Like clockwork, this most grotesque ritual emerges to rouse me from slumber and burst into macabre rhythm. For this, my seventh rite, I seek both disquiet in discovery and comfort in process; a welcome detour amidst a tumultuous year.

Should this be your first traipse across my accursed document, be forewarned: my masochism dictates additional limitations upon inclusion, with prior years’ selections becoming ineligible for exhuming.

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

There must be 31 horror films

6 countries (other than Italy or US)
Versus (Japan 🇯🇵)
The Night Eats the World (France 🇫🇷)
The Empty Man (South Africa 🇿🇦)
His House (United Kingdom 🇬🇧)
Faust (Germany 🇩🇪)
Fever Dream (Chile 🇨🇱)

9 decades
Faust (1920s)
Island of Lost Souls (1930s)
Planet of the Vampires (1960s)
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1970s)
Spasms (1980s)
Screamers (1990s)
Lake Mungo (2000s)
Banshee Chapter (2010s)
Shelby Oaks (2020s)

5 zombie films
Versus (2000)
I Walked With a Zombie (1943)
The Night Eats the World (2018)
The Children (1980)
Planet of the Vampires (1965)

3 cult or conspiracy horror films
The Empty Man (2020)
Banshee Chapter (2013)
Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021)

1 film from a Black director with a Black lead
His House (2020)

1 film from a Mexican or Central American director
Even the Wind is Afraid (Mexico 🇲🇽)

1 Canadian film
Screamers (1995)

1 former Soviet state film (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan)
The Savage Hunt of King Stakh (Belarus 🇧🇾)

1 unseen popular 40s horror film
I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

2 post-apocalyptic horror films
The Night Eats the World (2018)
Screamers (1995)

1 film with dreams or a dream as part of the plot
Come True (2020)

1 pissed off animal film
The Burrowers (2008)

1 silent film
Faust (1926)

4 films based on novels
The Curse (1987)
Fever Dream (2021)
Spasms (1983)
The Keep (1983)

Unseen film from THIS list
Planet of the Vampires (1965)

1 Ernesto Gastaldi written film
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971)

1 film from 1932
Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Required viewing
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

1 Tobe Hooper film
Toolbox Murders (2004)

Grave bonus round
Burn Witch Burn (1962)
Trick or Treat (1986)
The German Chainsaw Massacre (1990)

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Forever indebted to our grave general Cinemonster, check out their list!