Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 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...

 I haven't done much blogging this October, as I've been more focused on the annual photo challenge I do over on  Instagram . However, I've recently fallen in love with a new Halloween movie, and felt the need to talk about it.  A week ago, a movie called Carved appeared on Hulu, and I had to watch it ASAP, as I'm always looking for new Halloween-themed media, and this one was actually centered around a pumpkin! It's interesting to me, in a way, that the "pumpkin's revenge" storyline seems like a bit of a gimme, yet it really hasn't been done very often. The only other instance that immediately comes to mind for me is the final segment in Tales Of Halloween. Carved  is, to my knowledge, the first movie to do "pumpkin's revenge" as a full length storyline. And quite frankly, how could a movie about a pumpkin getting revenge on those who have wronged it not become an instant comfort film for me? Carved doesn't necessarily do anythin...

 I was recently given the opportunity to check out a new, independent Halloween short film called Pumpkin Guts: Devil’s Night.  (Picture from IMDb) I first became aware of this film through the  Instagram page , and to say I absolutely knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’d love it, would be an understatement. I can always tell when a piece of media is truly going to radiate Halloween, in the way that will transport me through whatever month we’re currently in (in this case, probably the most disgusting July on record) and into Halloween night itself. When I was offered early access to this short film, I could not have been more honored. Even though I’ve built up somewhat of a following within the Halloween community, it still amazes me every day that people finally truly see and feel what I’m trying to create; that my love of Halloween finally means something and brings some joy and comfort to others like myself, and that anyone, especially a filmmaker, would trust me ...

To continue the recent theme of possession movies, today I'd like to talk about a movie in the same sub genre that far exceeded my expectations:   Late Night With The Devil. I didn't know a whole lot about this movie going into it. All I really need to know about a movie to want to watch it is that it's Halloween-themed. That's literally all it takes. Throw in a vintage vibe and I'm all in. Late Night With The Devil is presented in the style of a lost broadcast of a popular 70s late-night talk show known as Night Owls, hosted by a man named Jack Delroy. The beginning of the movie gives us a little rundown of Jack's career, his constant rivalry with Johnny Carson, his controversial involvement in a "gentlemen's club" known as The Grove, with questionable intentions, and eventually the tragic death of his wife, an actress named Madeleine Piper. Jack's career takes a hit while he grieves for Madeleine, but he decides that Halloween night, 1977, wi...