Let's Scare Gemko to Death. (Patreon)

Gemko would be me, I should inform those unfamiliar with my odd Twitter handle. (Daniel Gemko is an anagram of my name; I've occasionally used it as a pseudonym.) This week's three-way request-poll showdown became a heads-up battle between Let's Scare Jessica to Death (representing the month of October) and Sorcerer (representing Fuck "Spooky Season"), with Jessica emerging victorious by three points, 44% to 41%. (Shivers, the other horror candidate, finished a distant third, with 15%.) I can now reveal that I was in fact ardently rooting for that result, simply because it's the one that I've never seen and I've always liked the title. It's streaming on Paramount Plus right now. 

We came close to getting a horror film selected in October's random draw, too—as you can see, The Last House on the Left was #3. (Newcomers: I watch the top two. Unless they should be the same film, that is, which hasn't happened to date but certainly could.) Perhaps that'll inspire someone to request it again. Real Life and Letter From an Unknown Woman are both among the earliest extant requests (though the latter was revived not too long ago); I saw Real Life on VHS sometime in the late '80s or early '90s, and Letter was the very first film I ever saw at a NYC rep house (Theatre 80 St. Mark's, 27 September 1992). The former's on Kanopy, subject as always to individual library; the latter seems to be rentable at the moment solely through something called Flix Fling, though fortunately I have a Blu-ray from when I was somehow on Olive's mailing list. 

(If you're the person who requested A Fugitive From the Past, which was randomly drawn last month, and you don't regularly check my website and are wondering when I'm gonna review that one, the answer is: later today, barring unforeseen developments. Spoiler: I dug it.) 

As ever, I thank each of you and all of you for your support, without which I would be in dire straits indeed. It's a privilege to write for you. (And I'm now two full years behind on transferring these reviews to Letterboxd, so in essence I really am writing exclusively for y'all.)