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This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: The Shining

Directed By: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

We Watched On: Netflix

Trunktober Approved Because: The Stephen King novel that the film is based on remains one of the scariest pieces of written word we’ve ever read, but this cinematic classic, which was released in 1980, still holds up as well. Many of the iconic horror films we grew up terrified of as kids give us more of a chuckle than a scare at this stage in our lives, but this frightening film holds true to its purpose… to make us all want to stay out of room 237!

Biggest Scare: “The Shining” has plenty of traditional, jump-out-of-your-chair scares, but the aspect of the film that Kubrick did so well was to create a believable sense of isolation, one that makes Jack Torrance’s emotional decay all the more terrifying, even when you know it’s coming.

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: Cargo

Directed By: Ben Howling/Yolanda Ramke

Starring: Martin Freeman, Simone Landers, Anthony Hayes, Susie Porter, Caren Pistorius

We Watched On: Netflix

Trunktober Approved Because: We were leery of this film at first. We didn’t want to dig it, even though we love Martin Freeman in almost everything he’s in. Like bread left in the toaster too long, we are thoroughly burnt… when it comes to anything zombie-related. But then something incredible happened. Howling and Ramke make a zombie movie that isn’t about zombies. Sure, they’re there, heads in the sand, but really this is a film about family, desperation, and the most nerve-racking ticking clock we’ve experienced for some time.

Biggest Scare: For parents, especially those with little ones, the biggest scare is the premise itself because it makes you wonder what you would do if placed in the same exact situation. If you were in a zombie apocalypse, and you had been bitten, how far would you go to make sure your child was safe before you turned into the living dead and tried to eat them? Seriously, it’s scarring!

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: The Witch

Directed By: Robert Eggers

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw

We Watched On: Netflix

Trunktober Approved Because: Filled with visuals that are both beautiful and disturbing, this period piece tells the tale of a family from the 1600s, ousted from their settlement and forced to make due on their own in the New England wilderness. If the elements they’re facing weren’t bad enough, there’s also something lurking in those woods, and as these things tend to do in horror movies, it has set its sights on the settlers.

Biggest Scare: There’s a lot to make you squirm, but Black Phillip’s voice… delivering commands off-camera… it’s enough to make you swear off petting zoos forever. GOAT GO IN THERE!

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: Community

Episode: “Epidemiology”

Directed By: Anthony Hemingway

Starring: Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Yvette Nicole Brown, Danny Pudi, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash

We Watched On: Hulu

Trunktober Approved Because: One of the best ensemble casts in television history, “Community” started off as a much different show than how it ended. Originally more of a “traditional” sitcom, the writers began to hit their irreverent stride by Season 2, which is where this Halloween-themed episode first appeared. The premise: tainted food at the community college leads to a zombie-like outbreak, complete with all of the genre cliches that we horror fans are all-too familiar with.

Biggest Scare Laugh: A giant flesh-eating banana. Can you peel that!

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: The Monster Squad

Directed By: Fred Dekker

Starring: Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert, Stephen Macht, Duncan Regehr, Tom Noonan, Ashley Bank

We Watched On: Hulu

Trunktober Approved Because: In our neighborhood, you were either a “The Goonies” fan or a “The Monster Squad” fan. You couldn’t be both. (Technically you could, but that would ruin the point we’re trying to make!) Obviously, “The Goonies” is a classic, but for us horror-loving, Universal monster-adoring weirdos who spent the better part of our summer vacations searching local lakes for Loch Ness-like serpents, this coming-of-age story with a creature feature twist was everything we ever wanted and more. Thank goodness that we had HBO and it played in regular rotation for nearly all of our adolescence!

Biggest Scare: Not so much a scare as it is a scar. (Emotional scar!) There’s all this talk in the film about wolfman nards, but in the end, it’s Dracula’s “dork” that is revealed in half man/half bat form. Blink and you’ll miss it. Seriously… blink!

Bonus: Check out our interview with Ryan Lambert, aka Rudy, here!

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: In The Mouth of Madness

Directed By: John Carpenter

Starring: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jurgen Prochnow, John Glover

We Watched On: Amazon Prime (Rented for $2.99)

Trunktober Approved Because: “Do you read Sutter Cane?” It’s a simple question that requires a simple answer, but when you peel back the layers of said simple question, what you find at the core is not very simple at all. Simple enough, right? Yeah, it’s that kind of psychological somersault that is at the core of “In The Mouth of Madness,” a film filled with freaky imagery that takes a look at sanity, what it means within society, and the loss of it. As a whole, it’s a film that deserves more attention.

Biggest Scare: A dark road. A kid on a bike. A freaky old man on a bike. Yup, it still haunts us to this day nearly 25 years later!

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: It Comes At Night

Directed By: Trey Edward Shults

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough, Kelvin Harrison Jr.

We Watched On: Amazon Prime

Trunktober Approved Because: “It” never actually came at night, at least not the it we were expecting. Named more like a monster movie than the slow burn, tension-filled Ambrose Bierce-like horror we discovered the film to be, as it turns out, much like in life, the real monsters are those lurking inside all of us. Dun dun DUNNNNN!

Biggest Scare: What “It Comes At Night” does so well is build a growing sense of dread, which tickles at the back of your neck for the duration of the film and makes you increasingly uneasy. Imagine if the ever-present awkwardness of Michael Scott from “The Office” made you terrified instead of uncomfortable. That’s the vibe you experience when delving into the world that Shults creates.

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: The Worst Witch

Directed By: Robert Young

Starring: Diana Rigg, Charlotte Rae, Tim Curry, Fairuza Balk

We Watched On: VHS (Yes, we’re old school!) That said, you can also find it on YouTube.

Trunktober Approved Because: Anyone who was born after 1990 has probably never seen this, witch (pun) is understandable, but for those of us who spent the ‘80s, the era of MTV and Saturday morning cartoons, trick-or-treating in highly flammable store-bought costumes, this is a nostalgic gem worthy of your attention. No, it’s not scary, but if you were a kid when it was released on HBO in 1986, it sums up Halloween for you in more ways than one. (Also important to note, this was based on a series of popular books dating back to 1974, and for kids of today, a new television series premiered last year, which is available now on Netflix.)

Biggest Scare: Okay, it’s not a scare, but Tim Curry’s amazing arrival as The Grand Wizard, which immediately kicks into the best Halloween song of all time – “Anything Can Happen On Halloween” – is a green screen marvel that screams cable access gold! This is how we officially kick of the month of October every year, singing along to wondrous lines like, “There may be a toad in your bass guitar or your sister could turn into a bat.” YES!

This October we’re focused on one thing and one thing only… watching as much horror-related programming as possible to prime the pop culture pump in celebration of Halloween. Our consuming will be taking place nightly, and while there’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re going about choosing our scary screenings, we’ll do our best to tell you how we did it so that you can watch them as well.

Title: The Babadook

Directed By: Jennifer Kent

Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman

We Watched On: Netflix

Trunktober Approved Because: Will Smith once sang, “Parents just don’t understand…” At the time, that may have been true, but now that the freshest of all Princes is himself a parent, he may understand all too well… at least in terms of that which makes “The Babadook” a terrifying concept. Parents have bad days, but what if those bad days had nothing to do with us? What if they had everything to do with a sinister storybook creature lurking in the shadows of your home?

Biggest Scare: The biggest scares exist off-screen. The thing that makes the monster so menacing is that you only see just enough of it to send your imagination off in directions you never wanted it going in the first place. Masterful and budget-friendly!

Title: Death Race: Beyond Anarchy

Rated: R

Genre: Action

Release Date: October 2, 2018

Run Time: 1 hour 51 minutes

Directed By: Don Michael Paul

Starring: Zach McGowan, Frederick Koehler, Christine Marzano, Danny Glover, Danny Trejo

Reason We’re Watching It: If you’re feeling the need for speed, action-packed fight scenes and a plethora of explosions, then “Death Race: Beyond Anarchy” is a cinematic highway leading you straight to it! The cast is another great reason to tune in. Zach McGowan is quickly climbing the ranks in Hollywood with his hard-hitting performances, and just so we’re clear, we’ll watch anything that has Danny Trejo or Danny Glover in it. How could we not?

What It’s All About: After an attempt at taking down the inmate known as Frankenstein goes awry, black ops badass Connor (McGowan) enters the prison to join the illegal Death Race and take on Frankenstein himself.

Whoah! Rewind That!: This is not the type of movie where you can only pick just one action-packed moment to play again and again, because frankly, there are a lot of them. Though there were less actual car-based scenes in this installment, the hand-to-hand combat was very well-choreographed and worth a second look.

Watercooler-Worthy Tidbit: Lists (Frederick Koehler) is the only character to appear in all of the “Death Race” movies. He seems to know how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

And that’s why we’re giving it…