leebutler Documentary, Review

Strange Journey: The Story Of Rocky Horror (2025) – Sweet

Released: 5th December
Seen: 6th December

The first time I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show was on a VHS tape while at home sick from school. For a long time I had been aware of the VHS tape that sat in the house, an impossible to miss set of ruby red lips on the cover, hovering wickedly under the words “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” printed in slightly-raised silver writing. Like everyone else on earth, I’d heard of the film before, indeed my school even taught us how to do the Time Warp at one point so elements of the film had entered my consciousness but the film itself hadn’t, so in my sickly state, I watched the film for the first time and was soon transfixed by it. It’s brilliant songs, completely mental performances and strange references that flew over my head just washed over me in that living room. Even on a crappy VHS tape, the magic of Rocky Horror worked on me, as it does for most people who see it. At that moment I joined the cult, the cult that has kept Rocky Horror in theatres and in the public consciousness for 50 years. Now seems like the perfect time to celebrate this truly insane film with a documentary and Strange Journey: The Story Of Rocky Horror is the exact kind of documentary that this classic deserves.

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leebutler Horror, Review

V/H/S/Halloween (2025) – Anything Can Happen On Halloween

Released: 3rd October
Seen: 5th October

The V/H/S franchise now sits as an astonishing 8-film series of anthology films. Those films have consisted of over 40 shorts made by nearly a dozen directors, some of whom have gone on to make some of the most important Horror films of the last 15 years. It’s an undeniable powerhouse in the horror genre that’s had its highs and lows, but the general rule is as long as the majority of the shorts are good, then that’s all that matters. So this year’s entry, V/H/S/Halloween takes the central concept of films shot with VHS cameras and makes every one of the shorts revolve around Halloween, which is a nice, simple way to link everything up. Do they work? Well, as I do every time, we’re going to go short by short.

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leebutler Horror, Review, Thriller

Halloween Ends (2022) – One Last Scare

Released: 13th October
Seen: 12th October

In 1978, John Carpenter changed the world of horror films and indeed cinema as a whole when he released Halloween. A simple but intense slasher film, Carpenter’s film was not only a technological triumph, thanks to its use of what would become known as the Steadicam shot, but one of the most tension-filled horror films to ever exist. Naturally, it spawned sequels, some good and some god-awful before eventually being revitalised in 2018 with another film called Halloween that asked the simple question “What would Laurie be like in the aftermath of such a traumatic night” and it was a genuinely great re-entry to the franchise. 

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leebutler Review

Halloween Kills (2021) – This Is Halloween?

Released: 14th October
Seen: 31st October

Halloween Kills Info

If I were to rank my favourite horror franchises, Halloween would be in the top five. Hell, I’m sure EVERY horror fan would put Halloween up there in their top five franchise list. It’s a generally good franchise that tends to be good at delivering the scares… sure it has some down parts (Curse, Resurrection, The Rob Zombie ones) but more often than not these films are good. The last one, Halloween (2018) might be one of the best in the franchise. I certainly loved it enough to give it a glowing 4 star review and have spent the last 3 years excitedly waiting for this sequel, Halloween Kills. So, let this be a lesson for you kids, never hope for anything because you will be let down every damn time. 

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leebutler Uncategorized

Halloween (2018) – No More Days Till Halloween, Silver Shamrock

Released: 25th October
Seen: 31st October

Halloween Info.png

In 1978, an unknown director named John Carpenter was given the chance to make a movie about a man in a mask who stalks babysitters. He worked with Debra Hill, who he had worked with on the film Assault on Precinct 13, and together they created Halloween. The original movie not only launched the career of Jamie Lee Curtis but it also created one of the longest running franchises in horror movie history and, effectively, created the slasher genre. Yes, there were films before Halloween that we now count as slashers, but Halloween popularised it and created a very basic formula that dominated the horror landscape for decades. If you see a horror film today, the odds are good that someone at some point will cite the original Halloween as an inspiration. It’s also a series with a timeline so confusing that it can really be impossible to follow. Say what you will about series like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th, those series were relatively good at keeping a consistent story between films. Halloween has had several story changes, major plots dropped, main characters die only to come back in the next film, a full-fledged reboot and even a departure to tell a story about witches. Hell, even THIS film is confusing enough since it shares an identical title with two other films in this franchise. It’s confusing, so let me try and ease that confusion.

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