Editorial Picks: The Best of October '24

Editorial Picks: The Best of October '24

- By Creative Team

From documentaries delving deep into iconic horror films to a potential album of the year candidate from Tyler, The Creator - this is what you might have missed during the Halloween hoopla.

THE PENGUIN (MAX)

What else is there to say about Lauren LeFranc’s The Batman spinoff series other than it’s the best series to debut in years. The acting is flawless, and watching Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti dissolve into their characters and the hyper-realistic Gotham City is a joy to behold. Of course, there are going to many comparisons to The Sopranos, but The Penguin has not only been able to establish itself as a monumental series on its own, it’s taken a campy and misunderstood Batman villain and made him something to truly fear and detest.  - Jon Garcia

 

GAEREA - COMA 

The Portuguese quintet have outdone themselves on Coma, offering an immersive and dreamy journey to the extreme metal canon. After the success of 2022’s Mirage, Gaerea reexamined their entire approach to music and pushed even further into the outer reaches of their imagination. The result is no less heavy or devastating, but this time packs a grandiose and telepathic punch. Coma is an album to get lost in, one to explore the outer reaches of your imagination.  - Jon Garcia 

   

OUT THERE: CRIMES OF THE PARANORMAL (Hulu)

Mark and Jay Duplass’ Duplass Brothers Productions has quietly become a leader in true-crime, cult and quasi-paranormal documentaries. The company behind Wild Wild Country, Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist, and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders have a 45-minute docuseries that bridges the gap between Unsolved Mysteries and The X-Files. Eyewitness accounts, investigators and experts walk viewers through eight cases including: a Christmas Day explosion in Nashville fueled by lizard people conspiracies; a backwoods genius who mysteriously disappears after dreaming about interstellar beings; the deaths surrounding Louisville’s Pope Lick Goat Man; and San Francisco detectives investigating a wave of hauntings targeting elderly mothers’ sons. If you’re drawn to the strange and mysterious, you’ll have this series done in a weekend. - Jon Garcia


JOHN CARPENTER’S APOCALYPSE TRILOGY

The man who goes by ‘TheHorrorMaster’ on social media has put his name to some of the most lasting genre titles of all time, but it’s maybe the three otherwise unconnected films he calls his ‘Apocalypse Trilogy’ that show John Carpenter operating at peak capacity. The Thing is these days up there with Halloween as his most celebrated movie, so evidently one of the greatest films of all time, horror or otherwise, but Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness are more underdiscussed and worthy of near-masterpiece status in their own right. The Satanic cosmic horror of Prince of Darkness may well be Carpenter’s scariest on pure dread fuel and drowning existential vibes, while In the Mouth of Madness evolves into a brand of reality-collapsing meta-horror that shows his most wild ambition and sardonic sense of humour with an apocalypse of individual perception. No shared characters, but three doom transmissions from the end of the world.  - Perran Helyes
 

ORANSSI PAZUZU - MUUNTAUTUJA

A translation of “shapeshifter” is an apt title for the sixth album from Finnish magicians Oranssi Pazuzu, one of metal’s most original and bewildering bands. Having spent fifteen years now playing an already novel and distinct blend of Nordic black metal with full blown psychedelia, on Muuntautuja they have tuned that to its most extreme form sucking out anything that might be considered soft edges for harsh, sharp angles. At the same time, they’ve taken cues from industrial music and experimental hip-hop when it comes to production and beat construction, creating an album that aligns with Death Grips and Radiohead as much as it does Beherit. It is stomach-turningly upsetting and yet so gripping, and another dizzying work from one of our bands most prepared to carve out genuinely new sounds and territory. - Perran Helyes

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (IFC Films)

In addition to being a revered stop-motion animator, Adam Elliot is a phenomenal storyteller, as evidenced in his breakout film, Mary and Max. For his latest masterwork, Memoir Of A Snail takes cues from Elliot's own life while detailing a story of resilience and the profound bond between siblings that endure a harrowing childhood together. Aside from the imaginative visuals that come to life from the animated universe created by Elliot, it is impossible to not get totally invested in the characters that anchor such a fundamentally human story. Memoirs of a Snail is the kind of tale that presented humanity, in all its imperfections and all its magnificence with characters that flawed, fragile and yet profoundly relatable. All this and we haven't even begun to marvel at the meticulousness of the actual craftwork of the stop-motion artwork itself. - Ramon Gonzales

TYLER, THE CREATOR - CHROMAKOPIA

 

There is a fierce independence that seems to drive Tyler's creative compass - one that dares to be different without being contrived. From the stylish noir of his visuals, to the hauntingly memorable persona he assumes within his album arc, to the quality of the songs that exude a level sophistication that elevates the greater culture of hip hop, Tyler has pieced together arguably his finest work to date. Underscoring his inability to remain stagnant, everything about Chromakopia is done with a high bar standard that steers far from good enough. Hip hop as high art and yet dodging the highfalutin, this album is among the best of the year in any genre. 

 

 

THE THIRD REALM -  KARL OVER KNAUSGAARD


Knausgaard is one of the best fiction writers working today. His six-book My Struggle series is an extraordinarily frank and daring work of autofiction, which I'd recommend to anyone. The Third Realm is the final part in a new trilogy which started with The Morning Star (published in English in 2021) and continued with The Wolves of Eternity (2023). Written from the perspective of different characters which he brings together over the course of the books, Knausgaard combines his talent for extracting the profound from the routine of our daily lives with a grander infernal scheme. An ominous, huge star has appeared in the sky over Norway and a young undertaker (also a metalhead) has noticed that people have stopped dying. These are long books but the rich characterisation and considered plotting really reward your attention. - Dan Franklin

CHAIN REACTIONS

I saw this documentary about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at the London Film Festival. Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, who recently made a documentary about William Freidkin and The Exorcist called Leap of Faith (2019), and another called Lynch/Oz (2022), analyzing the work of David Lynch through the prism of The Wizard of Oz.

Like the latter, Chain Reactions is a series of video essays, this time by Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandre Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama about Tobe Hooper's legendary classic, recently named the greatest horror movie of all time by Variety. Even for the assortment of footage from the film, whether the original 16mm, restored 35mm or burnt-orange VHS versions, this is a gripping and visceral documentary. And the insights are superb.

Whether it's Oswalt's reading of the film as about the baleful influence of the sun, Miike learning that pain can't be effectively inflicted on screen without love, or Kusama's interpretation of the film as about the disenfranchisement of the working class, this is incisive stuff about what remains a shockingly intense cinematic masterpiece.

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