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Spiral (AKA Rasen) (1998)

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HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 Director: Joji Iida Writers: Joji Iida, based on the novel by Koji Suzuki Stars: Koichi Sato, Miki Nakatani, Hinako Saeki, Shingo Tsurumi, Shigemitsu Ogi, Yutaka Matsushige, Daisuke Ban, Naoaki Manabe, Naoto Adachi It seems I enjoyed this sequel to the terrific "Ringu" more than many other reviewers but still found it to be a failure in the end.  Medical examiner Mitsuo Ando (Koichi Sato), grief-stricken over the recent death of his son and the subsequent loss of his wife, conducts the autopsy on his friend Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada), the psychic who died at the end of the first film.  He is drawn into the orbit of the Ring virus by a post-mortem communication from his old friend.  Much of this quietly dramatic film is very powerful, but the story becomes increasingly outlandish as it progresses.  Sato is outstanding, but he is undone by the screenplay and Joji Iida's direction.
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Children of the Corn (1984)

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  HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 Director: Fritz Kiersch Writers: George Goldsmith, based on the short story by Stephen King Stars: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, AnneMarie McEvoy, Julie Maddalena A young couple (Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton) find themselves in the seemingly abandoned town of Gatlin, where a cult of children has killed all the adults and worship something that lives in the cornfields.  This film has its moments if you can put your brain on hold from beginning to end.  The protagonists have to make every stereotypical horror movie dumb choice in order to put themselves into danger.  It was hard to figure out if the creature was something that crawled around under the ground or a cloud of bad 80s special effects that blew through the air.  The prologue that set up the events of the film was effective and gave me hope that it might live up to the classic status that some have given it.  How...
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It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023)

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  HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 Director: Tyler MacIntyre Writer: Michael Kennedy Stars: Jane Widdop, Joel HcHale, Justin Long, Jess McLeod, Katherine Isabelle, Aiden Howard, Erin Boyes, Sean Depner, Zenia Marshall This horror twist on the heartwarming Capra classic gets off to an eventful start by beginning where most slasher films end.  Our final girl hero, Winnie (Jane Widdop), unmasks and electrocutes the killer known as the Angel within the first ten minutes.  Traumatized, she numbly watches her family and the rest of the town go on with their lives, seeming to bounce back while she finds everything drained of meaning.  Finally, she wishes to the Northern Lights that she had never been born and, in the long tradition of Christmas movies, her wish is granted.  However, if she was never born, then she was never there to stop the Angel, and apparently no one else was either, because she finds herself in an alternate reality where she is unknown and her town lives in ...
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Exhuma (2024)

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  HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 Writer / Director: Jang Jae-hyun Stars: Choi Min-sik, Kim, Go-eun, Yoo Hai Jin, Lee Do-hyun, Kim Jae-cheol, Kim Sun-young, Kim Ji-an, Jung Sang-cheol, Jeon Jin-ki, Kim Min-joon Two young shamans (Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun), a feng shui expert (Choi Min-sik), and an undertaker (Yoo Hae-jin) are hired to investigate a wealthy family’s supernatural affliction connected to an ancestral grave.  What begins as an exhumation ritual gradually turns into a confrontation with buried historical trauma and a much older evil beneath the soil.  This film has a distinctive identity, built from rituals, symbols, burial customs, shamanism, geomancy, family curses, and folklore that give the horror a texture rarely found in more generic supernatural films.  Its ritual sequences are especially memorable, staged with conviction that communicates the weight of belief even when the details are unfamiliar.  The performances help ground a story that could easi...
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