Halloween is rapidly approaching, which means many cinephiles & genre nerds out there are currently planning to cram in as many scary movies as we can over the next month. In that spirit, here’s a horror movie recommendation for every day in October from the Swampflix crew. Each title was positively reviewed on the blog or podcast in the past year and is currently available on streaming. Hopefully this helps anyone looking to add some titles to their annual horror binge. Happy hauntings!

Oct 1: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

“I’ve been toying around with creating a bit of an ’80s kid horror syllabus’ lately, which has involved a first-time watch or a rewatch of some of the mini-genre’s greatest hits: The Watcher in the Woods, Labyrinth, Return to Oz, Paperhouse, The Dark Crystal, and, regrettably, Transylvania 6-5000. I remember being somewhat less than impressed with Something Wicked upon first viewing, but this time around, I found myself utterly captivated by it.” Currently streaming on Disney+

Oct 2: Demon Pond (1979)

“A surprisingly romantic Japanese folk horror with a moody Moog score. Floats somewhere between The Wicker Man and Wizard of Oz for most of its runtime, then it’ll swerve into a special effects showcase sequence unlike anything you’ve seen anywhere else.” Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel

Oct 3: The Doll (1962)

“A Swedish attempt to class up Psycho for the arthouse crowd that accidentally invents Peter Strickland’s whole deal in the process.” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 4: Ramekin (2018)

“If Julio Torres and Quentin Dupieux were to collaborate on a project (with no budget), this would probably be the result. The ramekin, like the tire in Rubber, is a menacing figure despite being a faceless, inanimate object, but its ordinariness is exactly what makes it so strange.” Currently streaming for free (with a library card) on Hoopla and (with ads) Tubi

Oct 5: Flesh Eating Mothers (1988)

“Descriptions across different film-oriented websites vary, but all manage to touch on the major plot elements: across a small suburb, a series of women are all having affairs with the town horndog, eventually contracting sexually transmitted cannibalism, which the kids in the town must then try to cure. What that undersells is that this ‘cannibalism’ is sentient, self-aware zombism in all but name, and also that the ‘kids’ are, politely, not very convincing as high schoolers.” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 5: I Married a Vampire (1987)

“You’re not going to get a lot of butts in seats for a movie in which a woman marries a vampire without titling that film I Married a Vampire, but that reveal would be a little more fun if you were able to go into a screening without that knowledge. Of course, the fact that marriage to a bloodsucker is the inevitable outcome of this story is made clear from the outset, when young Viola picks up her parents from the airport in an unnamed city; they’ve arrived in town after learning secondhand from Viola’s sister that she’s gotten married and are insistent on meeting her new husband. Of course, before she brings mom and dad home, she’s got to give them the whole story of how she met her undead husband …” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 6: Habit (1995)

“Oh no, did I get so drunk last night that I had risky public sex with that mysterious hipster vampire chick? Again?!?” Currently streaming on Shudder and for free (with ads) Tubi

Oct 7: El Vampiro (1957)

“An early Mexican vampire movie that bridges the gap between classic Universal Monster & Hammer Horror aesthetics. Doesn’t do anything you haven’t seen before, but it’s got an excellent sense of Halloween decor. It’s the kind of movie where every surface is veiled behind a thick layer of cobwebs regardless of whether someone’s “living” in the space. It’s a pure pleasure for anyone who enjoys hanging out on foggy sound stages with flapping rubber bats (i.e., cool people, sexy people).” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Pluto TV

Oct 8: The Vourdalak (2023)

“I know people in the industry are already struggling enough, but I really do believe all movies should be required to replace at least one human actor with a puppet, the more prominent the character the better.” Currently streaming on Shudder, for free (with a library card) on Kanopy & Hoopla, and (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 9: Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

“If the play and film Gaslight had never been produced, the psychological term that we take from it would instead be called ‘Sweet Charlotting’ or ‘Hush Hushing.'” Currently streaming for free (with a library card) on Hoopla

Oct 10: Relic (2020)

“Dementia is represented as a haunted house, although the early stages of the haunting present very similarly to demonic possession, which also gives this 2020 picture the feeling of being a more sensitive, more expensively shot Taking of Deborah Logan. It excises Deborah Logan’s found footage elements and is instead shot more traditionally, which makes for a more sumptuous viewing experience and, one might argue, a better movie.” Currently streaming on Shudder and for free (with a library card) on Kanopy

Oct 11: Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

“Horror nerds have already thoroughly mined every last golden nugget of vintage Italo horror schlock, so all that’s left to pick through is their Spanish equivalents. For your giallo fix, you can look to The Corruption of Chris Miller, and for your next late-night zombi flick you can look here.” Currently streaming on Shudder

Oct 12: Maniac Cop (1988)

“Whereas Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive asks, ‘What if there was a baby who was an ugly, homicidal maniac?’, his script for Maniac Cop asks, ‘What if there was a cop who was an ugly, homicidal maniac?’ It’s a surprisingly effective venture since, as you know, all cops are ugly, homicidal maniacs, which makes its source of fear lastingly relatable.” Currently streaming on Shudder, on Amazon Prime, for free (with a library card) on Kanopy, and (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 13: Species (1995)

“Decent enough for a mid-budget/mid-90s creature feature, but much more fun as a novelty mutation of the era’s erotic thriller craze. The only bummer is that we didn’t get even more movies based on Giger designs, so that this would feel less like an Alien knockoff and more like a routine entry in a wet-nightmare Gigersploitation subgenre.” Currently streaming on MGM+, for free (with a library card) on Kanopy & Hoopla, and (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 14: The Host (2006)

“In 2006, this was undoubtedly seen a bold new monster movie, but it lacks the timelessness of some of Bong’s other works; or perhaps what I mean to say is that if you already know Bong as an auteur after seeing some of his other films, this one may be a letdown, but if you approach it as a straight monster movie, you’re more likely to be satisfied.” Currently streaming on Amazon Prime and for free (with a library card) on Kanopy & Hoopla

Oct 15: Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

“Ishirō Honda exits the Godzilla series on a serious note, keeping all of the space alien invaders and remote-controlled kaiju that had crept into routine formula over the years but deciding to play them straight instead of goofy. He even makes the recycling of previous films’ footage feel elegant, playing it back in a 4-way splitscreen layout. His sincerity makes for some surprisingly compelling drama, to the point where you forget he also directed a couple of Godzilla’s silliest, flimsiest outings (namely King Kong vs Godzilla and All Monsters Attack).” Currently streaming on The Criterion Channel, on HBO Max, and for free (with ads) on The Roku Channel

Oct 16: Gorgo (1961)

“The poster promises monster mayhem “LIKE NOTHING YOU’VE EVER SEEN BEFORE”, then the monster looks exactly like Godzilla (now with ears) and the opening credits shamelessly borrow the King Kong font. Really makes you think.” Currently streaming on Shudder, for free (with a library card) on Hoopla, and (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 17: Demonwarp (1988)

“A bugnuts alien invasion movie hiding in plain sight as a mediocre sasquatch movie.” Currently streaming on Amazon Prime and for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 18: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988)

“Angela skips several rites of passage in the slasher villain evolutionary chain and goes straight into ‘Ain’t I a stinker?’ goofball mode.” Currently streaming on Amazon Prime and for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 19: Death Metal Zombies (1995)

“An SOV backyard metalsploitation relic that’s way more interested in quirky character comedy than it is in staging the expected gore gags. Wall to wall metal tunes playing over the goofiest line readings this side of Motern Media. In a word, adorable. Evangelical Christians who believe metalheads are devil worshipping, child murdering psychopaths should be forced to watch this so they can see the truth: they’re just dorks in black t-shirts.” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 20: Nekromantik (1988)

“A German geek show about a perverted couple who use a human corpse as a marital aid in bed. I don’t say this lightly, but the most shocking thing about it is how tender & sensual the ‘threesome’ sex is in practice, despite it also being, you know, unforgivably vile.” Currently streaming on Shudder

Oct 21: Phantom of the Opera (1925)

“Okay wow this really is a macabre masterpiece, to the point where no Best of All Time horror list is complete without it. It’s not just on those out of duty & obligation & kudos for Chaney’s makeup.” Currently streaming on Shudder, for free (with a library card) on Kanopy, and (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 22: The Mummy (1932)

“A harrowing reminder to never pilfer cultural artifacts for museum exhibits, never dismiss ancient curses as ‘mumbo jumbo’, and never forget to wear your sunscreen.” Currently streaming on Peacock

Oct 23: The Mummy (1999)

“A lot of the CGI here will look dated to the modern eye, even to those of us who remember this as being an extravaganza of realist effects. A lot of it still works because its uncanniness can be excused as a matter of course for a horror flick, but the CGI Thebes stands out as particularly video game-esque. The rewatch of this was prompted by the recent release of Lee Cronin’s Mummy, but the timing happened to align with Passover having recently happened, and I realized I had always thought of this as a kind of Passover movie, a secular alternative to The Ten Commandments that also happened to contain the plagues. (Toads and frogs are one of the ones that are left out, presumably because every amphibian wrangler in Hollywood was working on Magnolia at the time.)” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 24: 13 Ghosts (1960)

“Plays like William Castle’s backdoor pilot for a Munsters/Addams-style spooky TV sitcom.” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 25: The Invisible Man (1933)

“Sure, The Invisible Man is an unrepentant mass murderer, but he also mostly uses his invisibility powers to slap around and humiliate cops, so I don’t have it in my heart to condemn him. This quite possibly the greatest mad scientist film of all time, and if it’s not that’s only because James Whale already bested himself with Frankenstein.” Currently streaming on Peacock

Oct 26: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

“Gorgeous picture. I wonder if James Cameron struggles with the knowledge that underwater 3D filmmaking was already perfected months (months!) before he was born.” Currently streaming on Peacock

Oct 27: Forbidden Planet (1957)

“Flying saucers, laser battles, psychic monsters, synthesizers, a cute robot, a mini-skirted alien babe, mid-century modern decor: the Platonic ideal of Atomic Age sci-fi.” Currently streaming for free (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 28: The Toxic Avenger II (1989)

“Much more wholesome than the Toxic Avenger’s first outing. It’s mostly a Troma travelogue, with Toxie reporting on his Tokyo vacation with the same childlike cadence as Big Bird traveling on assignment.” Currently streaming on Shudder, on Amazon Prime, for free (with a library card) on Kanopy, and (with ads) on Tubi

Oct 29: Brain Damage (1988)

“Incredibly funny to discover the monster sounds like That after so many years of only seeing him in still images. It’s the kind of vocal performance you’d expect in a Rankin Bass cartoon and not the sleaziest horror comedy to ever disgrace the streets of NYC.” Currently streaming for free (with a library card) on Kanopy

Oct 30: Evil Dead II (1987)

“Only a fool would wait decades for a Hollywood studio to remake their calling card indie film with bigger, slicker production values. Best to scrape the money together to do it yourself before anyone else gets to it.” Currently streaming on HBO Max and for free (with a library card) on Kanopy

Oct 31: Orgy of the Dead (1965)

“I found this punishingly boring as a college-era VHS rental, outside a few Criswell line readings that we would quote from time to time. Now that I’m 40, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than watching an endless nudie cutie striptease on an ooky-spooky graveyard set. Glad to know I’ve matured over the years.” Currently streaming on Mubi

-The Swampflix Crew