Here Are 31 Unusual Horror Movies To Enjoy This October – Arlington, VA Patch

ARLINGTON, VA Remember how a horror movie used to be the scariest thing you'd ever see? A group of Northern Virginia movie fans remember and they're planning a month of cinematic chills for you to enjoy from the safety of your own living room.

Oddball Cinema will be presenting 31 unusual and horrific movies throughout October as part of its annual Dr. Oddball's Chamber of Horrors. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the month-long festival will be presented online.

Oddball Cinema began as a meetup of fans who enjoyed watching cult and unusual movies together. In a typical month, the group would host three to four screenings at libraries and theaters in Alexandria and Arlington. When the pandemic hit, the group was forced moved its screenings online. Now they're showing three to four movies a week via virtual meetups.

"Our perception was that people stuck at home needed more home entertainment than usual, so we ramped up our frequency," said David Laughton, one of the group's organizers.

Now that Oddball Cinema is showing its screenings online, Laughton said the organizers are seeing more people from outside the Northern Virginia area tuning in. The screenings are free and viewers don't need to be a member of the group to watch a film.

"We get a lot of people watching who never sign up, and we're not aware of them until later I get emails from people saying, 'That was a great movie,'" Laughton said.

Since its founding in 2017, Oddball Cinema has always hosted a big horror festival in October called Dr. Oddball's Chamber of Horrors.

"This year, we decided to go full throttle and show a film every day in October," Laughton said. "Each film is available online, but they come from different sources."

While all movies in the festival are in the horror genre, this being Oddball Cinema, the horror element isn't always immediately obvious, according to Laughton. But by the end of the film, the horror element will become evident.

"We have 31 horror movies and I'm proud to say that we have no slashers, no zombies, no gangs of teens getting killed off one-by-one, and no titles in the form of 'The Verbing,' like 'The Crying' or 'The Reckoning,'" he said. "They're quite unusual, most of them. We have a couple of old classics, but we concentrate on films that people probably haven't seen."

Classic films in the festival include "20 Million Miles to Earth," "Carnival of Souls," and even "Basket Case."

"That one's pretty famous," Laughton said. "If the word 'schlock' hadn't been invented, it would've been invented for this one. It's a complete bonkers mess, but fun to watch."

If Laughton had to pick a favorite movie on the list, it would be "Paperhouse," the 1988 fantasy-horror with Ben Cross.

"It's weirdness attracts me," he said. "The horror is very subtle in the way it emerges. Most horror films, there's kind of an obvious protagonist and antagonist. In this movie, you're not really sure who's the bad guy or what's the enemy."

Viewers can find the full schedule of films on the Oddball Cinema website. Once a film is chosen, a description of the film pops up along with instructions on how to view it on a computer or on TV. The listing will also contain warnings about content, because some of the films may contain disturbing content.

"As long as there's a pandemic, we're going to continue to do three to four shows a week," Laughton said. "Most of these movies are available indefinitely. We began social distancing cinema back March. If anyone is interested, they can go to our events page, scroll backwards to mid-March, and if they see a title that interests them, they can probably still watch it."

To find out more about Oddball Cinema or get recommendations of movies to watch, visit their Meetup page.

Also see ...

Coronavirus Got You Down? Why Not Watch Something Odd Tonight?

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Here Are 31 Unusual Horror Movies To Enjoy This October - Arlington, VA Patch