13 for 2024!

Hello all. Hope your hangovers have subsided. Rather than do a 2024 Preview, I'm attempting something new for this year. Shit, maybe I've done this before and forgotten, I'm too lazy to look.

I'm going to list 13 movies that I plan to see this year, and then 12 months from now, I'll check back in and see where I'm at and perhaps offer a few thoughts. Hell, play along if you like.

The first three titles are highly anticipated titles from well regarded soldiers of the genre.

Pearl was my fave film of 2022 so Maxxxine has been at the top of my wish list ever since the teaser played at Midnight Madness to an MCU level ovation. Robert David Mitchell held off for a decade to hit us with a sequel we likely didn't need, but always (at least me) hoped would come. With Maika Monroe (and hopefully Disasterpiece) in tow, there's no reason to think They Follow won't be worth the wait. Robert Eggers is a titan when it comes to dark period pieces and Nosferatu is smack bang in the center of his wheelhouse.

The next three are films I missed when they were touring the festival circuit, but am eagerly awaiting their release on streaming or Blu-ray.

Ir should be no surprise to anyone that I am chomping at the bit to see Robert Morgan's debut feature, Stopmotion. Much like his short Invocation, I believe this also mixes stop-motion and live action. Sign me up. I'm also chuffed to see Late Night With the Devil. I'm definitely getting Ghostwatch vibes from this latest effort from the Cairnes Brothers. Lastly, The Man in the White Van just sounds like a cool, ripped-from-the-headlines horror movie. I have no idea of its status, the Web seems to suggest it came out around Halloween, but I have no record of its playing anywhere, except for a handful of canned reviews.

The next three I reserved for old eighties movies that, for whatever reason, I have just never got around to watching.

The Dead Pit is one I remember because of the flashing green eyes on its coverbox. I've been trying to watch it with my buddy Schwartz, but rug paternal duties and a pandemic have been putting it off for the better part of a decade. I believe the time has now come to cross it off the list. Xtro was just another Alien knock-off I passed over, but recently I saw in one of those In Search of Darkness docs on Shudder, just how many bonkers effects there were so now I'm onboard. Flowers In The Attic is one I constantly hear about how fucked up it is - or at least when they saw it way too young - and I'm all about that. Plus, Kristy Swanson.

The next three are just ones I've put on my list in the last couple of years.

During one of my friend's 24 hour Horror Marathons on Twitch, I saw a weird faux-doc called The Nobodies that was oddly engaging despite its micro budget. It was some time later that another pal told me that Jay Burleson had since made not one, but two equally genre-bending slashers called The Third Saturday in October Part 5 & 1 (yes, in that order). That's just too good to pass up.  Then, there is Dawn of the Mummy, which I saw during Nathan Boone's Trailer Trash events. It looks like weird Lenzi/de Ossorio hybrid madness from Egyptian filmmaker Frank Agrama.

Then, last but certainly not least;

My good friend Chris Nash has been slaving away in the forests of Northern Ontario for the last few years in order to bring you In A Violent Nature. I am thrilled that it will be unleashed at Sundance this month and I can't wait to get my eyeballs on it.

So, that's the 2024 Thirteen. Let's re-adjourn in December and discuss.