Happy Halloween, everybody! We’re having a dreary, rainy day in Toronto today—I hope the rain lets up so everyone can have a great night trick-or-treating!

I spent most of last night sorting out Halloween loot bags (I got a roll of fruit Mentos for each bag! Man, I’d have loved trick-or-treating at my place when I was a kid.) and attaching a small toy to each bag. So today, I’m hurriedly writing out my Halloween post.

Tonight, after taking the kids out treating (well, Mr. Fivezero is handling that this year) and handing out the candy (that’s my job!), I hope to watch a scary movie, but more likely we’ll just watch an episode of The Good Place S3 or Babylon Berlin S1—neither of which is scary at all—and head to bed. It is, after all, a school night.

By the way, since I wrote that blog post about Horror Movies for Wimps, I’ve seen a couple more (not many; I’m not that brave!). Here are the 20 more of the best horror movies I’ve seen:

1. It: Chapter One (2017). This is not a Horror Movie for Wimps, by the way. It’s properly scary. But as someone who grew up with the Tim Curry miniseries, I loved this new adaptation and am too excited for the sequel, which has already started shooting in Toronto and will star James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, and Bill Hader. I’ll miss the kid actors from the first movie—they were beyond excellent! OK, the rest of the movies are definitely Horror Movies for Wimps. You’re good to go, now.
2. What We Do In the Shadows (2014). A comedy about New Zealand vampire housemates, done mockumentary style. From the same guys who brought us Flight of the Conchords and, uh, Thor: Ragnarok.
3. It Follows (2014). A really brilliantly executed indie horror movie. It really gets under your skin, but without loads of jump scares (there are a few) and too much gore (there is some). The sense of dread that builds up is incredible.
4. Train to Busan (2016). Awesome zombie movie from South Korea. Just have to get past a bit of melodrama in the beginning; the rest is totally worth it. Brings something new to the zombie genre.
5. A Quiet Place (2018). A lot more of a “fun” movie than I had anticipated, actually. It helps that real-life couple John Krasinski (who also co-wrote and directed) and Emily Blunt are eminently likable and you root for them from the start, even if they make some silly—but understandable given their situation—decisions. This is one I wish I’d seen in the cinema.
6. The Thing (1982). I actually saw the modern prequel first, The Thing (2011), and really enjoyed it. I love claustrophobic survival horror movies (Alien, The Descent, and so on) and this was done well, compared to many that are just paint-by-numbers. Anyway, I saw the original 1982 John Carpenter movie recently, and it’s funny that at the end, I thought, “Great movie! Not that original, though…” before immediately realizing that it’s because all those “similar” movies I’d seen had clearly been inspired by The Thing.
7. Green Room (2015). This is way more suspenseful than it is scary, though it’s also very realistically gory and you’ll have to be able to handle that. Brilliant fun. Stars the late Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and Sir Patrick Stewart as a skinhead.
8. Crimson Peak (2015). A couple of jump scares but overall it’s just a fun period piece supernatural mystery romp. Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, and Jessica Chastain ham it up in Guillermo del Toro’s movie. I didn’t love Chastain in this; if ever there was a role that called for a dose of Eva Green, this was it. I guess it may have been too much of a giveaway for the character, though.
9. Split (2016). I won’t spoil you but this is M. Night Shyamalan’s best movie for a very long time. I loved some of his early movies, especially Unbreakable; this is a return to fine form. Great performances from James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy, as well.
10. The Mist (2007). Somehow I missed this movie when it came out over ten years ago; it’s based on the Stephen King novel and directed by The Shawshank Redemption‘s Frank Darabont. What was I thinking?! Anyway, I’d recently watched the entirety of Netflix’s The Mist S1 (2017) miniseries (why did I do that to myself?) and thought I should watch the good version. It is better, for sure. The ending is much talked about—it’s different from the book’s ending and King himself has said he wishes he’d thought of it!—and I still don’t know whether I like it or not.
11. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). I saw all the Cloverfield movies in one go. They’re only very loosely related; 10 Cloverfield Lane is the second one, and it was not originally intended to be part of the Cloverfield series, and I actually like it the best. (Not hard; the first is inspired but low budget and feels it, and the third is just a waste of time.) John Goodman is great as always, and I am very much a fan of Mary-Elizabeth Winstead in horror movies: she’s a perfect heroine.
    From here, I’m just adding movies I’d seen pre-2015, but they didn’t make it onto my last list:
12. Jeepers Creepers (2001). Probably the creepiest of the lot, but it’s worth it. So weird, hilarious, and fun-scary.
13. Daybreakers (2009).
14. Dog Soldiers (2002).
15. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005).
16. Ghost Ship (2002).
17. Horns (2013).
18. Oculus (2013).
19. Resident Evil (2002).
20. The Wicker Man (2006). This is not a good movie. It’s not intended to be a comedy, but it’s goddamn hilarious. Thank you, Nicolas Cage.

And now, onto the review!

Halloween is a long-running series of perfumes by J. del Pozo, a Spanish fashion designer. The original Halloween perfume was launched in 1997, and it has since spawned many flankers. I’ve never tried any of them, since I’ve never actually seen any in stores, so I recently thought to buy a mini of the original online, just to review it on Halloween!

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