Tom Dahm — Horror, Nostalgia & Physical Media Collecting

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Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 48

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 48

Imagine being a horror fan in 1982. You've survived Halloween and Halloween II, you know the rules, you're ready for another night with the Shape, and then Halloween III opens with a weird mood of synthesizers, a dying man clutching a mask, and no Michael Myers

A Quiet Place Part II (2021) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 47

A Quiet Place Part II (2021) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 47

A Quiet Place Part II had to wait in silence of its own. It premiered at Lincoln Center in New York on March 8, 2020, and four days later, as the pandemic took hold, Paramount pulled it. Release dates came and went, shuffling through September 2020, April 2021, and more,

50 Days of Horror Day 46 title card for Evil Dead (2013), featuring Mia as a red-washed silhouette in a dress beside a wall scrawled with blood-red occult symbols.

Evil Dead (2013) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 46

Day 46 of 50 Days of Horror: Fede Álvarez's Evil Dead trades Sam Raimi's slapstick for pure punishment, and proves a remake can be brutal, practical, and strangely sincere.

50 Days of Horror Day 45 title card for Insidious (2010), featuring the Bride in Black, a pale, hollow-eyed ghost in a long teal veil holding a lit candle.

50 Days of Horror

Insidious (2011) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 45

Day 45 of 50 Days of Horror: James Wan and Leigh Whannell's Insidious traded Saw's gore for silence, piano jolts, and a haunted child, and turned a $1.5 million shoot into a franchise.

50 Days of Horror Day 44 title card for 30 Days of Night (2007), featuring a snarling, bald, blue-lit vampire with sharp teeth beside blood-red splatter and the film’s jagged title lettering

30 Days of Night (2007) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 44

Day 44 of 50 Days of Horror: David Slade's 30 Days of Night drops feral, click-speaking vampires on an Alaskan town during the polar night, and still might be the coldest, meanest vampire movie ever made.

50 Days of Horror Day 43 title card for Alien: Covenant (2017), featuring a misty gray mountain landscape on the left and a teal-lit crew member in a ship’s cockpit on the right

Alien: Covenant (2017) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 43

Day 43 of 50 Days of Horror: Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant is a divisive, gothic, creature-feature-meets-creation-myth that sits between Prometheus and the original Alien, and it's stranger and more ambitious than its reputation.

50 Days of Horror Day 42 title card for The Ring (2002), featuring Samara Morgan with long black hair standing before the stone well

The Ring (2002) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 42

Day 42 of 50 Days of Horror: Gore Verbinski's The Ring takes a Japanese ghost story, soaks it in Pacific Northwest rain, and gives us a cursed videotape, a ringing phone, and seven days to live.

50 Days of Horror Day 41 title card for Scream, featuring a dusk view of the Victorian-style Woodsboro house on the left and a pale Ghostface mask

50 Days of Horror

The Scream Trilogy (1996–2000) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 41

Day 41 of 50 Days of Horror: the original Scream trilogy, where Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson turned a slasher's rulebook into a conversation, and Sidney Prescott into the genre's defining survivor.

50 Days of Horror Day 40 title card for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), featuring a grainy black-and-white still of Leatherface in a rain-soaked night scene, split by a torn paper edge.

50 Days of Horror

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 40

Day 40 of 50 Days of Horror: Marcus Nispel's 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake trades the original's documentary grit for a sun-scorched, polished nightmare, and still divides horror fans.

50 Days of Horror Day 39 title card for Stephen King’s It (1990), featuring Pennywise the Dancing Clown

Stephen King's It (1990) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 39

Day 39 of 50 Days of Horror: Stephen King's It, the 1990 miniseries that put Tim Curry's Pennywise into living rooms and scared a generation with a Losers Club you'll never forget.

50 Days of Horror Day 38 title card for James Wan’s The Conjuring (2013), featuring the film’s poster art of the Perron family’s farmhouse behind a gnarled bare tree with a noose hanging

50 Days of Horror

The Conjuring (2013) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 38

Day 38 of 50 Days of Horror: James Wan's The Conjuring revived the classic haunted house story with patient craft, the Warrens, and a farmhouse that never lets the Perron family rest.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 37

50 Days of Horror

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 37

Day 37 of 50 Days of Horror: Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street turned sleep into the enemy, and gave horror Freddy Krueger, Nancy Thompson, and some of the most inventive practical effects ever filmed.

50 Days of Horror Day 36 title card for Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017), featuring a blurred teacup and spoon beside the film’s shattered-glass

50 Days of Horror

Get Out (2017) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 36

Day 36 of 50 Days of Horror: Jordan Peele's Get Out turns a weekend visit into a masterclass in social horror, and a $4.5 million debut into an Oscar-winning phenomenon.

50 Days of Horror Day 34 title card for John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place (2018), featuring the film’s poster art of Evelyn Abbott with a hand clamped over her mouth

50 Days of Horror

A Quiet Place (2018) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 34

Day 34 of 50 Days of Horror: John Krasinski's A Quiet Place turns silence into a survival rule and a family into the heart of the story, with sound design that earned an Oscar nomination

**"50 Days of Horror Day 35 title card for Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II (1987), featuring the film's poster art of a decayed, wide-eyed skull-faced Deadite

50 Days of Horror

Evil Dead II (1987) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 35

Day 35 of 50 Days of Horror: Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II blends slapstick and splatter into a manic cabin-in-the-woods classic, with Bruce Campbell fighting his own hand and a laughing room.

50 Days of Horror Day 33 title card for Paranormal Activity (2007), featuring a blue-tinted night-vision still of Katie and Micah asleep in their bed, with a 3:08:26 AM timestamp

50 Days of Horror

Paranormal Activity (2007) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 33

Day 33 of 50 Days of Horror: Paranormal Activity, the $15,000 home-movie haunting that Steven Spielberg couldn't finish in one sitting, turned a quiet bedroom and a tripod into a phenomenon.

50 Days of Horror Day 32 title card for Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000), featuring a film still of Patrick Bateman

American Psycho (2000) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 32

Day 32 of 50 Days of Horror: Mary Harron's American Psycho turns Bret Easton Ellis' notorious novel into a razor-sharp black comedy, carried by Christian Bale's unforgettable Patrick Bateman.

50 Days of Horror Day 31 title card for The Thing (2011), featuring the film’s poster art of a figure in a fur-hooded parka kneeling in a snowstorm, its clawed, mutated hands splayed.

50 Days of Horror

The Thing (2011) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 31

Day 31 of 50 Days of Horror: The 2011 prequel to Carpenter's The Thing shows what happened at the Norwegian camp, and the tug-of-war between practical and digital effects is half the story.

50 Days of Horror Day 30 title card for Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), featuring the film’s poster art of Jamie Lloyd in her clown costume beside Michael Myers’ pale mask.

50 Days of Horror

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 30

Day 30 of 50 Days of Horror: Halloween 5 is the franchise's messy, rushed, strangely lovable oddball, with a psychic link, a mystery man in black, and an October mood that still works.

50 Days of Horror Day 29 title card for Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes (2006), featuring a sunbaked desert landscape beside the film’s poster art.

The Hills Have Eyes (2006) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 29

A quick content note before anything else. The 2006 Hills Have Eyes is a brutal movie, and it includes a sexual assault sequence that many people find the hardest part to sit through. If that's a line for you, nobody could blame you for skipping this one, and

50 Days of Horror Day 28 title card for George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985), featuring a film still of screaming zombies reaching toward the camera in a fluorescent-lit corridor.

50 Days of Horror

Day of the Dead (1985) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 28

Day 28 of 50 Days of Horror: George A. Romero's Day of the Dead began as a grand finale, got squeezed into a mine, and turned into the angriest and most human zombie film of the trilogy.

50 Days of Horror Day 27 title card for Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972), featuring the film's black-and-white poster art.

50 Days of Horror

The Last House on the Left (1972) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 27

Day 27 of 50 Days of Horror: Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left is a raw, confrontational landmark that dares you to question why you watch violence, and what revenge costs.

50 Days of Horror

Dawn of the Dead (1978) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 26

Day 26 of 50 Days of Horror: George A. Romero's original Dawn of the Dead turns a shopping mall into a social x-ray, and three different cuts show how editing changes the whole mood.

50 Days of Horror Day 25 title card for Rob Zombie's The Munsters (2022), featuring Grandpa Munster, Lily Munster, and Herman Munster standing in a lantern-lit doorway beside the title text

50 Days of Horror

The Munsters (2022) | 50 Days of Horror, Day 25

Day 25 of 50 Days of Horror: Rob Zombie trades grime for Technicolor in The Munsters, a candy-colored love letter to the sitcom and a seasonal palette cleanser.

50 Days of Horror Day 24 title card for Halloween Ends, featuring a close-up still of Michael Myers' weathered mask against a dark red background.

50 Days of Horror

Halloween Ends | 50 Days of Horror, Day 24

Day 24 of 50 Days of Horror: Halloween Ends turns inward, trading body count for a study of how evil passes from one person to the next like a contagion.