08/28/2026
Happy end of summer! Here are some of our latest Fun Fun Faves to get you through the summertime sadness and appropriately excited for All Hallows' Eve:
"The Red King" — Missing "Widow's Bay?" Scratch that weird-island-mystery itch with suspicious locals and sinister secrets. Lower-budget and less comedic, but it beat Widow's to the "picturesque island where everyone is hiding something" thing.
"Cape Fear" — With a stellar cast, a cinematic look, and a storyline that involves eating one's own toe, subtlety is not really on the menu for Cape Fear 2026. In our house, we have an Unhinge Index (UI) for this one, and it never fails to deliver. But Amy Adams and Javier Bardem add prestige to everything they touch, even when the prestige is behaving very, very badly.
"Burn, Witch, Burn!" (1962) — Stealth feminist horror from the '60's about an academic who dismisses witchcraft as superstition, only to discover his wife has secretly been using protective magic on his behalf. Whoops.
"Alison's Birthday" (1981) — Cult meets folk horror in this mostly forgotten Australian flick about a young woman whose family has horrific plans for her 19th birthday. Largely unseen since the VHS era, this one is ready for rediscovery.
"Leviticus" — While "Obsession" and "Backrooms" dominated the horror conversation, this "It Follows"-style curse film slipped through the cracks. Excellent performances underscore the real horror: religious trauma and LGBTQ+ persecution.
"Viy" (1967) — Often cited as the first Soviet horror film, this wonderfully strange folk-horror gem delivers wildly original creatures and practical effects that remain delightfully bonkers nearly 60 years later.
Michael McDowell's "Gilded Needles" — My McDowell journey comes to an end! Outdated cultural references aside, it's a deliciously nasty revenge tale full of grotesque characters, pitch-black humor and class warfare.
"Monkey's Magic Merry Go Round" — Liminal weirdness meets Adult Swim as an amnesiac children's TV host tries to recover his memory while his puppet co-stars turn against him. Buddy may overshadow it, but this gruesome little oddity deserves an audience, too.
