The Halloween stuff is still up at my house, so I’m still in a spooky mood despite what the calendar says. I find myself compelled to watch horror movies during October and while this year was no exception, I didn’t meet my own lofty goals. Near the end of October, I managed to watch a few new-to-me horror features such as 1964’s Onibaba (via Criterion Channel), 1932’s Freaks (new to the Criterion Collection and available on the channel), and The Others (in fancy new Criterion Blu-Ray and 4K editions.) Usually, I do better than three new horror movies, but the month got away from me.
Instead, I found myself mostly watching new movies like Priscilla (pictured above), Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Mission. You’ll be able to find my thoughts on two of those movies below as I wrote about Flower Moon and The Mission in more elaborate detail.
Probably the horror movie I liked the most this year was In the Mouth of Madness, the 1994 horror film from director John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing). While I technically didn’t finish watching it until November 1st, I had the best intentions of watching it during the spooky season, so that’s what I’m going with. Starring Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, My Brilliant Career) as an insurance investigator John Trent, In the Mouth of Madness was far ahead of its time. Trent is given the task of finding a missing author known as Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow). Cane, who is supposed to be a stand-in for Stephen King, has written a widely popular series of novels that have moved his biggest fans towards violence. Joined by Cane’s editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), the two of them travel to Sutter Cane’s last known location, a seemingly deserted town in the middle of New Hampshire.
Originally dismissed by critics, the movie has seen a reappraisal in recent years given its sinister concept and wholly believable depiction of fan obsessiveness. It’s a lot of fun and honestly, each time I watch a new movie from John Carpenter I’m impressed. I still have a few to watch like Assault on Precinct 13, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, and Escape from New York.
In the Mouth of Madness is currently available on the Criterion Channel.
Here are the movies I caught up with in October:
(On the It’s the Pictures podcast, John Gilpatrick and I plan to discuss the movies of Alexander Payne. I hadn’t seen About Schmidt so I caught up with that one, while Payne’s latest The Holdovers will be in theaters soon).
Mini-Review: Nyad
Nyad, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, recreates Nyad’s historic Cuba-to-Florida swim. At 60 years old, Diana Nyad (Bening) felt she still had regrets over one of her biggest failed challenges as a swimmer— she had attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida when she was 28 and couldn’t make it then. Now she'd like to try again, but age and skeptics threaten to challenge her at every step of her journey. Alongside her lifelong friend and coach on these difficult attempts, Bonnie Stoll (Foster), Nyad wants to prove to everybody that she can achieve this great feat.
Directed by the Oscar-winning directors of Free Solo, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Nyad fits comfortably into their wheelhouse. But instead of making another documentary, they’ve stepped into the realm of narrative filmmaking while still keeping a toe in the sports documentary realm that signaled their arrival. With Nyad, here is another egotistical athlete who only achieves glory because of their relentless push towards greatness and their gravitational pull to bring others along for the ride. Nyad, the real-life open ocean swimmer, has been described as "a self-aggrandizing scourge of the marathon swimming community". In that way, Bening does a great job of depicting this athlete. But from my perspective, it’s Foster’s Stoll who carries a lot of the emotional burden of this movie. She’s given up years of her life for her best friend’s dream. What about her dreams? Thankfully, that’s addressed in the movie, but it’s Foster’s Stoll that keeps not only Nyad the swimmer on track but also the movie. Nyad is a pretty standard sports movie drama, but Foster and Bening make the most of the material. (B-)
Nyad is now available on Netflix.
Links
has an interview with director Alexander Payne about The Holdovers. I loved the movie and felt like I had to subscribe to Burr’s newsletter to read it. You might feel that same way. has a new newsletter out that explains how 2023 is the best year for video games, but also the worst. How can that be? Check out the piece about games that have come out this year and how the video game business isn’t sustainable.If you missed it, The Beatles have a new song. Yes, you heard me correctly. Finally completed after all these years, featuring contributions from all four Beatles members, Now and Then represents the final Beatles song. Maybe. I’m not convinced! You can hear the song and watch the video here.