October in Review

It should not be news to anyone who reads this blog that I love Halloween. I celebrate it for the entire month of October and actually usually put up my decorations around my birthday in mid-September. It is a time when I thrive.

I felt that this October. Granted, it was still fully summer the entire time, weather-wise, but I mostly felt like I had myself together. I got to return to ACL, where it was my job to see George Strait, Megan Thee Stallion and Duran Duran (also caught White Reaper, who were good, and Greta Van Fleet, who were terrible). Bryan and I continued our tradition of seeing Sebastian Bach in San Antonio in October. I started a hybrid schedule working at the station three days a week and from home the other two. And I started biking to and from work.

Now I'm trying to catch my breath a bit before a very busy late November. Lots of (good!) personal developments on the horizon. It's going to be A Lot, but it'll be rewarding.

Now, to the movies.

Trick 'R Treat

Vomiting scene aside, I found this surprising, genuinely pretty scary and very entertaining. Pretty much everything that happened was unexpected, which is rare for a horror movie.

Hell Fest

I remember seeing this trailer a few years back and being like, "Hm, that's a cool concept." Then it languished in my Netflix queue for ages. Now I can say it definitely is a cool concept and it's honestly pretty well executed. I had fun.

Rewatch: Coraline. Was feeling very "Saturday morning cartoons but make it spooky," and this fit the vibe.

Muppets Haunted Mansion

As we all know, the Muppets have the best version of A Christmas Carol. So, it's neat they've added a Halloween special to their repertoire and I'm happy for all the spooky kids who have something new to watch every year. This one is very family friendly and silly in a good way.

No One Gets Out Alive

There's one element of this movie that looks very dumb, but overall, it's not bad. It's a fairly fresh take on a couple of horror subgenres and Cristina Rodlo is great.

Rewatch: Beetlejuice. A classic for a reason.

Rewatch: Hocus Pocus. Duh. Half-watched while carving pumpkins with my friends, which I recommend.

Rewatch: Scream. Quite possibly the greatest movie ever made.

Rewatch: Interview with the Vampire. This movie is truly incredible in that it is an extremely extra drama about vampire husbands that somehow managed to cast 1994 Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater.

The French Dispatch*

I'll give Wes Anderson this: He knows what he’s about. He makes beautiful movies that are a little annoying, and I love that for him. But this one lost its way a bit. It started off strong and then faltered before picking back up a bit toward the end, but never regaining that initial momentum. Out of the four Anderson movies I've seen, I'd rank it as much less enjoyable than The Grand Budapest Hotel, slightly above The Royal Tenenbaums and much more likable than Moonrise Kingdom.

Rewatch: When you're on call for all of Halloween weekend, all you can really do to celebrate is watch movies. So, LOL: The 'Burbs, Clue, Shaun of the Dead, Jennifer's Body, The Crow, The Innkeepers, The House of the Devil, Fright Night, Halloween. I have impeccable taste.

It was a big month for TV. Tim and I watched all of Midnight Mass (surprising and cool; better than Bly Manor, not as good as Hill House) and started watching Squid Game. I also somehow ended up watching nearly every "Treehouse of Horror" episode of The Simpsons. Can now definitely say the first few are still the best and they decline in quality each year.

Also this month, I got sucked into two documentaries, LuLaRich and The Way Down. What can I say: I'm a sucker for stories about cults and evil rich people. Speaking of people who do bad things, I also watched almost all of season three of You. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I watched all of season two of Netflix's Babysitter's Club series (arguably the softest thing on streaming – I love it so much). 

Finally, I read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. One thing to note: If you've seen any adaptation based on this book, you're getting a different story than the one Jackson wrote. That can be both a good thing (Mike Flanagan's series) or a bad one (1999's The Haunting, a terrible movie that I have always liked). The book itself is as spooky as you make it, full of paranoia and psychological distress. I sometimes found it confusing but not in a bad way and, overall, I enjoyed it. It also has one of the best opening paragraphs I've ever read. Also in October, I finally made some real progress reading Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I'm still working on.

Farewell, my beloved spooky season. It's Rom Com Season now.