Check in here weekly to get recommendations for all things pop culture. This week we’re serving up everything you need for October. Spooky stories to tell in the dark, eye-slicing scary movies, and the music to get you in the mood to be terrified. Halloween: it’s the one time of year a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it. So get your cat ears ready with this pop culture playlist.
“Turn Off the Light, Vol. 1” — Kim Petras
Trans princess of pop Kim Petras dropped her first proper collection on Sept. 30 to give her largely queer audience the perfect eerie pop mixtape for the Witching Month. Petras has devoted herself to revitalizing the pop music of Spears and Stefani as it has gotten lost in the R&B and EDM of 2018. “Close Your Eyes” and “Tell Me It’s a Nightmare” stand out from her techno beats, giving Petras’ modern bubblegum sound an edge.
“Halloween” – In Theaters
Jamie Lee Curtis has returned to Haddonfield, Illinois to fend off masked serial killer Michael Myers one more time in the “Halloween” reboot, which is in theaters now. 40 years after their first encounter, when Myers stalked a group of babysitters on a quiet street, Laurie Strode (Curtis) among them, he returns for his revenge against Strode, her daughter, and granddaughter. The film does a good job of bringing the John Carpenter classic into the present, with bigger scares and more gore.
“The Haunting of Hill House” — Netflix
“Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it,” Netflix touts its latest horror TV series, “The Haunting of Hill House”. Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, it provides a good mixture of unsettling creepiness and compelling family drama.
“Hocus Pocus” — Coolidge Corner Theatre
This Thursday, Oct. 25, Brookline’s independent Coolidge Corner Theatre will show Halloween family classic, “Hocus Pocus” at 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m as part of their Rewind! series. The Coolidge hosts the largest number of retro movies in Boston in different film prints, popular for its cult, horror, thriller series After Midnite, every Friday and Saturday at midnight.
“A Death” — Stephen King
A short story from the Emperor of Terror, Stephen King, printed in The New Yorker in 2015 gives readers something slight but perfect for the Halloween season. “A Death”, from author of immaculate horror classics like “Carrie”, “The Shining”, and “It” allows fans of King to enjoy his work without committing to his behemoth novels.