If the tentacles didn’t tip you off; we here at CHUD like our horror as bloody and slimy as possible. That’s why, for the entire month of October, we resolved to put together a Movie of the Day anthology consisting entirely of horror, some mainstream mixed in with the more obscure and unexpected. From some of our favorite (or not so favorite) movie monsters to one-hit wonder slasher flicks, what follows is a collection of scarier fare as diverse as it is bloody.

We hope you had as much fun reading our October MODs as we did writing them! Feel free to let us know your thoughts, as well as what you’d like to see in future MODs. The fun’s just getting started.

And a very special thanks to the incredible talents of Jeremy G. Butler, who designed those nifty theme banners for the Chewer Crewers. Clicking the quote will take you where you’re looking to go, enjoy!

Week 1: Zombies!

Return of the Living Dead
“Return of the Living Dead introduced zombies that had no redeeming grace, but they had a show of intelligence that mirrored Romero’s Day of the Dead, released in the same year.”
– Clinton Shaffer

The Video Dead
“The VHS art is certainly worth looking at.”
– Mike Flynn

Zombi 2
“The acting sucks, the script is nonsense and Fulci’s decision to dub his English-speaking and Italian-speaking actors makes the dialogue feel foreign no matter where it plays. But I’m not hating, it’s all part of the Fulci charm.”
– Tim Kelly

Nightmare City
“It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet of gore, gun battles, insane violence, nudity and aerobics!”
– Michael Monterastelli

The Living Dead Girl
“People had come to expect certain things from their zombie movies (and their vampire movies as well); so by stripping the well-worn tropes of both and combining what was left Rollin managed to turn in a movie that was, for all intents and purposes, a rather unique experience.”
– Jeremy G. Butler

Week 2: When Animals Attack!

Squirm
“In terms of a train wreck binge drinking get together where there is absolutely nothing more interesting than flesh eating stationary spaghetti, it can definitely entertain, but only with a fast forward button.”
– Clinton Shaffer

Day of the Animals
“It is complete garbage. But it is hilarious garbage — a luminary of the so-bad-its-good field.”
– Joshua Miller

Black Sheep
“There are some pretty fanciful kills and you will indeed see a man’s junk bitten off by a rabid sheep, so there’s that.”
– Tim Kelly

Link
“As Link’s libido grows more out of control, so does the horror as Jane soon realizes it’s time to stop “monkeying around” and scram!“
– Michael Monterastelli

Week 3: Supernatural!

Dark Water
“Dark Water came at the tail end of the J-horror trend, and the story formulas were getting exhausted, predictable and so formulaic that they were essentially boring.”
– Clinton Schaffer

The Sender
“Something this well-crafted and genuinely unnerving does not deserve to languish in obscurity.”
– Mike Flynn

Hour of the Wolf
“Hauntingly beautiful, maddeningly inaccessible, poetically tragic; The Hour of the Wolf is classic Bergman and a bone-chilling addition to your rotation this Halloween season.”
– Tim Kelly

John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness
“It’s not one of the master’s best works by any means, but I do believe it to be one of his leanest and most atmospheric horror films.”
– Michael Monterastelli

Haxan
“By the time the credits roll you’re left with a movie that’s almost impossible to classify as a singular thing or file into a singular genre.  The fact that it was done that way intentionally – and impeccably – means that yes, it is indeed good. “
– Jeremy G. Butler

Week 4: Monsters!

Nightbreed
“If you haven’t picked up the fact that despite the problems with this film, I still love it.  I don’t mean a high school crush, I mean I truly love it.”
– Clinton Shaffer

Mimic: The Director’s Cut
“…when it comes to mid-range films horror fans tend to be very judgmental when they’re brand new, and wildly forgiving when they’re old.”
– Joshua Miller

Night of the Demon
“It’s a so-bad-it’s-good exploitation epic that truly delivers and I consider it to be the greatest Bigfoot movie ever made. There were many.”
– Michael Monterastelli

Ernest Scared Stupid
“Director John Cherry, redefining what it means to be an auteur, works from Godard’s compacted modernism to convey the moral reckoning of Ernest, a sanitation engineer and friend of the prepubescent youth movement in his greater protestant encampment.”
– Tim Kelly

Week 5: One-Hit Wonder Slashers!

The Prowler
“Any film that special effects artist Tom Savini calls his best has to be good.”
– Clinton Shaffer

Popcorn
“The idea of setting the action during a horror movie all-nighter is brilliant and adds an extra dimension to this slasher that makes it very unique.”
– Michael Monteraselli

The Tripper
“None of the kills are very inventive, but it is fun to see our Reagan-esque killer mug for the camera and spout of one-liners in character.”
– Daniel W. Baldwin

Just Before Dawn
“This is one of many early 80’s cult favorites I had heard about for years that I had finally managed to see for the first time recently. Some stuff (like The Funhouse) let down considerably; this, on the other hand, excels as one of the meaner and more unique teenage-slayers of the era.“
– Mike Flynn

Maniac
“It’d be almost comical watching a grown man living alone hammering a wig to his beloved mannequin, but when that wig is human flesh torn from a woman’s scalp, well, it gets complicated.”
– Tim Kelly

Thanks again for reading! To paraphrase George Romero:

“Stay the fuck scared.”