UPDATE: This article was meant for Premium members, but we're having a tech issue, so it's available for everyone right now! The archive for Spookin' With Scoops is up, too.

The goal of Shocktober is to watch 31 films, but it never happens. If I'm lucky, it's a little more than half. But I love the ambition behind trying to watch so many, and when I'm forced to compile the list, it makes me to dig deep and find a selection of movies that might not have otherwise float up. No matter how many movies are watched, it's actually really helpful. It's not like I stop watching movies after October.

We're a week into Shocktober, which seemed like a good time for a checkup. I've watched four movies--Alien, ABCs of Death 2, Annabelle, Honeymoon--which puts me on pace.

Let me know what you've watched in the comments, especially if you've deviated from the list. There were plenty of other movies mentioned in the original article, some of which will show up in Shocktober 2015.

Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott

There's a scene that gets me every time in Alien. Dallas has volunteered to enter the vents in search of the creature, but it's nowhere to be found. Beep beep beep, beep beep beep. The crew is screaming at Dallas to make his escape, since it's clear the creature is heading towards him. Beep beep beep, beep beep beep. As he heads down a ladder, clutching a flamethrower, he breathes a sigh of relief, and puffs the fiery weapon to his left. The alien is there, it's boney arms waving, and it screams.

There aren't many times Alien gives you a proper glimpse of what's hiding in the dark, and it's because the suit actually looks pretty stupid. We're acutely reminded of this fact during one of the film's final shots, as the alien clutches to Ripley's shuttle, and it becomes clear it's a man awkwardly inside a suit. Because the suit looks goofy, the filmmakers were forced to be creative and selective with their shots, only giving us fleeing glimpses at what was terrorizing the crew of the Nostromo. The few times we see the xenomorph in its fully glory, we're so awed that we aren't able to digest that it looks weird.

Without getting all old man and aw shucks, it underscores what modern films, especially horror films, have lost. The advent of cheap computer graphics means we've lost a creative restraint. Working within restraints can be freeing. It's why, as a writer, I often enjoy word counts. If Alien were remade in 2014, it's hard to imagine the director wouldn't be tempted to show us what the talented folks at ILM have come up with. It would look scary, but it wouldn't last, because it'd show up over and over again.

Alien works as well as it does because it leaves us begging for more. We want to see the alien again because we don't know what the hell we just saw. How tall is it? Does it really have a tail? How'd it get so damn big so damn fast? Each encounter provides a tiny bit of new information without painting the whole picture. It doesn't matter if those choices were made because Ridley Scott understood less is more or because he realized saw a man walking around in an alien suit and sighed. The best monster movies take advantage of the knowledge that what audiences slowly dream up is far scarier than what really exists.

ABCs of Death 2 (2014) by Various Directors

The world could use more anthology movies. There's an alternate universe where John Carpenter got what he wanted with Halloween, and that franchise became an annualized celebration of new stories, rather than a tired exhaustion of the same killer. Some of my favorite stories came in smaller packages, whether we're talking about anthologies (Trick 'r Treat, Creepshow) or short stories (Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Clive Barker's Books of Blood). Horror lends itself to brevity, as the beginning and middle sections tend to be the strongest. The ending is where most have trouble sticking the landing.

ABCs of Death 2 is a little gimmicky, but in a way I can appreciate. 26 directors were asked to film extremely short pieces (some of them are only a minute or two long) based on a word in the alphabet. I don't want to spoil what the words are, since wondering where the story is going is much of the fun here. You could make a decent drinking game out of guessing them, and you'd be pretty drunk by the end of it.

Just don't come to ABCs of Death 2 looking for subtly or scares, as there's little of either to be found. Instead, ABCs of Death 2 celebrates the absurd, giving the viewer cinematic whiplash, as the stories contort in tone, execution, and presentation at a breakneck pace. There's even a claymation bit, one of the film's highlights. The moment you've fallen in love with one story, it's over. The moment you're hoping for things to move along, they do. The level of quality is all over the place, but it's all over so fast, anyway.

I wouldn't consider myself a "gore-hound" (read: someone who particularly enjoys the way horror movies will often portray and exaggerate injury), but if you're looking for a movie to make you go "oh, what the fuck!" a few times, ABCs of Death will do that. Every time a bone sticks out of a leg, you'll get me to yelp.

Annabelle (2014) by John Leonetti

Let's keep this one short 'n sweet, since there's a huge caveat about my impressions: I'd been drinking. When a horror movie passes the halfway mark, it's when everything starts coming to a head, and the tension continues to ratchet up. For a hot minute, I almost got up and went to the bathroom, but I miscalculated the extent to which my bladder had become full, and I eventually crossed a point of no return. My desire to relieve myself was equivalent to my desire to see the end of the movie, which backfired spectacularly, as I could barely pay attention without grimacing in pain.

That said, there's not much to say about Annabelle. Director James Wan has greatly contributed to horror cinema's last decade, responsible for the original Saw; the underrated Dead Silence; the overrated but generally great Insidious series; and last year's surprise blockbuster, The Conjuring. Wan was a producer on Annabelle, but didn't direct, and his longtime writing partner, Leigh Whannell, wasn't involved. It's telling The Conjuring's sequel is still a ways off. When Annabelle was announced, it felt like a movie studio trying to capitalize on a hit. Annabelle does this without really tainting the potential for The Conjuring 2.

If you're looking for a cheap scare, Annabelle will hit the mark. I jumped a few times. The story is unremarkable, despite a interesting opening involving the Manson family, but you'll have trouble remembering it after it's over. It's nothing more than a few "gotcha" moments better saved for a cheap arrival on Netflix and Redbox. You can do worse than Annabelle, but you can certainly do better, too.

For the record, my wife really liked it. What do I know?

Here are my notes about the movie, by the way. I wrote them the morning after.

Honeymoon (2014) by Leigh Janiak

While we're only a week in, Honeymoon has a chance at being the most surprising film on my list. Charming, scary, sincere, and unexpected, it's a gem. A word of warning: do not watch the trailer.

Trailer editing in the modern era is infuriating. Perhaps the data shows more people show up to a movie when so much is shown. I'm more inclined to believe movie distributors are terrified at how many different options consumers have when it comes to spending their time, so trailers try to make the movie sound as exciting as possible by spilling all the money shots up front. But as someone who loves secrecy and surprise, it means trailer viewing's a minefield, rather than a way of building early excitement.

It's hard to talk about Honeymoon and why the trailer doesn't work without spoiling what the movie's about, but trust me. When I watched the trailer after finishing Honeymoon, I was shocked. Every major beat in the film, including the ending, is there, and surprise is critical here.

Honeymoon is a slow burn, and maybe that explains why the trailer is so tonally different. Paul and Bea just got married, and have dashed off to Bea's family cabin for a honeymoon. It's implied the two don't have much money, and are happy to get away from the busy city. The two are your cliched newlyweds, lustful and nervously excited about the future. We spend half the movie with the main characters before anything weird starts happening. Even then, the first tinge of something being up is brought up and moved on so quickly, it's unclear what it actually means. The movie is fine with allowing the mystery to linger, rather than immediately showing its cards. Honeymoon slowly reveals its true nature. The fun (and terror) of Honeymoon is working out what's happening, and smiling (and screaming) when you're totally wrong.

Relatable, interesting characters tend to elevate the best horror movies, which Honeymoon recognizes. The movie sacrifices huge chunks of time in establishing who these people are, and why they're in love with each other. You don't see their whole lives, but it's easy to fill in the gaps. Paul and Bea may not be your relationship, but you know someone like them, and it's what makes the inevitable unraveling emotionally raw. So many horror movies are obsessed with the "horror" part, in which archetypes become fodder for some beast in the night, and forget to use the characters as a way to immerse the viewer.

I watched Honeymoon due to one of Patrick's tweets and it was a solid horror flick. It didn't cross too far over the "If I were in that situation I woulda left days ago" type thing that most horror movies bungle up.

I also watched Gone Girl a few days after and almost feel like it could fit into Shocktober... almost.

I'll have to check out Honeymoon.

Minor typo in the first paragraph of Alien: Says "very" instead of "every".

I actually watched Alien again for the thousandth time last night. I have to disagree about the suit. I think it looks incredible. The moment when it's blasted out of the Narcissus is just an awkward shot. One of the few really weak shots in the film.

It's been a busy week so I've slacked off on watching horror films - only seen Alien so far. I've got a week off now, though, so I hope to watch a bunch of horror films. Really happy to see you do this feature Patrick, keep it up!

Interesting read. I'll probably check out Honeymoon.

As a scaredy-cat who rarely watch scary movies, and never manage to play them, I am glad someone does and manages to write about it! I do want to watch Alien again now (hmm, I think maybe my girlfriend hasn't seen it...) and I'm going to stay the fuck away from Annabelle. Got a semi-phobia when it comes to dolls.

I did see the first ABCs of Death though, and all I can remember is this one:

Awesome.

I enjoyed this article a lot, I've only managed to squeeze two or three in so far this month but i really want to view more. Also great show last night Patrick!

I just can't really do horror stuff myself, but I still find these articles really interesting. Thanks, Patrick!

Already having saw Honeymoon, this week I checked out:

You're Next which was sort of meh, it has some cool moment but the acting and writing was so bad it was distracting.

The Sacrament which was a lot better and very creepy. Ti West's best movie in my opinion.

Alien which I saw because I'm getting Alien Isolation and of course that movie is awesome. I agree that the Alien suit is pretty bad but I still jump when that hand comes out after Ripley makes it to the shuttle.

Most of your comments re: Alien and the bad xeno suit also apply to Jaws. The mechanical shark was terrible, never worked right, so Spielberg had to rely on shots of a dorsal fin and other tricks to build suspense.

Yeah, I think Bolaji Badejo played the part incredibly well, he was really tall and slender in real life. There's some test footage around of him with just a mockup of the alien head on, still looking incredibly menacing walking through the ship's cramped corridors. The fact that "it's just a guy in a suit" doesn't really take away much from it. (There are also some really sad stories about how Ridley Scott and H.R. Giger mostly only let him interact with the other actors and crew while wearing the really warm suit. Discussions about how the alien should move and act was done privately at his hotel room.)

Bones sticking out of legs also gets me every single time. Blaaaaargh.

Never watch any trailers... they are a waste of time and always spoil things. I generally just go by a recommendation and/or the existence of a few 4 or 5 scored-star reviews and then try to go in knowing as little as possible.

Also, I liked Honeymoon a lot. My wife called it when she saw the trailer but I didn't remember much of the trailer I was left in the dark for a while, I really enjoyed that I didn't know exactly what was going on until the reveal. A horror movie being ahead of you is rare in this day and age.

If you ever get the opportunity, travel to London Frightfest (end of August festival). They showed Honeymoon this year (along with Babadook, The Guest and Housebound which I highly recommend).

I made my own list, check it out: 31 Days Of Halloween

This is the third year I'm trying Shocktober and so far I'm on track to get it done again this year. I'm trying to watch all new (to me) stuff, so I'm limited to Netflix and various bargain bin dvds. I also make my list up as I go along (it doesn't always work out quality-wise, but I feel like it keeps motivation levels high). So far this month I've watched House (not Hausu), +1 (a creepy sci-fi joint), The Craft, Jekyll+Hyde (dismal!), Fido, Shivers, and Shadow of the Vampire. They're not all that scary, but I'm a coward! The only thing I know is coming up is Poltergeist, since the dvd was 5 bucks.

Regarding Honeymoon, I don't know what I'm missing, but I just wasn't scared by it. I don't watch much horror so, maybe it was a more for people who understand the tropes. I'm going to check out Dead Silence and Coherence.

I was pleased by ABCs 2. It was still mostly average in quality, but at least all of the directors seemed to be aware that they were contributing to a horror movie this time.

And the "Z" short... goddamn, that was a strong, fucked up finish.

Definitely going to watch Honeymoon per your recommendation.

Can't wait till you watch The Loved Ones. I watched it last weekend and it blew my mind. I can't stop thinking about it. It's insane.

Another minor typo, in the ABCs of Death 2 segment: "Just don't come to ABCs of Death 2 looks for subtly subtlety or scares,"

Enjoyed Spookin' last night, looking forward to more Shocktober content!

I watched Honeymoon last night as per your suggestion and eh it was alright I guess.

I kinda guessed what it was somewhere around the half way mark I guess? There were some kind of creepy parts and a couple uneasy parts which were the highlights but I didn't think the actual result was very scary.

Haha, great notes!

But I love the ambition behind trying to watch so many, and when I'm forced to compile the list, it makes me to dig deep and find a selection of movies that might not have otherwise float up.

Sorry I don't like to bring up other peoples errors, but I just had to mention this sentence near the beginning there. It doesn't make sense. No offense, but it's a bad sentence.

Anyway, I did not follow your list. I am doing a MST3k/Rifftrax this year with 4 good horror movies once a week... thing. I am doing this because whenever I try to watch 31 movies (every year) I never do so I wanted to mix it up and try something new beyond the normal just watching a horror movie a day/31 horror movies thing.

So far the good movie I've watched was They Live. I had several thoughts on it.

Firstly, it's still a really fun movie. In my odd opinion it holds up.

I never realized this- even though he dressed up like Roddy before (on the last BLLSL). Damn! Dave Snider really does look like Rowdy Roddy Piper. That kind of blew my mind (It's been a while since I seen the movie).

It's fantastic how this movie was shot. The black and white juxtaposition serves so many purposes. If you look at the really brutal scenes (like the bank, or the news station) it looks really bad if you aren't seeing these people as invading Aliens. To the shooter (and the audience) there's a really good reason to shoot these seemingly innocuous people in the face with a shotgun. If you take the knowing away, it's almost like a mad man is slaughtering innocent people. It's such a great juxtaposition you can imagine through the way it's shot. God. Film has lost little touches like this that are so fucking good.

Why are people so opposed to putting on sun glasses? What kind of world is this? If you want to prove the glasses don't show anything just put them on!

I love that there is a 10 minute hardcore fight scene between Roddy and Keith David just because Keith David's character won't put on the sun glasses. So stupid. It's great!

I love that Roddy's face heals in the span of a few minutes in the scene right after they fight and both their faces are messed up. It seems like it's only a few hours later, but both their faces are fine. I guess putting water on his face healed it. Great!

I never understood why the southern tuxedo guy automatically assumes they are detractors and acts like he knows them. I feel like I missed something every time I watch the movie. There may be a reason and I just miss it every time.

The real twist is obvious, but the ending is good anyway because I'm a sucker for that kind of ending (I won't say it, just go watch it if you can).

Other than that I watched Werewolf, Manos (Rifftrax version), and Laser Blast.

Other than still wondering why Eddie Deezen is in Laserblast as a tough (Who thought that was a good idea?) it's still funny stuff. Later today I'm gonna watch Mutant which is a movie Rifftrax riffed and it's hilarious.

Wings Hauser... That's all that needs to be said about that (for those that don't know, it's hard to explain as he is kind of an obscure [bad] actor, but he was also the bad guy in the sequel to Beast Master).

@jaqen_hghar: That was J I believe... Jidai Geki (Samurai Movie)

I really liked Alien. There are a few other horror movies I liked like such as The Thing, Re-animator, Day of the Dead, The blob and a few others.

My favorite horror came from series like the Twilight Zone and Tales from the Dark Side.

I first saw Alien as an adult and never thought of it as a horror movie. There's that jump scare, sure, but I love it because of the amazingly influential sense of place it establishes. Great acting, oppressive atmosphere, the sense of dread when they get off the ship, the tension that the xenomorph provides... all brilliant stuff.

Also, I think he meant looking, not looks.

I just watched Honeymoon and wasn't really wowed at all. When the first light came through the windows, I thought aliens. Then when she started acting weird I thought to myself "bodysnatchers".

I was hoping to be surprised but was not at all. I did enjoy the characters though.

@patrickklepek I disagree very much about the Alien suit looking stupid. I got to see it about two years ago, up close, in the Giger Museum in Gruyere - it is an extremely menacing thing, even man-less and decades later in a display case.

There is a reason they chose the man to wear the suit that they did. While the suit is man-like, its proportions are completely wrong for what you would consider a human shape to be. That is part of the reason it creates the dread it does. It is familiar but decidedly other-worldly.

Going to re-watch Alien (again!) and give Honeymoon a try. Thanks Patrick!

With its slow build up, Honetmoon does sound a bit like Wolf Creek, a movie with a very methodical, slow pace, that pretty much exploded at the half way point. It did descent into some pretty predictable slasher-villian-with-teleportation-skills and dumb-college-kids-being-dumb tropes around the thrid act, but is still very effective. I haven't seen the sequel, though I've heard that that one is much more a traditional slasher movie, focusing 100 % on the villian.

The only horror movie I've seen myself so far is Jenifer, a trashy, 60 minute long monsterfeature directed by Dario Argento. Like Mother of Tears it's the worst kind of horror B-movie. The cinematography is beyond lazy, everybodies clothes seems like something they bought from a flea market and the titular monster woman is less scary than Milina from Mortal Kombat. I guess the movie should be applauded for its use of practical effects, though they're so half-assed, they probably wouldn't have looked much more unconvincing as CGI-effects.

Also I'm all for exploitation movies, but christ allmighty does Argento go out of his way to be as overtly sexist and gross as humanly possible.

Just wanted to again recommend

" The Signal " from 2007

Great horror with intrigue, oddity and some dark humor. Curious to see peoples thoughts but apparently no one has seen this movie....

Great read! So far, I've managed to watch Alien, Affliction, Tucker and dale vs. Evil, The Bay, and while it's more thriller than horror, Coherence.

I'm glad I passed on watching that Honeymoon trailer a while back. That's next up on my list.

Edit: Wow that trailer really did give away every beat of the movie. Fuck trailers. I liked the movie though. I think most people could guess what it ended up being about halfway through, but it was still fun to see play out.

I watched Alien this past weekend with my father (who saw it in theaters when it first was released...jealous) and I'm still amazed on how terrifying and real the atmosphere is in that movie. While the Alien itself is scary, it's the sense of never feeling safe that stuck with me the most. I have yet to see Aliens (I have seen Alien 3 & Resurrection...bleh...)

While I love Alien, every time I watch it I can't help but think that the scene Patrick describes could be improved with slight editing - the shot ends with the xenomorph stopping its movement, giving it an almost comical, jazz-hands-like "here I aaaaaam" look.

Still a fantastic movie though

I've watched some real gems so far.

Sleepaway Camp, Suspiria (I feel bad for waiting so long to watch this) and Ginger Snaps 2. All first time viewings. Those are all fantastic, inventive horror flicks that I like for different reasons.

I've also watch Carnival of Souls with super ghouls that were incredibly creepy, Death Spa a extraordinarily stupid film that is a lot of fun and David Lynch's first feature Eraserhead which I liked but not entirely sure what to make of it yet.

The only "stinker" on my list thus far has been You're Next. Nothing about that movie jived with me.

On to week two!

weird, whenever i hear someone describe a movie this way to me that seems like the exact definition of horror. tension/dread/buildup/leaving things to the imagination i'll take any fucking day over blood/gore and random creepy monsters/etc.

So far I've seen ghosts in The Awakening, Jeffrey Combs as a manical rich dude in Would You Rather, australian pre-apocalypse partying in These Final Hours, found footage vampires in Affliction and tense/darkly comic torture in Big Bad Wolves. They were all pretty good, especially Big Bad Wolves and it's not often you get to see israeli movies, let alone good ones. Shocktober off to a fantastic start, fearing a descent into horrible crap any day now.

It is really weird/awesome randomly seeing a picture of a friend (girl from the ABCs of Death 2 picture) on Giant Bomb!

As a sissy who doesn't watch horror movies, I looked up Honeymoon and a synopsis of it. Huh, that's a weird one. But yeah, the trailer I looked up does kind of reveal a lot? I guess not like, the very end of the movie, but it sure does show a lot of it. I guess a lot of the movie is about "there's something wrong, and it isn't super clear exactly what, and it happens bit by bit", but then the trailer shows a bunch of scenes from the later part where things are already going real bad, but it skipped past the part where you care about the characters at all because it's a trailer.

I really appreciate the article. Looking forward to reading the entire thing later, but may I ask, why is this article meant for subscribers only?

I hope there's a section as creepy as Iguchu Noboru's from the first ABC's of Death.

E: If you don't know who that is, he's directed such wonders as Younger Sister Really Lewd Speech Persecution, Real Beautiful Young Lady Stools - Lolita Lavatory, Beautiful Girl on The Toilet 2 - Secret Excrement,oh and Karate-Robo Zaborgar.

i don't know if you said it elsewhere but I'd really like to see a list of what your favorite horror movies are.

Those of you who are watching Argento flicks might want to hunt down Opera (1987). This movie caused me never to trust needles or door peepholes. I watched it way too young, but I think that's why it always stuck with me.

I rented Honeymoon on a whim, and me and my party loved it. Very cool and stylish take on the genre

American Werewolf in London, Silent Hill, Orphan, Brain Damage, Evil Dead, and Simpsons Tree house of horror 2 is what ive watched so far, gonna watch The Fly tonight, followed by Alien tomorrow and Aliens after that. My girlfriend and I have the same tradition, we call it Spooktober, this si deff the best time of year.

I watched Oculus and The Conjuring back to back before tuning in to the live Spookin'... Oh boy. I've been saving them for this month since they're rather high profile horror movies. It was a windy and rainy evening too, which made it even better. Oculus was a nice mindbender. It had many unoriginal scenes but it was all so well put together that I didn't care about that. The Conjuring really nailed the 70's feel. It soaked in it! Loved that about it. Great atmosphere. Just a really creepy and cozy movie, really enjoyed it.

From the list I rewatched Alien for the umteenth time and also watched Coherence, which I liked. And the rest: The Pact (okay I guess), The Tall Man (awful, not a horror movie, was fooled by the description on Netflix), The Caller (pretty good) and Texas Chainsaw (Eehh...).

Did....did you pee yourself during Annabelle?