Halloween Spooktacular

With Halloween just around the corner, the badly-named Peacock (NBC’s streaming service) premiered Crystal Lake on their network on October 15, 2026. The series is a prequel to Friday the 13th. I know what you’re thinking… WHY?

Despite getting positive reviews from critics, I have to say that I’m struggling to watch this A24-produced series. For one, I don’t really care to know about the backstory on Jason’s mother and what drove her to murder people. And two, Jason (as the undying killing zombie machine) isn’t really a thing.

What I do like is the unapologetic disgusting deaths. I guess if you have to suffer through bad story, at least give us gore… and they show it all, teeth and flesh. Gross.

If you’ve never seen the first Friday the 13th movie, it’s about a series of gruesome murders at Camp Crystal Lake. At the end of the movie, you found out the real killer was the mother of a drowned camp-goer. Jason (the hockey mask-wearing killer) doesn’t really establish the franchise until the second movie.

Jason is killed off early in the series, and it sets his mother, Pam Voorhees on this revenge path. It’s the 70’s and there are hippies and disco.

Half way into the series, it’s less about the camp, and more about Pam running from her past. There is an evil corporation that was responsible for Jason’s deformity (and his super human strength) is trying to bring Pam back to the corporation in Texas. While it’s interesting, and it does make sense… but did we really need a whole television show to explain this backstory? This could have been done with a newspaper clipping in a future Friday the 13th movie.

While the show wasn’t really enjoyable for me, I think there’s some really interesting things in the show for Friday the 13th fans to enjoy. Like I said, those deaths are pretty nutso, worthy of Friday the 13th status.

Hokum (2026)

This Irish horror movie, Hokum, came out earlier this year, but recently released on Bluray in August 2026. I believe this is Damian McCarthy’s third horror film, his previous movie, Oddity was also an Irish horror film.

If you like a good old fashion ghost story, this one is it. It’s full of suspense, and generally had me on the edge of my seat. There is a supernatural element to the film that is done really well. Sometimes, the scariest thing is to show a darkened room with an audio of a terrified woman. No special effects, just heart-pounding scary noises.

The story starts off a story about a father and a son looking for something in the desert. It ends badly, and you see that it’s from the imagination of a writer. I guess his father recently passed away and he discovered an old photo of his beloved mother standing in front of a tree from Ireland. He decides to go to that location to leave his parents ashes there.

The real mystery started with a missing staff member at his inn, on Halloween. The writer, trying to figure out the where she could have gone, ends up in the forbidden Honeymoon suite. The room was locked up for years because it was believed to be haunted.

One of the things I didn’t like about the writer is written like a typical American jerk. I know it’s his character, but I really didn’t like him (or at least the way he’s written).

P.S. There was this flashback in the middle of the movie that was fairly obviously what it was about. When they confirmed what it was, I thought, “I knew it.” Even though I had guessed it, I never thought it was stupid.

Never After Dark (ネバーアフターダーク) (2026)

This is a Japanese ghost story, Never After Dark… but it wasn’t written or directed by a Japanese person… instead it’s by an American named Danny Boyle, who previously only directed films about or featuring Japanese cast. That’s weird, it’s like how Gareth Evans, a Welsh, only directs Indonesian martial arts films like Merantau and The Raid.

Never After Dark is about a travelling psychic named Airi. She travels around Japan, with the spirit of her dead sister, and she tries to help lay other spirits to rest. She explains, in the movie, that she has this ability to cross over to the “veil” and talks to the spirits and find out why they still haunt the living. Her latest job is from an owner of a large house. She said the place is haunted and would like Airi to expel the spirit.

While the mother is superstitious, her son, is not. Airi asks them to leave the house to let her do her thing. Sure, enough, the house, formerly a hotel, is haunted.

I don’t want to give away too much, but the spirit that haunts the home … is not the typical ghosts that Airi has encounter in the past. I understood what it was and how we got there… but it just didn’t make any sense the more you think about it.

Still, this is a self-contain ghost story. I do like Airi and this world, so I hope they make another film starring the same psychic medium (and her dead sister sidekick)… but based on the ending, I don’t think we’re going to get another film.

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