Dear readers,

Autumn is finally here and October is in full swing – yay!

Happy times for those of us for whom summer meant two or three months spent in the shade or inside, under the fan/air conditioning/whatever cooling means we might have had (I hear some even opened their fridge door and sat in cool bliss in front of it :p ). We can now come out and play!

These times are even happier for Halloween fans – it’s just around the corner, you guys! <3

In anticipation of All Hallow’s Eve, I have decided to resume the witch-themed movie marathon I embarked upon last year and, in the meantime, to tell you a few words about the movies I have already seen.

There’s also a witchy series marathon, about which I will post a bit later.

A few notes before I start my so-called ‘reviews’ (they’re really just brief opinions, I am too lazy to write proper reviews):

• I mostly watched witch-related movies, because that’s what resonates with me the most at this time, but also a few others.
• There was no order, I just watched them randomly :))
• However, I stayed  rather ‘traditional’ in my choice of movies, and I was also restricted to whatever I could find on Netflix/Amazon/Disney+.
• I didn’t re-watch movies I had already watched before, such as the first ‘Hocus Pocus‘ (1993. I remember this one was an absolute delight), and the original ‘The Witches‘ (1990).

Let’s go!

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

IMDB description: “A teenage girl, who accidentally releases an ancient and mischievous spirit on Halloween which causes decorations to come alive and wreak havoc, must team up with the last person she’d want to in order to save their town – her father”.

This was a sweet family film, with monsters and all that jazz. It didn’t bowl me over, but it was nice to watch and definitely in the feel-good category 🙂

The Witch Next Door / The Wretched (2019)

IMDB description: “A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ imminent divorce, faces off with a thousand year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door.”

I have to say, the opening sequence is super-cool. Cold, incessant rain, mud, extreme close-ups of scattered toys… ooh, shivers down me spine!

This was a very good – if a bit slow – horror (mind you, I am not a fan of the horror genre, but even so, I appreciated this one). There’s blood, there’s an evil witch-like creature, there’s suspense, it should be a good watch for the genre fans.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022)

IMDB description: “The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. Bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby.”

My description: a comedic horror-thriller. It takes place in a Catholic high-school in the 80s, with all the looks and everything :p I loved the 80s setting!

The Lemon brothers, with their ‘Fitness with Jesus’ routine, are a hoot :))

It’s not 100% a comedy, though. There’s bullying, there’s the ousting of one girl who tries to help her friend, there’s the ignoring of serious allegations in the name of propriety/appearances. It’s actually pretty dark at some point O_O even horror. Including the fetal pig dissection day at the Catholic school – eugh!

It’s both sweet and yucky, gory and ridiculous – don’t say I didn’t warn you 😉

I’m illustrating it with a still of the Lemon brothers in full FaithFitness routine, just because they were so much fun :)))

Hubie Halloween (2020)

IMDB description: “Hubie Dubois thanklessly spends every Halloween making sure the residents of his hometown, Salem, celebrate safely and play by the rules. But this year, an escaped criminal and a mysterious new neighbor have Hubie on high alert. When people start disappearing, it is up to Hubie to convince the police and townsfolk that the monsters are real, and only he can stop them.”

This was another wildcard, as there’s no witch in sight, but it’s about Halloween, so it checked that box, at least :p I love me a silly comedy sometimes, and this classic Adam Sandler movie delivered :))

Plus, it was really nice to see Steve Buscemi on the screen again (I know, he now has the ‘Miracle Workers‘ series too, I’ve only been able to watch the first season and a couple of episodes from the 4th one, LOL, highly enjoyable!).

I have to say, the US is the place to be for Halloween – I wish I could move there just for that. And Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And Chinese New Year. And Mardi Gras… and so on :)) they seem to have a lot of holidays which they go over the top celebrating.

Yea, that’s about it on this movie – it’s a silly, enjoyable family film, do watch it if you want a feel-good one.

Earwig and the Witch (2020)

IMDB description: “Growing up in an orphanage in the British countryside, Earwig has no idea that her mother had magical powers. Her life changes dramatically when a strange couple takes her in, and she is forced to live with a selfish witch. As the headstrong young girl sets out to uncover the secrets of her new guardians, she discovers a world of spells and potions, and a mysterious song that may be the key to finding the family she has always wanted.”

This is an anime, not a genre I normally watch, but it has a witch in it, so it made the list 🙂

It’s another delightful children’s Halloween story, and it includes a cool old library. We also have a mean witch, a weird house, yucky stuff, magic, a cat – the recipe for success :p

The main character is also utterly cool – a feisty girl who takes no shit.

It’s weird and cool, just the ending was way too abrupt 🙁

Nightbooks (2021)

IMDB description: “When Alex, a boy obsessed with scary stories, is trapped by an evil witch in her magical apartment, and must tell a scary story every night to stay alive, he teams up with another prisoner, Yasmin, to find a way to escape.”

Another one for kids, but rather cool and darkish.

It also features an amazing library <3 I would have had the same reaction as the hero, LOL.

The hero (this writer kid) has to write – or else. A sort of Scheherezade, the sultan being replaced by a witch who (big surprise) imprisons children. Her familiar is an evil spying Sphinx cat (another unfair trope). It’s cool that we get to see some of the boy’s stories too, in a dark twisted way, as he reads them to the witch.

I resonated with this movie because the kid is locked up in a library and has to write, with all the trials and tribulations of a writer :))

There are also yucky monsters, potions, plus that amazing library straight out of fantasy dreams. All in all, it’s a very good children’s horror (is there even such a genre? :)) ), with great production values. I loved the twist at the end 😉

The Craft Legacy (2020)

IMDB description: “A newcomer to a Catholic prep high school falls in with a trio of outcast teenage girls who practice witchcraft, and they all soon conjure up various spells and curses against those who anger them.”

This is a young adult movie for teenagers, with a lot of the issues relevant to today’s teens.

For me, it was rather boring and felt hurried and incomplete. As if it wanted to touch on too many issues and didn’t quite have the time. Perhaps a mini-series might have been a better idea?

I didn’t like it at all, but I am not the best judge, since it’s with and for teens.

My opinion: it tries to emulate the recent The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series (and fails).

A Witches’ Ball (2017)

IMDB description: “A Witches’ Ball is about a young witch who is ready to jump in feet first into the witching world but not before leaping over some magical hurdles along the way.”

Why did I end up watching mostly teen/children’s movies?! No idea…

Anyway.

This one might have been meant for teens, but it felt more like a kids’ movie.

Not a huge cinematographic feat, but sweet and colourful. The main character is adorable and so plucky.

There are some Harry Potter hints (the school), but it otherwise stands on its own.

It also has a lot of cringe moments, though, which is a problem typical of many family-friendly movies.

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

IMDB description: “Two young women accidentally bring back the Sanderson Sisters to modern day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking havoc on the world.”

It was as delightful as the first one in the beginning, but then it kind of stopped being so cool 🙁

And OMG LOL – they made it into a musical!! Disney, right? :)))

So kind of disappointing, unfortunately.

The School For Good And Evil (2022)

IMDB description: “Best friends Sophie and Agatha find themselves on opposing sides of an epic battle when they’re swept away into an enchanted school where aspiring heroes and villains are trained to protect the balance between Good and Evil.”

Pretty cool-looking movie, a clear Hogwarts-like atmosphere, interesting ideas.

And such a strong The Chilling etc. of Sabrina vibe :)))) I mean, ffs, one of the main characters even ends up looking like her – I mean, total copycat :p

It was nice to watch, amazing production values too.

The Witch in the Window (2018)

IMDB description: “When Simon brings his twelve-year-old son, Finn, to rural Vermont to help flip an old farmhouse, they encounter the malicious spirit of Lydia, a previous owner. And now with every repair they make, she’s getting stronger.”

This drama-horror movie was very slow and rather boring.

It had a lot of scenes that could have been cut without affecting the story.

Also, wtf: kid says he saw violent things on the news on TV and dad has a violent reaction – his anger is gratuitous, though, I have no effing idea why he reacted like that.

Horror fans, be warned that 36 minutes in nothing horror had yet happened. LOL.

Not to mention the continuity glitches and the fact that no one in their right mind would get so close to a spectre O_O

Ok, that bit was scary. But it was expected.

I would change the genre of this movie to ‘psychological suspense’. It’s not a real horror movie.

It only got interesting about 20 minutes before the end :)) the story sucks. It could have been made into a proper horror movie with a lot of editing and better filming.

It was such a disappointment from the ‘witchy’ point of view too: no witchcraft, just an old woman that died alone and came back as a spectre.

Major meh.

♠

That’s it, these are the Spooktober movies I watched so far.

To tell the truth, I am a bit disappointed by what I found, but I am sure there are many other new-ish Halloweeny movies worth watching out there – even if I have to rent them or borrow them from the local library.

Do let me know in the comments what your suggestions are – the witchier the better 😉 (as I said, I am not a big horror fan, nor am I much into vampires or werewolves or ghosts, for example). I might even decide to rewatch some of the many super-cool classics, if only to ‘clear the palate’ 😉 if I manage to watch enough by the end of the month I will return with a second post.

Spookily yours,