31 Days of Horror # 21 Rosemary’s Baby (1968, dir. Roman Polanski)

Upfront disclaimer: It’s hard to talk about this film without talking about the director, Roman Polanski. In 1977 he was arrested and charged with the drugging and rape of a thirteen year old girl. Polanski has never faced any kind of punishment, and has been defended many times for his actions.

This brings up the dilemma of separating the art from the artist, which is particularly difficult with a film that’s as good as Rosemary’s Baby. As paraphrased from horror movie podcast Evolution of Horror, a film is not just the work of the director, but of all the people involved in bringing it to the screen.

However, I understand if you want to skip this one, and I’ll see you on day 22.

Now on with the review.

‘This is no dream! This is really happening!’

Young bride Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) is apartment hunting with her actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes). They find the seemingly perfect place, a recently vacated flat in Manhattan’s rather gloomy and imposing Bramford Building.

But why is there a large dresser blocking a closet door? Why are their elderly neighbours Roman and Minnie Castevet (Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon) so keen to be involved with their lives? Why did Terry, the Castevet's young female lodger fall from the window of their seventh floor apartment? What does Rosemary’s old landlord and friend Hutch discover about the Castevets that puts his life on danger?

Rosemary’s Baby is a terrifying study in coercion, control and abuse of power and it’s here (PLOT SPOILER ALERT) I want to go off on a tangent to say just how much I fucking hate Guy. He’s a selfish, egotistical, controlling, gas-lighting rapist. He won’t let see Rosemary see the doctor she wants to – he has the job and the money and she doesn’t – he controls what she reads, who she talks to, what she eats. He calls her friends ‘stupid bitches’ and oh, yeah, he sells his wife’s body and their unborn child to a Satanic cult in a deal to to further his acting career. Guy fucking sucks.

It’s Guy that makes Rosemary’s Baby truly frightening, even though he’s even more of a pathetic, needy, whinge bag than Mark from day 1’s watch Possession, a film which explores many of the same themes.

It could be theorised that Guy is manipulated by the Castevets as much as Rosemary is, but he seems pretty willing to be an active member of the cult in order to get what he wants – even if it’s as the expense of someone he’s supposed to love. Let’s not forget he also actively participates in the machinations that result in his rival going blind, and destroying his career. Props to John Cassavetes for making me hate Guy so much.

Content warning: rape, suicide (more suicide...jeez) domestic abuse, hairy faced devil baby.

Final thoughts: Fuck you Guy, you fucking fuck.

31 days of Horror # 20 Wolf Creek (2005, dir. Greg McLean)

 ‘She was good for months, until she lost her head!’

Inspired by the real-life cases of Ivan ‘Backpacker Murderer’ Millat and the 2001 disappearance of British tourist Peter Falconio, Wolf Creek is a 2005 Australian horror film that will put you off an outback holiday forever.

Ben (Nathan Phillips) Liz (Cassandra Magrath) and Kristie (Kestie Morassi) are three tourists on a road-trip to see Wolfe Creek Crater. Setting off the morning after a party with the kind of hangover that has you saying ‘I’m never drinking again’, the friends are disappointed by the gloomy, overcast day and bored by the long drive. The trip appears worth it, though, and Ben and Liz share a sneaky kiss when Kristie pops off for a al fresco shit.

There’s no-one else around, and when Ben’s fifth-hand rusty heap-of-shit car won’t start, they are very grateful that local Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) appears and offers to tow them to his place and do the repairs needed to get them back on the road.

At first Mick appears friendly, though a tad...off. He makes ribald comments and sexist, racist and homophobic jokes. Despite their apprehension the three friends try and dismiss this as Mick being an old-school rough and ready mucker type; a little creepy but ultimately harmless. Stranded hours from anywhere, they need his help and so accept his offer.

Mick of course, is a sadistic serial killer with a taste for rape and torture, and this ain’t his first rodeo. He takes them to what is possibly just one of his kill sites, a desolate and dirty assortment of make-shift buildings littered with the cars and belongings of his previous victims.

It’s not just Mick Taylor that makes this film scary. John Jarratt is great, playing Mick as the kind of person we’ve probably all met in real life. Not a serial killer, of course, but the kind of person whose 0-60 unpredictability leaves you unsure as to exactly how to behave around them.

The deeper fear lies in the vast remoteness of the Australian outback, the seemingly endless roads snaking through miles of barren, scrubby land and the stark, leafless trees. Even if you did escape Mick, where would you go? He knows this place much better than you do, and there’s nowhere to hide. If he doesn't get you, the wilderness will.

Content warning: all bets are off after the first 30 minutes.

Final thoughts: stay at home. 

31 days of Horror # 19 Stir of Echoes (1999, dir. David Koepp)

‘Does it hurt to be dead?’

Based on Richard Matheson’s (Hell House, I Am Legend) 1958 novel, this supernatural, very chilly thriller was sadly overshadowed by The Sixth Sense which was released in the same year. Both films feature a spooky little kid with who seems to know things others don’t, but that’s where the similarities end.

After Tom (Kevin Bacon, sizzling with a wiry hotness I did not appreciate at the time this film came out...21 year old me evidentially had no taste) is hynotised by his sister-in-law Lisa (Illeana Douglas), he starts having frightening visions and develops an addiction to cold orange juice. His son Jake (Zachary David Cope) tells him not to be afraid - like Cole Sear, Jake has a connection to those that have passed on into whatever is beyond the mortal world.

As Tom tries to decipher the meaning of his increasingly frightening visions and sudden ability to ‘know things’, he becomes convinced they are connected to a local missing teenage girl, Samantha (Jennifer Morrison).

His wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) is also on her own mission to find out exactly what’s going on with her husband and why he’s started doing things like digging up their back garden.

I love this film. It's autumnal colour palette, the dynamic between Tom and Maggie, how the story unfolds.  My favourite scene comes very early on, and it’s when Lisa hypnotises Tom. As he sinks deeper into the hypnosis, his chair floats above the seats of a cinema and towards the flickering screen. It’s such a striking image. 

It’s an underrated gem; eerie, compelling, sad, funny and at times, spine-chilling. The pacing is great, the compact run-time packs a lot in but keeps the plotting neat and tidy.

Content warning: sexual assault, teeth falling out, suicide (again! These movies love a suicide attempt).

Final thoughts: Kevin Bacon almost nudges Sam Neill off the Scream King top spot in this one.

31 Days of Horror # 18 The Wicker Man (1973, dir. Robin Hardy)

 ‘That’s my costume, the salmon of knowledge!’

In this OG folk horror classic, pious and tenacious police officer Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) arrives on a remote Scottish island, Summerisle, to investigate the disappearance of teenage girl Rowan Morrison.

The locals aren’t exactly helpful though. Half of them deny all knowledge of Rowan’s existence and half of them say she’s dead. Even Rowan’s ‘mother’ isn’t talking and seems very unbothered about the whereabouts of her daughter.

Howie’s investigations lead him to Daddy of the island, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) and he begins to suspect that Rowan was sacrificed in a pagan ritual by the islanders to ensure a bountiful harvest that year.

When Howie attempts to leave the island, the true intentions of the islanders are revealed in what is possibly horror cinema’s most shocking twist ending.

Content warning: Boobs. Lots of boobs. Pub garden orgies, animal cruelty, Christopher Lee cos-playing Cher. Oh, and the ending. It’s hide-behind-the-cushion scary.

Final verdict: virgins don’t always make it to the end of a horror film.

31 days of Horror # 17 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, Phillip Kaufman)

‘You’re evolving into a new life form.’

Parasitic plant spores make their way to earth to seed and grow into sweet little pink flowers.

Elizabeth (Brooke Adams), a laboratory scientist at the San Francisco Health Department, brings one of the flowers home, and shows it to her boyfriend, Geoffrey. The next morning Geoffrey seems...different. Worried, Elizabeth confides in her health inspector colleague, Matthew (Donald Sutherland).

Elizabeth sounds a tad paranoid - she’s convinced that Geoffrey, who’s off doing weird things with weird people, has been replaced with someone that looks just like him - so Matthew suggests that she speaks to his psychiatrist friend, Dr. Kibner (Leonard Nimoy).

They meet Kibner at the launch party of his latest book, who just says that men be menning and that Geoffrey’s issue is that he’s commitment phobic.

At the same party we meeting aspiring writer and spa owner Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and later his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright). Elizabeth, Matthew, Jack and Nancy form our Final Girl Four (spoiler...there’s only one final girl…) who work out what’s really going on and try and stop it.

Though this is a remake of the 1956 adaptation of Jack Finney’s 1954 science-fiction novel The Body Snatchers, and there have been subsequent versions, it remains the most iconic and enduring iteration.

The ending is one of the most famous in horror cinema and you’ll certainly have seen it, even if you don’t know where it’s from.

It’s in turns dystopian, depressing, bleak and very, very icky.

Content warning: goo, plant fannies.

Final Verdict: don't stop to smell the flowers.

31 Days of Horror # 16 Paperhouse (1988, Bernard Rose)

 'Is this snogging?’

On her 11^th birthday, Anna Madden (Charlotte Burke) comes down with glandular fever (do kids get glanular fever anymore? It feels like that was quite an 80’s illness). Dr. Nichols (the always wonderful Gemma Jones, who you’ll probably know best as playing Bridget Jones’ mum), tells Anna that she must rest or she risks prolonging her illness.

In Anna’s febrile dreams, a house she drew in her waking life becomes real. She draws a sad boy, Marc, (Elliott Spiers) in one of the windows, and he becomes real, too, except she hasn’t drawn him any legs so he can’t walk. She only drew his sad face, neck and shoulders, but for some reason he has a body but legs that don’t work? The logic in the film doesn’t logic, but I guess because most of it is set in Anna’s dreams, it doesn’t matter.

It turns out that Marc is a real-life boy, who has muscular dystrophy, which explains the reason he can’t walk. Anna and Marc are both patients of Dr. Nichols. I assume Dr. Nichols breaks the old patient confidentiality thing for purposes of the plot. Marc and Anna continue to meet in the paper house and they form a friendship, though Marc tells Anna it’s not safe for her there.

Anna’s mother Kate (Glenne Headly) is a bit of a classic 80’s mother. She’s very dismissive of Anna’s worries and dries her wet hair like she’s trying to pull her head off. She’s also inconsistent, distracted and contrary.

Anna’s dad, (Ben Cross) who doesn’t even get a name, he’s just ‘Dad’ an absent recovering alcoholic features in the house as a nightmarish spectre, though real-life dad is a bit emotionally disconnected and says stupid things like, ‘don’t get sunstoke!’ when he opens the curtains.

Paperhouse is a very weird film, and it sort of sisters with films like Return to Oz and The Neverending Story. Had I watched it as a kid back in the 80s, I would probably have it listed as an all-time favourite. It’s Penny Crayon on Night Nurse. Watching it for the first time in 2025, I struggle to see why it’s such a highly rated favourite with both audiences and critics.

That said, there is some good stuff here; the dream version of the house that Anna draws looks exactly like something a child would come up with. The dream sequences really do feel like being in a dream, with the same weird it makes sense at the time logic. There are some genuinely creepy moments and frightening jump scares.

The developing romance between Anna and Marc is very sweet, and reminded me of the innocent crushes I had on boys in school.

The bad? The carelessness of Anna’s parents really irritated me, but I think they were written like that so that you are provided context for Anna’s social isolation (she does have friends, but she doesn’t seem especially bond with people until she meets Marc).

The performances are very earnest, but I could see the acting (I’m not including the kids here, as that’s not very fair).

Have you seen Paperhouse? What did you think?

Content warning: bad daddy

Final verdict: Anna, you in danger girl.

31 Days of Horror # 15 Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986, dir. John McNaughton)

‘My momma was a whore.’

Released after serving his time for murdering his mother, Henry (Michael Rooker) moves into penitentiary pal Otis’ (Tom Towles) grim Chicago apartment. When Henry’s not working as a pest controller, he’s stalking random women and murdering them. Henry murders anyone he feels like murdering; women, children, TV salesmen, whole families.

Otis’ sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) who is escaping her violent ex-husband moves in with the pair and develops a crush on Henry which isn’t really reciprocated because, well, Henry’s jam isn’t normal relationships.

Very loosely based on real-life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole, Henry is relentlessly bleak, disturbing and very, very depressing. It’s super low budget, grimy aesthetic and naturalistic acting style make it feel like you’re watching a really twisted home movie.

As quoted from the reference book 1001 Movies to See Before You Die: "Henry evokes horror through gritty realism and excellent acting. The film is not fun to watch, but it is important in that it forces viewers into questioning our cultural fascination with serial killers.”

‘Fun’ fact: Michael Rooker remained in character for the duration of the shoot. His wife discovered she was pregnant and waited until filming had wrapped to tell him.

Content warning: rape, extreme and very realistic violence, necrophilia, the kid dies too. 

Final verdict: No man ever needs help getting something in the back of a van.