Yes, it’s October, and yes, that means it’s time to watch something that leaves you a little unsettled. But that doesn’t mean settling for the same old slashers. (Okay… some slashers can stay. More on that below.)

This month, indie theaters dig a little deeper, offering less-screened but much-loved options like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s slow-burn detective thriller Cure and Mario Bava’s lurid Blood and Black Lace. Hollywood Theatre’s funeral parlor screening of Phantasm is sold out, but if you didn’t grab tickets in time, I recommend recreating it at home, lights off, blanket pulled tight—that’s kind of like a coffin, right? Read on… if you daaaare.

Cure

For fans of George Sluizer’s The Vanishing (1988), Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), Gakuryū Ishii’s Angel Dust (1997). 

A serial killer is arrested, and their neighbor says the same thing neighbors always seem to: The murderer seemed normal, quiet, nice. You’ve heard it before, but what drives this pattern? Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is interested in our efforts to maintain social control, and what simmers beneath.

In his neo-noir masterpiece Cure (1997), interrogation rooms and intrusive hypnosis become the backdrop for meditations on suggestion and repression. Released years before Kurosawa’s forays into techno-horror (2001’s Pulse) and anti-capitalist action cinema (last year’s Cloud), Cure remains his most unnerving and important work.

The film follows a Tokyo detective investigating a series of seemingly unrelated killings linked by the various murderers’ contact with an evasive amnesiac. One question persists: Is the man’s memory loss real, or is something more insidious at play? The mystery unfolds in long, tension-building takes with a hushed, clinical slant. In one Redditor's words, “I don't think I've ever been scared of a piece of paper fluttering in the wind until I saw this movie.” (Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, Tues October 14, 7 pm, $10, more info, not rated)

Phantasm at Ross Hollywood Chapel

For fans of Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981), Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987), horror films that are secretly about trauma.

Don’t expect Phantasm to make a ton of sense, but don’t let that deter you from it, either. Released in 1979, the first entry in Don Coscarelli’s cult franchise follows three teens in a small Oregon town who stumble across a shapeshifting mortician and his deadly chrome sphere. Known as “The Tall Man” (and played by a very convincing Angus Scrimm), he disguises himself as a sexy blonde and transforms his fingers into insects. Evil dwarves populate the Phantasm-verse, too. Lots of them.

On the surface, Phantasm is defined by its surreal, nightmarish logic (and its killer synth soundtrack). But beneath this chaos is a quieter theme: Grief. Phantasm subtly explores the main character’s mourning of his parents’ death, feeling like a precursor of modern, trauma-driven horror (Ari Aster, I’m looking at you).

Hollywood Theatre will screen the film at nearby funeral home Ross Hollywood Chapel, the curious mint green building off Sandy marked by its swirly cursive signage. (Ross Hollywood Chapel, 4733 NE Thompson, Fri October 24, 8 pm, SOLD OUT, more info, R)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

For fans of desolate small towns, Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek (2005), Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) isn’t exactly a deep cut. But there’s a reason for that. It’s a near-perfect New Hollywood-era film: Atmospheric, anti-establishment, and weirdly original, TCM wrenched the slasher genre from its hiding place in the dark of night and shoved it into the blinding Southern sunshine.

Gas stations, chickens, and the entire state of Texas have been scary since the day TCM was released in 1974. Its detached grittiness coaxed the rise of found-footage horror, and Sally Hardesty's maniacal laughter revealed the psychological toll on the final girl for the first time, a characterization that's repeated with Halloween's Laurie Strode and Scream's Sidney Prescott. I’d argue that only Alien has had a wider cultural impact on horror, but guess what? Ridley Scott cited TCM as an influence on his film. If you haven’t seen it, you should. (Cinemagic, 2120 SE Hawthorne, October 24-30, various times, $7-$9, more info, R)

Blood and Black Lace

For fans of Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971), Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio (2013).

Staged in a cocaine-dusted Roman fashion house, Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace (1964) drips with a pulpy, color-saturated eroticism that came to define the giallo genre. When model Isabella is murdered, her scandalous diary becomes a vital clue that her masked killer must find, and one they’ll kill for. Again and again.

Isabella’s swanky friends—models and hangers-on alike–pop pills and snort lines as they’re picked off one by one, looking glamorous all the while. Their murderer’s motivation is far more complex than you might expect, involving a knotty web of he-said, she-said with crime scenes styled with runway-level precision. The film strikes a rare tone of opulent sleaze, pairing silky kills with a neon pink and purple palette that paved the way for haute couture horrors like Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon (2016). (Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, Sun Oct 26, 3 pm, $10, more info, not rated)

Also worth it:

The Innocents
Jack Clayton’s ’61 horror is based on the 19th-century novella The Turn of the Screw, which follows a governess with an unfortunate gig on a haunted estate. (Hollywood Theatre, Oct 10-11, more info)

Thank God It’s Queer: Blood for Dracula
Directed by Andy Warhol’s pal Paul Morrissey, Blood for Dracula’s (1974) campy comedy-horror sees the Count reckon with Marxism and sexual liberation. (Hollywood Theatre, Oct 20, SOLD OUT, more info)

The Descent
The next time you feel the urge to spelunk into an uncharted cave system, stop yourself. (Cinema 21, Oct 24-25, more info)

Knife + Heart in 35mm
Vanessa Paradis stars in a 2018 neon-lit French horror film featuring dildo switchblades and mysterious crow feathers. (5th Avenue Cinema, Oct 31-Nov 2, more info)