FiXT Labs: Chantal’s Favorite Halloween Stories to Dream (or Die) With
Step softly, for Chantal’s House of Horror is not built of bricks and shadows, but of whispers, candlelight, and the pages of books that breathe when no one is looking. This is no carnival funhouse of cheap screams and rubber masks, this is a place where dread lingers in silence, where the unknown presses in at the edges of perception, and where the most terrifying things are never fully seen.
Her favorite stories and films are not the kind that make you jump, but the kind that stay with you long after the lights are out, the kind that twist through your dreams and return in the hush before dawn. From gothic halls echoing with secrets to eldritch horrors that refuse to be named, these are the tales that call to her when October arrives.
Which timeless horror movies never fail to give you chills?
As much as I’d love to profess my love for Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, and the other Universal Monsters (totally no favoritism here, promise), I’m going to leave them on their own little display case for now. When I think of classic horror movies, slow burn stories alongside Vincent Price’s voice and narrations immediately come to mind: House of Wax (1953), House on Haunted Hill (1959), and the Poe film adaptations – The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and House of Usher (1960). I keep these right alongside The Haunting (1963) for some of that gradually creeping “home alone with something not quite right” feeling.
While not “classic” classics, I’d also consider John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980), Phantasm (1979), and Suspiria (1977) worth honorable mention. Ghost pirate zombies, strange mysteries, and some Italian supernatural spooks, just for a little extra flavor. (And for anyone curious… yes: I have seen the remakes, continuations, and reimaginings of each and every one of these.)
What newer horror films have earned a permanent spot in your Halloween rotation?
I always keep a quiet ear out for anything that might be particularly spooky, but my Halloween-specific rotation is catered to a very specific flavor: blood, ectoplasm, and a little bit of witch’s brew (spiced, mulled apple cider). That in mind, the things here aren’t my more “regular” disturbing, psychological, or cosmic fare, but a few more recent adds would be more or less what you might expect for the season: the Hell House LLC series, Terrifier series – and I’m so glad there’s more than one now, All Hallows’ Eve, Host, and any of the VHS anthologies.
Which movies creep you out more with tension and mind games than with gore?
The less you know about it, the better, but I’m going to frontload this with Lake Mungo and a huge asterisk: don’t go into this movie expecting a horror movie, or you’ll be disappointed. Wait for an afternoon or night when you want to watch a documentary, then watch it like you would any other. If you go into it with that framing, you’ll have a very different experience that might stick around for longer than you thought, or wanted. There’s also a post-credits scene, so don’t think that roll means it’s over. 😉
If you’re looking for something that doesn’t require just the right set-up to watch, though, I do have a mix of other psychological shenanigans and thrillers: The Void is delightfully cosmic flavored with a bit of body horror, Triangle is one of those movies that you’ll end up watching twice, while Last Shift (which I prefer to its remake, Malum) and Pontypool will both try to worm their way into your skull. You have no idea how much restraint I used to not put Event Horizon on this– oops, how’d that get there?
Which movies mWhich slasher or “body count” films are your guilty pleasures to watch every Halloween?
Slashers and their many permutations are one of my favorite horror junkfoods; you know, when you don’t want to twist your brain into a pretzel with the unfathomable, but still want something to go with your slushie. I do still have a special place for Scream, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but I’m going to give you some of my junkier junk food instead.
From the more whimsical side of things, there’s the Puppet Master series. Sitting somewhere between slashers and a little something else, I’ve always loved the puppet work for these movies. If theater’s more your speed, Stage Fright (1987) might have a setting to tickle your fancy (and has a killer in a barn owl mask. Win-win), or the original Candyman (1992) with it’s slower, more methodical burn, and diabolically sweeter angle. And while you can’t go wrong with screaming, tripping, mess-fests like Hatchet or Urban Legend (1998), I’d recommend hitting up Drive Thru (2007) for a different kind of killer clown and a side of sass. I’m being completely serious, too. That movie’s become a long-running guilty pleasure.
While it’s not a slasher per-se, more of a thriller, I’d also love to throw out an honorable mention here to The Curve. College loopholes and Matthew Lillard being diabolical. That’s all you need to know.
What films with ghosts, demons, or curses get you every time?
Some of my favorite horror movies are the kind that take their time. They don’t just rush you with jump scares or a ghost going on an absolute rampage, they’re a little more quiet. They take their time to wiggle their way under your skin so they can make it crawl while you’re trying to fall asleep.
I think the curses would be the fun place to start. Noroi: The Curse finds itself on a lot of top lists, so it’s not some obscure piece of nightmare fuel, but I think it’s very well earned that spot. It has a tendency to linger and poke long after the credits roll, and I both love and hate it for that. Exhuma hits in a pretty similar way as well, for those days where you want some more demonic spectacle with your bloodline curses. In the Mouth of Madness slowly pulls back the veil between us and the cosmic, upsetting sanity’s balance, and Unrest (does anyone else remember Horrorfest’s “8 Films to Die For”?) sinks its way into your bones in some weird ways.
My highlight here, though, goes to a lesser known Stephen King story adaptation: The Mangler. I won’t spoil it for you, but go look up what an industrial mangle looks like. Did your stomach just lurch a little? Good. (Also read the short story if you get the chance – your imagination makes it so much worse.)
Which monster, vampire, or creature-filled films are your Halloween go-tos?
For Halloween, specifically, Pumpkinhead (the first one) has been a staple since I was in middle school. I’ve always loved that gangly, alien creature and how uncomfortably expressive it is. I think that’s kind of my running thing with monster flicks, too, the uncanny or “uncomfortable the longer you think about it” kind of weasel their way toward the top of my list pretty often to sit alongside really cool practical effects work. The main “monster” – you’ll understand the quotes if you’ve seen it – in The Ruins is another one of those, as are some of the designs throughout the Southbound anthology. The glowing-toothed fuzzy gorilla meatballs from Attack the Block are also super fun, if you like things to have a more fun and less terror angle.
The creature in most recent memory that got me for a little while, though, would have to be the organism from Splinter. It hits all the right notes in my book: terrifying concept, unsettling execution, and just enough of a bonus body horror twist for me to say that you probably don’t want to be eating if you’re watching it. (Or do. I can’t stop you.)
Which over-the-top, self-aware horror movies do you love for the laughs (and screams)?
I’m going to do a little dance around that pit of Deadites over there and see if I can dig up something a little… different. Like the totally not Evil Dead flavored Braindead (or Dead Alive, depending on where you live). That movie is worth watching for the lawnmower scene alone, but doubles as a good way to expand on any existing Ash-appropriate quote bank. The Reanimator movies are, while my obligatory Lovecraftian inclusion, also a blast and always in my regular rotation. (And to anyone who now has that theme pulsing through their head… I’m not sorry.)
For those times where undead viscera and gallons of blood isn’t on the menu, though, Waxwork is an absolute classic and The Frighteners casually skirts the intersection of camp, comedy, and almost entirely family friendly (in that same way Beetlejuice is). I’ll also give Rigor Mortis an honorary shout out while we’re here: it gets very dark in places, but once you see the ghost fighting sequences, you’ll understand why I’m setting it here, on an offering plate, with some snacks.
Which movies mix scares with humor in the most perfect way?
I’m going to apologize just a little here, because I don’t watch as many horror comedies as I do movies that’re so bad they’re funny, but there are a few that I like to throw at the unsuspecting. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil tends to sit at the top of the list because of its twist on the “murderous hillfolk” stereotypes and horror movie fans’ tendency for overanalysis. It’s dumb, goofy fun.
On the much, much darker side of humor, though, there are two in particular that come to mind: Black Sheep, which I warn gets both very dark and very gross in places, but also has pseudo weresheep, and Rubber, which is… about a murderous tire with psychic abilities. Don’t think about it too much, and the tire can’t remotely detonate you in front of a bunch of bored people with binoculars.
Are there lesser-known horror films that deserve more love or cult status?
This might be a case of me being away from my usual horror groups around the time it came out, but A Wounded Fawn is the first title that comes to mind. It’s a bit art housey, but the crossover of serial killer and mythology helps it stay interesting. Definitely not something that everyone’s going to like – in fact, it’s almost definitely a love it or hate it kind of movie – but I think it’s kind of neat.
In a different vein: Zydrate comes in a little glass vial, and my bonus honorable mention here goes to Repo! The Genetic Opera (not to be confused with Repo Men, which is a more “serious” take on the same movie). It’s a musical, it’s dark, it’s bloody, and it has this grungy tech goth Italian renaissance vibe that I haven’t really been able to find anywhere else. If you can find it streaming somewhere, give it a poke, but don’t go blaming me for any earworms.
Which Halloween movie do you always watch, year after year, no matter what?
There are four movies that are a compulsive must every October, and are strangely more family friendly than everything else I’ve pulled out of the movie shelf here: Hocus Pocus, Little Monsters, Sleepy Hollow… and Cry Baby Lane.
I probably need to explain that last one a little: it’s an old, made-for-TV movie that aired on Nickelodeon back in October of 2000. The movie aired once, and then promptly became lost media until around 2011. For me and a few friends, this movie was the equivalent of living out a creepypasta: we’d seen it, but no one we knew believed it’d aired on a kid’s network, because the plot was “a bit too dark”, until it’d been recovered. It now gets one annual play as a sort of victory lap that we weren’t crazy. If you’re curious, and have some time to burn, the stories around trying to find this thing are super interesting~
Which movie scares you so much that you can’t watch it alone—or maybe never rewatch it?
I’ll let you know as soon as I find one that does. 😉
Do you think Lovecraftian horror is scarier for what it shows—or what it refuses to describe?
With cosmic horror, it’s never really about seeing the vast cyclopean wastes, impossible architecture, or monsters scuttling between shadows – that’s all set dressing. What makes it scary is a combination of how small any one being is reduced to by the greater machinations of things that couldn’t care less, and the way in which it tends to give just enough to convince us to scare ourselves. Environments and monsters can both be very frightening things, but what our own minds come up with in order to fill gaps in our knowledge or perception of something is almost always worse than the thing itself; the combination of tension, dread, and being drip fed little breadcrumbs of insight is devious and wickedly effective.
I’m more likely to think of full descriptions of the horrors and locales as fascinating than scary, but if you hit me with a description as limited as “it smelled of unopened rooms, and made the sound of rabbits screaming”, it’s going to get a much different, more apprehensive, response as my brain’s scrambling to make it make visual sense. (And if you know what that approximate quote’s from, you’ve earned yourself a cookie.)
A novel or short story that terrified you more than any movie ever has:
Graham Masterton’s Walkers. I don’t think anything ever made me afraid to go out for walks before or since. Teenage me borrowed that book from my mom’s collection, read it, and promptly couldn’t be anywhere near brick or concrete surfaces without straining my ears for out of place noises for a solid few days after finishing the book. The phrase “tomato puree” has also taken on a permanent, all new meaning to me that will never go away.
Which author best captures that sense of creeping dread or gothic unease?
“Best”s and “favorite”s are two things I’m never all that great at, so I’ll toss you a small handful. The aforementioned Graham Masterton is one of my frequent go-tos, but James Herbert and Robert R. McCammon are also excellent masters of atmosphere alongside their surreal tales. Both Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers also fit the list in their own ways, but I’ll keep them more in my list of obvious honorable mentions. 😉
If you could see one horror novel perfectly adapted to film, what would it be?
While Walkers is definitely a top contender (because I don’t know how no one’s tried to yet), I don’t think there’s a direct “perfect” adaptation I’d want to see. I would, however, love to see what someone would do by taking aspects of Chambers’ The King in Yellow and seeing how they’d be adapted to the screen. It’s a short piece, but go read Cassilda’s Song and tell me that the gears don’t start turning for some strange Carcosean adventure. Or don’t – wouldn’t want to go spreading The Sign’s all-consuming influence too far.
