Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 This past Tuesday, I went to see what is being referred to as "the biggest flop in horror history" (which I'm sure is an exaggeration, but I digress), The Bride!  I've  been looking forward to this movie since the moment I learned of its existence. I can't remember when, exactly, I saw the trailer for it, but my immediate thought was that it aesthetically looked like some kind of love child of the taken-from-us-too-soon TV series Penny Dreadful, and American Horror Story: Hotel. These two series are quite possibly my two most favorite things that I've ever watched, so I was sold, immediately.  I also knew that The Bride! was destined to be a heavily divisive film. The bold, experimental nature of it that was evident from those early trailers and teasers told me in no uncertain terms that this was going to be the type of movie where those that got it were going to love it, and those that didn't were going to speak of it as if it were a pile of dog excremen...

I have really been wanting to write a review of the movie Good Boy, since seeing on opening day.  This was honestly my most anticipated horror movie of 2025, although I admit the bar this year is extremely low. After being gravely disappointed by Weapons, I go into everything with low expectations.  But, as a dog lover and also a lover of experimental horror, Good Boy was a must see. I have to admit, though, I was also scared for this one. As a child, I absolutely refused to watch any movie where I thought the dog might die. I'm not sure if any of my fellow 90s kids recall a movie called Fluke, but I watched that as a child and it left me positively traumatized. (Looking back, it was extremely dark subject matter for a movie aimed at children and families...dog death aside, even. I don't think my eight or nine year old self was ready to learn so much about death in general.) My mother used to offer to rent me movies about dogs, one specific one that sticks out is My Dog Skip, ...

 I recently saw possibly the most hyped up horror of the 2025 season, Weapons.  There have not been many movies I've been excited to see in 2025. The only horror movies I've seen in theaters this year have been Companion, Heart Eyes, and The Monkey. Other than that, nothing has really interested me enough to spend money on seeing it in theaters. (I do need to watch Sinners; scheduling conflicts kept arising when it came to seeing that one on the big screen.) But I absolutely loved the initial marketing for  Weapons, making it look like footage from a real unsolved case, and it   has easily been one of my most anticipated movies of the year. But, sadly, I actually didn't like it.  This is not meant to be a "hot take" post in any way. I'm not here to rain on anyone's parade that did enjoy it, I just have a lot of thoughts about it that I want to unpack for myself, and maybe for anyone else who feels similarly. If you loved the movie, I'm honestly very ha...

 I recently saw a post, I believe it was in a Facebook horror group, about a movie from 2005 called Tideland. I had never before heard of this movie, but the post intrigued me to the point where I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it for the past month or so. I would occasionally Google trailers, and reviews, and it got to the point where I was so weirdly hyperfixated on it that I knew I would have to experience it for myself, despite not really being able to pin down exactly what sort of movie it was. It seemed like some kind of horrific fairytale fever dream, and something about it just really spoke to me. Thankfully, it is currently available on Tubi, so I was recently able to watch it for free. I’m going to start this off by saying, while I understand that he is influential, I am not familiar with much of Terry Gilliam’s work. I have specific tastes in media, and the only other movie I’ve seen of his, at least as far as I can tell, is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, ...

Yesterday morning, I decided to finally watch a movie that's been very controversial and divisive among horror fans:  Skinamarink. I won't lie, I really hadn't heard much of anything positive about this movie, but I'd always been curious about it, and my love of anything dreamcore and liminal wouldn't let me leave it alone. When I saw it was finally available to watch on Hulu, I was excited to finally see it, although I wasn't expecting much based on reviews I've seen. I will start this off by saying, I can most definitely understand why people wouldn't like it. It's shot in a very different sort of way, all angles of spaces in the house, with the characters never really being seen or having real dialogues, and I can see how that would be off-putting to viewers. But, as someone who loves eerie imagery, particularly of the liminal and nightmarish variety, I was loving the strange shots.  What I wasn't expecting to love, though, was the movie itsel...

 As someone with a lifelong love of both Valentine's Day and Halloween, it always excites me when the two things combine.  I talk every year (including in my previous post) about how amazing it's been to see "Valloween" really rise to prominence in recent years. And this year, the release of the Valentine's Day slasher film, Heart Eyes seemed to really solidify that. As you can imagine, I was extremely excited about this movie from the get-go. Slasher films are, currently, my most preferred brand of horror for the most part, and add in the Valentine's Day twist? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me. I'm only aware of two other horror films (or I suppose three if you count one remake) that are set on Valentine's Day, and, I don't know, something about the fact that Heart Eyes was born in the age of the online Halloween community, just makes my heart soar. I feel seen. I finally saw the movie on Valentine's Day morning, and I'm thanking m...

In my personal opinion, 2024 was a great year for horror movies. I came away from it with so many new favorites, literally a handful of new movies sitting right among some of my almost-lifelong favorites. It was exciting, inspiring, and on some level, healing. I don't know if there will ever be another year like that for me again. I haven't been nearly as excited for much of anything in 2025...the main movie I'm looking forward to seeing is Wicked: For Good and that's not until Thanksgiving-time. And if the rest of the year drags on anything like January has, we may never get there. There are a couple of things in the coming weeks that I'm interested in. Of course my Valentine's-Day-loving self will be seeing Heart Eyes, and if you know me at all, you probably know how much I love Longlegs,  so The Monkey is obviously a priority. Still, though, it doesn't seem like much compared to last year.  But, given that I'm always in need of a spooky escape, I deci...

 I may be a little late to the party on this, but I recently watched I Saw The TV Glow. I am absolutely obsessed with the dreamcore aesthetic, liminal spaces, and lost episode creepypastas. This movie honestly sounded like the perfect thing for me to watch.  However, despite its glowing (no pun intended) reviews within the community, I personally did not find I Saw The TV Glow to necessarily be a  horror movie. It had some creepy imagery, and the atmosphere was a bit unsettling, but overall I found it to be more of a...psychological thriller, I guess? Maybe even coming-of-age drama?  It was not at all what I was expecting and I'm unsure how it's been billed exclusively as horror all this time, especially given how much the horror community likes to cry "That's not scary!"  However, just because I did not personally think it fit into the horror genre, I still found I Saw The TV Glow to be an interesting movie with some pretty incredible symbolism and messages, wh...