In 2020 everyone had a pod: a handful of people you saw over and over while the world stayed on pause. Looking back, the 2020 Horror-Thon lineup that year was weirdly on the nose. Aliens are swapping your neighbors for calm, blank copies. A woman hides from the world behind a mask. A red goo swallows a town while the adults insist everything is fine. Around those are witches, a woman with a “twin,” a cursed fashion illustrator, and one sweet transvestie from Transexual, Transylvaia.
THIS YEAR’S SELECTIONS
THE BLOB (1958)
1
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)
2
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)
3
SISTERS (1972)
4
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975)
5
SEASON OF THE WITCH (1972)
THE CRAFT: LEGACY (2020)
CAT PEOPLE (1942)
6
7
8
The Blob
Irvin S. Yeaworth JR & Russell Doughten • 1958 • 1 hr 26 minutes
8.5 / 10
A meteor lands outside a small Pennsylvania town, and the red goo inside eats its way through the locals while the cops refuse to believe a 27-year-old teenager played by Steve McQueen.
EYES WITHOUT A FACE
Georges Franju • 1960 • 1 hr 30 min
10 / 10
A celebrated Paris surgeon kidnaps young women to rebuild the face of a daughter he disfigured. She drifts through the house in a blank white mask the whole time. It’s slow, gorgeous, and quietly brutal.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
Don Siegel • 1956 • 1 hr 20 minutes • Paramount+
8 / 10
Pods from space are replacing the people of a small California town with calm, emotionless copies while they sleep. Forget the old communism debate: this is a movie about conformity, and the monsters’ worst crime is having no opinions.
Sisters
Brian De Palma • 1972 • 1 hr 33 minutes • HBO Max
7 / 10
A reporter sees a murder through the window across the street, and when the police show up, there’s nothing but a spotless room and a very suspicious couch. Brian De Palma does Hitchcock with split screens and a shrieking Bernard Hermann score. The scariest part is how long Grace has to fight to be believed.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Jim Sharman • 1975 • 1 hr 40 minutes • For rent on Amazon Prime & Apple TV
10 / 10
A clean-cut couple gets a flat tire and walks straight into a castle party hosted by Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Tim Curry owns the role from the second he steps out of that elevator. It’s barely a horror movie and doesn’t care: come for the corsets, stay for the floor show.
Season of the witch
George A Romero • 1972 • 2 hrs 10 minutes • Tubi
5 / 10
George Romero made this between his zombie movies, about a bored Pittsburgh housewife who finds witchcraft, and a way out of being only known as “Jack’s wife.” It’s more strange than scary: a ‘70s marriage drama wearing a pentagram.
The Craft: Legacy
Zoe Lister-Jones • 2020 • 1 hr 37 minutes • Amazon, Apple TV
3 / 10
The new girl in town joins a coven of three teen witches, puts a love spell on the school bully, and starts to suspect her new stepdad isn’t who he says he is. The coven is so kind and well-adjusted that the danger never really arrives.
Cat people
Georges Franju • 1960 • 1 hr 30 min
10 / 10
A fashion illustrator in New York believes she’ll turn into a panther if her husband ever kisses her, and no one takes her seriously. The tiny budget meant the movie shows almost nothing, which makes every shadow scarier, and gave horror the jump scare it still copies. Irena is the best-dressed monster in film history, and she deserved better men.
POD PEOPLE AWARDS
Every movie takes home a trophy for one thing or another. Some earned it. Some probably wish they didn’t. Here are the official Pod People Awards, with no voting, no appeals, and no acceptance speeches because the Blob ate the podium.
POD PEOPLE OF THE YEAR
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
It’s this year’s theme, so it gets the headline award.
MOST COPIED COSTUME
Frank-N-Furter, Rocky Horror
That’s a corset, pearls, and garters, and it’s been at every Halloween party since 1975.
BEST SUPPORTING FURNITURE
Sisters
For hiding a body while the police stood right there.
EARWORM OF THE YEAR
“Beware of the blob”
It’s a Burt Bacharach co-write, it has nothing to do with the movie, and you’ll be humming it for days.
SCARIEST FACE (OR LACK THEREOF)
Eyes without a face
This needs no explanation.
BEST OF THE YEAR
EYES WITHOUT A FACE
It’s the one I’d tell people to watch first.
FINAL RANKINGS
8.5
10
10
5
7
7
3
8
6
7
8
THE BLOB (1958)
1
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)
2
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)
3
SISTERS (1972)
4
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975)
5
SEASON OF THE WITCH (1972)
THE CRAFT: LEGACY (2020)
CAT PEOPLE (1942)
Best to Worst
KEEP WATCHING
One year was never going to be enough. There is plenty more Horror-Thon to explore. Zombies, Michael Myers, demonic house cats, and more B-horror movies than you knew existed.