By Anya Petrone Slepyan, Lane Wendell Fischer and Adam B. Giorgi
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox.
Leaves are falling, the temperature is dropping, and the neighborhood witches have been more active than usual. That can only mean one thing: Fall is here, and with it, spooky season!
I’ve never been a huge fan of horror movies. Usually, I’d chicken out two-thirds of the way through reading the synopsis, never mind actually watching the thing. That all changed last year when I co-hosted the Rural Horror Picture Show, a podcast that talks about how rural people and places are portrayed in horror movies. After watching about 15 scary movies in the space of a few weeks, my attitude towards the genre (and to some degree, my psyche) changed.
While I’ll probably never truly love the gorier stuff, I’ve come to appreciate the broad range of issues that horror movies address, from grief, trauma, and emotional isolation to the consequences of deindustrialization and environmental devastation. On the Rural Horror Picture Show, we discuss those themes and more. Are killer hillbillies taking revenge on behalf of Mother Earth? Why do urbanites so often get lost in rural environs to disastrous consequences, and what happens when that trope is flipped? And what are the lasting effects of these films on the communities they portray?
It’s been a year since we first released the podcast, but as this roundup shows, rural horror movies are as relevant as ever. If you haven’t heard the series yet, you can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
–Anya Petrone Slepyan
The Blair Witch Project
Twenty-five years ago, one of the earliest and most successful internet hoaxes swept its way across nascent social media platforms and the blogosphere. The hoax – also known as marketing – pertained to a found-footage “documentary” made by three students who supposedly went missing while investigating the legend of the Blair Witch in Burkittsville, Maryland. By the time it was released in theaters, the mystery and hysteria surrounding “The Blair Witch Project” was such that it became one of the most successful independent movies of all time.
With its shaky camera work, sparse budget, and tiny cast, “The Blair Witch Project” strips down the horror genre to its bones. But that doesn’t make the movie any less scary. It follows a team of student filmmakers as they search for the mythical figure of the Blair Witch, who has supposedly been haunting the children of Burkittsville for generations. But deep in the Maryland woods, the students realize there may be more to the legend than they had bargained for.
We talk more about “The Blair Witch Project” in episodes four and five of the Rural Horror Picture Show.
The Blair Witch Project is streaming on Peacock and is available to to buy or rent on digital video platforms.
–Anya Petrone Slepyan
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
This fall, Beetlejuice is back to haunt the spooky country house on the hill in the eerily charming, fictional town of Winter River, New England.
For cult fans of the 1988 classic, there’s a lot to scream about in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Tim Burton’s back at the helm, with Wynona Ryder (Lydia Deetz), Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice), and Catherine O’Hara (Delia Deetz) all returning. Plus, Gen Z scream queen Jenna Ortega joins the party as Lydia’s teenage daughter, Astrid.
No longer the only Deetz with a knack for seeing spirits, Lydia and a very reluctant Astrid return to the small town to keep the family together in the wake of a devastating loss. What awaits them in Winter River this time? Twice the spooks, double the chaos, and an ending that practically demands a threequel (which I won’t dare name, lest we summon trouble).
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is playing in theaters and is available to buy and watch at home on digital video platforms.
–Lane Wendell Fischer
Hold Your Breath
“Hold Your Breath” pulls the dingy nightmares your grandparents whispered about the Dust Bowl into the harsh light of the big screen. Set in 1933 in the unforgiving Oklahoma Panhandle, Sarah Paulson stars as Margaret, a mother desperately trying to keep her two daughters alive as black blizzards rage around them. But with every gust of wind, the lines between sanity and something more sinister begin to blur.
Paulson gives a gripping, nerve-wracking performance as a woman haunted by grief, driven to the edge by the death of her daughter Ada and the constant fight against starvation, suffocation, and — maybe — a homicidal drifter lurking in the dust storms.
Between patching up the windows and sweeping away endless layers of dirt, Margaret faces the relentless judgment of the local women’s knitting circle, whose whispers are as suffocating as the dust itself. “Hold Your Breath” combines natural disaster horror with a psychological edge, making the smallest details — like a cough — feel menacing. With an atmosphere so bleak it could choke you, this film is a slow-burn terror that makes you question what’s real, what’s imagined, and whether anyone can survive the storm.
Hold Your Breath is streaming on Hulu.
–Lane Wendell Fischer
Alien: Romulus
To this day, the first two “Alien” movies are hard to match, even if their many sequels, spinoffs, and reimaginings keep trying. In many ways, it’s a simple formula that’s only weakened by each attempt to deepen or complicate it. Take the isolation and desperation of being alone on a remote space station or alien planet, throw in a fruitless battle against the unyielding forces of nature, and build it all around a timeless “cat-and-mouse,” hunter-and-hunted” chase. In some ways that’s all you need for a great “Alien” movie, and, as far as my tastes go, the later films have been weighed down with lore, origin stories, and philosophical underpinnings that can detract more often than they delight.
One element that has worked more effectively throughout the franchise’s life is the working class perspective, wherein uncaring corporate behemoth Weyland-Yutani Corporation is our foremost antagonist more than any xenomorph. The newest installment, “Alien: Romulus,” doesn’t hold back on that front. Our characters live under harsh conditions on a mining colony, and, in one early scene, a literal canary in a coal mine serves as the catalyst for our protagonist’s decision to embark on the dangerous escapade that follows. Take those vital ingredients I mentioned at the top, throw in some not so subtle messages about the consequences of wealth and resource extraction at all costs, and you’ve got yourself a pretty solid successor to those original “Alien” films, it turns out.
Alien: Romulus is available to buy and watch at home on digital video platforms.
–Adam B. Giorgi
Immaculate
With apologies in advance for invoking the subject here, it’s fair to speculate that the upcoming election is looming in many minds as a scarier prospect than any horror movie. But as noted in our horror podcast, part of what makes scary movies connect with audiences and leave a cultural impact is how they take inspiration from our deeply-rooted societal fears and anxieties. The 2024 horror film “Immaculate” fits right into that tradition, and it would be just as at home on this list as it is here. The story sees Sydney Sweeney star as a young woman recruited to a convent in rural Italy under mysterious circumstances. It starts with a slow burn, appearing to follow the firmly established template for horror movies involving nuns. But it eventually ramps up and goes in some pretty wild directions by the end, culminating in an ending that is guaranteed to leave an impression. If reproductive rights are on your ballot or informing your vote this year, “Immaculate” might be the horror movie for you this October.
Immaculate is streaming on Hulu and available to buy or rent on digital video platforms.
–Adam B. Giorgi
Carrie
Fifty years ago, Stephen King asked, “what’s a high school prom without a little pig’s blood?” Then he wrote “Carrie,” a novel about a high-school outcast who takes revenge on her bullying classmates and abusive mother on prom night with the help of her telekinetic powers. The 1974 novel has been adapted into four films, the best of which is the original 1976 movie that stars Sissy Spacek and features a 21-year-old John Travolta.
Set in the fictional small-town of Chamberlain, Maine, the story revolves around the development of Carrie’s telekinetic abilities, and the newfound power it gives her over the students and teachers who have tormented her at school. While Carrie may end up killing dozens of her classmates (spoiler alert, it’s been 50 years), the real villain is her mother, a religious fanatic who regularly locks Carrie in a closet with an exceptionally creepy rendition of the crucifixion. It’s one of those great horror movies where the viewers’ commiseration with the blood-soaked murderess rivals the sympathy you feel for her screaming victims. Come for the fabulous ‘70s outfits and hair, stay for the impressive acting, iconic visuals, and gratuitously sexualized calisthenics routines.
Carrie is streaming on AMC+ and available to buy or rent on digital video platforms.
–Anya Petrone Slepyan
This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Previously Published on dailyyonder.com with Creative Commons License
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Photo credit: Isabela Merced as Kay in 20th Century Studios’ Alien: Romulus (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024).
