Ray Smyth

Day 1. The perfect movie for Halloween, John Carpenter's THE FOG. A well crafted piece of supernatural fun loaded with spooky atmosphere, great scares and a brilliant moody synth soundtrack.

Day 2. An American Werewolf in London. Yes, everyone knows it but it is a masterpiece and isn't it nice to revisit a time before cell phones and GPS that added that extra layer of hopelessness to peeps who find themselves in a horror movie.

Day 3. The Woman in Black. Here be the heebie jeebies! Not the remake but the 1989 original.

Day 4. The Evil Dead. If you go down in the woods today! I wonder if Raimi and his crew had any idea of what kind of a life path that this would begin for them.

Day 5. Peter Jackson's The Frighteners. The first movie I saw in L.A. A great movie packed from being to end with many characters each getting their own moments to shine all inside a well constructed story full of wild scares.

Day 6. The Haunted. Little known TV movie based upon true events about the mother of a family, played by Sally Kirkland ,who's sanity is put to the test by a supernatural influence. When the strange chilling moments happen they are very creepy.

Day 7. Poltergeist. Really great movie that uses its runtime to gradually build up momentum and showcase one fantastically escalating sequence after another.

Day 8. Exorcist III. if you know, you know, if not...

Day 9. Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street. I saw this movie at a packed cinema in 1985 when it came outta nowhere loaded with crazy set pieces and was genuinely frightening and disturbing. It was lightning in a bottle and the rest of the series never matched the effect this first film gave.

Day 10. Rawhead Rex. What should have been the arrival of the first ever Irish based creature feature with potential for becoming a horror franchise turned out instead to become this absolute dumpster fire of celluloid based on the story by Clive Barker.

Day 11. Fright Night Part 2. From the original 80's versions, not the remakes. I like both but part 2 has an even better villain in Julie Carmen as the vampire Regine Dandridge and her posse including John Gries as a werewolf.

Day 12. Joe Dante's The Howling. Pretty much everything Dante did after this in the 80's and 90's leaned into lighter fair but with The Howling he really was a master of dark horror and every frame of this movie is near perfection and it features a great script by John Sayles.

Day 13. The Keep. Michael Mann never speaks of this film he directed yet somehow it managed to convey something special to the many people who really like it and it has recently debuted finally on 4K and accompanied by a new documentary on its troubled production.

Day 14. Phantasm 2. Goes bigger on all the concepts of the first film. Baseball bats, custom shotguns, oversized chainsaws, and other assorted weaponry put into play against the forces of The Tall Man and his murderous chrome death spheres! A wild and imaginative movie directed by Don Coscarelli.

Day 15. Ghost Story. Great pace and atmosphere and a selection of fine actors from the early years of classic cinema. Directed by John Irvin from the novel by Peter Straub. Creepy with lots of good scares.

Day 16. Wolfen based on the novel by Whitley Strieber. Not your average urban Werewolf/folk-horror. Set in New York capturing the essence of the city just before corporate developers changed it's character in the early 80's.

Day 17. Dario Argento's Inferno. Second part of his Mother of Tears trilogy after Suspiria and much like that movie another mad tale of witchcraft shown to us in a visual feast of light and color. Score is by Keith Emerson. The sequence in the image above is a terrific slice of cinema strangeness.

Day 18. John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. This is a really great thriller which is all about the premise of no matter how hard you try to get through a desperate situation once you lose any chance of hope things become pointless. A great ensemble of actors are put through the wringer in this one.

Day 19. Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm. Bizarre, funny folk horror, a product of its era but most undeniably a Ken Russell creation if you've ever seen any of his films.

Day 20. Salem's Lot, aired in 1979. Thanks to my Mom, I, an impressionable 9 year old got to see it in all its nightmarish glory. Directed by Tobe Hooper it has since had a sequel and two remakes that never measure up to this version.

Day 21. Warlock. Richard E. Grant and Julian Sands play early American colonials transported through time to the present, (1989), to finish their supernatural slugfest. Lori Singer gets caught up in the ensuing mess. Big story, dumb but fun movie that went through a very troubled production.

Day 22. David Koepp's Stir of Echoes is a very effective bundle of jump scares packed into a really good story. Underated in the field of haunted house stories but well worth a visit.

Day 23. House directed by Steve Miner. House became a favorite of mine when I first saw it in 1985 with its bizarre creature effects, wonderful matte paintings done in the pre-digital analog age. A story all played for shocks and laughs that still holds up and led to three sequels.

Day 24. Peter Medak's The Changeling. A case for creating effective scares with the less is more approach.

Day 25. Vamp, directed by Richard Wenk, a terrific script with great one-liners and wonderful array of weird characters including Grace Jones adorned with Keith Haring body art. Shot on the streets of Los Angeles with a synth score by Jonathan Elias.

Day 26. William Friedkin's The Guardian. The director of The Exorcist tries his hand at the supernatural again in the early 90's with what is essentially a big budget pagan/folk horror B-movie. A gruesome effects laden serving of fun and a great performance from Jenny Seagrove.

Day 27. Dario Argento's Suspiria ranks high in the field of horror cinema based on just its style alone and especially Luciano Tovoli's cinematography. The first of a trilogy is a great watch, just go with it and be a little forgiving of some of the Italian actors english dialogue delivery.

Day 28 belongs to Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions. A tale that plays out like a noir detective story depicting the city of Los Angeles as a place riddled with supernatural and paranormal activity making the most of locations such as the Magic Castle. Holds up well despite some 90's dodgy cgi.

Day 29. The Oscar for lighting goes to whomever it was that set up all the amazing blue and orange hued illumination in this creature feature from the late Stan Winston. Feels like a story out of EC's classic horror comics and done much better than Creepshow.

Day 30 is brought to us by the late great Terence Stamp playing the Devil in Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves. A visually rich dark fairytale with the most amazing art direction on a minuscule budget.