It’s October, arguably everybody’s favourite month here at Biff Bam Pop! If you’re a regular reader, you know that covering horror is a big part of what we do here, but still, there’s something special about this month, where we can really let our spooky flags fly.
While our regular columns, such as The Wednesday Run, Figure Friday, and Gilbert Speaks, will have a horror bent, this year’s 31 Days of Horror will also highlight our favourite horror films released between 1996 and 2013. This isn’t some random era we’ve chosen; rather, it’s one that is covered in writer Clark Collis’ recently released book, Screaming and Conjuring: The Resurrection and Unstoppable Rise of the Modern Horror Movie. For horror fans and cinephiles alike, it’s a great look at the resurrection of horror into mainstream cinemas, thanks to franchises like Scream and The Conjuring, artists like James Wan and Leigh Whannell, and the late, great Wes Craven, as well as the illustrious production company Blumhouse. You can read our review of the book here, and you’ll also hear from Clark Collis later this month when he drops by with a guest post.
To kick things off, I decided to consider which of my own favourite films from the era between 1996 and 2013 I’d write about. First on my list was Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, which I watch regularly every Halloween season. However, I’ve written about that film a few times over the years, most recently in 2019 when Zombie’s 3 From Hell was hitting theatres. In my opinion, nothing has changed, which you can verify here. I will simply say that House of 1000 Corpses continues to improve with each viewing for me.
I also thought about highlighting Shaun of the Dead, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I saw that movie sitting in an empty movie theatre in Burbank, California, back in September 2004, after reading raves about it at Ain’t It Cool News back when it was first released in its native England months earlier. However, while Shaun of the Dead remains my favourite zombie film, not to mention one of my favourite overall films, the film I chose for this column’s purpose is one that actually managed to scare the hell out of me.
But not at first.
In the fall of 2009, the online horror community was abuzz about Paranormal Activity, a found-footage film from director Oren Peli that was receiving limited releases across various cities, prompting demand for screenings (you can read all about that and the film’s history in the aforementioned Screaming and Conjuring). At the time, found footage hadn’t been done to death, and the online guerrilla marketing was working wonders. So, on October 11, 2009, I, BBP!‘s JP Fallavollita, Scotty G, and our friend Denny went to a midnight screening in downtown Toronto. Expectations were high, but when the film ended some 90 minutes later, well, expectations weren’t met.
I wasn’t particularly scared throughout Paranormal Activity; it didn’t help that I found neither of the film’s two leads, Katie (Featherston) and Micah (Sloat), remotely likable. And, yeah, ok, while I may have covered my eyes during the film’s final seconds, when a possessed Katie lunges at the stationary camera with a demonic grin, overall I didn’t feel like I’d had the shit scared out of me like I’d anticipated. Scotty G and Denny agreed with me; JP was the only one who found the film frightening.
But, here’s another “but.” Allow me to repost the words I wrote back on October 12, 2009, in my and Scotty G’s original reviews of Paranormal Activity:
And then I got home. And tried to fall asleep. And I couldn’t. And when I finally did, I had nightmares that creeped the hell out of me. I kept seeing the most frightening scenes from the film in my mind’s eye. My ears kept searching around the house for any strange or out-of-place noises. When I woke up, I looked at the dog for confirmation that it was only me, my wife, and the pooch in the house. The dog offered no such consolation. Not even a wag of the tail. I was even afraid to walk down the hall to the bathroom by myself.
Now, I’m not going to say I woke up my lovely then-wife from a deep sleep and had her stand outside the bathroom door while I peed…but I’m not going to say I didn’t. I will say that for 16 years, I have remembered that reaction to a film that I originally dismissed on first thought. As a horror fan, I love a good jump scare, and believe me, I am an easy mark. But to have a movie stick with me after the final credits have rolled, to have me think about it and haunt my dreams, and make even the notion of walking down a darkened hallway an invitation to terror; well, that’s a rarity. And the original Paranormal Activity delivered those haunted goods. I still can’t watch that final scene without covering my eyes.
Over the next four weeks, we look forward to celebrating all the stuff our nightmares are made of.
Welcome to 31 Days of Horror 2025.
