The Husband went away for his annual golf trip this past weekend, giving me a chance to watch whatever I wanted! This is a rare treat as he does not share my passion for horror movies.

In all honestly, my tolerance for movies is pretty high. I enjoy macabre-ish, dystopian, thriller, or horror. I also skew action, adventure, mystery, and crime. I like to escape reality with movies, and these genres do that for me.

So, I thought I’d share some of the movies I got a chance to watch while Mr. Picky-Movie-Watcher was away. These are all on Netflix currently.

2022 – TV-14 – 1h 29m

A weekend getaway to Croatia that goes awry when a woman is accused of killing her best friend. As she attempts to clear her name and uncover the truth, her efforts unearth a painful secret.

-IMDB

This was a fun mystery with a few good twists. It wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen, but it was entertaining, and there were a few times I audible said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” while watching alone. It reminded me of an adult version of an after-school special, in a good way.

2018 – Not Rated – 1h 31m

A mother of two who inherits a house is confronted with murderous intruders on the first night in their new home and fights for her daughters’ lives. Sixteen years later when the daughters reunite at the house, things get really strange.

-IMDB

Now this one is right up my alley! Without giving away too much, it was not the standard haunting story I thought it would be. I loved the relationship among the characters as well. Even though it was a mother and two daughters, something about the family dynamic reminded me of the boys.

2008 – R – 1h 29m

A small Maryland town is gripped by a curse which causes residents to take their own life one after another.

-IMDB

I found this gem by choosing “more like this” after watching Incident in Ghostland. I’m not sure how I missed this one when it came out. I’m usually pretty in tune with horror releases. Then I realized I would have had a three-year-old at the time, and it all makes sense. Regardless, I enjoyed this one as well. It was very reminiscent of ’90s teen horror with cult-like religious notes. Again, I don’t want to give too much away, but it reminded me of a precursor to It Follows.

2017 – TV-MA – 1h 41m

A high school student named Light Turner discovers a mysterious notebook that has the power to kill anyone whose name is written within its pages, and launches a secret crusade to rid the world of criminals.

-IMDB

Before watching it, I had no idea this was originally a Japanese manga series. Afterward, I mentioned it to The Teen, who read the manga, and he informed me that it’s way better, of course. In retrospect, the movie totally has an anime feel with some pretty off-the-wall plot points. I was hooked as soon as I heard Willem Dafoe‘s voice as the “Death Demon,” plus LaKeith Stanfield is in it, and I love everything he does. As for the movie, it’s a bit cheesy and gets awfully convoluted at one point, but it kept my attention.

In Other News

This weekend, I didn’t do much else except clean and watch these movies. I did take The 11-Year-Old out Friday night and we had a blast. It’s nice to spend some one-on-one time with him since it’s pretty rare we get to do that. Oh! And I got a short trail run in on Sunday morning.

Today I started a new strength cycle at the gym, and work finally calmed down a bit. I’m starting to design my courses and work on activities for next semester. The creative aspect of course design is one of my favorite things about teaching.

On that note, I’ve got to go. This post took two days to write, and I was only interrupted about 473 times by The 11-Year-Old. I don’t know why or how, but the time seems to speed up between 7 and 11 pm. There’s like a time warp or something, and I’m the worst at procrastinating sleep. So… Good Night!