Robtober 2020
The pandemic. The unrest. The fires. The floods. They were only the beginning.
Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films to watch, focusing mostly on ones I haven’t seen before. It’s usually a mix of home viewings and public theatrical screenings, and the schedule is published both for posterity and for the sake of anyone who might like to join me. This year, sadly, the pandemic will keep me out of theaters, and guests won’t be able to join me for home viewings. But the show must go on!
I typically aim for a wide variety of films, with as many countries, subgenres, and time periods represented as possible. However, this year’s focus is narrower. First, to celebrate the growing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, I’ve gathered a bunch of films showcasing Black perspectives, which have traditionally been underrepresented, stereotyped, and/or tokenized in horror. Second, some picks from one of the genre’s most pivotal decades, by way of Criterion Channel’s ’70s Horror collection. And third, a peek into the last 10 years or so of the overlooked world of short-form fright flicks. Some other odds and ends are also scattered throughout, including a couple of double features of classics and their recent remakes.
I haven’t seen any of these films before, so don’t take them as recommendations per se, but none of them were included frivolously. If you decide to watch any, I hope you enjoy. Have a horrific month!
Robt 11 Sun
Horror Noire
A look at the history of Black horror films and the role of African Americans in the film genre from the very beginning.
Robt 12 Mon
Ganja & Hess
After being stabbed with an ancient cursed dagger, an anthropologist finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.
Robt 13 Tue
Sugar Hill
When her boyfriend is murdered by gangsters, Sugar Hill decides not to get mad, but BAD! The bad guys who think they got away clean are about to find out that they’re DEAD wrong.
Robt 14 Wed
It’s Alive
The Davises expect a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing when it’s scared. And it’s easily scared.
Robt 15 Thu
Long Weekend
When a suburban couple go camping for the weekend at a remote beach, they discover that nature isn’t in an accommodating mood.
Robt 16 Fri
Double Feature: The Invisible Man
Maybe this invisibility thing isn’t such a good idea
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The Invisible Man (1933)
A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane.
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The Invisible Man (2020)
When Cecilia’s abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
Robt 17 Sat
Double Feature: New York City Grime
Two icky artifacts from the city that never sweeps
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Street Trash
A liquor store owner sells alcoholic beverages to homeless people, unaware of what the bottles actually contain: toxic brew.
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The Driller Killer
An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.
Robt 18 Sun
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
A man on the run is hunted by a demon known as the Collector.
Robt 19 Mon
Tales from the Hood
A funeral director tells four strange tales of horror with an African American focus to three drug dealers he traps in his place of business.
Robt 20 Tue
Short and (Not) Sweet
From Nerdist’s “20 Terrifying Short Horror Films You Can Watch On YouTube”
- Alexia : Although Alexia, Franco’s ex-girlfriend, has been deceased for some time, Franco still has her as a contact on his social network. When he decides to delete her and move on, something strange starts to manifest through his computer.
- It Had Pale Skin : A girl walks home alone at night.
- Vicious : Lydia’s sister Katie died in mysterious circumstances. When she returns home late one night to find her front door unlocked, a series of strange occurrences suggest she isn’t alone.
- Peephole : A man answers a knock at the door.
- Latch : Show me the light or leave me in the darkness…
- On My Way : While on his way to a Halloween party, a man drives through a town, slowly realizing it’s gone insane.
- The Passing : A mysterious woman, a missing child and an ominous past converge on two detectives in this frightening tale.
- Behind The Door : There’s something outside that wants to come in…
- Creak : One night, a woman hears noises coming from her basement…
- Suckablood : A gothic tale of a girl scared to suck her thumb, lest the monstrous Suckablood should come.
- Mr. Creak : When Penelope explores her childhood home she finds more than just old toys.
- Ripped : An avid gym-goer joins a late night neighborhood gym where he finds an over enthusiastic personal trainer who takes a keen interest in his routine as things take an unexpected turn for the worst.
- Is That You? : Confined to her bedroom on Halloween night, Whitney notices an eerie figure lurking outside her home.
- After Hours : Working late is about to get a lot more stressful. The project’s looming deadline isn’t nearly as terrifying as the creepy thing stalking her around every corner.
- “What’s up bro?” : On a rainy evening a guy is planning his future investments when he gets a text from an unknown number. As they say, Karma is a bitch.
- I Love You, Jamie : Wes is working late when a presence stalks him through the job while his partner watches online.
- Daddy : Something’s wrong with Daddy…
- Love Hurts : A woman gets into an argument with her boyfriend in a public bathroom. When he leaves, she hears strange sounds coming from the stall beside hers.
- Play Time : Suddenly a TV opens in a house while a woman sleeping. The woman wakes up and closes the TV. But TV opens again and the thriller time begins.
- Don’t Look Away : A girl is texting her boyfriend as she becomes fearful that someone is in the house.
Robt 21 Wed
Office Killer
A mousy office worker accidentally kills one of her coworkers, then proceeds to bump off a few others.
Robt 22 Thu
Blood Diner
Two cannibalistic brothers kill various young women to use their flesh in their new special dish at their rundown restaurant, while seeking blood sacrifices to awaken a dormant Egyptian goddess.
Robt 23 Fri
Double Feature: The Witches
The Roald Dahl kind, not the Wiccan kind
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The Witches (1990)
A young boy stumbles onto a witch convention and must stop them, even after he has been turned into a mouse.
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The Witches (2020)
Based on Roald Dahl’s 1983 classic book ‘The Witches’, the story tells the scary, funny and imaginative tale of a seven year old boy who has a run in with some real life witches!
Robt 24 Sat
Coma
When a young doctor notices an unnatural amount of comas occurring in her hospital she uncovers a horrible conspiracy.
Robt 25 Sun
Eve’s Bayou
What did little Eve see—and how will it haunt her? Husband, father and womanizer Louis Batiste is the head of an affluent family, but it’s the women who rule this gothic world of secrets, lies and mystic forces.
Robt 26 Mon
The Girl with All the Gifts
A scientist and a teacher living in a dystopian future embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.
Robt 27 Tue
Atlantics
In a popular suburb of Dakar, workers on the construction site of a futuristic tower, without pay for months, decide to leave the country by the ocean for a better future.
Robt 28 Wed
Chained
Bob is a cab-driving serial killer who stalks his prey on the city streets alongside his reluctant protégé Tim, who must make a life or death choice between following in Bob’s footsteps or breaking free from his captor.
Robt 29 Thu
Images
A schizophrenic housewife, engulfed by terrorizing apparitions, kills off each, not knowing if these demons are merely figments of her hallucinatory imagination or part of reality.
Robt 30 Fri
Rabid
A young woman develops a taste for human blood after experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into blood-thirsty zombies, leading into a city-wide epidemic.
Robt 31 Sat
Deathdream
A young soldier killed in Vietnam inexplicably shows up to his family home one night.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
A newly-engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must seek shelter at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.