Yet Another Horror Blog

Howdy! I'm Chad, and I like being scared. 

Spooked, freaked out, mortified, disgusted: I like the horror genre has to offer. From the corrupting whispers of demons preluding a pea-soup explosive possession to masked killers silently stalking their immoral prey and everything in between, the horror genre is an ever-expanding trip into the abyssal depths of human creativity and the shadows lurking therein. I absolutely love it. Like so many of you, I have fond memories of dark nights spent with a pizza and a stack of DVDs (or VHSs, or streaming playlists, etc.). In nights when I was alone, I found a connection with the likes of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Doctor Satan, and through them I was able to connect with dozens of new friends over the years. 

It's those connections that brought me here. And if you're here, then thank you. Even if you disagree with my (admittedly terrible--see below) takes, I'm glad you're here.  

Origin of the Blog: 

That said, my obsession with horror started well before this blog. The impetus for the blog actually came from a particularly boring October in 2018 when I conceived of the 31 Horror Movies of October Challenge, later rebranded simply as the Spooktober series. I conceived of it in the same way I "invented" new drinks by mixing two pre-made ideas into one "new" thing that hundreds, if not thousands, of people have all tried out independently years prior. But hey, I wanted to watch some spooky movies and tell my friends about them on Facebook. So, like what it says on the tin, I watched a new horror movie every single night (give or take) and provided a micro-review the next day to my four adoring readers, including my mom (thanks, Mom!). You can read more about the Spooktober series--and other series I've got brewing!--in my Labels and Lists page.

How The Reviews Work:

Here's what you can expect in one my reviews: some background information on the film (title and directors); what horror subgenre does it belong to (more information in the Labels and Lists page above); a fairly succinct review of the plot, highlights, and some elements I did or didn't like about it; the film's trailer; links to the IMDB and JustWatch pages (Just Watch being a helpful guide on which streaming platforms is the film on, if any); and, finally, the Council of Chads will provide their overall score using this half-assed 0-5 rating metric with 0 being disqualified or essentially unwatchable and 5 representing those rare perfect films that epitomize the genre and stay just as good on rewatch. Anything above a 2.5 I generally like or appreciate in some form, even if I find it to be just "meh." I'd like to double-down on not being a critic here; my scale isn't some hard and fast rubric, but I do factor in the following: what the film's (attempted) subgenre is and what the film is attempting to accomplish, how unique or fresh the premise is, the writing/acting at a glance, and elements of cinematography. A roughly shot but uniquely executed premise will likely fare better than a beautiful but vapid film.

Moving Forward:

Roughly 90 films and nearly three years later, I found myself getting asked about what my opinion on a specific film, and more often than not I'd have already written up a review for it, but the Facebook search engine remains fairly terrible. But there were plenty of recommendations I received throughout that time that I had to put on the back-burner since I had my list curated for that year. And then I found myself waiting to watch any horror movie until October because I didn't want to wait to give my (often unsolicited) opinions! 

This blog will join the long-line of other (better) lineage of horror fan repository of reviews and opinions. I'll be uploading my old Spooktober micro-reviews here for posterity and then branching out a bit, adding in some reviews for classics I adore, seeking out some hard-to-find video nasties, and curating lists you can watch with friends and a few pints. So, thanks for being here, friends. I'll be adding new content on a semi-regular basis, and the goal is to tag each entry with various labels to help filter by subgenre, decade, and anything else that sticks out. Love y'all, and I'll see you where the shadows live.