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Robtober 2014

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I try to watch as many horror/suspense films that I haven’t seen before as possible. Dates and times (subject to change) are listed for any friends who want to join me.

The Devil’s Backbone

Guillermo del Toro (Spain, Mexico, 2001)

After Carlos – a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War – arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.

Pet Sematary

Mary Lambert (USA, 1989)

After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.

The Mist

Frank Darabont (USA, 2007)

A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.

Dead of Night

Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer (UK, 1945)

Guests invited to a weekend in the country share their supernatural stories, beginning with Walter Craig, who senses impending doom as his half-remembered recurring dream turns into reality.

The Woman in Black

James Watkins (UK, USA, 2012)

A young solicitor travels to a remote village where he discovers that the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.

Troll Hunter

André Øvredal (Norway, 2010)

A group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter.

Grabbers

Jon Wright (Ireland, UK, 2012)

When an island off the coast of Ireland is invaded by bloodsucking aliens, the heroes discover that getting drunk is the only way to survive.

White Zombie

Victor Halperin (USA, 1932)

A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.

Black Sabbath

Mario Bava (Italy, France, USA, 1963)

Boris Karloff hosts a trio of horror stories about a stalked call girl, a vampire-like monster who preys on his family, and a nurse who is haunted by her ring's rightful owner.

Trouble Every Day

Claire Denis (France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, 2001)

Two American newlyweds in Paris experience a love so strong, it almost devours them.

Calvaire

Fabrice Du Welz (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, 2004)

Marc, a traveling entertainer, is on his way home for Christmas when his van breaks down in the middle of a jerkwater town with some strange inhabitants.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy, France, 1975)

In World War II Italy, four fascist libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental, and sexual torture.

Society

Brian Yuzna (USA, Japan, 1989)

An ordinary teenage boy discovers his family is part of a gruesome orgy cult for the social elite.

Night of the Creeps

Fred Dekker (USA, 1986)

Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them.

Fright Night

Tom Holland (USA, 1985)

“Fright Night” sees a teenager believing that the newcomer in his neighborhood is a vampire. He turns to an actor in a television hosted horror movie show for help to deal with the undead.

The Tenant

Roman Polanski (France, 1976)

A bureaucrat rents a Paris apartment where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.

Eraserhead

David Lynch (USA, 1977)

Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.

Inside

Julien Maury, Alexandre Bustillo (France, 2007)

Four months after the death of her husband, a woman on the brink of motherhood is tormented in her home by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby.

Wolf Creek 2

Greg McLean (Australia, 2013)

The outback once more becomes a place of horror as another unwitting tourist becomes the prey for crazed, serial-killing pig-hunter Mick Taylor.

Dark Water

Hideo Nakata (Japan, 2002)

A mother going through a divorce moves into a run down apartment with her daughter. A persistent leak from above, visions of a missing girl, and other eerie phenomena become increasingly menacing as clues to a past tragedy come to light.

A Bucket of Blood

Roger Corman (USA, 1959)

A dimwitted busboy at a beatnik cafe passes off a cat he accidentally killed and covered in plaster as a sculpture, prompting a demand for more art that compels him to commit murders.

The Hitcher

Robert Harmon (USA, 1986)

A young man who escapes the clutches of a murderous hitchhiker is subsequently stalked by the hitcher and framed for his crimes.

Class of 1999

Mark L. Lester (USA, 1990)

Three ex-military robots are reprogrammed as teachers and secretly placed in a school where most students are part of organized gangs. They begin to respond violently to unruly students, and their military training starts to take over.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Robert Wiene (Germany, 1920)

Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.

The Phantom of the Opera

Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle, Edward Sedgwick (USA, 1925)

A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.

Bride of Frankenstein

James Whale (USA, 1935)

Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.

Dracula

Terence Fisher (UK, 1958)

When Jonathan Harker rouses the ire of Count Dracula for accepting a job at the vampire's castle under false pretenses, his friend Dr. Van Helsing pursues the predatory villain.

The Vampire's Coffin

Fernando Méndez (Mexico, 1958)

Graverobbers stumble upon the tomb of a vampire, who turns them into zombies to do his bidding, which is to stalk and capture beautiful women.

The Food of the Gods

Bert I. Gordon (USA, Canada, 1976)

A group of friends travel to a remote Canadian island to hunt, only to be attacked by giant killer animals which have populated the place.

Rituals

Peter Carter (Canada, 1977)

Five doctors on a wilderness outing are stalked by disfigured, crazed killers.

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors

Freddie Francis (UK, 1965)

Aboard a British train, mysterious fortune teller Dr. Schreck uses tarot cards to read the futures of five fellow passengers.

Blood and Roses

Roger Vadim (France, Italy, 1960)

A young heiress - jealous of her cousin's engagement to another woman - becomes obsessed with the legend of a vampire ancestor, who supposedly murdered the young brides of the man she loved.

The Devil’s Rain

Robert Fuest (Mexico, USA, 1975)

A satanist cult leader is burnt alive by the local church. He vows to come back to hunt down and enslave every descendant of his congregation, by the power of the book of blood contracts, in which they sold their souls to the devil.

The Manitou

William Girdler (USA, 1978)

A psychic's girlfriend finds out that a lump on her back is a growing reincarnation of a 400-year-old demonic Native American spirit.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Jack Arnold (USA, 1954)

All posts in this series

Robtober 2011

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I try to watch as many horror films that I haven’t seen before as possible.

Hostel

Eli Roth (USA, Czech Republic, 2005)

Three backpackers head to a Slovak city that promises to meet their hedonistic expectations, with no idea of the hell that awaits them.

Saw

James Wan (USA, 2004)

Two men awaken to find themselves on the opposite sides of a dead body, each with specific instructions to kill the other or… See more →

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Robtober 2012

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I try to watch as many horror films that I haven’t seen before as possible.

Corman’s World

Alex Stapleton (USA, 2011)

A documentary on DIY producer/director Roger Corman and his alternative approach to making movies in Hollywood.

Not of This Earth

Roger Corman (USA, 1957)

An alien agent from the distant planet Davana is sent to Earth via a high-tech matter transporter. There, he terrorizes Southern California in an attempt to acquire blood… See more →

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Robtober 2013

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I try to watch as many horror/suspense films that I haven’t seen before as possible. This is the first year the films were somewhat carefully selected and scheduled in advance. They span seven decades and eight countries. Dates and times (subject to change) are listed for any friends who want to join me.

Don’t Look Now

Nicolas Roeg (UK, Italy, 1973)

A married couple grieving the recent death of their young daughter are… See more →

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Robtober 2014

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I try to watch as many horror/suspense films that I haven’t seen before as possible. Dates and times (subject to change) are listed for any friends who want to join me.

The Devil’s Backbone

Guillermo del Toro (Spain, Mexico, 2001)

After Carlos – a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War – arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which… See more →

Go to this post

Robtober 2016

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a sizable schedule of horror/thriller/exploitation films, most of which I haven’t seen before. Dates and times (subject to change) are listed for any friends who want to join me. Also available as a handy Google calendar!

Don't Breathe

Fede Álvarez (USA, Hungary, 2016)

Three delinquents break into the house of a war veteran who is blind to steal his money. However, they discover that the man is not as defenseless as… See more →

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Robtober 2017

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films, most of which I haven’t seen before. Films, dates, and times (all subject to change) are listed for any friends who want to join me, and ticket links are included for public screenings. The schedule is also available as a handy Google calendar and as a Letterboxd list.

Below the schedule you can find a bit about how it’s curated as well as a roundup… See more →

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Robtober 2018

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films, most of which I haven’t seen before. Films, dates, and times (all subject to change) are listed for any friends who want to join me, and ticket links are included for public screenings. The schedule is also available as a handy Google calendar and as a Letterboxd list.

This year, Michael Myers’ imminent return to the big screen has inspired me to binge my way… See more →

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Robtober 2019

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films, most of which I haven’t seen before. Films and dates (all subject to change) are listed for any friends who want to join me, and ticket links are included for public screenings.

This year, I’ve set aside a weekend to plow through the entire Nightmare on Elm Street series (I’ve only ever seen the first three). I’m also finally finishing off (the current version… See more →

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Robtober 2020

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films to watch, focusing mostly on ones I haven’t seen before. It’s usually a mix of home viewings and public theatrical screenings, and the schedule is published both for posterity and for the sake of anyone who might like to join me. This year, sadly, the pandemic will keep me out of theaters, and guests won’t be able to join me for home viewings. But… See more →

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Robtober 2021

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films to watch, focusing mostly on ones I haven’t seen before. The schedule, a mix of theatrical screenings and home viewings, is published for posterity and for the sake of anyone who might like to join me.

This year’s batch is a little less focused than usual, drawn from new releases, repertory screenings in Philadelphia, recent additions to Time Out’s “100 Best Horror Films,” Criterion… See more →

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Robtober 2021 Design Notes

The making of a custom-designed blog post

Robtober is what I call the horror movie binge I do every October. After I redesigned my site in 2017, I started documenting the event each year with a horrifically custom-designed blog post, getting a little more elaborate each time. This post goes behind the scenes of the 2021 edition.

The data

I generate my site with Jekyll, and a custom-designed post like Robtober gets its own unique layout file. To keep things tidy, all the… See more →

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Robtober 2022

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I broaden my cinematic horizons by putting together a big schedule of horror movies I haven’t seen yet. Alas, this year’s plans have been upended by my abduction, and for some reason, my mysterious captors aren’t interested in money. Instead, their ransom demand is that people watch the movies I’ve scheduled. These dudes seem like they mean business, so if you can help me out, I’d really appreciate it. But if you’re too… See more →

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Robtober 2022 Design Notes

How to design a ransom note

Happy Halloween! Here are a few quick notes about this year’s design for Robtober, my annual horror movie marathon.

The ransom letters

The ransom note concept for the title screen came to me in the middle of the night, and I don’t remember if it was inspired by something specific. But in my subsequent research, I read the entire Wikipedia article about the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, so if that’s a knowledge hole your pub… See more →

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Robtober 2023

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films to watch, focusing mostly on ones I haven’t seen before. The schedule, a mix of theatrical screenings and home viewings, is published for posterity and for the sake of anyone who might like to join me.

I’ll often use this month as an opportunity to catch up on a franchise, and this year, for reasons surpassing understanding, the new, tenth installment of the Saw… See more →

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Robtober 2024

A month’s worth of movies to help you stay awake

Every October, I put together a big schedule of horror films to watch, focusing mostly on ones I haven’t seen before. The schedule, a mix of theatrical screenings and home viewings, is published for posterity and for the sake of anyone who might like to join me.

This year I seem to be nostalgic for the age of Satanic panic, as I’ll be doing concurrent, chronological deep dives on The Exorcist and The Omen, two… See more →

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