Year 12 Recap: Deadites, Disappointments, and a Very Bad Year for Michael Myers

There are certain things you can count on every October. The stores will start selling Christmas decorations before Halloween arrives, someone will complain that horror movies aren't what they used to be, and Mr. Pat will once again subject himself to thirty-one films of wildly unpredictable quality. By 2022, the tradition had reached its twelfth year, and the collection had grown into something resembling a cinematic endurance test. Some nights rewarded the effort with genuine entertainment. Others raised the uncomfortable question of whether watching a terrible movie was really the best use of two perfectly good hours. But the rules remained unchanged: thirty-one days, thirty-one movies, thirty-one reviews, and one hell of a good time. At least, that was the idea.

Year 12 assembled an especially strange collection of cinematic company. Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers returned for another round, Ash Williams battled the forces of darkness twice, and Universal's original Frankenstein monster finally received his turn under the microscope. Aliens, underwater hauntings, murderous animatronics, possessed children, and enough family-friendly Halloween entertainment kept younger audiences occupied whilegrown-ups recovered from the more disturbing selections. The films ranged from the earliest days of sound horror to brand-new releases, creating a season in which nearly a century of filmmaking shared the same October calendar.

The circumstances surrounding the marathon were changing, too. A new job, unfamiliar hours, and limited vacation time made the annual undertaking harder than usual. Yet the new schedule also created opportunities to watch more movies with the family, an unexpected benefit that helped compensate for the additional demands. There were storms to contend with, including one literal storm, and the usual challenge of getting everything watched, written, and published before the clock ran out. Somehow, all thirty-one reviews appeared on schedule. By Halloween night, the grand total stood at 372 films, and Mr. Pat had another October in the books.

Groovy, Baby: The Chainsaws Roar Again

If Year 12 had an unofficial patron saint, it might have been Ash Williams. Sam Raimi's gloriously battered hero appeared twice during the month, first in The Evil Dead and later in Evil Dead II, giving Mr. Pat an opportunity to revisit the origins of one of his favorite cinematic characters. The original film, released in 1981, received an enthusiastic 9 Dr. Chainsaws, despite presenting a version of Ash considerably different from the wisecracking hero audiences would eventually come to love. This was a younger, less confident character, often overwhelmed by the horrors around him and occasionally spending more time under overturned furniture than fighting the undead.

That changed dramatically with Evil Dead II. Raimi's sequel embraced the outrageous physical comedy, extravagant gore, and manic energy that would become the franchise's defining characteristics. Bruce Campbell's performance was the centerpiece, particularly the extraordinary sequence in which Ash battles his own possessed hand. For Mr. Pat, the scene represented physical comedy at its finest, a remarkable demonstration of an actor transforming a ridiculous premise into something genuinely hilarious. The film received 9.5 Dr. Chainsaws, one of the season's strongest verified scores. Although Army of Darkness remained his personal favorite, Evil Dead II earned recognition as the best-made entry in the trilogy. Sometimes the sequel really does improve upon the original, particularly when it gives Bruce Campbell a chainsaw and permission to behave like a complete lunatic.

A Monster Worth Mourning

One of the season's most rewarding experiences came from a film released ninety-one years earlier. James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) finally received its place in the annual marathon, and the experience proved considerably more affecting than Mr. Pat anticipated. Having read Mary Shelley's novel the previous year, he was already familiar with the tragedy at the heart of the story, but the film approached that tragedy differently. Boris Karloff's creature was less a calculating instrument of revenge than an innocent being thrust into a hostile world without the knowledge or experience necessary to survive it.

The film's most memorable moments were not necessarily its frightening ones. The monster's accidental killing of a young girl, the grief of her father, and the creature's eventual death inside a burning windmill created an unexpectedly emotional experience. Mr. Pat found himself sympathizing with a being whose brief existence had been defined almost entirely by confusion, cruelty, and fear. The elaborate Gothic settings, memorable performances, and carefully constructed introduction of Karloff's monster demonstrated why the film had endured for generations. Awarded 8.5 Dr. Chainsaws, Frankenstein offered a reminder that classic horror can remain effective long after its original shocks have become familiar. Sometimes the monster is not the most frightening thing in the story. Sometimes it is what ordinary people do to him.

The Shape of a Terrible Ending

Unfortunately, not every returning monster received such an affectionate reception. Michael Myers arrived in Halloween Ends carrying more than forty years of cinematic history and the promise of a final confrontation with Laurie Strode. After the frustrations of Halloween Kills, Mr. Pat had hoped the concluding chapter might redeem the trilogy and provide a satisfying farewell to one of horror's most recognizable villains. Instead, it delivered one of the season's most emphatic disappointments.

The problem wasn't simply that the filmmakers tried something different. It was that their chosen direction sidelined Michael Myers in a film supposedly devoted to ending his story. Much of the narrative followed Corey Cunningham, a troubled young man whose transformation into a killer displaced the character audiences had actually come to see. Michael, meanwhile, spent much of the film lurking beneath a bridge, eventually allowing Corey to overpower him and steal his mask. For a villain who had previously survived extraordinary punishment and slaughtered entire groups of attackers, this was hardly an impressive showing. By the time Laurie and Michael finally confronted one another, the promised showdown felt frustratingly brief.

The resulting 2 Dr. Chainsaws represented more than disappointment with a weak sequel. It reflected frustration with a film that appeared to misunderstand the appeal of its own central character. Mr. Pat acknowledged that the conclusion offered the town of Haddonfield a satisfying moment of closure, but one effective sequence could not rescue everything that came before it. His preference remained the ending of Halloween II (1981), where the relationship between Michael and Dr. Loomis provided a more meaningful conclusion. After twelve years of reviewing horror, Mr. Pat had encountered plenty of bad decisions made by fictional characters. Watching the filmmakers make them was another matter entirely.

The Predator Becomes the Prey

Another anticipated release suffered a less catastrophic but still significant fall from expectations. Prey transported the Predator franchise into the eighteenth century, placing its alien hunter against a young Comanche woman determined to prove herself. The premise seemed promising, particularly because it offered an opportunity to explore how the extraterrestrial hunters might have encountered humanity across different historical periods. Mr. Pat appreciated the setting, the visual presentation, and several of the combat sequences, especially those involving the Comanche warriors confronting an unfamiliar and technologically superior enemy.

Unfortunately, he found the characterization less convincing. The heroine's abilities seemed to exceed those of nearly everyone around her, while many supporting characters existed primarily to underestimate her or become victims of the Predator. Worse, the alien itself occasionally behaved in ways that seemed inconsistent with the intelligence established in earlier films. The result was a movie that became more entertaining once the hunting began but never fully recovered from its weaknesses. Its 5.5 Dr. Chainsaws reflected disappointment rather than outright hostility. The underlying concept remained appealing, and Mr. Pat welcomed the possibility of future Predator stories set in other historical periods. He simply wanted the next alien hunter to remember how its own equipment worked.

Static, Snow, and the Ghosts of Television Past

Among the more unusual selections was WNUF Halloween Special, a found-footage horror film presented as a recording of a fictional 1980s television broadcast. For most viewers, its recreation of local news programming, awkward live reporting, and seemingly endless commercial interruptions might have been an amusing novelty. For Mr. Pat, whose professional background included years in television news, the film offered an entirely different level of entertainment.

He appreciated the attention to the look and feel of an old local newscast, from the corny anchor jokes to the uncertain interactions between reporters and members of the public. Some details were accurate enough to inspire professional approval, while others invited the kind of criticism only someone familiar with television production could provide. The simulated commercials were particularly convincing, although their constant interruptions eventually became a liability. Every time the supernatural story began to build momentum, another commercial break arrived and broke the atmosphere. The result earned 6 Dr. Chainsaws, but the rating hardly captured the affection Mr. Pat expressed for the film's recreation of an earlier broadcasting era.

The review also brought to mind another disappearing institution: the neighborhood video store. Browsing physical shelves, examining unfamiliar movie covers, and returning home with a stack of discoveries were essential parts of the horror experience for an earlier generation. Streaming services offered convenience, but they rarely reproduced the pleasure of wandering through a store and finding something unexpected. In that respect, WNUF Halloween Special became more than a movie review. It was an opportunity to remember the media, habits, and small pleasures of a world that had gradually faded away.

Halloween Is a Family Affair

Year 12 also made room for a lighter side of the season. Casper, Addams Family Values, Hocus Pocus 2, The Haunted Mansion, and Hotel Transylvania brought a different kind of Halloween entertainment into the lineup. Their presence was especially welcome in a year when changing work hours created more opportunities for family viewing. Not every October movie needs to involve a masked murderer or supernatural abomination. Sometimes the season is better served by mischievous ghosts, eccentric families, and monsters whose greatest concerns have more to do with parenting than human sacrifice.

These selections also demonstrated the difference between horror as a genre and Halloween as an experience. The two overlap, but they are not interchangeable. Halloween encompasses nostalgia, humor, childhood traditions, costumes, and the peculiar pleasure of pretending that frightening things are fun. A family-friendly animated film can capture that spirit just as effectively as a bloody slasher, provided it understands its audience. Including both ends of the spectrum made Year 12 feel less like a relentless exercise in cinematic punishment and more like a celebration of the holiday itself.

Saving the Best Kind of Madness for Last

After thirty days of supernatural encounters, questionable sequels, and monsters both tragic and ridiculous, Mr. Pat chose to end Year 12 with something entirely different. Willy's Wonderland starred Nicolas Cage as a mysterious drifter who agrees to clean an abandoned family entertainment center overnight, only to discover that its animatronic inhabitants are possessed by the spirits of murderous cultists. The premise was gloriously absurd, and the execution made little effort to hide it. Cage's character never spoke, never explained himself, and never seemed particularly concerned that enormous mechanical animals were attempting to kill him. He simply fought them, cleaned up the resulting mess, and returned to work.

The film also awakened fond memories of Major Magics, a childhood favorite that Mr. Pat had visited for several birthdays. The animatronic entertainment center provided an unexpectedly personal connection to the film's setting, making its murderous mechanical residents even more entertaining. Cage's silent performance, the increasingly ridiculous confrontations, and the movie's complete commitment to its premise combined into precisely the sort of experience Mr. Pat wanted from a Halloween finale. Plot holes and questionable decisions were easy to forgive because the film never pretended to be anything other than outrageous entertainment.

Awarded 9 Dr. Chainsaws, Willy's Wonderland brought the season to a wonderfully ridiculous conclusion. There was something fitting about ending a month that included Frankenstein, Evil Dead II, and Halloween Ends with Nicolas Cage beating the stuffing out of possessed animatronics. Horror had spent October examining tragedy, terror, nostalgia, and disappointment. For the final night, it simply decided to have fun.

The October That Wouldn't Quit

The films were only half the challenge in 2022. A new job had begun in July, leaving Mr. Pat without the accumulated vacation time he had enjoyed during previous Octobers. The unfamiliar schedule made it much harder to find time to watch and review thirty-one movies. Late nights, competing responsibilities, and the constant pressure of maintaining the daily publication schedule made it harder. Yet the same changes also made it possible to spend more time watching films with the family, an exchange he considered worthwhile.

By Halloween night, Mr. Pat could look back on a month that had included its share of obstacles, including a literal storm, and still celebrate getting every review published on time. That accomplishment carried a significance beyond the final count. After twelve years, the tradition had become something that required genuine planning and persistence. It was no longer simply a matter of watching a movie each evening. It was an ongoing creative commitment woven around work, family, and the ordinary complications of adult life.

The reviews themselves had also become increasingly personal records. A discussion of WNUF Halloween Special could turn into a reflection on the television industry and the disappearance of video stores. A ridiculous Nicolas Cage movie could resurrect memories of childhood birthdays. A classic monster film could prompt a meditation on cruelty and compassion. These unexpected connections gave the series its character, transforming thirty-one movie reviews into something more revealing than a simple collection of ratings.

Roll Credits, Kill the Lights

Year 12 was not a season defined by a single kind of horror. It moved between decades, genres, and wildly different expectations, rewarding viewers willing to embrace everything from Gothic tragedy to outrageous comedy. Its strongest moments came from films that knew exactly what they wanted to accomplish. Evil Dead II combined horror and slapstick with remarkable confidence, Frankenstein demonstrated the lasting emotional appeal of classic cinema, and Willy's Wonderland proved that an utterly ridiculous premise could become enormously entertaining in the right hands.

Its disappointments were equally revealing. Halloween Ends demonstrated the dangers of mishandling an established character, while Prey showed how an imaginative setting could be undermined by choices that weakened the story. Yet even those failures contributed something to the larger experience. They inspired arguments, comparisons, and occasionally the sort of exasperated commentary that made Mr. Pat's reviews entertaining in their own right.

By October 31, 2022, the twelfth season had added another thirty-one films to the collection, bringing the total to 372 reviews. The month had demanded more effort than usual, but the tradition remained intact. There had been laughter, frustration, nostalgia, and the occasional moment of genuine emotional surprise. Some movies would be remembered fondly, others would be best forgotten, and a few might eventually deserve another viewing.

For now, the chainsaws could be put away. The final review was published, the lights came back on, and the strange inhabitants of Willy's Wonderland could finally stop worrying about Nicolas Cage.

October had delivered another thirty-one nights of entertainment, and Mr. Pat had survived to tell the tale.

Twelve years down. Thirteen was waiting in the dark.