2021 Moviefest Pairs: Week 1

There are five weekends in October this year.  Hooray for five legit opportunities to binge on horror. And what better way to catch up than our two-for-one Moviefest? 

I had seen 10/31 before but somehow lost track of it because it never made it to the spreadsheet (more on that another time) or a Moviefest.  When Michael Ballif (architect of fan favorite The Witching Season) was tapped to produce an episode for Part 3, I realized I didn’t know there was a Part 2 and proceeded to catch up.  10/31 is a Halloween anthology and yes, Ballif had a role, so it’s no wonder we loved it. It was the perfect pairing to our traditional start of the Halloween season.

When A Quiet Place hit theaters a few years ago, we avoided it out of fear for the lack of movie etiquette that plagues theaters.  A film that demanded silence was not likely to survive our expectations so we ignored the theatrical release - and have streamed it a dozen times since.  And what do we fear more than poor movie etiquette?  Sequels.  But we got some good tips and took a chance on A Quiet Place Part 2.  Wow.  We can count on one hand the number of times that the sequel just might be better than its predecessor, and this is one of those times.  You can stream it on premium channels like Parmount+ if you are still homebound or just too lazy to go out.  I feel ya.

After Sam Raimi bombed the reboot of The Grudge, we had some reservations about The Unholy.  Plus it totally escaped our annual preview which is backed by extensive research so where’s the love?  It may not have the comedic or unsettling elements that we love in other Raimi films like Drag Me to Hell, but there were moments. And the film is actually really good.

We celebrated the First Monday in October with a couple of media options like video cams in Paranormal Activity and vintage cams in Polaroid.  In retrospect, since Monday marked the opening session of the U.S. Supreme Court, it may have been more appropriate to have screened The Craft instead. We paired that regular with The Vault for no other reason than, honestly, both were titles that contained two words starting with “The.”  Lame, I know, but tell me The Craft isn’t a seasonal favorite or that you didn’t love The Vault.  And if you couldn’t find The Vault (or if you got the wrong one), try checking Tubi. You’ll have to deal with a couple of commercials but nothing like YouTube. .

Wednesday is date night for us, so we decided to let you choose your own date.  Annabelle or Isabelle? How about a double date with both?

And closing out week 1 is the latest installment in the book of Saw, and that is Spiral.  If you like the Saw series and you like Chris Rock, you will like Spiral. My research didn’t show any previous films with the legendary comedian in a horror role, so the watch is a no-brainer for that alone.  Come to think of it, I don’t think Cary Elwes was in a horror movie before Saw, so there you go.

Did I mention there are five weekends in October this year? Binge on!