From a famous anthology film series that offers you all of Filipino lore and horror to a terrifying world where people torment you with their sinister smiles, this weekend watchlist has got your Halloween weekend covered.
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And just like that, October comes to an end in a gloomy and stormy tone. It’s as if we just blinked and an entire month passed us by. This weekend, you’re probably planning to go to your spooky parties or just chill at home to keep dry and cozy. Perhaps you want a horror flick to include in your party program or you just want to end the month feeling the freakiest ever, NYLON Manila has got your movie lineup covered with this weekend watchlist. Scroll through to know which shows are worthy of your screams.
THE GOOD NURSE
Start your weekend with this true crime movie that is as frightening as it is angering. The Good Nurse follows the story of Charles Cullen, a real-life serial killer nurse, who’s murdered hundreds of patients by covertly injecting their saline bags with insulin. Based on the true-crime book of the same name by Charles Graeber, this terrifying procedural film stars Oscar winners Eddie Redmayne, who gives a bone-chilling performance as the prolific murderer, and Jessica Chastain, who plays Amy Laughren, the good nurse who helps the authorities capture Cullen. The Good Nurse is now streaming on Netflix.
LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE
If you just want to have a good time at the cinemas, then dive into Leonor Will Never Die, an offbeat offering from Martika Ramirez Escobar that’s also full of heart. Produced by ANIMA (formerly Globe Studios), the eccentric film follows the story of Leonor Reyes, a retired filmmaker, who one day gets thrust into the world of her unfinished script after getting hit by a television on her head. While in a coma, Leonor gets to live as the heroine of her own action-filled story as reality and fiction starts to blur in her colorful imagination. Having won several awards from A-list film festivals like Sundance and TIFF, you have all the reason to catch Leonor Will Never Die on October 29 (Saturday), at the Cine Adarna in UP Diliman.
SHAKE, RATTLE, & ROLL
Nothing can ever give you that complete Filipino horror satisfaction than Shake, Rattle, & Roll, the longest-running film series in the country. Ever since 1984 up until 2014, Filipinos got to feel the thrill and scream their lungs out through SRR’s anthology movies that give us triple the fright every year. From a murderous refrigerator in Pridyider to that abominable and unforgettable sea creature called Undin in Nanay, you can immerse yourself in Filipino lore and terror on Regal Entertainment, Inc.’s YouTube channel, now that all of the SRR’s editions are available to watch for free!
BARBARIAN
Ever heard of a film about an Airbnb booking gone wrong? Barbarian is the debut film from Zach Cragger that melds the psychological horror genre with bloody gore. Tess is a young woman who books a rental home in Detroit for a job interview only to learn that it has been double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. But it just gets even stranger and spookier as Tess stays for the night and discovers something far more sinister lurking underneath the house. Starring Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård, this acclaimed film is available to stream on HBO Max and to rent on Amazon.
CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro offers you not one, not two, but eight spine-tingling tales of terror in his anthology offering, Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Challenging and reinventing the classical horror genre, all episodes bring unique horror experiences created by the masters of the genre led by Del Toro himself and other filmmakers including Ana Lily-Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), Vincenzo Natali (Cube), Panos Cosmatos (Mandy), and Jennifer Kent (Babadook). Fill your weekend with a nightmarish experience as the series now streams on Netflix.
GOODNIGHT MOMMY
A remake of the 2014 Austrian film of the same name, Goodnight Mommy is a psychological horror film that follows a pair of young twin brothers who suspect that their mother, who has undergone a face surgery and is covered with bandages, is switched with an impostor. As her demeanor continues to get weirder and more erratic, the boys’ suspicion just gets more intense, pushing the both of them to their limits. Headlined by Naomi Watts, Goodnight Mommy is ready to play with your mind as it streams on Amazon Prime.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
The depressing horror of war is foregrounded in Edward Berger’s sprawling anti-war film, All Quiet On The Western Front. Based on the 1929 novel of the same name, the film follows the story of the 17-year-old Paul, whose romantic dreams of heroism get shattered as he discovers the grim reality of life on the Western Front and the soul-destroying horror of the First World War. Staring Felix Kamerrer as the disillusioned soldier and Daniel Brühl as the German writer and politician Matthias Ezberger, All Quiet On The Western Front comes to Netflix this weekend.
HATCHING
Now, it will be hard to say a lot about this award-winning Finnish horror movie without spoiling it. So, let’s just say that Hatching centers around Tinja, a twelve-year-old gymnast who one day finds a mysterious egg. What hatches afterwards is for you to witness in a film that experiments on fantasy and body horror with a touch of some döppelganger madness. Directed by Hannah Bergholm, Hatching is now available to stream via video-on-demand on Hulu and Amazon.
HALLOWEEN ENDS
The thirteenth installment of the iconic slasher franchise and the last part of the sequel trilogy that began in 2018, Halloween Ends finds Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) as she finally confronts the murderous evil Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) once and for all in a final bloody battle. Directed by David Gordon Green, who also helmed the last Halloween titles, Halloween Ends offers you some gory goodness as it screens in cinemas near you.
SMILE
With its viral marketing campaign that has proved to be creepily effective, Smile beams with a kind of unsettling terror that will linger in and play with your head. It follows Dr. Rose Cotter (Susie Bacon), a psychiatrist who begins to experience what she believes to be supernatural occurrences after witnessing a (trigger warning) bizarre suicide of one of her patients. She is then thrust into an incredibly terrifying series of events (where people hound her with their super creepy smiles) as she confronts her troubled past to escape her cursed present. Smile now plays in cinemas nationwide.
Continue Reading: 9 Horror Movies That Will Keep You Up All Night On Halloween