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It is October and that means Halloween is soon to be upon us, costumes, trick "r" treating, and the best part of all of that is scary movies. The library has a great deal of scary  movies that you can stream through Hoopla and for the month of October "Camp Blood" is going to be serving up some recommendations of frightening films for you to watch to get yourself ready for Halloween or that you can watch on the day of. The theme for this week is when the environment is the enemy or as it is known in the horror genre: "Natural Horror" – this is when nature runs amok and things that exist in the natural world turn against humans.

The Wave

This Norwegian thriller by director Roar Uthaug (who brought us the slasher "Cold Prey" which is another great scary movie to check out) is based on a "true story" that will one day come true. There is a town in Norway (Møre og Romsdal) that is at the basin of a very large lake, the rest of the lake is surrounded by mountain ranges and two of those ranges have major fault lines that are constantly being monitored. When one of those faults give way the people who are in the town will have exactly 10 minutes to evacuate the town.

This film examines those exact events and what could happen to this tourist town when the fault  lines finally give way. Focusing on one family who are about to move out of the town this film really shows the strength and courage that people can have in natural disasters.

Frozen
This film is an example of a good time gone bad, 3 friends are on a ski vacation and decide that they are going to go around on the lift one last time. However, communication lines are crossed and the three become trapped above the tree line for the night. Will they freeze to death? Can they get down? What about the pack of wild wolves that have discovered them? 

In this situation the 3 must make life or death choices to survive that turn out more perilous than just staying still and risking freezing to death. Written and directed by Adam Green a member of the "Splat Pack*", this film analyzes human survival and what can bind us together or tear us apart.

Splinter
This tale of survival takes place in an unnamed American forest where a strange parasite that is attracted to body heat is moving from body to body. This film features Canadian actor Paulo Costanzo and was directed by British director Toby Wilkins.

Our film is set around 2 different sets of couples, one on a romantic getaway who find out they have a damaged tent and are looking to take refuge in a motel. The other is a couple on the run from the law who are just looking to make time and put distance between them and their crime. The 4 end up trapped in a remote gas station when the parasite sets its "detectors" on them and they must work together in order to survive. This film is a very interesting take on the predator vs. prey motif.

The Blair Witch Project

This incredibly low budget found footage movie was a superstar at the box office. Costing the filmmakers only $60,000 the film made over 140 million in ticket sales making it one of the most profitable films ever. The filmmakers made this fake documentary about 3 young film students going out into the woods of Maryland to try to find "The Blair Witch". The premise is that their bodies were never recovered and the footage you see is all that there is left of them.

The film is quite effective at setting up tension and scares but I must warn you the camera movement can be very shaky and can cause nausea or "sea sickness". So if you have an easily upset tummy this film may be one to avoid.

All of these films can be streamed through Hoopla, available with an up-to-date library card, a computer and a live internet connection.

*The splat pack is a group of contemporary directors and filmmakers who have revitalized the horror film industry since around 2010.