I’ll admit the prompt list this year was more of a challenge than the last couple. Though It’s wholly on me that I insist associating each daily word with a “horror” movie, and therein could lie the problem with my approach to the whole Inktober project.

That said, with thought I landed on David Lynch’s hollywood nightmare, Mulholland Drive. While the movie starts out with a happy-go-lucky tone with a far darker underbelly than can be trusted. Then an hour and a half in, the rug gets pulled out from under the audience and it becomes pure Lynchian nightmare fuel. I spent a large portion of my 20’s being very annoyed at this movie until I came across this gem of a write up. Just be ready to read all caps for a while.

On the nose again. A Ghost Story is a very strange concept film. Not really horror, it’s more of a drama with a silent protagonist (well, Casey Affleck dies in the first 10 minutes or so and spends the rest of the film under a white sheet.) The story touches on lonliness, nihilism and the potential time-slippage ghosts may experience in their post-mortem existence.

This piece was also a nice reminder that during Inktober I don’t have to go all out on every single entry and sometimes minimalism gets the point across better than anything ultra involved and complicated.

”Hail to the King, baby.” While it’s a line from Army of Darkness (unofficial Evil Dead III), it’s more appropriate for Don Coscarelli’s (Phantasm, Beastmaster) adaptation of Joe R. Landsale’s geriatric caper, Bubba Ho-Tep. Bruce Campbell plays “Elvis” (it’s never REALLY established if he’s THE Elvis or a dementia ridden impersonator) who is wasting away in a nursing home. Then an escaped mummy starts killing the residents of the nursing home and it’s up to The King and his sidekick JFK (played by the late Ossie Davis… yeah, you read that right) to dispatch the crusty corpse.

It’s delightfully juvenile and just completely bonkers as a concept. A+ 10/10 would watch again.

Again, while not really considered a horror movie, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include some Hitchcock nod during Inktober.

Vertigo has always been a solid favorite of mine when it comes to the Hitchcock oeuvre. Alongside Rear Window, I think this might be the best performance Jimmy Stewart put forward, especially since after a certain point he becomes not only unsympathetic, but wholly unlikeable as a character.

As a bonus addition, the band Faith No More used the film as a template for their video for the 1996 single “Last Cup of Sorrow” which subsequently starred Jennifer Jason Leigh alongside band frontman Mike Patton. It might be the best music video to come out of the 90’s.

Before going on to direct both Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel Studios, James Gunn wrote and directed two of my favorite indie genre films, one of which being 2006’s Slither.

As a devout fan of Nathan Fillion (from his Firefly days, we can forgive him his cop-drama career move,) this was immediately up my alley as a cinephile and horror fan. Also Gunn’s history with Troma films and his writing credit on Dawn of the Dead (still the only Zack Snyder film I can watch without getting the urge to destroy a television.) Slither was a goopy horror movie with a solid comedy backbone. It also forged the adorable friendship between Gunn and star Michael Rooker!

Meanwhile: Posts are being made (mostly) daily on my Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Final days write ups will be arriving soon!