2025: The Year of Holidays

Welcome back, everyone! Another year, another 31 movies in October!

I want to start off by thanking anyone who has followed along with this blog for the last year or two. Although this blog is mainly here for October, I had fully intended on writing at least a handful of reviews during the year; this particular year, however, has been quite an ordeal. I won't depress anyone but the details but it's been a long, rough, stressful, and sad year, so it's been hard to find the time to do much of anything. (I was very close to writing an entry a month or so ago- a double feature review comparing 2022's Fall and 2015's Landmine Goes Click- but some stuff went down in my personal life around then and I just couldn't. Maybe someday I'll get to those, we'll see.)

As much as I would love to save myself the 80-90 hours it's going to take to do all of this, I'm determined to keep the tradition going with 31 more horror movies. I had juggled a few ideas for a theme this year, but then my lovely wife- with whom I'll be celebrating 20 years together this month- suggested I watch movies that all revolve around a particular holiday. And once I looked up how many movies are centered around holidays (believe me, there's a LOT), I really liked the idea!

So these 31 movies are all either about, or at least partly take place on, a particular holiday. (I thought it would be fun to go in order of the holidays' place in the calendar, so we'll see how well that works out.) Now while I have seen a few of these, most of them are new to me- and many will probably be new to you all as well- so for all I know, some of them might only have a passing mention of the holiday in the script. I have no way of knowing without watching the movie. (Also, this is a bit of a spoiler, but I intentionally did not include any Christmas horror films in here. In December, you just might find out why!)

Wherever possible I'll be including a link to where the movie can be streamed online, but in a couple cases I couldn't find anything. (And if last year was any indication, some of them might be taken off streaming between now and when the review goes up. We'll see.) And, of course, this selection is subject to change for any reason I find suitable.

Oh, one more thing- I think I mentioned this in my last blog post, but for the past three years I've been making a tabletop RPG Actual Play podcast called Curse of Radiance, and we just started releasing it to the public back in May. I've put a metric tonne of my heart and soul into that podcast, so if you have any interest in tabletop RPGs, I would love it if you would check it out!

Thanks for following along, and I hope you've had a wonderful year! Enjoy!

1. Antisocial (2013) - New Year’s Eve/Day 

2. New Year’s Evil (1980) - New Year's Eve/Day

3. My Bloody Valentine (1981) - Valentine’s Day

4. Heart Eyes (2025) - Valentine’s Day

5. Presidents Day (2016) - President’s Day

6. Mardi Gras Massacre (1978) - Mardi Gras

7. Red Clover (2012) - Saint Patrick’s Day

8. April Fool’s Day (1986) - April Fool’s Day

9. April Fool’s Day (2008) - April Fool’s Day

10. Easter Casket (2013) - Easter

11. Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! (2006) - Easter

12. Arbor Demon (2016) - Arbor Day

13. The Wicker Tree (2011) - Walpurgis Night

14. Cinco De Mayo (2013) - Cinco de Mayo

15. Memorial Day (1999) - Memorial Day

16. The Blackening (2022) - Juneteenth

17. Knock Knock (2015) - Father’s Day

18. Solstice (2008) - Midsummer

19. Frogs (1972) - American Independence Day

20. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) - American Independence Day

21. The Recall (2017) - Labor Day

22. The Crow (1994) - Devil's Night

23. Late Night with the Devil (2023) - Halloween

24. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) - Halloween

25. The Halloween Tree (1993) - Halloween

26. The Purge: Election Year (2016) - Election Day

27. Thankskilling (2010) - Thanksgiving

28. Thanksgiving (2023) - Thanksgiving

29. Hanukkah (2019) - Hanukkah

30. Communion (1989) - Boxing Day

31. Y2K (2024) - New Year’s Eve/Day

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