Our Charts Already Know It's October
Nobody programmed a Halloween section into our charts, and between the October 3 and October 10 snapshots they built one on their own. Five horror titles spanning four decades and four media jumped up their rankings, and not one of them is new.
The numbers below compare each title's position on its own chart a week apart. They show where interest moved on CrossBinge rather than what sold, so treat them as a nudge toward an evening. The verdict is ours, and it comes after the list.
The one night pick
If you have a single evening, put on Dawn of the Dead. George A. Romero's mall siege is the only title here that tells a complete story in one sitting and still feels dangerous after nearly fifty years of imitators. The mall is a joke you get immediately, and the film keeps finding new ways to stop it being funny.
Midnight Mass is the better choice if you have the whole week, and the most Mike Flanagan thing Mike Flanagan has made. It asks for patience and long monologues, and pays both back in the last two episodes. Tales of Terror is the one to share with someone who says they do not like horror. Vincent Price is too much fun to be frightening for long. And if you want something for the bus, R.L. Stine's Mind Reader is a 1994 paperback about a girl who sees a skeletal hand in a shallow grave that nobody else can, and it is over in an afternoon.
The trap on the list
The biggest jump belongs to Higurashi, and it is also the worst place to start. Matsuribayashi is the eighth and final chapter of a story that only works once you have played through the earlier chapters and watched them fall apart. If the climb made you curious, begin with Higurashi When They Cry Hou: Ch.1 Onikakushi and give it one evening. You will know by the end of it whether the village has you.
