Tag Archives: Halloween

Ranking the Horror Movies I Watched in 2025

With Halloween approaching, I have compiled a list of all the horror movies I watched this past year, old and new, good and bad, and everything in between. They are sorted into tiers based on quality and listed alphabetically within each tier. As streaming rights are always changing, check JustWatch.com to see where the films may currently be available to watch.

Tier 1: Cinematic Masterpieces

Oddity (2024) directed by Damian Mc Carthy
Oddity is about twin women, one of whom was murdered, and the other is a psychic medium who owns an antique shop that sells occult oddities. She comes to suspect that her sister was killed by someone other than the man who was arrested, so she goes to the house where the murder took place (which is possibly haunted), bringing some occult items from her shop to get revenge. Trying to explain the premise doesn’t do the film justice. It is so well done, like a horror Pulp Fiction because of the way the story is told nonlinearly via flashbacks. Rather than relying on jump scares and gore (though there is some of each), the film instead uses dread, suspense, and tension to expertly build to those moments of horror.

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Horror Movies I Watched in 2024

My annual list of the best movies 10 years or older (and the list for newer movies I’ve seen) was growing long this year—partially because I watched so many horror movies in October1—so I decided to take the horror movies from those lists to create a new compilation of every horror movie I watched this year. (The films are separated into five tiers and listed alphabetically within each tier.)

Tier 1: Cinematic Masterpieces

The Wicker Man (1973) directed by Robin Hardy

I’d been wanting to see this film for a while because it is within one of my favorite subgenres of folk horror. The Wicker Man is one of the original movies of that sub-genre and the best, inspiring later films like Midsommar. A police officer goes to a secluded Scottish island in search of a missing girl, but the townspeople act oddly with weird customs. He comes to learn they are part of a pagan cult, and the girl was possibly part of a ritual sacrifice. The final twist (which I will not spoil) is iconic. What is most impressive is how they were able to make a chilling horror film without any darkness or blood (most of the film takes place in broad daylight).

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Trick or Zombie Treat: The Revised 2nd Edition

In September of 2023 I planned to record an audiobook for my horror novel Trick or Zombie Treat (originally published in 2015) to release for Halloween of that year. However, I soon realized recording an audiobook would take much longer than I anticipated. I also realized the book needed some editing. There were a couple of typos, which were easy enough to fix, but there were other issues—not grammatical errors, but the prose just didn’t flow as smoothly as it should have. Correcting that took a bit more time and effort.

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The Reaper’s Maze and Other Halloween Treats

On my Substack, Time Zone Weird, I released my first subscriber-exclusive story, a horror novelette titled “The Reaper’s Maze.” The story follows five troublemaking teens who go trick-or-treating on Halloween night. At one house, a neighbor dressed as the Grim Reaper invites them to traverse a cornstalk maze in his backyard. Amid the twists and turns of the haunting maze, the teens discover the neighbor is more than he appears, and his Grim Reaper costume may not be a costume at all…

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Visceral vs. Cerebral Horror

As a child I was terrified of horror movies and avoided watching them. Two of my favorite movies were Jurassic Park and Independence Day, and while they were not directly horror, there were certain scenes in each film that I had to close my eyes during because I was so terrified. (They were when the raptors popped out and when they showed the alien body in the Area 51 base). Though I avoided explicit horror, I enjoyed spooky movies and TV shows intended for children, such as Disney’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?. I liked PG horror because it was merely spooky and creepy, not outright terrifying. The first true horror movie I remember seeing was Scream, which came out in 1996 when I was ten years old. Though that movie was meant to be somewhat comedic, the Ghostface mask nevertheless remained burned in my mind and gave me nightmares for months after.

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals 2020

For a limited time, discounted deals are available for several of my books.

Story Addict, my collection of 27 short stories will be on sale for $0.99 as an ebook from Black Friday through Cyber Monday (December 1).

A paperback version of Story Addict is now available for $14.99.

A paperback version of my humorous Halloween horror novel, Trick or Zombie Treat is also now available for $15.99.

Finally, Death by Self-Driving Car, my latest mini-collection of sci-fi short stories is on sale in ebook form for $0.99 from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

Top 10 Movie Influences for Trick or Zombie Treat

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My novel Trick or Zombie Treat is difficult to categorize. It can be for middle grade readers, young adults, and adults. It has horror, comedy, science fiction, fantasy, action, adventure, and drama. The characters include ghosts, zombies, vampires, werewolves, dinosaurs, basketball players, pop singers, and more. Maybe the best way to give a feel for what my book is like is to list the movies that influenced it. So without further adieu… Continue reading

Trick or Zombie Treat: Excerpt

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My Halloween-themed YA/horror/comedy/sci-fi/fantasy/action/adventure novel, Trick or Zombie Treat is now available on Amazon. It’s about five boys who go trick or treating on Halloween and magically turn into actual versions of their costumes. Read below for a sample of the first four chapters. Continue reading

TRICK OR ZOMBIE TREAT: A Humorous Halloween Horror Novel

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Like many writers, I have a list of hundreds of half-baked ideas that I hope to one day turn into full-fledged stories. One such idea was kids on Halloween transforming into actual versions of their costumes. Last September, I decided to write it as a short story, hoping to finish in time for Halloween.

Cut to one year and 66,000 words later, and my short story is now a full-length novel. Continue reading