrade from the first one. we get a whole lot MORE exposure into katie's and kristi's past which explains why the demonic hauntings were happening to them in the first place. i absolutely did not expect that the reason why katie was possesed in the first movie is because kristi's husband transferred the demon onto katie.

which makes my point about how men in these movies SUCK still valid. all of them (so far) have been so dumn it's very crazy. they can see video footage of something FLOATING and they will still say "huh... must havve been the wind" like HELLO???? but it is pretty funny to watch them do that so i'll give them that.

though that is still true, there is also the fact that the reason why the demonic hauntings are happening in the first place is because of katie's and kristi's grandma, who made a pact with devil in for wealth and in exchange she must give her first born son... which would be kristi's son

story wise: really really satisfied with it!! cinematography wise is also (once again) a huge step up from the first one since there is camera's in every corner of the house instead of just one room.

though, i do have to wonder for how long is it going to be until i get sick of this found footage movie format. i'm halfway through the 3rd one and i still find it OK but there is like 4 whole other movies i still have to sit through this saga. so i guess i will find out if i end up hating it, but so far i've been enjoying it

watched on october 8

paranormal activity 3 (2011)

i think i mentioned this briefly on my log for the first movie, but i think watching these films with headphones and in a dark room really does wonders for it's quiet and tense atmosphere. i mean damn, even I get really tense at times watching them, especially this one right at the end!. i enjoyed this one more than the previous one. i think probaly becauseit had more things going on

i wanna give a shout out to dennis for being the FIRST male protagonist in this saga that doesn't make me wanna rip my hair out. i wish he would have survived too!! deserved way better. and also FUCK that grandma!

i had watched this movie previously years ago when i catched it airing on cable TV one time. something that i had remembered vividly from this movie was the use of a desk fan has a camera mount so the it would record the room from side to side since the lenses weren't as wide. that has probably been the smartest thing this franchise has done with it's filming format. back then i thought it was the coolest thing ever (i still think it's pretty cool but to a lower degree).

gif of a camera recording the room side to side

a very solid prequel for the first two films. enjoy!

watched on october 9

paranormal activity 4 (2012)

good lord.... this... this wasn't atrocious??? but it was Not Very Good.

and i know people might argue that ALL paranormal activity movies are pretty much meh but LISTEN. i genuinely think that the first 3 films of this franchise have done a pretty decent job at telling a story while also trying out new things with it's found footage format. there was Some Sort of care and passion going into the first 3 films. but this one???? i did not feel the same way about the 4th entry.

i had been anticipating this movie, dying to know what might have happened to katie and hunter! but well... let's just say this movie is just overall very very underwhelming in regards to the story that had been building up in the course of the past three movies. not much happens in this movie in terms of it's story. katie and hunter appear once again after aprox. 5 years since the events of the 1st (and 2nd) movie. i'm not sure what exactly i was expect but this movie just felt very lazy in it's writing and directing.

every single device with a camera is SOMEHOW recording footage all the time. footage that nobody bothers to check!! so what's even the point of the whole gimmick???? it feels very useless. in this movies, there is always a reason why something or someone is recording the footage. i guess they had no clue how to introduce the gimmick this one and even i can't blame them for that.

if there was anything interesting about this film it is probably 1) the use of an xbox kinect camera for recording footage and 2)the very crazy ending that it has. i will give it that. overall, i found it pretty boring and not that scary or tense has i've found the other movies to be. but that might have been because i was peeling garlic as i watched it.

laptop with paranormal activity 4 playing with bowls of peeled garlic on its side

also all characters were pretty boring or insufferable at worst and don't even get me started on the male cast. good lord. i was at a point where everytime katie was on the screen I CHEERED!

watched on october 10

paranormal activity: the marked ones (2014)

HOLY SHIT?!?!? besides the 1st one, THIS ONE has been the best so far in my paranormal activity marathon. the funniest thing is that... it's a damn spin-off!!

the film takes place in a mexican setting with a (of course) predominantly latino casting which makes this movie so much more enjoyable to me as someone very familiar with their culture. the dialogue, the environment, the grandma, the NON translated spanish remarks that the characters say under their breath... I GET IT ALL! I was able to invest myself even more into the movie because of this.

characters standing with a blank stare in their faces

everyone just standing there including the demon possessed guy with some EGGS on the table for the cleansing (known as a limpia de huevo (trans: egg cleansing) in latin american cultures) his grandma is about to do. this is cinema.

the main characters' dynamic was pretty fun to watch! yes, the boys were still stupid as usual with these movies, but the acting overall in this film felt very very solid and natural! i really like these characters. they didn't feel as empty as the ones from previous movies.

little animal figure with corn in its mouth. a character mistakingly says its a grenade.

this line followed by a "that's corn"

and can i just say how fucking funny this movie is? there isn't exactly a lot of "ha ha" funny moments in this movie, but there were times where i would laugh SO MUCH knowing WHY these characters are reacting the way they to the situations that are thrown at them.

my favorite of these jokes was this one:

"i have the hedmi cable"
and in response, the other character answers almost laughing by saying:
"... it's HDMI, fool"

there isn't much to these jokes if you read them without the context of their culture or without being familar with it. but man do i find it so fucking funny.

also this skeleton painting in someone's room is just insane and goes hard as fuck.

wall painting of a skeleton with angel wings, hold earth in one hand, and on the other hand holding a justice balance. i hope that is what they are called.

the plot of this movie is by far the most interesting one in the saga, and it does a great job at expanding the pre-existing lore that the previous movies have established.

it also has the BEST and most chilling ending of all these movies by going through a portal and ending up on the paranormal activity 1 house in a scene we originally witnessed off screen!!! i was SO EXCITED with my jaw opened when i realized WHERE the character was at that point.

this movie was as excellent as these movies can get. the story, the suspense, the characters, all made up for an awesome watching experience.

might be on par, if not BETTER, than the 1st movie.

also i go to see a cholo blasting a witch with a SHOTGUN! 10/10

watched on october 10

paranormal activity: the ghost dimension (2015)

continuing my paranormal activity marathon knowing that the last movie was peak cinema, has been quite the difficult challenge given the decaying quality of these movies. but we move on.

the idea for the ghost dimension is there. indeed. honestly i am ALL IN for exploring the crazy time portals or whatever that the cult in these movies are (SOMEHOW) able to do, but my god. the execution just fucking sucks

we follow this family who within like 20 mins into the movie they have already caught activity (yup) with a camera but are basically doing nothing about it. everyone is just very very annoying in this as well. if it were up to me, that little girl would have been dead SORRY but literally during the entire movie the was something clearly wrong (aka EVIL) with her. but no one did anything about it until it was too late

in this movie's camera gimmick: there's a camera that is able to record whatever is happening and you can see the entity doing whatever the fuck it's doing through that camera. which again i see the vision, but it just ended up feeling very very lame (low budget cgi, not blaming the people who did the cgi they are just doing their job) and the fact that we could See Exactly Who or What is causing everything is just not scary!!!

these movies are not that scary to begin with, but i would make the argument that the fact that you cannot see The Thing is one of the things that makes these movie's really tense at times! but yeah. i think 1 point for effort but overall meh

also i don't really get the title now that i am thinking about it. there are no ghosts in the paranormal activity movies. it's the devil, entities, we are working with here. CULTS with evil white women in them even. but there's no ghosts. and it has been repeatedly said throughout the movies that these aren't ghosts. so i guess they didn't have a better title for the movie... IDK i'm going to sleep.

watched on october 15

paranormal activity: next of kin (2021)

where do i even start with this one.........

honestly i don't have any problems with the film trying to deviate from the convoluted lore that the past movies have tried to put together. but this? this was so hard to watch from how horrible it was... this could have been any other horror movie. actually, this didn't even NEED the paranormal activity attached to it. take it out and what do you have? just some random ass found footage horror movie.

anyway, as i mentioned, this was a very hard watch. here are some bullets on my red flags for this movie and how i knew i was NOT going to have a good time with it:

given this movie was in production during 2020 (i'm guessing lol) i am beyond SURPRISED this was not canned.

watched on october 17

my overall thoughts on the paranormal activity movies

well! i did really enjoy the katie and kristi storyline they were going for. and even when deviating from that, i think they did an awesome job in the marked ones as well. but at the end of the day, you can only make so many of these movies, until it all just becomes pretty much the same and a shameless cash grab.

i still appreciate a COUPLE of these movies for what they are though. and most of them? i found them pretty fun to go through :) but that's just me. if anything, i would only recommend watching the first movie and the marked ones, if you really want to experience any of these movies. without the pain of going through all of them.

also i think i would have done a better job in that studio!!!! YUP! let me write one of these and it will be the best one ever.

and also despite saying that for the most part i enjoyed most of them, getting through all of these movies feels like a HUGE achievement. please clap.

get out (2017) [rewatch!]

a classic in my opinion!

the first time i watched this one was in 2018 in my comfy little bed in a dark room AND BOY.... did i cry...

i don't exactly remember why? but i just remember that i started crying when they revealed that they were in fact tricking the main character. it really got to me! this movie is one of my favorite horror movies because of how well it builds that tension and suspense. and the scares are all well timed and do not feel cheap at all. i've been a fan of jordan pelee's work (though i guess not anymore...) for a bit, and this has been my fav work of his for a while.

watched on october 21

us (2019) [rewatch!]

another one i really liked. my dad put it on so i went ahead and watched it with him. i think he really liked it as well.

watched on october 26

the forever purge (2021)

they really went "guys.... what if we make a purge movie where..... after the purge happens.... crimes keep being committed ?!?!?!?" crazy.

my dad wanted to watch this so i was like. okay dad i knew i was not in for a good time. also how many of these purge movies are there?!

actually, as soemone who watch 7 (seven) paranormal activity movies i should shut up.

watched on october 27

five nights at freddy's (2023)

crazy.

i actually wrote about my experience watching this movie on a journal log! feel free to read that instead or else i would just be repeating myself here.

watched on october 27

over the garden wall (2014)

not horror or thriller but it doesnt get more 'october vibes' than this. also this a show!

FUCKING FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I FINALLY WATCHED OVER THE GARDEN WALL !!!!! i've had this on my watchlist for YEARS. little did i know that watching it would literally only take me one single kitchen session.

i put this on while cooking / eating / cleaning and i LOVED the vibes. it was so silly at times and yet it pulls off those more 'serious' moments so well! and i loved the little twist of how greg and wirt were actually dressed up for halloween i kinda saw it coming but i also somehow thought they were just from a place where they dress silly like that.

watched on october 29

monster house (2006) [rewatch!]

a classic! i haven't watched this in a WHILEEE. i used to watch it so much when i was little. i'm pretty sure i owned the DVD or something. but anyways, even to this day, this movie makes me laugh a lot with it's jokes.

the animation holds up INCREDIBLY well too! really enjoy this one.

watched on october 30