My latest weekend marathon featured two Halloween-themed horror flicks, a killer bunny flick good for an Easter horror marathon, and a mainstream gay horror flick that premiered on HBO MAX, making for a bunch of new titles for the holiday horror page and one for the homo horror movies page.
KILLER WITCHES FROM OUTER SPACE (2024)
This is good gateway horror that can be watched with kids, with a home-brewed, small town indie vibe and special effects that range from cool creature designs to classic, cheesy 80s visuals.
The plot plays it straight and simple—”alien witches” send their big spiders down like meteors to wreak havoc before joining in on the Halloween party themselves.
The spiders are a blast and mostly steal the show, but the alien witches are virtually replicas of Pumpkinhead, which means they’re awesome…and also in an actual Halloween-themed movie, unlike Pumpkinhead. Sorry, but it always irked me that his movies didn’t take place on Halloween considering the word pumpkin was in his damn name.
Naturally, some teenagers are the first to realize there’s been an invasion (very 1980s), and soon a pastor, a priest, police, and redneck farmers are joining in to put an end to the enemy.
It all leads to a Halloween dance at the high school, where a campy battle with the baddies takes place and the cast is at their funniest. The alien witches even shoot webs from their wrists like Spider-Man. This is definitely a flick that 80s kids will appreciate.
Keep an eye out for a mid-credits scene and an after credits scene.
FULL MOON FEVER (2023)
David Lee Madison writes, directs, and stars in a little indie werewolf movie that perfectly captures the spirit of the fall season, because it clearly was filmed in autumn.
We get a pretty good opening attack scene as a couple sits in their car at night watching the stars. If only we’d gotten more attack scenes like this.
Instead, the film focuses on the main man, who recently lost his wife to COVID. As a distraction, he begins decorating for Halloween a month early (my kind of man) and makes plans with his daughter for her to return from college to celebrate with him.
And then he gets bit by a werewolf while on a walk at night.
Rather than this being about the werewolf terrorizing the town, it’s about the man dealing with his grief while he’s starting to change, which involves “spooky” nightmares and bizarre delusions. It’s a very slow, moody, and minimalistic movie that only runs 73 minute long.
It’s not until 65 minutes in that the main man transforms into somewhat of an old school Wolf Man. He then attacks only a couple of people before chasing his daughter to a very anti-climactic and abrupt ending. I wish we’d gotten a bit more of the old school Wolf Man action, because as it stands, the Halloween vibe is definitely the star of this one.
THE BUNNY MAN (2021)
As usual, this isn’t an official Easter horror movie, but since there are so few of them, what better time to watch slashers about killers in bunny costumes? Not to mention, why even don a bunny costume if you’re not going to hack people up for Easter?
This also has no connection to the Bunnyman trilogy. It’s a 71-minute long indie written and directed by the star Bobby McGruther. The plot is straightforward. 20 years ago, he was the cop who took down a serial killer called The Bunny Man, but he was unable to save the final victim, which still haunts him. Oh…and now a copycat killer is on the loose.
With a very low budget, hometown production feel, the film is dark and gritty with a shadowy VHS horror look, and the sustained music score captures that 80s style, plus there is a constant stream of kill scenes. While not exactly suspenseful, scary, or gory, they definitely give the film a certain retro vibe.
There’s some character exploration, but it really isn’t all that deep and doesn’t provide much entertainment. At least it didn’t for me. I was just in it for the killer bunny.
THE PARENTING (2025)
This is how you do a gay horror comedy. Sure, it has more straight characters than gay characters, but the whole premise is that a gay couple rents a house for the weekend so their parents can meet for the first time, and the campy humor is off the charts.
It begins with the gay couple on their way to the house, and their loving relationship is adorable, playful, and comes complete with a kiss right away, so there’s no shying away from expressions of gay intimacy. One of them is cutie Brandon Flynn, who also played gay in Hellraiser 2022.
The parents arrive, and the mothers are played by Edie Falco and Lisa Kudrow. Edie is a natural at comedy, and Lisa always brings her usual funny self to the mix, which I can never get enough of. The dads are also familiar faces, and it felt really cool to see mainstream actors in a gay horror comedy with some edge to it.
We even get Parker Posey doing what she does best as the weird manager of the property.
Pretty soon, the family is experiencing creepy shit, and it escalates quickly, after which it is nonstop insanity. One of the dads gets possessed and hurls raunchy, derogatory comments at the gays, the humor gets crass and gross, there are various rotting corpse ghosts roaming the halls, and there are some doggies in the house that meet brutal endings.
I can say as a dog lover who hates when dogs die in movies that I found the doggy deaths to be over-the-top funny and not cruel or disturbing in the way they are presented.
It’s purely mindless entertainment with a very Evil Dead 2 meets House vibe, and I really hope it gets a physical media release at some point so I can add it to my collection.
