Greg Warne

It's bizarre that people don't get how reboots work, especially when Craig's Bond was such a clear reboot in itself.

Halloween 2025 A list of 42 films compiled on Letterboxd, including The Thing (1982), The Wailing (2016), The Exorcist III (1990), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and Candyman (1992).

Finally got all my October horror films logged and I've ranked them into a list here boxd.it/P1zEC

Some good first time watches this year but nothing touching the old faithfuls at the top for me.

A ★★★★½ review of Candyman (1992) The way this combines a traditional kind of folklore horror premise and very real kind of exploration into systemic racism is so perfect. It all fits together into one sublimely unsettling story. The ...

My ★★★★½ review of Candyman (1992) boxd.it/bzWiyT

The way this combines a traditional kind of folklore horror premise and very real kind of exploration into systemic racism is so perfect. It all fits together into one sublimely unsettling story.

A ★★★★★ review of The Thing (1982) The perfect combination of gruesomely cool body horror and genuine chills. The atmosphere of distrust and paranoia. The claustrophobia and the cold. Those two ominous bass notes. This thing will proba...

My ★★★★★ review of The Thing (1982) boxd.it/bzjJCv

The perfect combination of gruesomely cool body horror and genuine chills.

A ★★★★ review of Bring Her Back (2025) Horror films -- especially those in the English language -- usually have lines they won't cross. Crossing lines is a big part of this. I think the lines being crossed make up for a lot of things being...

My ★★★★ review of Bring Her Back boxd.it/bxOFnv

Horror films - especially those in the English language - usually have lines they won't cross. Crossing lines is a big part of this.

A ★★★½ review of The Long Walk (2025) There's a lot of suspension of disbelief required for this. From the idea that most of America watches people walking for days straight live to people being able to walk for days straight without slow...

My ★★★½ review of The Long Walk boxd.it/bxiGjb

Plenty suspension of disbelief required for the premise but the fascist world behind it is effective and the writing is fantastic.

Emotional and evolving characters with actors knocking it out of the park are what makes this. David Jonsson is MVP.

A ★★½ review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) This is the kind of corny teen shit I expected the original to be. But the original wasn't that. Not like this, at least. Where the original started really well, this one starts with awkward dialogue ...

My ★★½ review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) boxd.it/bxhWER

Fails to match what the original did right but corrects some of its mistakes.

But this is a film that makes some wild choices. Some simply bizarre, some outright offensive if you actually care about the franchise.

A ★★★★ review of The Addiction (1995) The kind of film I'll need to watch again. The low budget, black and white look works really well here. Combined with Abel Ferrara's guerrilla approach to vampirism in New York, it comes across as dis...

My ★★★★ review of The Addiction boxd.it/bx6J7j

The kind of film I'll need to watch again.

Abel Ferrara's guerrilla approach to vampirism in New York comes across as disturbingly real. It's clearly an allegory for drug addiction but it's also so much more.

A ★★★★ review of The Mist (2007) There's all the same DNA that Darabont would transfuse into his time on The Walking Dead, and more than a few of the actors, too. This is horror primarily through anthropology. How does a group of peo...

My ★★★★ review of The Mist boxd.it/bv6jH3

This is horror primarily through anthropology. How does a group of people react to an apocalypse? Not great.

A ★★★★½ review of I Saw the Devil (2010) Endlessly nihilistic. Evil is a disease slowly infecting the whole world. It's airborne. Even good men are one encounter away from it. You can get the guy who preys on women at the side of the road bu...

My ★★★★½ review of I Saw The Devil boxd.it/bup8Wv

Kim Jee-woon forces you to sit with the depravity. Long, uncomfortable scenes have you begging for intervention. The only intervention is a change of depravity.

A ★★★★½ review of Onibaba (1964) A timeless folktale of grief, loneliness and jealousy. It evolves from a slow and simple character drama on the fringes of a war we only witness through talk, to the horror story you'll remember it as...

My ★★★★½ review of Onibaba boxd.it/btwFxN

A timeless folktale of grief, loneliness and jealousy. It evolves from a slow and simple character drama to the horror story you'll remember it as.

It also shows how much you can do with a few actors, a couple huts, a wheat field and a hole in the ground.

A ★★★½ review of Ghoulies (1985) Cute B-movie with a guy who's a bit too serious at parties and a cast of "yes, that's them" (Mariska Hargitay and Jack Nance) and "no, it's not them" (not Dana Carvey). All so wonderfully cheap and th...

My ★★★½ review of Ghoulies boxd.it/btqy2V

Cute B-movie with a guy who's a bit too serious at parties and a cast of "yes, that's them" (Mariska Hargitay and Jack Nance) and "no, it's not them" (not Dana Carvey).

A ★★ review of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) I love it when the first film ends with a sequel tease that's totally ignored by the sequel. And I mean that with a straight face. It's cute, cheesy and nostalgic. You'd have to have a lot of nostalgi...

My ★★ review of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer boxd.it/btf0uT

All of the problems the first film had are back and worse.

Freddie Prinze Jr is sidelined once again, despite somehow rising to top billed. Jack Black with dreadlocks is in this more than him.

A ★★★★★ review of The Wailing (2016) I don't think I could ever love a horror film more. This two and a half hour epic manages to be everything. It's police procedural, viral contagion, zombie, occult, witch, possession, satanic, and eve...

My ★★★★★ review of The Wailing boxd.it/btdSXV

It's police procedural, viral contagion, zombie, occult, possession movie and everything in between.

It feels perfectly tuned to my tastes in horror. It's genuinely creepy and it's able to become a huge, sustained explosion for the entire second half.

A ★★★ review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) "Angela Lansbury always has a plan." 😂 Kevin Williamson's expansion on the slasher via whodunit subgenre he nailed with Scream a year earlier. This wisely avoids going meta again, although it's got it...

My ★★★ review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) boxd.it/bsJCol

The premise is great but it falls apart when it gets to the slasher part and it struggles to find focus in the killer's motive.

In the end, the reveal of the killer is very underwhelming.

A ★★★½ review of The First Omen (2024) Genuinely impressive feature debut from Arkasha Stevenson, even if it's imperfect in its execution. The atmosphere this creates is seriously strong and the visual imagery is terrific. This is a horror...

My ★★★½ review of The First Omen boxd.it/bsE6v5

Genuinely impressive but imperfect debut from Arkasha Stevenson.

While the horror goes places I genuinely didn't expect in a studio film, some of the references are a touch on the nose.

It's also very predictable, even beyond the prequel of it all.

A ★★★★★ review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Instantly inducted into the October annual viewing club since I saw it last year and it hasn't lost its touch on me. Breathtakingly creepy and intensely fast moving. This is exactly my kind of horror ...

My ★★★★★ review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) boxd.it/bsDPXr

Instantly inducted into annual viewing club since I saw it last year. Breathtakingly creepy and intensely fast moving.

Such perfectly crafted characters, right down to each detail, given life through perfectly cast actors.

A ★★★½ review of [REC]² (2009) A little weaker than the first but it doesn't sacrifice its intensity. I wasn't expecting it to make such big swings with the lore. I kinda dug the priest but that stuff just clashed with the science ...

My ★★★½ review of [REC]² boxd.it/bs9ik7

A little weaker than the first but it doesn't sacrifice its intensity. I wasn't expecting it to make such big swings with the lore.

The little problems are far from enough to stop a film that still does what the first one did so right, though.

A ★½ review of Shell (2024) Sure, I can see Kate Hudson doing a crappy The Substance ripoff but Elisabeth Moss is waaaaay above this trash. It's not just that it's a blatent copy but it's that it's simply awful. The script is sh...

My ★½ review of Shell boxd.it/brGmez

It's not just that it's a The Substance ripoff but that it's awful. The script is shocking.

The budget can't back it up, either. All of it looks so cheap, and that film grain filter ain't fooling anyone.

The ending is so funny it's almost worth it, though.

A ★★★★ review of MadS (2024) Insane film! A one-shot psychedelic trip into sensory overload. Saddled with a character who's had a bad reaction to a line of coke, you can't really trust or understand most of what's going on as he ...

My ★★★★ review of MadS boxd.it/brx1P7

There is a genuine horror premise to it but the method is really what does it. It's unrelenting and surreal. You either strap in or you don't. Even as the story evolves, the main event is how your senses are being assaulted.

I'm looking forward to getting to it!

A ★★★★ review of [REC] (2007) I'm always trepidatious about found footage films but I can't complain about this one. A single location, claustrophobic zombie horror. While it's clearly made on the cheap, they nail what's important...

My ★★★★ review of [REC] boxd.it/bqPDJt

I'm always trepidatious about found footage films but I can't complain about this one.

Once this gets going, it escalates with a stunning intensity that will work on even the biggest sceptics.

A ★★★ review of Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2003) There are diminishing returns with this one. While there is much more of a plot running through it, this still splits it up into sections following characters non-linearly. It also struggles to keep t...

My ★★★ review of Ju-on: The Grudge 2 boxd.it/bqOIE7

There are diminishing returns with this one. While there is much more of a plot running through it, this still splits it up into sections following characters non-linearly. It also struggles to keep the scares effective.

A ★★★★ review of Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) Now having seen Ju-On: The Curse, I think that film might actually have more effective scares. The Grudge perhaps shows too much, and too early. This remains one of the creepier J-horror classics but ...

My ★★★★ review of Ju-on: The Grudge boxd.it/bqoHbL

Now having seen Ju-On: The Curse, I think that film might actually have more effective scares. The Grudge perhaps shows too much, and too early. This remains one of the creepier J-horror classics but it isn't the scariest.

A ★★★½ review of The Thing from Another World (1951) Very different to Carpenter's version although you can definitely see how things went from this to that. Very much an early 50s horror film. Snappy dialogue, a beautiful love interest, and a man-in-a-...

My ★★★½ review of The Thing From Another World
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Cute man-in-a-suit monster classic.

Very different to Carpenter's version although you can definitely see how things went from this to that.

A ★★★½ review of The Changeling (1980) A decent enough take on the haunted house which makes some interesting, original choices. I like the story and performances but I'm not enamoured by the dated scares, even for 1980. There's a pre and ...

My ★★★½ review of The Changeling
boxd.it/bpfYWR

A decent enough take on the haunted house which makes some interesting, original choices. I like the story and performances but I'm not enamoured by the dated scares, even for 1980.

A ★★★★★ review of The Exorcist III (1990) This isn't just the loss of innocence, it's the world totally eradicated of it. In the words of Trent Reznor, God is dead and no one cares. Such a nihilistic view is phenomenally shown through George ...

My ★★★★★ review of The Exorcist III
boxd.it/bpfDwj

My head says the disjointed ending keeps this from being five stars. My heart says this is five stars because with each viewing, it cements its place in at least my top ten horror films of all time. It feels so perfectly tailored to my tastes.

A ★★ review of The Exorcist: Believer (2023) It's crazy that this is only the second film in the series to be about an exorcism. Every other entry has been about something else before remembering it needs to have an exorcism. Unfortunately for m...

My ★★ review of The Exorcist: Believer on Letterboxd boxd.it/bnWY8Z

Finally caught up on Exorcist films and we finish with yet another one that falls apart in the second half. This kind of forgets to have a second act, too.

Just totally uninspired.

A ★★½ review of Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist (2005) Like night and day compared to Renny Harlin's version. Paul Schrader's canned and then released anyway Exorcist prequel is a coherent, measured and personal character drama of a man who's faith has be...

My ★★½ review of Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist on Letterboxd boxd.it/bnJvUp

Like night and day compared to Renny Harlin's version.

Paul Schrader's prequel is a coherent, measured and personal character drama... until it remembers it needs to be a horror and falls flat on its face.

A ★ review of Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) This is one of the worst things I've ever seen. Not a single redeeming quality. Renny Harlin has no clue what he's doing with a horror film and with the behind the scenes madness, Morgan Creek don't e...

My ★ review of Exorcist: The Beginning on Letterboxd boxd.it/bloZH1

This is one of the worst things I've ever seen. Not a single redeeming quality. Renny Harlin has no clue what he's doing with a horror film and with the behind the scenes madness, Morgan Creek don't either.