Welcome to the 2nd annual Noble Horror Film Festival! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here is the post from last year.
But this essentially boils down to putting together the perfect 12 hour horror film festival. From 7 P.M. to 9 A.M. the next morning… Last year I packed it with my favorites, so 2019 is going to get a bit more esoteric…
The lights are dimming. The crowd’s murmurs are dying down… The Noble Horror Film Festival is starting…
7 P.M: Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Last year we started with The Conjuring-Verse entry The Nun. This year I decided to give the spot to the newest film in the massive franchise. I just recently saw this and had a ton of fun. It’s exactly the kind of contemporary horror movie we need in this time slot.
9 P.M: Poltergeist (1982)
Poltergeist is a stone-cold classic. I don’t care who directed it, I just know that it’s amazing. It’s high energy, it’s beautiful, and it’s thoroughly haunting. It’s one of those horror films that stays quotable always. Say it with me now: They’re here…
11 P.M: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
As we head into and past the witching hour, let’s spend that time with ole’ Fred Krueger. While Dream Warriors is the most fun of the Nightmare franchise, I think that Freddy was never scarier than he was in the original. The dream imagery on display here is all low-budget goodness. Wes Craven was a boss, and A Nightmare On Elm Street is his first masterwork.
1 A.M: Oculus (2013)
Mike Flanagan is one of my favorite horror directors. Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House is a masterpiece, but before he made that show, he released Oculus in 2013. His devastating look into a family’s battle against an evil mirror remains underrated.
3 A.M: Hocus Pocus (1993)
Watch out for the Sanderson sisters… It’s hard not to love this movie. Between the three hilarious/evil sisters and our three young leads, this cast is rocking. ‘I Put A Spell In You’ is simply the best. After Hocus Pocus, we’ve got two movies left…
5 A.M: What We Do In The Shadows (2014)
When I watched this for the first time about two years ago, it was like a breath of fresh air. Taika Waititi has comedy chops for days. And this film is part The Office and part Interview With a Vampire. It’s funny and irrelevant, and it’s earned the 5 A.M. slot.
7 A.M: Halloween (2018)
I had to end the night with a Michael Myers film. Last year was the original, but I don’t have a lot of love for the other films in the franchise. But then I remembered 2018’s sterling soft-reboot. It’s everything I could want from a Halloween sequel. Three generations of Strode girls against The Shape once again? It’s the perfect way to end The Noble Horror Film Festival.
The festival is over. Go home and get some rest. And tell your friends. Because The Noble Horror Film Festival will return in October of 2020…
Logan Noble, Author 