All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

#11 – HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR (2023)
Released on October 30, 2023, and is streaming on Shudder from Terror Films!
Directed/Written by Stephen Cognetti.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/Q_HLcTY15WY
Delving into the past leading up to the horrors that happened in the HELL HOUSE trilogy, HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR looks into the life and home of one of the people who built the Abbadon Hotel, the site where the first three films took place. When a trio of cold case investigators (Margot – played by Bridget Rose Perrotta, her girlfriend Rebecca – Destiny Leilani Brown and her brother Chase – played by James Liddell) go missing after visiting the expansive Carmichael estate, their footage taken for their documentary series is found months later and dissected by another documentary crew.

The first HELL HOUSE LLC was a wonderful little found footager that was able to recreate some of the sights, sounds, and scares one might get making one’s way through a haunted house attraction. Not only did it use the found footage template well, but it also was able to set up some great set pieces, developing thick suspense, and delivering some strong shockeroo payoffs. HELL HOUSE LLC II: THE ABBADON HOTEL perfected the model and delivered some great original sequences that added to the lore. Unfortunately, the third HELL HOUSE LLC: LAKE OF FIRE, felt somewhat repetitive and too steeped in its own lore for its own good. While I liked parts of it, I felt the series had run its course and that it could go out relatively strong without overstaying its welcome. But it’s been a few years, and it seems filmmaker Stephen Cognetti had enough time to inject some new life into the series as I found this newest HELL HOUSE LLC subtitled ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR to be quite an invigorating little spook show.

Let’s be honest, the scariest part of the HELL HOUSE LLC series are those creepy ass clown mannequins and while the HELL HOUSE LLC trilogy answered a lot of questions, it really didn’t delve into what those freaking things were and what the story was behind them. Now, I don’t know if that needed a whole movie to explain, but that’s basically what this fourth installment is all about. While we do find out about another haunted location, The Carmichael Manor, and the unsolved murder of the Carmichael Family, it basically takes what worked in the original trilogy and places it in a new locale. But honestly, the best part about these films are the various setups where Cognetti places one character alone and hearing slash seeing things, resulting in a gigantic jump scare and dammit if he doesn’t pull this off multiple times again in HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR. It’s not the most sophisticated of scares, but Cognetti makes it work over and over again.

What makes it so successful is that he gets decent actors to place into peril and the leads (Perrotta, Brown, and Liddell) are just that. This isn’t Shakespeare, but they are able to convey the feelings anyone would convey when they are alone in a house and hear something spooky and are forced to check it out. Now, this one has the leads making a supernatural podcast, so they want something to happen, which is a bit of a switch from the haunted attraction setting, but the palpable fear is communicated by these actors all the same. Using long corridors, twisting halls, half-opened doors, winding stairwells, and a foreboding woods surrounding the manor—you know, all of the usual shit that is used in a haunted house scenario, Cognetti is able to really get some solid scares from these actors and thus, it scared the shit out of me too.

Turns out, these clowns are scary and while the backstory isn’t the deepest, it fits into the lore decently. Now, I would have tossed those mannequins in the bonfire at first sight, but because they aren’t supposed to change anything in the historic home, our leads can’t do that. And while I think showing the clowns move might have been a small step too far, it does make for some absolutely chilling moments.

HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS isn’t perfect. There is a lot of backstory this one treads through and there were times when I think the lore was just too complicated for its own good. By the time Part III came out, the backstory had become too impenetrable with a lot of it left to the viewer to remember rather than the movie refreshing some necessary info. While it might have been clear to the filmmakers, the casual viewer would have seen numerous other films since the last HELL HOUSE LLC movie. This fourth installment does a better job of catching people up, so it’s not necessary to see the other films, but it does add to the experience. Still, even I, who have seen all of the films numerous times, had some trouble trying to piece how everything fit together including the new info ORIGINS provides.

That said, this is a wing-dang-doodle of a haunted house found footage movie. It contains numerous white-knuckle scenes that actually pay off. While it does utilize music, and I hate that, I guess since the film is presented in a documentary format, it is more feasible that the keyboard lead-ins were added in post. I prefer my found footage music free and ORIGINS breaks that rule. Nevertheless, I was caught up in HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR and from the looks of things, this installment paves the way for more to come. I’m all for it if Cognetti can capture the levels of tension and terror he achieves in this latest one. HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR is the perfect little spookshow dropped just in time to scare the crap out of you this Halloween.

Plus – V/H/S/85 (2023)
Released on October 5, 2024, and is streaming on Shudder!
Directed by David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Nastasha Kermani, Mike P. Nelson, Gigi Saul Guerrero.
Written by C. Robert Cargill, Zoe Cooper, Scott Derrickson, Evan Dickson, Mike P. Nelson, Gigi Saul Guerrero.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/Ke20dnbwZXs
The V/H/S series has been a lot of fun through the years, offering up some truly twisted and whacked out stories from some of horror’s biggest and brightest filmmakers and this year’s edition, focusing on the year 1985 is no exception. Looking at the lineup, I was very excited to see V/H/S/85 as it has some filmmakers I’ve had my eye on for some time and I was happy they get the chance to go nuts with the format. Many of the filmmakers were alive and renting VHS tapes during this time or at least heard about that time, and with so much of that era seen as a golden age of horror, I was hoping for the best V/H/S yet.

Turns out, there is a lot to like in V/H/S/85 and of course, like all anthologies, there are some good ones, some great ones, and not so good ones. Since many of the segments kind of fold up into each other as it all seems to be recorded on the same video tape over a monster truck rally, it’s a bit harder to distinguish one segment from the next, but nevertheless, here’s a rundown of what you’ll get if you check out V/H/S/85.

Interspersed throughout the film are segments of a Hard Copy style show called “Total Copy” directed by HELLRAISER, THE RITUAL, and THE NIGHT HOUSE director David Bruckner. Bruckner also did the popular “Amateur Night” segment of the original V/H/S. Here he uses the VHS style format well as the grainy footage shows a being that is under observation at a scientific facility. The creature looks like a boy, but he is not of this earth and Bruckner uses this investigative TV format well, building some solid tension that reminded me a lot of films like THE UGLY and even the original HALLOWEEN. It’s not the best segment, but it is the creepiest of the bunch.

We then take a trip to a lake with a group of kids out to part like they often do in these types of stories in “No Wake” by Mike P. Nelson who was responsible for the recent WRONG TURN remake and THE DOMESTICS. This segment is split into two parts and pull off some clever stuff when it comes to writing. As you get used to different scenarios popping up in the V/H/S movies, this film does a wonderful job of sewing the segments together, having parts of one segment popping up in the middle of another and then going back to the first segment again. I wasn’t a huge fan of what Nelson did with WRONG TURN, but I am really impressed with his spin on camping horror in V/H/S/85. His tale is unpredictable, kinetic, and fun all the way through.

I think my favorite of the bunch was “God of Death” from Gigi Saul Guerroro who did one of the segments of SATANIC HISPANICS that I felt was out of place, but “God of Death” fits right into the mania of V/H/S. This segment takes place during a historic disaster when an earthquake devastated parts of Mexico. Delving into Mexican mythology and following an escape crew who happen to rescue a news camera man, this segment was unpredictable and moved at a pace that reminded me a lot of the first two [REC] movies. There’s lots of gore, nudity, farting, and violence to enjoy with this one.

“TKNOGD” pronounced techno-god, was another one that surprised me. This segment was filmed in an arthousey format in front of an audience and reminded me of an old Grace Jones concert I once saw when I was way too young to be watching it. It deals with some cyberpunk themes that were popular at the time and while some of it is tongue and cheek, things get bonkers by the end. I liked this segment from Natasha Kermani who directed 2020’s LUCKY.

Finally, everything wraps up with a segment by the filmmaking team of Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill who did DOCTOR STRANGE and THE BLACK PHONE. While I really liked what the pair was trying to do here, I think their segment, entitled “Dreamkill” felt like it was a bit overthought and somewhat clunky. I liked a lot of the shocking developments as a pair of detectives investigate video tape that seems to show a murder scene that hasn’t occurred yet, but thinking about how it all worked kind of made my mind itch. It’s heady horror that delivers some scares and chills, but this segment worked the least for me.

Still, there have been some stinkeroos in the V/H/S series and none of the segments in V/H/S85 are that. The film utilizes the 1985 gimmick without being too cheesey with it, while never forgetting to pepper shocking and gory moments throughout. This latest anthology is the strongest the V/H/S series has been in a while.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2023-2024
#31 – HERE FOR BLOOD (DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS)
#30 – THANKSGIVING (THE SACRIFICE GAME)
#29 – MILK & SERIAL (LOWLIFES)
#28 – PROJECT SILENCE (FROGMAN)
#27 – THE SEEDING (DARK HARVEST)
#26 – BEEZEL (THE FRESH HELL TRILOGY)
#25 – ABERRANCE (COLD MEAT)
#24 – OUT OF DARKNESS (ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH)
#23 – ARCADIAN (A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE)
#22 – YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (GHOSTS OF THE VOID)
#21 – NEVER LET GO (LOVELY, DARK, & DEEP)
#20 – ABIGAIL (BLACKOUT)
#19 – SPEAK NO EVIL (EIGHT EYES)
#18 – BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (LISA FRANKENSTEIN)
#17 – MAXXXINE (SHERYL)
#16 – CUCKOO (AMELIA’S CHILDREN)
#15 – 15 CAMERAS (MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW)
#14 – DO NOT DISTURB (KILL YOUR LOVER)
#13 – WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS (HELL HOLE)
#12 – ALIEN: ROMULUS (INFESTED)
#11 – HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR (V/H/S/85)

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Music Written by Tim Heidecker
Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
(I do not own this music)