As Halloween ticked closer, I continued my streak of horror movies, getting a little tied up with mental horror as a pit stop on the road to woodland slashers. Both The Girl Next Door and Boys Don’t Cry aren’t really horrors but they are in many, many ways the most horrifying of the bunch, as both involve woman stripped of their feminine freedom and, ultimately, their lives.Otherwise, I got a taste for the true Halloween horror with the likes of the aptly campy Sleepaway Camp, the always spooky The Omen, and a revisit of the one that started it all, Friday the 13th.

My theatrical screenings this week also had their high and lows with About Time and Man of Tai Chi far exceeding my expectations, 12 Years a Slave absolutely knocking it out of the park, and Last Vegas and Ender’s Game not quite offering the enjoyment that they should have. But enough of that, let’s weekly review.

SLEEPAWAY CAMP (1983)

With the “camp” factor cranked up past 11, Sleepaway Camp thrives on elementary school-level acting, bubbling gross out gags, and a wacky knack for sending up the horror genre. As you may have ventured from the name, this schlocky horror follows the basic cabin in the woods premise: killer running a muck, teens splitting up to cover more ground, and the occasional breast or two, all for good measure. For all of its creative inadequacies though, Sleepaway Camp takes itself as seriously as a clown on April Fool’s day, making the stupidity of the film part and parcel of the experience. Also, it packs a twist ending that is sure to leave your mouth agape and your intellect stinging. Although clearly not for all, Sleepaway Camp is a fine little camp fest for horror enthusiasts.

C

THE OMEN (1976)

You’ve got to hand it to Gregory Peck, he knows how to choose ’em. However out of his comfort zone he might be with The Omen, he leads the film with the golden bravado he’s so known for, conjuring up a chilling experience more in key with Rosemary’s Baby than Paranormal Activity. Peck plays an American ambassador who discovers that his son is the spawn of the devil and trots around the globe trying to piece together what the hell is going on. Directed by adventure legend Richard Donner, The Omen is gleefully self-serious with its material. When topped with orchestral chantings and child death stares, it’s a hell of a creeper.

B

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR (2007)

Not every headline story deserves a movie adaptation. Perhaps a result of our generational knack for gritty, the most inspiring stories often never receive the Hollywood treatment. Others are horrifying enough to burn their place in the public spotlight and make any movie adaptation little more than an exercise in masochism. This film is the later. Inspired by the true story of Sylvia Likens‘s brutal torture and murder at the hands of Gertrude Baniszewski, The Girl Next Door is a horrifying film to watch. No matter how important the cautionary tale of lost innocence and degraded humanity laced throughout this suburban hell, The Girl Next Door presents material you just would rather not have floating around in your subconscious. It’s far from poorly made and the acting, especially from Blanche Baker, is often notable but there’s little underneath this torture porn endurance test to substantiate a viewing.

C-

FRIDAY THE 13^th(1980)

It might have been there first and inspired a trove of a dozen sequels but there’s little to nothing interesting about this cabin bound slasher 30-odd years on. It’s hard to knock Friday the 13^thfor sticking so closely to the formula – because in many ways it helped invent the formula – and yet, the “been there, done that” qualities of the film outweigh all other feeling involved. Easily the most interesting aspect of Friday the 13^this the lack of Jason – who doesn’t actually appear until the second film – but even without that hulking menace, the film feels flat and uninspired.

D

BOYS DON’T CRY (1999)

Another addition to the list graphing the torment of a tortured girl, Boys Don’t Cry is so wildly effective because of the film’s balanced tone and willingness to step outside of the horror. Hilary Swank gives a knock out performance as Brandon, a natural born woman undergoing a sexual identity crisis and masquerading as a man. But Kimberly Peirce‘s film doesn’t show Swank’s Brandon as a transvestite or a lesbian or whatever she chooses to call herself. No, she’s (he’s) a person just like you or me. But regardless of how much Brandon just wants to be left to his own devices, society just can’t accept something they don’t understand. Anyone wo knows the true story knows that it doesn’t end well but Peirce actually builds a character that we can relate to and understanding before tearing them down, making it all the most difficult and poignant to behold.