OFFICE KILLER (1997) - Vinegar Syndrome

Office Killer

Vinegar Syndrome

Original Release Date Dec. 3rd, 1997

Written by Elise MacAdam & Tom Kalin, Cindy Sherman & Elise MacAdam (story), Todd Haynes (additional dialogue)

Directed by Cindy Sherman

Starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Carol Kane, Molly Ringwald, Barbara Sukowa, Michael Imperioli

Language English

Purchase your copy HERE from Vinegar Syndrome

by "Doc" Hunter Bush

MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Overview:

Office Killer comes to Blu-ray and 4K from Vinegar Syndrome. The directorial debut of photography artist Cindy Sherman, it remains her only feature film offering to date. Vinegar Syndrome's release of Office Killer features an excellent video transfer and audio package with a robust selection of bonus features.

The Movie Itself: 4.5 stars

I've wanted to watch Office Killer for literally years. Since I heard the excellent horror podcast Werewolf Ambulance discuss it way back on their 30th episode (they are currently approaching episode 580, so: it's been a minute) and honestly, it had been so long that I couldn't even remember what about it sounded good to me. The instant I threw this disc in, I knew I was in for a good time.

Office Killer, as someone says in the bonus features, is more of a black comedy than a horror comedy, despite its horror elements. Touching on topics like office politics, sexual harassment and sexism in a professional setting, and automation taking jobs within, in this case, the magazine industry, Office Killer has the focus of an indie film, despite all the murdering that occurs.

Layoffs are happening within Constant Consumer magazine. Norah (Jeanne Tripplehorn) has been put in charge of them, making her feel like a rat as well as public enemy number one. While Dorine (Carol Kane) keeps her job, she's informed that it will be changing and she'll have to learn the confusing new computer system. One night, after hours, Dorine witnesses the accidental death of handsy floor manager Gary (David Thornton), which she covers up by secreting the body away and sending some emails from his terminal. This accidental death sets in motion a chain reaction that leads to more deaths, on purpose this time, and to Dorine finally making the changes in her life that she's long wanted to. Good for her, I guess?

There aren't really laugh-out-loud moments in Office Killer, but there are shocked chuckles to spare as Dorine  incrementally comes out of her shell, becoming bolder and let's face it, crazier. As Norah and eventually her boyfriend Daniel (Michael Imperioli) get closer to the truth, and both tensions and the bodycount rise, we're also shown more and more of Dorine's past, giving insight into why she is the way she is. The tone of Office Killer is tough to pin down, but if you can get on its level it's a really entertaining ride. 

The Packaging: 3.5 stars

Office Killer comes in a sturdy, black 4K case with two discs inside; one for the Blu-ray, one for the 4K. The cover is reversible with one side being black and red renderings of what I can only presume are employee photos of Dorine and Norah. The other side is the blood-spattered image of a hand holding a butcher's knife in front of a flat gray background, with the image distorted as though seen on an old-school tube television or office security monitor.

I'll be honest with you, neither of these images really blow me away or, I feel, capture the visual aesthetic of the film. Director Cindy Sherman is a photographer known for creative applications of different visual tropes and her direction here utilizes a photographer's eye for making the mundane seem interesting. On a more surface level, it's a film that is primarily set in an office that's mostly green and cream in color and lit by fluorescent lights; the red and black, or red and gray colors schemes aren't really exemplary of that.

The Video: 4 stars

I think this Vinegar Syndrome release looks incredible. I can only guess what Office Killer looked like before restoration; I own many DVDs of black comedies and the like, from the end of the '90s, many of which have yet to make their way to Blu-ray and beyond, so it's easy for me to visualize. Whatever restoration work Vinegar Syndrome did, the final product is tremendous. The colors are deep without reaching over-saturation, the lighting means minimal deep shadows, which lends locations a heightened, stagey quality that makes sense when you take Cindy Sherman's photography background into consideration.

In the High Art / Low Budget featurette, cinematographer Russel Lee Fine talks about catering his work to specifically echo some of Sherman's photos, which not only makes so much sense, but also leads to a tremendously strong final product from a visual perspective. Also, just because I love them so much, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Office Killer has one of the best, most arresting opening credits sequences I've seen in a l-o-n-g time.

With film grain that's present, but never dominating the frame, Vinegar Syndrome's release of Office Killer looks like something shot recently that's trying to ape the aesthetics of the late '90s. This is a compliment by the way. I'm obsessed with this era, especially the advertising and while Office Killer isn't exactly the same thing, having a photographer's aesthetics definitely puts it into that arena.

The Audio: 3.5 stars

The more discs I review, the more I think that the less you notice the audio or video, the better. I don't mean that you shouldn't be moved by visuals or sounds in a movie, I just mean that when it's all working, you're often not thinking about it. That's where I'm at with Office Killer; I took numerous notes about the visuals (which makes sense as it's director is a visual artist) and almost no notes about the audio. But that's, overall, a good thing.

I utilize a three-channel soundbar, and never had to adjust from scene to scene no matter what was happening. When we're in the offices during regular business hours, there's an appropriate amount of background noise that makes it feel like a functioning workplace: phones, footsteps, photocopier noises, cross-cubicle conversation, etc. I'm trying right now to recall any music that jumped out at me and the only thing I can muster up is whatever piece of the score plays over the disc menu. It's such a perfectly-of-its-era composition that it feels like I should be intimately familiar with it. Fun (to me) fact: composer Evan Lurie also scored Trees Lounge (1996), Steve Buscemi's feature directorial debut, which I haven't seen in a long time, but has a similar overall black humor tone in my recollection.

The Supplements: 4 stars

I was very pleased with the amount of bonus features and their content. My big sticking point for most discs is whether these featurettes provide context for someone who may not be super well-versed in whatever film's whole history. Sometimes, as I mentioned above, you're interested in a film because you've heard about it for so long and you finally want to see for yourself, but that doesn't mean you'll necessarily be a scholar about it.

Office Killer's featurettes answered all of my questions. I was not inherently familiar with Cindy Sherman by name, but after watching the interview with cinematographer Russel Lee Fine, I looked up her photos and realized I have actually seen a bunch of her work. The features also helped clear up the whole "Why hasn't Sherman directed another film?" question.

• Commentary with author / journalist / programmer Heidi Honeycutt
• Return to Office: interview with Cindy Sherman and Molly Ringwald (17:15) (HD)
• A Pure Creative Experience: interview with Jeanne Tripplehorn (22:16) (HD)
• High Art / Low Budget: interview with cinematographer Russel Lee Fine (17:01) (HD)
• Another Kind of Monster: interview with author Dahlia Schweitzer (13:27) (HD)
• Behind-the-Scenes footage: courtesy of Jeanne Tripplehorn (6:14) (SD)
• Still gallery

Final Thoughts: Highly Recommended 

Office Killer is a great time, if you're into horror-adjacent black comedy. The visuals are impeccable, and the performances are excellent. I didn't even find an opportunity to mention Molly Ringwald as Kim the chain-smoking office gossip; if you're used to seeing her in her '80s roles in films like Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) or Pretty in Pink (1986), it's refreshing to see her play someone so no-nonsense. She was also apparently integral to the production by donating a bunch of her personal clothing to be used as various characters' wardrobe, to help keep production costs down. What a buddy!

I will admit that Office Killer sort of throws me the closer it gets to the ending. I feel like there were grander ambitions that were hindered somewhat by both the budget and the relative inexperience of the director. Apparently Cindy Sherman had informally sworn off of ever working in film again, but has since softened on that position. I would love to see her take a second bite of the cinematic apple, because while Office Killer is imperfect, it's still Highly Recommended.

THE BLADE (1995) - Criterion

The Blade
Criterion

Original Release Date 
Written by Koan Hui, Hark Tsui
Directed by Hark Tsui
Starring Wenzhuo Zhao, Sonny Su, Xiong Xinxin, Moses Chan, Austin Wai
Language Cantonese (English subtitles available)

Purchase your copy HERE from Criterion or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Excellent

The Blade is a complex story involving Siu Ling (Sonny Su) the daughter of a legendary blacksmith, who dreams of a love triangle involving two of his apprentices, Iron Head (Moses Chan) and the orphaned Ding On (Wenzhuo Zhao) who was raised by her father. Ding On and Iron Head draw unwanted attention from a clan of troublemaking hunters at the same time as Ding On finds out details about the death of his bio-dad and the origins of the Broken Blade, the school's lucky charm, and sets off on a journey to find his father's killer. This quest will cost Ding On his arm, before ending in a massive, blood-soaked final confrontation that will put the blacksmithing school, called the Refined Blade, in jeopardy.

Director Hark Tsui is a filmmaker who plays in many genres and styles. In The Blade, he and co-writer Koan Hui approach the wuxia genre, and specifically the concept of jianghu, from the perspective of cinéma vérité. If you aren't inherently familiar with any of those terms, worry not: I am here to help. In brief, wuxia is the term for Chinese martial arts stories taking place in a semi-fictional version of ancient China, built primarily around chivalry. That chivalry is known as jianghu, and it informs the fantastical world around it, one of wandering masterless martial artists or clans of warriors capable of defying physics through sheer will power and endless training. Cinéma vérité on the other hand is a filmmaking approach akin to a documentary, which does away with traditional blocking and preparation.

With this in mind, the script for The Blade was written without specific dialogue, instead describing a character's feelings about the topic at hand, and allowing the actors to fill in the details and specifics through the interaction and make it their own. Allegedly, according to one of the special features, the script would also say things like "They fight.", then let the martial arts team work out the specifics. Obviously, they didn't show up on the day with no plan, but they were allowed to conceive of exactly how they would be performing.

Similarly, the camerawork is very loose. Much of the film is shot from a greater-than-usual remove, a wider scope allowing the director and the camera operators to pick out actions or moments happening in an attempt at a greater feeling of spontaneity. This leads to what could be called "imperfections" in the filmmaking; characters standing up out of frame, cameras forced to refocus mid-scene when something unexpected happens, shots occasionally drifting to random objects as, presumably, camera operators become distracted by all the chaos happening on-set. Interestingly, The Betrayal (1966), a more traditional and formal samurai film, builds to a climactic sword rampage that is also largely shot in long takes and from a distance. I imagine that was for different reasons, but the stylistic parallels are worth ruminating on.

That style also leads to some incredibly kinetic edits. Because there are no traditional master shots (the structural part of a scene designed to cover most of the action while allowing for specific additional shots to be edited in), the editing can feel jarring, especially in the action sequences, which are also filled with sudden crash zooms (both in and out) in an attempt to capture all the relevant moments. Interestingly, it approaches something like the high stylization of Sam Raimi's peak genre camerawork. This end result is maybe the antithesis of the pure ethos of cinéma vérité, but still creates a breathless quality. You feel like there's almost too much going on to notice all of it, because there is. Instead of a carefully choreographed martial arts opera (which Hark Tsui has also done), The Blade captures a chaos that most martial arts films, but especially of the wuxia variety, typically lack.

The Packaging: Good

This is your pretty typical Criterion release: slightly larger clear plastic case, with a double-sided cover. The front-facing illustration, by artist Oliver Barrett, is minimalist but full of detail: Ding On, mid-battle, clutching the Broken Blade in his hand, rendered in high contrast shadow and highlighted with kinetic red and black lines on a stark white background. The reverse is the character for 'blade' in red on a black background. A booklet, featuring an essay from screenwriter and author Lisa Morton, which provides a lot of context for where The Blade falls in Hark Tsui's career, sits opposite the two discs.

While I like the illustration and presentation, it led me to anticipate a much more formal film. The world between The Blade's title screen and closing credits is vibrant, messy, colorful, and saturated with emotion! But maybe this is a bonus, a bit of misdirection, whether intentional or unintentional, that allows the unique depiction of the world to sneak up on you.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

I was shocked to realize that The Blade is 30 years old. It wasn't until I saw the English language trailer (included in the bonus features) and I was hit with an incredibly vivid memory: being a kid, sitting on the rug in front of the TV on many Saturday afternoons in the '90s, watching martial arts movies from the '60s & '70s on public access. The Blade's trailer had all the same qualities: the too-crisp and too compressed dub, a little faded, but full of wonder, action, and justice. I was already a fan of Criterion's restoration of The Blade, but being able to contrast it with how the film looked before is a real revelation.

But don't be misled: almost by design, it's an imperfect film. The sort of catch-as-catch-can nature of the filming means there are sequences that are improperly focused. They aren't long, but they are present. In the context, the cinematic world Hark Tsui and his team have constructed, those imperfections make everything feel more alive, more real. If you'll allow me a joke, it's a bit like jazz: you have to appreciate the focus they're not pulling.

That, and other similar byproducts of this semi-vérité shooting style aside, The Blade is gorgeous to look at. The world is full of color, like the mercenaries led by Flying Dragon (Xiong Xinxin) who wear cloaks that appear to be almost black and orange tie-dye? I loved that detail and I fully intend to steal it for a detail in a future Dungeons and Dragons campaign. There are also incredible montages which utilize semi-abstract visuals and very pulpy editing techniques and end up with something akin to Evil Dead II (1987) meets House (1977).

The film's score, by Raymond Wong and William Yu, is pretty minimal for the most part. Pieces will frequently utilize very few instruments, focusing on a single melody or percussive rhythm to signify an emotional tone or impending danger. The most elaborate piece that I can think of plays during the flashback where Ding On learns about his origins. It has multiple movements and makes full use of the available instruments. It, or something like it, returns later when Ding On reveals that he has learned to fight with only one arm, appropriately conveying the triumph he feels in that moment. I utilize a three-channel soundbar and had very few issues with clarity or volume. There are some very deep, base-y drums at times that would briefly rattle my soundbar, but that's it.

Special Features: Good

This is a very solid bonus features package. There is an hour-long making-of featurette (Action Et Vérité) that's full of straight from the horses' mouths insight into the process, the vérité concept, and the highs and lows of the entire endeavor. It's genuinely fascinating, even if there are some repetitive moments. The featurette The Edges of Wuxia gives a much more insightful introduction to the concepts of wuxia and jianghu than I did above, and I recommend giving it a watch before putting on the film proper because the concept of jianghu is a running motivation within the narrative. It's not exactly top tier important, but you might be left scratching your head if you're a bit fuzzy on what exactly it is.

• Commentary track with Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng
• Action Et Vérité (58:46)
• The Edges of Wuxia (10:51)
• Tsui Hark (10:56)
• International-Version Titles (2:15)
• English-Dubbed Trailer (2:08)

In Summary: Must Own

If you're a fan of martial arts films at all, or perhaps are interested in rare use cases for a cinéma vérité approach, The Blade is most definitely worth a look. I really enjoy Hark Tsui's works overall. There are some I enjoy more than others of course, some that I can more easily see myself rewatching. The Blade is most definitely one of those. As a fan of wuxia martial arts films, who has watched them since those halcyon days on the rug in front of the TV, I am wildly enamored with this very different approach. It feels like a new insight into a familiar fable, because as much as I like the story of The Blade, it still follows a pretty standard formula and ticks a lot of the boxes you'd expect if you're a fan of the genre. But the energy conjured via the direction is a real shot in the arm.

GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS (2026) - Sony Pictures Classics

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
Sony Pictures Classics

Original Release Date July 10th, 2026
Written by David Wain, Ken Marino
Directed by David Wain
Starring Zoey Deutch, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, Ken Marino, John Slattery
Language English

Purchase yours HERE from Deep Discount

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass comes to Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Classics. Directed by comedy veteran David Wain, the film is in line with Wain's usual genre-savvy, silly, and anarchic output. Sony Pictures Classics' release of Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass looks and sounds good, but being a new release, lacks additional content.

The Movie Itself: 4 stars

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is a film with a very thin premise. Allegedly, this was part of what drew director David Wain and co-writer Ken Marino to working on it: it's cliché and it doesn't really go anywhere in a grounded universe. So Wain, Marino and their crew set out to create a universe where it could work. One that mostly represents our own, but not in any ways that would inhibit the fun that could be had.

We follow the titular Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch), a hairdresser who's about to be married. When her husband-to-be cashes in his titular sex pass, Gail decides to tag along with her coworker and bff Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) to Hollywood to find the name on her pass: Jon Hamm! They make friends, inadvertently make enemies, and meet several celebrities on their star-studded silly adventure, while they're off to see the Hamm-man.

I like David Wain. As a founding member of both The State and Stella, and co-creator of Wet Hot American Summer (2001), I've been enjoying the man's comedy for decades. Even in the films I'm not wild about, there are these moments of genuine, genre-deconstruction that are brilliant, and Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is chock-a-block with these moments. From an appearance by fellow The State / Stella alum Michael Ian Black as a minor character with a lot of important information, to Ken Marino as a noble paparazzi with a dream, to Jon Hamm's Mad Men co-star John Slattery as a fictionalized, pathetic version of himself, Wain and Marino know exactly how to twist familiar clichés into fun, new arrangements.

The film covers a lot of comedic ground: Vincent (Marino)'s tragic backstory is played largely straight, and relies on the absurd dignity of the character to carry the joke, while a later fight scene is full of over-the-top violence paired with clever acknowledgement of the genre's tropes: "Must have been 20 or 30 guys! It felt like the same couple guys over and over, but it wasn't!" There's even a segment where a gangster played by Jo Lo Truglio asks random people on the street if they've seen Gail and Otto, and it was clearly filmed in a guerrilla / Candid Camera style, as evidenced by one passerby recognizing him as Charles Boyle from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

As is the case with all modern comedy, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass probably won't tickle everybody's funny bone, but I think it's a rewarding watch. Wain & co. continually zag when you expect a zig, going for a subtler joke than the obvious one, or a more absurd punchline you couldn't foresee. Not that there aren't clichés or obvious gags, from the self-aware voice-over narration of small town postman played by Fred Melamed, to an encounter with an assault rifle-wielding 'Weird Al' Yankovic, to having a character deliberately repeat the film's ethos to make sure we're all on the same page. But as is the case with everything Wain has been attached too, they are just one spice in the dish. 

The Packaging: 3.5 stars

This isn't anything special, packaging-wise. It's your basic Blu-ray case with a representation of the Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass poster, which is, for some reason, aggressively orange, and features Gail in the center surrounded by many of the characters she encounters on her journey. I don't want to talk poorly of a film I enjoyed, but I feel okay since this isn't exclusively a Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass problem: Why are comedy posters so bad?

Seriously, think about it: what is the last good comedy poster you've seen? For some reason, they tend to just feature the characters on a solid color background that gives you almost no insight into the film. In the '90s, for whatever reason, the color was almost universally white but thankfully, I think, that has fallen by the wayside somewhat. The way I look at it is: if you don't want to hang advertising your film on one joke, or one location, why not take the classic pop music album cover route? Y'know, all the band members sitting in a bathtub like the Mamas and the Papas album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. Or whatever. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

The Video: 4 stars

As always with new releases, there isn't much to exactly marvel over. There is no restoration needed, etc., but I will say that for the most part Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass looks great. There are some janky visuals within the film itself, but I obviously don't think this specific release has anything to do with that. I'm talking about things like weird establishing shots with obvious elements like billboards added in post, or the occasional celebrity cameo obviously being green screened. If this were anything other than a comedy (or a Neil Breen movie), these things would obviously be larger issues, but everything being relative I think they're fine.

As a film, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass has a nice look to it, for the most part. A lot of the scenes in Gail's hometown and in Hollywood have a nice, bright look but there are occasional sequences that come across a little flat. This is another issue with comedies by and large: they lack a strong visual aesthetic to either build off of, or subvert. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass has the strongest visuals when dealing with their antagonists, a group of mobsters. Scenes set in boss Ludovica (Sabrina Impacciatore)'s restaurant play into the crime movie visuals with a stronger green or yellow tint, and then later, scenes in an abandoned western movie set have a real sun-baked look.

The Audio: 4 stars

The audio here, as with the visuals, is solid. I have a three-channel sound bar and noticed no balance issues. The only volume issue I encountered is that the studio logos and the included theatrical trailer are significantly louder than the movie itself, so I was busy bumping the volume up while Frank the Mailman (Melamed) was beginning his introduction to the world of Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.

The one thing most worth remarking on with regards to the film's score is that I kept realizing one bit of music or another was actually acting as meta-commentary. As in, it would be a bespoke song about exactly what was happening onscreen, but was presented in such a straight-faced and believable way that it took me a moment to realize it WASN'T a real song. If you've seen Arrested Development, and are familiar with its "Mr. F!" or "Coincidence!" musical stings, you'll have a good idea of what I'm talking about.

The Supplements: 1 star

There are basically no features to speak of here. As far as I can recall, this is the barest release I have so far covered. Aside from the Theatrical Trailer, it's a bit of a ghost town. So I guess I'll talk about the trailer: it's fine. It showcases a lot of the varied gags from the film, but is otherwise very, for lack of a better term, normal for a trailer. I know Hollywood doesn't really do bespoke trailers like this anymore, but do you remember the trailer for Toys (1992) with Robin Williams enigmatically standing in a field of tall grass?

I know I've spent a good chunk of this review referring back to other, unrelated things, but that's actually kind of appropriate for a film as Hollywood-referential as Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is. Regardless, I'd have loved to see a trailer with David Wain and Ken Marino standing at the Hollywood sign and talking about the magic of the movies as their pitch for the flick. I'm sure they'd have made it funny. They're good at that.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:07) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Recommended

I would definitely recommend Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass to most folks I know who dig comedy. It isn't challenging, but it does, as David Wain movies tend to do, come across as pretty dry in tone, despite all the weirdness, violence, and what have you. The first time I saw Wet Hot American Summer, I thought it was "Fine." and it wasn't until a subsequent rewatch that it really started to click for me.

Even in that case, Wet Hot is a pastiche of a specific handful of movie clichés, all arranged around a summer camp. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is a little wider in its scope, encompassing a whole range of stranger-in-a-strange-land, road trip, and fish-out-of-water stories, which might make the genre subversions a little harder to parse. Other than that though, I think it's a very funny flick and a real winner, but the lack of almost any additional materials really makes me hesitate to fully endorse it. Maybe wait for a future release with at least a commentary track?

FULL MOON HIGH (1981) - Eureka Entertainment

Full Moon High
Eureka Entertainment

Original Release Date Oct. 9th, 1981
Written by Larry Cohen
Directed by Larry Cohen
Starring Adam Arkin, Roz Kelly, Ed McMahon, Elizabeth Hartman, Alan Arkin
Language English (subtitles available)

Purchase yours HERE from Eureka, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Average

As a disclaimer: I received a check disc for this film, which is a review copy that doesn't have the final artwork or packaging. This may also mean some discrepancies between my copy and the finished version. This release is also Region B only, meaning this primarily applies to folks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand OR those of us with region free players.

The 1980s was the decade of the werewolf. Stephen King's Silver Bullet (1985), two Teen Wolf films, five Howling films, Wolfen (1981), My Mom's a Werewolf (1989), An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Company of Wolves (1984), and even Monster Squad (1987) where it was determined that Wolfman has indeed got nards, all premiered in the same decade, as did writer/director Larry Cohen's Full Moon High. A comedic reimagining of I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) which starred Michael Landon in the lead role (and also inspired a rad song from The Cramps), Full Moon High finds high school football star and heartthrob Tony (Adam Arkin) traveling to Romania as a cover for his CIA agent father (Ed McMahon)'s covert agenda.

He is, of course bitten and once he returns home the film plays out as expected for a while, with a werewolf menacing the town, biting peoples' butts, before jumping via montage from the '60s to the '80s. Having wandered the globe for twenty years, the immortal Tony returns home with the idea that if he re-enrolls in high school, rejoins the football team and helps lead them to victory, he will be cured of his werewolf curse. Needless to say, Full Moon High is not your typical werewolf film, which makes sense because Larry Cohen is not your typical filmmaker.

I've been a fan of Larry Cohen's since I first saw The Stuff (1985). In addition to that film's eldritch horror-meets-consumerism plot, there is a rich vein of zaniness running through it that I just found infectious, and over the years, I've watched and enjoyed a great number of his movies, across multiple genres. We even discussed the fantastic and crazy American kaiju movie Q: the Winged Serpent (1982) on an episode of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast last year (which you can listen to HERE)! So I was very excited to check this one out.

This is Larry Cohen's first (only?) pure comedy film, and his approach to jokes is in line with Zucker Bros. films like Airplane (1980). This kind of rapid-fire structure prioritizes joker-per-minute over logic, which means, even more than with comedies in general, you mileage may vary. The upside is that when a joke fails to land, you barely have time to register it before two more have taken its place in your short-term memory, but the downside is that things like character development take a backseat to whatever is funniest in the moment. This might work for background characters; this one is "the horny one", this one is "the kleptomaniac", or whatever, but it prevents your leads from developing dimensionality.

Maybe this doesn't matter to you. Maybe it does. Regardless, while there certainly are a lot of jokes in Full Moon High, they're not all going to work. There are definite high points though! The cast which, in addition to Arkin and McMahon, features Roz Kelly, an appearance from Pat Morita, and Bob Saget in his big screen debut, are all committed to their respective bits. There are some very smart genre parodies and meta jokes, like how Tony can always hear the violin playing on the soundtrack that signals the werewolf is coming, or the repeated newspaper headline gags. My personal highlight was Alan Arkin (Adam's real life dad) as Dr. Brand, who is introduced trying to shame a man into not jumping off of a building (it doesn't work) before being brought in to negotiate the surrender of now publicly known werewolf Tony (this doesn't really work either). Papa Arkin just has what used to be called "it" and is now more commonly referred to as "rizz". I could watch that guy in anything.

The Packaging: 

As I mentioned above, the copy I received did not have packaging, so I am leaving this section blank.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

I loved everything about this transfer. The colors are vibrant but not aggressive, the blacks are deep, but never overwhelm the balance of the composition. If the original theatrical trailer, which is included among the special features, is anything to go by, this didn't seem to demand as much of a visual overhaul as some films, but it sure is clearer and crisper looking. The trailer maintains a lot of the color and light/dark balance, but was extremely grainy. In this restoration there is certainly some film grain present, but not so you'd consciously notice. Even in lower light sequences, the images are very clean.

The mix is equally good. There are instances where dialogue was clearly recorded later (automatic dialogue replacement, or ADR) but none of it is egregious. The score, especially the violin running gag, is well mixed and balanced and there was never any point where I felt the need to adjust my three-channel sound bar's volume up or down after I'd set the level.

Special Features: Good

The extras here do a very respectable job of providing what I consider to be the paramount aspect of a bonus features section: context. The information provided gives me a good idea of where Full Moon High came in Cohen's career, what some of his social concerns were at the time, why he may have decided to make an unadulterated comedy, and what films were influences on it. The Growing Pains video essay by Kaja Franck contrasts certain aspects of Full Moon High with their counterpoints from I Was a Teenage Werewolf, but I would really have liked a more in-depth comparison.

Also, as a heads-up: I only checked out the commentary track with Larry Cohen (and Steve Mitchell, who directed and produced the 2017 documentary King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen) so I don't know if this was an issue with both commentaries or not, but the volume level of their conversation is much lower than the audio of the film, so when there is occasionally dead air, or breaks were taken, and the film's volume takes over, it's VERY loud. I don't consider this to be an issue with the film's audio overall, as it won't affect a regular degular viewing of the flick, but I felt it should be mentioned.

• Audio commentary with director Larry Cohen
• Audio commentary with Steve Mitchell
• Today's Teenage Werewolf: interview with Michael Doyle (25:00)
• Growing Pains: video essay by Kaja Franck (18:15)
• Original theatrical trailer (1:40)

In Summary: Buy it on sale

I'm a die hard Larry Cohen fan and everything, but that doesn't mean I think everything he's ever done is great. This, for me, is mid at best. Some jokes work, some don't, but they are given prominence over Cohen's usual flair for character work meaning the film comes off as a little unfocused. Still, as far as films that are heavily inspired by I Was a Teenage Werewolf go, I vastly prefer this to Halloween Ends (2022).

Full Moon High may not be my favorite of Larry Cohen's works, but it's a fun enough time and might just be worth seeing for Alan Arkin's performance alone. If you're a werewolf completist, or are looking for some horror-adjacent Halloween season viewing, Full Moon High might be exactly what you're after.

DEMONWARP (1988) - Vinegar Syndrome

Demonwarp
Vinegar Syndrome

Original Release Date March 1st, 1988

Written by John Carl Buechler (story), Jim Bertges, Bruce Akiyama

Directed by Emmett Alston

Starring George Kennedy, David Michael O'Neill, Pamela Gilbert, Billy Jayne, Hank Stratton, Colleen McDermott

Language English

Purchase yours HERE from Vinegar Syndrome

by "Doc" Hunter Bush

MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Overview:

Demonwarp comes to 4K from Vinegar Syndrome. Director Emmett Alston, probably best known for directing New Year's Evil (1980), brings us a film almost over-stuffed with concepts. Vinegar Syndrome's release of Demonwarp restores the formerly direct-to-video film to a visual and audio clarity that it has most likely never seen and boasts an extensive array of bonus features.

The Movie Itself: 3.5 stars

I feel that I can confidently say Demonwarp is a film like few others. Born of the direct-to-video boom, the film was originally conceived by John Carl Buechler, director of Troll (1986) and Cellar Dweller (1987) as his next picture, before he left the project to direct Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988) (the seventh installment in the franchise). Demonwarp would then pass along to director Emmett Alston, of New Year's Evil (1980) fame, with the script reworked by Jim Bertges and Bruce Akiyama. If each person involved in its creation added two concepts to Demonwarp, that MIGHT almost explain how crazy it is.

Opening with a wandering minister (John Durbin) witnessing the crash landing of an alien vessel, we jump forward 100 years to find Bill (George Kennedy) playing Trivial Pursuit with his daughter (Jill Marin) in a cabin before being attacked by what appears to be a Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or Skunk Ape. Then we skip ahead just a little bit more to find five teens arriving at the same cabin to investigate what happened there. Demonwarp has three opening scenes. This should give you an idea of the type of the-whole-kit-and-caboodle approach to story craft and internal logic at its core. Without giving anything more away, the film features, yes: aliens and Bigfoots, but also zombies, human sacrifice, boobytraps, one snazzy yellow bucket hat, a very ambitious assortment of practical effects, and more unnecessary nudity than you can shake a stick at.

Demonwarp, as almost everyone interviewed for the bonus features will bring up as tactfully as possible, isn't what you would call "good". It's a gonzo, tits-and-blood monster movie with so many unexpected turns that it's impossible to predict what's coming next. And therein lies its charm. Demonwarp was never going to be for everyone, for mass audiences. Only the folks who love digging through bargain bins, or scouring late night cable channels are likely to even enjoy it. In other words, Demonwarp is for the sickos, and those sickos have probably seen a hell of a lot of movies. After a while, they can start to feel pretty predictable. But not Demonwarp.

Perfect for a Bad Movie Night (or a Bad Movie Podcast), this is a flick that truly must be seen to be believed. For me, Demonwarp is kind of a "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" moment. I am all about film preservation, and that must include oddities like Demonwarp. Now, in the film's defense: I watched it alone, and stone cold sober but I am certain that my viewing would be greatly enhanced if either one of those were not the case. 

The Packaging: 4 stars

The packaging for Demonwarp is almost too good. The case is, of course, your standard black plastic 4K case which is very handsome, but what really sets this apart is the cover art. Both sides of the reversible cover (I believe both illustrations are by Robert Sammelin?) present Demonwarp as something grander and more epic than it truly is. On one side, gorgeously rendered illustrations of George Kennedy, a gun-wielding David Michael O'Neill (as Jack), and several creatures are layered in neon pink void, while the other features a more stylized image that implies Kennedy, O'Neill, and maybe Pamela Gilbert (as Carrie), are all actively on the hunt for monsters, armed with rifles and an ax.

The illustrations are great pieces of work, magnificent, even. But they definitely do not represent something as shaggy as what Demonwarp turns out to be. There's something I find incredibly charming in that. I'm reminded of browsing my local mom & pop video store as a kid, picking something out and then being kind of let down when the film didn't live up to what the cover conjured in my mind. It's like Sammelin is depicting the movie Demonwarp wants to be, and I think that's kind of great, even if it isn't accurate.

The Video: 4 stars

I can only imagine what Demonwarp must have looked like in the years since it originally hit video. In one of the bonus features, composer Dan Slider remarks on the degradation of quality handed down through copies and dupes over the years. He is speaking of the audio specifically, but I'm certain the same would apply to the video. So while I don't have anything to go on, because for once there wasn't a trailer included in the bonus features, I can say that Demonwarp looks good. Almost too good.

I don't mean to come across as though I'm ragging on this film. I enjoyed it just fine, but I think even any Demonwarp die-hards out there would admit it's not the greatest example of the cinematic art form. And to that end, restoring it to such high visual fidelity might actually work against it. Maybe on VHS or DVD that fuzziness would obscure some of the rubber mask special effects and, leaving more up to the imagination, make them more frightening. As it stands, you can see everything.

But, beyond that, this looks fantastic. I dunno how many human sacrifices had to be made to get this movie up to such a clean visual level, and I don't wanna know! The colors are excellently balanced, with deep shadows but largely avoiding flat blacks. The one thing that most impressed me was that it doesn't appear anyone involved in the restoration did any posthumous color-grading. What I mean is that, you can still tell in certain scenes that the master shots were filmed at one time of day and the coverage was filmed at another; it will from time to time have that slight change of visual temperature. I genuinely enjoyed that because it stays true to what I feel is Demonwarp's most endearing aspect: the scrappiness of the whole endeavor.

The Audio: 4 stars

I have a three-channel soundbar, which handled Demonwarp like a charm. No buzzing or vibration no matter how low the synths got, no muddiness in the dialogue, no riding the volume button between action scenes and dialogue scene; nothing of the sort. There were a few instances where a line or part of one, usually a character name, would be sort of swallowed and a little quiet, but I honestly think that was down to the performances (no judgment).

In the interest of full disclosure, I will mention that there were a few audio / visual issues on my viewing. There was a (non-demon) warping in the score during the opening scene (the third one, when the teens arrive). I'm willing to bet this is just an artifact of the original score that couldn't be avoided. There were also two notable instances of visual skipping on my viewing. One was in the film itself, and one was in a bonus feature. It's entirely possible that this was some issue with my player or my disc in particular, and may not be representative of all copies. I'm not holding any of these against the restoration, because overall I think it's a fantastic job.

The Supplements: 4 stars

The special features here may be a little dry, but they're very informative about the craft of low-budget filmmaking. Each of the interview subjects give a good overview of their careers, before and since Demonwarp, then talk about how they came to the project, explaining how and what they did. I was most interested in cinematographer R. Michael Stringer, in the Of Aesthetic Beauty and Bigfoot featurette, because he talked specifically about not just how he approached lighting certain scenes, but also what he might do differently with the benefit of hindsight (backlighting!) which feels to me the most actionable information.

In bonus content, I'm always looking for the context around the film being discussed. Unfortunately, with John Carl Buechler having passed away in 2019, we may never know the exact impetus behind Demonwarp, or even how much of what is present in the finished film was part of his initial intention. But the special features here, which seemed largely to be organized by Ewan Cant if I'm not mistaken, do a damned good job.

Commentary track with director Emmett Alston and producer Richard L. Albert
Beasts & Breasts: an interview with actress Michelle Bauer (19:10) (HD)
Some of It Was Stupid: an interview with writer Jim Bertges (25:09) (HD)
Of Aesthetic Beauty and Bigfoot: an interview with director of photography R. Michael Stringer (36:45) (HD)
Composing Demonwarp: an interview with composer Dan Slider (27:08) (HD)
Audio interview with actor Hank Stratton (36:31)
FX Gallery: with narration by effects supervisor Mark Wolf (10:07) (HD)
Still Gallery

Final Thoughts: Recommended 

For as much as it might seem like I was dragging this movie, I enjoyed it. For any of us in the disc buying business, there are bound to be blind buys where you watch it once and know you'll never revisit it again. I don't think that's the case for Demonwarp. Is it low budget? Sure, but it does a LOT with the resources it has. Is it kind of nonsensical? Definitely, but in a glorious way. The third act throws a lot of craziness at the audience (and characters) that isn't fully explained, but you can infer enough to make it take shape in your head.

And I have to put my money where my mouth is. Like I said above, I'm always harping on about film preservation in all its forms. Well, restoring gloriously schlocky films like Demonwarp is part of that initiative. It has to be. Noah allegedly took all animals onto the ark, after all. We cannot gatekeep, even under the auspices of "quality". I think certain folks will love Demonwarp for the craft of it, or the breasts of it, or the Bigfoots of it,  and the rest of us will enjoy watching it in groups, but there's something beautiful in that regardless. Plus at one point, there's a zombie wearing a Meet the Residents t-shirt. Thanks, Demonwarp.

CLOUD (2024) / CHARISMA (1999) - Eureka Entertainment

Cloud / Charisma
Eureka Entertainment

Original Release Date Sept 27th, 2026 (Cloud, Japan) / February 26th, 1999 (Charisma, Japan)

Written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa 

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Starring Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Kōji Yakusho, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Yoriko Dôguchi

Language Japanese (English subtitles available)

Purchase yours HERE from Eureka, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movies: Excellent

As a disclaimer: I received check discs for these films, which are review copies that don't have the final artwork or packaging. This may also mean some discrepancies between my copies and the finished versions. This dual release is also Region B only, meaning this primarily applies to folks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand OR those of us with region free players.

I am no expert in the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I saw Pulse (2001) when it first came out in the U.S., but I don't remember many details; it's all just lumped in with other films of the J-Horror boom. Much more recently, I have seen Cure (1997) and Sweet Home (1989), both of which I enjoyed, but that's about it as far as my pre-existing knowledge. I wasn't even aware that Kurosawa had directed Sweet Home when I watched it. So if you had pointed all those out to me and asked me if I was "a fan" I would probably have said "Sure?"

Not now though. Having watched both Cloud (2024) and Charisma (1999), two very different films united by Kurosawa's particular vision, I can definitively say "I am now a fan of Kiyoshi Kurosawa." It's an ineffable thing, but I just enjoy the way he makes movies. Both Cloud and Charisma are written as well as directed by Kurosawa, and while there are thematic corollaries, they're really very different films. Cloud is an experience that starts as something like The Strangers (2008) and ends up somewhere akin to Mother! (2017), while Charisma is like Return to Oz (1985) with a touch of The Princess Mononoke (1997).

Cloud follows Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda), an online reseller, purchasing items and reselling them at an inflated price, as he becomes disenfranchised with his factory day job and quits to move with his girlfriend out to a suspiciously gorgeous house on a lake. Once there the film begins a slow slide away from the somewhat familiar setting and world, transforming into a supernatural-adjacent cautionary tale so gradually that you at first feel completely buffaloed before realizing this had been inevitable the entire time.

Charisma even more quickly abandons its recognizable world, with overworked police detective Goro Yabuike (repeat Kurosawa collaborator Kōji Yakusho) heading into a forest populated with multiple groups willing to battle over their viewpoints, all centered around a rare tree, known as Charisma, and its negative effect on the forest around it. Each faction differs on what they think should be done to / with Charisma, and they're more than willing to go head-to-head over this disagreement.

Both films are allegorical and examine issues of identity and loneliness, two of Kurosawa's pet concerns, but their approach and focus vary widely. In Cloud, Yoshii has wracked up an impressive number of adversaries through his unethical business practices, yet is unaware that he has been constructing the engine of his destruction all along and that his online identity will not hide him forever. In Charisma, Yakusho wanders from one camp to another, largely unbothered by anyone, as they each try to enlist him to their respective points of view. At some point, he inevitably decides to take control of the situation and choose what happens next, but will he be prepared for the repercussions of his actions? Will any of us?

The Packaging: 

As I mentioned above, the copies I received did not have packaging, so I am leaving this section blank.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

Both these transfers look tremendous. It's a little more impressive for Charisma, which comes to us from over a quarter century ago, but I was repeatedly shocked with the visual sharpness and clarity in Cloud as well. There's one brief shot in Cloud, of Yoshii's girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) walking by a car and her reflection across its roof is as clear as the rest of her. It's not an especially impressive shot (or, I should say not deliberately impressive) but it was just gorgeous. This is indicative of Kurosawa's eye. He also favors silhouette, negative space, and strong backlighting and I was enraptured by the soft halos of light coming into the dark spaces throughout Charisma.

That's another aspect of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's filmmaking that really appeals to me: his visual aesthetic is so all-encompassing. It permeates every shot, all locations, thoroughly. There's a stateliness to his shot composition that often feels grander than the subject matter. It's a similar feeling to viewing art in a gallery: these objects and images, though often outwardly mundane, are presented as though they have a greater weight than you may at first realize. It's, if not meditative, then certainly contemplative.

Kurosawa utilizes music with specificity and deliberation. Off the top of my head, I can't remember much about the score of Cloud (by Takuma Watanabe), but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means it coalesced perfectly with what I was feeling throughout. I can, however, summon up a particular bouncy bit of percussion and wind from the Charisma score (by Gary Ashiya, also the composer for Cure) not only because it's used repeatedly, but is in such seeming juxtaposition to the events of the film that every time I noticed it, I spent time considering what it was conveying. In the end it lends the whole film the feeling of a fable, something of importance, with a lesson and consequences, but with a sense of gleeful adventure beneath or behind it all.

On a more technical level, the quality of the audio mix for both films was impeccable. I utilize a three-channel sound bar and I never had to adjust the volume, though I will mention that the commentary tracks for each film, from Dr. Jonathan Wroot, world cinema teacher and Japanese cinema researcher from the University of Greenwich, are slightly louder. So if you're back-to-backing any of these films with a commentary watch, you might want to bump it down a notch or two, lest you get spooked.

Special Features: Excellent

Between these two discs, I believe Eureka has put together a perfect release as far as context goes. As I said above, this release has cemented me as a Kiyoshi Kurosawa fan and that is due as much to the quality and style of the work as it does to the context provided in the bonus features. The two aforementioned commentary tracks from Dr. Jonathan Wroot did a lot to help me organize my thoughts on Kurosawa by answering many questions I had about the works, but those combined with the video essay A Cerebral Cinema by Joe Hickinbottom is what really catalyzed everything. 

As a heads-up, the disc for Cloud only features the trailer, while the disc for Charisma has two featurettes in addition to the trailer for that film (which actually gives away some big concepts, but I digress). Personally, I love the inclusion of the trailers for the simple fact that it gives me something substantial to compare the video transfer against, as trailers are typically unrestored.

• Cloud commentary track with Dr. Jonathan Wroot
• Cloud trailer (1:02)
• Charisma commentary track with Dr. Jonathan Wroot
• A Cerebral Cinema: the works of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, video essay by Joe Hickinbottom (28:15)
• Making of Charisma (30:00)
• Charisma trailer (0:34)

In Summary: Must Own

Y'all. I am deep in the pocket for Kiyoshi Kurosawa now! I really loved Cure when I watched it, and Sweet Home is cool (and the main inspiration for the Resident Evil games, fun fact), but it wasn't until unpacking the two featurettes here that I began to have an understanding of Kurosawa's interests. To me, his films feel like they don't just ask questions, they feel like they ARE questions, and they don't have an answer. Even now, with this revelation freshly in mind, thinking back on my experience watching Cure, I believe I'm onto something.

Kurosawa isn't concerned with telling you what he thinks. More than any filmmaker I can think of off the top of my head, he's interested in allowing you all the information you need to make your own decisions and then sit in that interpretation. It comes back to what I said about standing in a gallery, considering the art; there is no right or wrong way to appreciate it. What's important is that you appreciate it at all and consider what you believe it is saying.

SpookyJawn Watchlist 2026

SpookyJawn Watchlist 2026

by "Doc" Hunter Bush
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Greetings, boils and ghouls! And everyone who i-dead-tifies as non-spine-ary! Apologies to my close personal friend the Cryptkeeper (who recently got his old job back!) for the gimmick infringement there, I'm just so excited for the spooky season! While I'm sure there are plenty of others who, like me, watch horror movies year-round, I think we'd all agree that they just hit different in the autumn months.

One of my favorite seasonal / movie activities is making a watchlist for my household and some friends to take part in. For the past few years, I've been sharing these watchlists on MovieJawn in an effort to encourage folks to take part and eventually make their own! I've found that for a lot of people, the idea of taking part in a month-long watchlist activity can be a little overwhelming, so below I will walk you through the list of prompts I've prepared for this year, as well as some helpful tips to keep in mind. I'll even be offering suggested films and this year, all my suggestions have a special theme!

To tie into the release of the MovieJawn Fall 2026 zine (purchase your HERE), all the films suggested below will feature some depiction of a cinematic afterlife. It has been said that the greatest unanswered question in life is What Happens After? and these films offer a possible answer, but you might not like it!

First things first: Don't get overwhelmed. I know the idea of watching a movie a day is a LOT for some people. Even I, currently unemployed and surrounded by movies on various formats, don't have time for that every day. So guess what: You don't have to! Instead of looking at this list as a thrown gauntlet or some kind of requirement, look at it as a bunch of suggestions. If you happen to find yourself with a little chunk of time and a desire to watch a flick, just see what that day's prompt is. And y'know what, if you're not feeling that one, just pick a different one; I promise I won't be personally offended.

Another thing that some folks get hung up on is not knowing a film that fits a specific prompt. As I say often, there are no wrong answers! If you think one of the Friday the 13th movies fits the "PHILADELPHIA" prompt because it takes place in New Jersey and that's close enough: Cool! There are no Movie Police coming to slap the cuffs on you. Similarly, if you want to watch something you've never seen before, and it turns out a movie you thought was perfect for "BLACK & WHITE" is actually in color: No big deal. We are, none of us, perfect and now you know for next time!

Lastly, if there's a prompt you just flat out don't like or can't think of anything for, skip it or choose another category for yourself. Maybe you're burnt out on films from the "1990s" and you decide to swap in a werewolf movie: Good call! The world is tough enough without us making things arbitrarily harder for ourselves. Watching movies, and these watchlists, should be fun above all else.

So now, let me run through the prompts really quickly, just for clarity.

Things start off with a bunch of prompts themed around their titles: a couple of specific words in the titles, or a number; a long and a short title; and literally any movie that starts with the word "THE _____".

Then we've got the various genre- or category-themed ones. Remember, there are no wrong answers. If you think of Hellraiser (1987) as a "COMEDY", watch it! For the aforementioned "BLACK & WHITE" prompt, you could watch Beetlejuice (1988) because his suit is most definitely black & white. For the "ORIGINAL" and "REMAKE", they don't even need to be two versions of the same movie. On my list of suggested titles, I chose the 1960 13 Ghosts and it's early 2000s remake, but you could watch the original The Fly (1958) and the remake of The Blob (1988). It's your call! All I ask is that you tag us in your watchlist journey, but more on that below.

The next block of suggestions is grouped by source: something from a "FEMALE FILMMAKER"; films made or set in various broadly-defined international locations; and something inspired by or about "COMICBOOKS"; then the block of films by decade. With those, you could even watch something set in those years, but made at some other time. Watch whatever is most fun for you!

The list wraps up with a few wild cards. "PHILADELPHIA" because I love films set and/or made in my city and try to celebrate that as often as is possible; "SCIENCE" because I knew my suggestions were going to be leaning more into the supernatural side of things and thought it would be a fun challenge to myself to find a scientifically-themed film that still touches on the afterlife; and then "ALL HALLOWS EVE" and "H'WEEN". I'll let you in on a little secret (*waves you in closer*): both of these are your free spaces. Watch whatever you want on either night! Or both! Watch a favorite film, or something you've been meaning to watch all year! Also, not for nothing, Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so you might have plans for at least one of those nights, and this way you have something fun to look forward to at the end of the watchlist.

Now comes your part of the deal. Share this article with anyone you know who you think might enjoy the low-pressure watchlist walkthrough, or any friends who you would like to organize watching some movies with this October. If and when you watch anything, or if you make a full list of titles and are going to try to watch them all: tag @moviejawn and @hwgwpodcast on instagram and use the hashtag #spookyjawnlist26

Have a happy and safe rest of the year. Make the most of your time. Have as much fun as you responsibly can. And Long Live the Movies!