Halloween 2022 recommendations: The Cabinet of Curiosities, Halloween Ends, Barbarian, Pearl

Halloween 2022 recommendations 

that is if you haven't been trampled in (South ) Korea or you don't party with Elon Musk and the probably reptilian clique at Bran (Dracula's) Castle...

on netflix:

Guillermo Del Toro's The Cabinet of Curiosities 

an anthology of 8 stories, 8 different directors. Nice premieres, streaming two episodes per day in three days from Oct 25 to Oct 28. The best for me were The Viewing- directed by Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy), featuring a great Paul Weller (a clin d'oeil to his father 1983 cult film Of Unknown Origin that starred Peter Weller!) , Autopsy-d:David Prior (The Empty Man, Voir)  with a fantastic F.Murray Abraham and Lot 36-d: Guillermo Navarro (great DOP and tv director), with a downbeat dark Tim Blake Nelson, based on a short story by GdT himself. 

Del Toro didn”t direct any of the eight, he presents every story in person in a Hitchcock or Rod Sterling manner, .also a la Tales from the Crypt. He did write 2 short stories of wich two episodes are based, the second one being The Murmuring (directed y Jennifer Kent-The Babadock). 2 episodes are based on stories by Del Toro and all horror lover's favorite, H.P. Lovecraft - Pickman's Model (d by Keith Thomas-The Vigil) and Dreams in the Witch House (director Catherine Hardwicke-Twilight).

 Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home at Night, The Bad Batch) The Outside episode is a body horror satire with a brave acting performance by Kate Micucci that loses but all wind in an hour when it could've been half . In opossition with Lot 36 which is the shortest of the whole bunch (45 min) except the Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice) episode, Graveyard Rats. The shortest film at 37 mins, it is a classic and morbid take on Edgar Allan Poe's tropes and can be seen also in Glorious Black and White version (for this version scroll down on Episodes on the screen to the Trailer and More section). All stories are set in the past to capture the spirit and style of the genre. 

Uneven as all anthologies are but tones better than the recent netflix fare The Midnight Club for ex. Season two is okțd for next year. 

in cinemas and PPW:

Halloween Ends -actually not so bad, Halloween mixed with Stephen King's Christine and other King themes. Music by John Caprenter, his son Cody and Daniel Davies.

It will not be the last if you're worried, in a few years they'll reboot it again. But it will be definetly the last with Jamie Lee Curtis. Anyhu, John Carpenter says he doesn't care...

on Disney ! (yes Disney, from Fox)

Barbarian 

written and directed by Zach Cregger, an effective thriller with creepy undertones works in three different acts and surprises you best if you know less about the plot (i had no clues whatsoever when bro cuz' kinosseur recommended it to me ;)

shades of Wes Craven (People under the Stairs) and some similarities with Don't Breathe (derelict Detroit neighbourhood)

and from wherever you can get it:

Pearl, the prequel to X by Ti West ( and Mia Goth 

Scorsese loved it, me to..and some more, some none---

it's the real Blonde film. Talk about bravura acting (even more so than in X where she did both roles of Maxine and Pearl, can't wait for the sequel now-Maxxxine). 

Wizard of Oz meets Psycho (someone wrote -like if Shelley Duvall was playing Norman Bates) with a bit of alligator fare from Tobe Hopper's Eaten Alive (aka Death Trap)

technicolor Reds and some great oneshots plus the last shot you won't forget...