Halloween Horror Movies/TV Shows 2025

Both the 90s Dracula and Frankenstein are superior films to the original.

I remember watching "Frankenstein, the True Story" a long time ago. I'm guessing it's not as good as I remember it being. I liked the DeNiro version.

Found "Frankenstein, the True Story" on Amazon Video, it's the two hour version. And in SD, looks like it's a VHS rip. Started watching it, got about an hour into it. Looked up the movie on Google, found it on YouTube in HD and it's the three hour version.

Watched it, it holds up extremely well for a fifty year old movie. Even the effects still hold up better than expected. I last watched it in the mid 80's. Is it great, not exactly, but still well made for a made for TV miniseries.

Weapons (2025)

17 of the 18 students in a third grade class mysteriously run away and disappear late at night. Suspicion falls on their teacher, Justine (Julia Garner), and the father (Josh Brolin) of one of the missing boys is ready to lead a mob to make her talk. Benedict Wong has a substantial role as a school administrator trying to placate parents and keep Justine from overstepping.

The movie unfolds in overlapping segments centered on main characters--the teacher, the father, a cop (Alden Ehrenreich), a junkie, and the 18th boy--to reveal what happened to the missing kids and the evil behind it. There are a few good scares, some unsettling moments, and a little gore along the way.

Take the horror elements away, and this would be a decent drama about a town dealing with a tragedy. But the horror elements are well done. The film is perhaps a bit overlong and a recurring visual is not totally explicable by the film's own logic, but it's effective so you go with it. Some fine acting all around.

The resolution is quite satisfying...and even weirdly humorous.

Recommended.

★★★½

Since IT:Return To Derry is coming in a week I decided to go back and watch the two movies as well as the miniseries that came out back in the 90s.

The IT miniseries IMO still holds up, which is remarkable when you consider the fact it was a television special back in the early 90s. It could be nostalgia talking as I was a big fan of Threes Company and Night Court and here we have John Ritter and Harry Anderson playing big parts in it. Tim Curry I knew from Clue and The Rocky Horror Picture show and despite the silly clown costume, he is still VERY creepy because of his speech and mannerisms. I was never the type to be scared of clowns, but that clown scared me. You also had Annette Otoole and the recently departed Olivia Hussey....just a great cast all around directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, the co editor of Halloween.



The IT movies also still hold up, including the second one which seemed to get the most mixed reviews. All the actors did a good job and I can't fault the direction that the movies went in which leads up perfectly to the series that is about to debut.

Dracula Book One: The Impaler
By Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones

I bought this last year, but it didn't arrive until after Halloween so I saved it for this year's season. Not a TV show or movie obviously, but I'm going to review it anyway. In short, it's Dracula origin story. It became clear to me that it was like an evil version of Batman Begins with a very similar journey. At least in the first act up to the moment he returns to Gotham. Reading this actually felt like watching a movie. That's how well the comic flows. The illustrations were fantastic and so was the narration. I was left with with wanting more. I believe there are supposed to be four books in total. I highly recommend this one. A very interesting fresh take on the character.
Easy 10/10

I was told to go into this completely blind and the trailer gives nothing away.

Yes. The trailer gives you the setup, but tells you nothing about...what's really going on.

I won't spoil anything, but I'll say I wouldn't have thought the revelation would work as well as it does. And it makes for a satisfying ending.

Alien
I figured since Alien: Earth came out and Alien: Romulus was released last year that it was time to revisit the original. I used to watch this every year for several years in a row, but stopped when I started doing these threads because IO wanted to incorporate movies I haven't seen into the mix. It's been quite some time now since I last watched the movie. I did watch that Alien high school play that was released on YouTube a while back. What can I say that hasn't already been said? Effects hold up, acting is great, music is great. A really solid film and a classic.

10/10

Scream
The movie itself is fine and I like the first three, but in my opinion it sort of opened up the door for the mediocre horror movies we saw in the early to mid 200s. It wasn't until the Saw franchise came and brought back the gore that we saw in the 80s. I give Wes Craven for spawning another franchise after introducing us to Freddy. It's really the cast that sells these movies and the gimmick.

7/10

I rate this one higher. I loved it when I first saw it during its theatrical run and, almost 30 years later, it still holds up. In fact, I may have to spin it this month.

I pretty much feel the same as when I first saw it in theaters. It's good, but not great. I like the twist, but it's kind of like The Sixth Sense, then you've seen it.

I never get tired of this one. The first Halloween is a classic. The trouble comes when trying to decide which of the sequels to watch in this "choose your adventure" franchise. This year I'm doing 1,2 and H20. I still think that's the real trilogy. The Blumhouse trilogy fell apart at the end, the Thorn trilogy was too convoluted and Rob Zombies reboot was just garbage. At least the H20 trilogy has a definitive end and we can just pretend that Resurrection never happened.

Yeah, I just never liked Meyers being her brother. I still prefer the new films. Although H2O is good.

That ret-con doesn't make much sense; I didn't like it, either.

But original film is fantastic and I have to watch it this month.

Bride of Frankenstein
I had never seen this before until last night. It starts out with Mary Shelly and her husband and a friend in their home in a kind of meta way. The husband recounts the events of the first movie then Mary says that there's more to the story. It picks up where the original left off. The village people find Dr. Frankenstein and take him to his house where his fiance Victoria is. They think he's dead, but as it turns out, he's alive!

Meanwhile some crazy woman and the father of the girl that the monster killed goes to the castle to make sure the monster is dead. As it turns out, he's alive!

I'm not going to recount the whole movie, but there's a lot of goofy shit going on in this movie and the bride that is created shows up for about five minutes. Karloff is given more to do and has some speaking lines, but it's just really weird. The actor who plays Dr. Frankenstein is back so that's a plus. He's joined by a colleague who's really insane and reminds me of Tarken.

I think I judged the original film a little too harshly. I think for it's time and for what it was, I think I would give it another half a point or more for the more serious take. This movie is just goofy.

4.5/10

I never get tired of the original Halloween either. Instant classic. H20 is fine. "Evil dies tonight!"

"Son Of Frankenstein" is where everything turns into everything you've seen in the parodies and cartoons.
And it's got Lugosi as Igor.

I watched Son of Dracula last year and didn't think much of it.

First, it doesn't actually involve the son of Dracula, but Dracula himself, cleverly disguised as Transylvanian Count Alucard (read it backwards).

Second, Lon Chaney Jr. is completely lacking both the presence and the Eastern European flair of Bela Lugosi. Dracula seems like a regular American, like Bill who owns the hardware store in town.

Dracula's Daughter, on the other hand, was fairly interesting, not least because of its not too subtle lesbian undercurrent.

Edit: I fixed the title of Dracula's Daughter

Nosferatu (2024)
I watched the original last year and liked it quite a bit. This one remade a lot of the same shots, but because it's not a silent film they took the basic structure of the original and added their own story without disregarding the original. It's weird, it's a remake and an original story at the same time. I can;'t compare it the the 70s remake because I haven't seen that one, but I would say that I think the original is still better because of how minimalist it is. I still would say the performances in this are great and while I think they could have cut about thirty minutes from this movie, I still think it's worth a watch.

7.25/10

Son of Frankenstein
Well that's it for the trio. Nothing happens until the last 2o minutes and even then it's not much. The monster dies T2 style. I don't think I can even rate this one. I almost bailed completely.

Saw it a few months back. Liked it, but didn't love it.

Nosferatu is a straight rip-off of Dracula. The 1922 German film survives today only because not all copies were destroyed after Stoker's estate won a lawsuit against the producers.

Nosferatu loses something in replacing the seductive Dracula with the hideous Orlok. The sexual subtext is lost, and that makes it less interesting in my view.

True, but Orlock's appearance is much more novel accurate than Lugosi's Dracula. Dracula is more a creature than he is a man and nothing more than pure evil. He's not suppose to be attractive or sexually seductive. He's simply a creature of evil who takes blood against his victims will.

Last Voyage of the Demeter was another movie that got Dracula right.




Just a tiny part of the novel where Dracula's coffins were transported to London and managed to make an entire movie around it. I wish this Director did the entire story because it would be great to have a Dracula movie without the Lugosi, Anne Rice or Twilight influences.

Did the obligatory watch of Halloween (1978) yesterday. It still delivers, though with each viewing I get steadily more annoyed by Laurie's (Jamie Lee Curtis) repeated failure to make sure Michael is dead.

Will do at least one more classic today.

I like the show where two fascists hide out in the entertainment forum of an internet bulletin board because they're too cowardly to face the music after the horrific decisions they've made in life.

10/10

They turned Dumb and Dumber into a TV show?

Well that was an interesting first episode to a new series.



I'd give it a 7/10. Didn't expect that kind of ending for characters just introduced.

Someone with clear anger management issues



To think that everything that happened after was because of a chocolate bar.

Also, this dude needs Captain Kirk to show him the correct way to chop wood.

There's not really a sexual subtext to the original Dracula, either. That was added in for the films later.

There definitely is. It's in the original novel.

Consider...

It's the Victorian era.
A strange foreign man has hypnotic power over young, unmarried women.
He comes to them in their bedrooms at night.
He pierces them and makes them bleed.
This corrupts them, making them pursue the same activity with others.

It's metaphorical, but Stoker's original novel has a very strong sexual subtext.