Pick your poison

Four monstrous films to watch in October

For many people, horror is synonymous with jumpscares and gore, but I think the genre has so much more to offer. Here are four films to get you in the spirit as we approach the best holiday of the year. Vampires, mermaids, witches, and demons abound… which will you cozy up?

Kaya Panthier – Argosy Illustration Editor

House (dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977, Japan)

Obayashi’s studio asked him to make a film like 1975’s smash-hit Jaws. So he and his 13-year-old daughter Chigumi collaborated to make the psychedelic horror-comedy House… which is absolutely nothing like Jaws, but unforgettable nonetheless. A schoolgirl visits her aunt for the summer with six friends. Soon, the girls run into malevolent spirits, portraits that spray blood, and pianos with a taste for human fingers. It does not get less strange.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (dir. Ariane Louis-Seize, 2023, Canada)

As a child, Sasha was traumatized when her vampire family ate the clown they hired for her birthday party. Now, she has to find a way to keep herself alive without taking the life of a non-consenting, non-suicidal person. Enter human teenager Paul. As the two bond over being shy music-loving outcasts, Sasha has to decide if she is willing to kill the first person she has truly connected to.

You Won’t Be Alone (dir. Goran Stolevski, 2022, Macedonia)

In the mountains of 19th century Macedonia, a newborn baby is cursed and has her voice stolen by a witch. On her 16th birthday, the witch returns to collect the girl, and turns her into a witch. But these witches are unique: they can shapeshift by killing and disemboweling the creature whose form they want to take. When the witch abandons her, the girl embarks on a disorienting (and gory) journey to find a new home.

The Lure (dir. Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2015, Poland)

You know The Little Mermaid. Have you ever experienced it as a rock opera musical in 1980’s Communist Poland where two man-eating mermaid sisters perform new wave songs in a grimy, glittering nightclub? If you have ever been a teenage girl, you may resonate with the concept of living in a world where your body is the most valuable thing about you.



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