OCTOBER 18 — It’s almost the end of October and you know what that means – Halloween season!
While it’s not something that most Malaysians celebrate, if you’re a fan of horror flicks, it’s definitely a time of the year that most of us look forward to, because there will be dozens of horror flicks, both indie and mainstream, released to coincide with the occasion.
I’ll talk about some of the more mainstream selections like The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Strangers: Chapter 2 and The Black Phone 2, some newly released in cinemas and some on digital, maybe next week, because I can’t really contain my excitement about some pretty excellent standouts coming from the indie horror scene.
Who knows, I might even discover some more hidden gems in the next week or so, since this is going to be a long weekend, which I’m sure will be filled up with some more horror viewings.
For now, if you don’t mind low budgets but enthusiastic filmmaking, these three new indie horror movies might just be what you need.
V/H/S/Halloween
If you’re a horror fan, I’m pretty sure you’d have seen at least one of these V/H/S movies in the last decade or so, a low budget franchise that started in 2012 and is still going strong, with this latest one being the eighth film.
Surprisingly, the law of diminishing returns is still nowhere to be seen here, making this anthology series one of the most reliably consistent franchises in the world of horror.
While clearly nothing here (and maybe anywhere else in future instalments) comes close to topping what’s the consensus choice for best segment in the entire series – “Safe Haven” from V/H/S/2 – the overall quality of the segments here is respectably high.
This one definitely has the best wraparound segment in the entire series, called “Diet Phantasma” which plays like a focus group footage of tests being made for a soda being prepared for Halloween, with very gnarly consequences.
It’s hard for me to pick favourites from this strong selection of segments, but Paco Plaza’s Spanish language segment “Ut Supra Sic Infra” is a wonderfully slick thrill ride, and Anna Zlokovic’s “Coochie Coochie Coo” is a disturbingly deranged delight.
I’ve got no bad things to say about what some people might think of as the film’s weaker segments like “Fun Size” and “Home Haunt” although the prize for the darkest segment yet in the entire franchise might go to “Kidprint” by Alex Ross Perry, which gets truly dark and is armed with some unflinching violence against children in telling its story about missing kids.
A great thrill ride with something for everyone.
Jimmy and Stiggs
Far and away the wildest horror flick I’ve seen this year, which is saying something because 2025 has been a great year for horror, with multiple standouts already released earlier in the year like Bring Her Back, Weapons, Sinners and Final Destination: Bloodlines.
I’ve been a fan of writer/director Joe Begos ever since I saw his second film The Mind’s Eye in 2015, and I’ve loved everything he has done since, especially the neon-soaked Bliss.
This latest film sort of harks back to Bliss in terms of its look. It’s also a neon-soaked freak-out, but this time it’s also a splatter fest that will remind people of Peter Jackson’s early films like Bad Taste and Braindead.
It’s a story about two friends, Jimmy and Stiggs, who get abducted by aliens in Jimmy’s home and have now decided to fight back.
The story really is that simple, but the movie’s whole reason for being is to reflect the coked-up state of mind of the two friends, and to depict their battles with the alien creatures with as much gory enthusiasm (and slimy practical effects) as possible.
his is not going to be for everyone, but if you love splatter films, this one will be a new favourite.
Night Of The Reaper
This one’s a true Halloween movie, and by true, I mean not because it’s set on Halloween night, but because it pays homage to a genre that’s most associated with Halloween films – the babysitter in peril slasher movie.
It’s directed by Brandon Christensen, who has made some pretty decent horror films in the past like Z and Superhost, but his was still not a name that I’d be watching closely when it comes to new films.
Night Of The Reaper might have just changed that. A retro slasher film set in the 1980s, it opens with a classic babysitter in peril scene, in which a babysitter is stalked and then murdered by a mysterious killer.
The movie then continues on two narrative paths, one featuring Deena (Jessica Clement), a college student who’s returned to her hometown after what appears to be a significant absence, and the other following the town’s Sheriff, Rod Cooper (Ryan Robins) who’s sent on a wild goose chase all across town after VHS tapes start appearing all across town, suggesting that there’s an active killer on the loose.
How these two narrative strands will ultimately converge, I’ll leave it to you to find out, as it’s one of the highlights of this neatly spun little horror picture.
It doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but the way the story’s told is refreshing and exciting enough to make you sit up and take notice of Christensen’s talent.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
