Welcome to the first of Creepy Catalog’s horror digests. This is a space for free-form daily musings about horror movies, television, and more. My name is Chris, and I love horror.
I thought I’d start out by talking about happiness. Horror makes me happy, and I watched a movie last night that is all about the pursuit of happiness. Best Wishes to All was released on Shudder this past Friday. It’s a quiet, quirky, and unsettling Japanese movie about a nursing student who visits her grandparents in the countryside. While staying in their home, the young woman learns the disturbing truth about the source of her family’s well-being.
Are you… happy now?
a creepy grandmother in Best Wishes to All
Best Wishes to All touches on folk horror, but in a way different from most Japanese films and shows I’ve seen. The movie is built around a metaphor that is clear and straightforward, though it’s broad enough to allow you to think about what it means in the wider world. If you enjoy Japanese horror that takes its time, but also gets gross and strange when the time is right, then be sure to stream Best Wishes to All this week (on Shudder and AMC+).
Sixty-five years ago today, Psycho made its theatrical debut in New York City. As one of the greatest and most influential movies of all time, there’s not a lot I can say about Psycho that hasn’t already been said. So I’ll just say this; It’s one of the classics that is every bit as good as people say it is.
Also on this day, 47 Meters Down made its wide theatrical debut in the USA on June 16th, 2017. It’s been reported that the movie was originally going to be released straight to DVD and Blu-ray in August of 2016 under the title In the Deep (which is what Dimension Films wanted to call it). However, Entertainment Studios bought the movie, changed the title back to the original 47 Meters Down, and gave it a release in theaters. However, DVDs were already sent to stores, an even though they were recalled, copies of made it into the public’s hands. To this day you can still find copies of In the Deep for sale on sites like eBay.
In the news over the weekend, we learned that Shelby Oaks, the film created by YouTuber Chris Stuckmann, is scheduled to be released by Neon in the United States on October 3rd, 2025. As reported by IndieWire, the ghost-hunting found footage movie underwent reshoots in March to, as Stuckmann stated, “punch up some particularly bloody elements.”
Another fun note we saw this past weekend is that, apparently, Billy Bob Thornton was almost in Misery (1990). While sitting down with Kathy Bates in Variety’s Actors on Actors video series, Thornton says that he was cast as a deputy working with Richard Farnsworth’s Sheriff Buster.
Thornton had the part, but a few days before he was scheduled to travel to the film shoot, director Rob Reiner called. Reiner said that after working with the script and story, the deputy would no longer be in the film. He offered to let Thornton come out and shoot the part so he could get paid, but Thornton politely declined, not wanting to put the rest of the crew through work that was guaranteed not to be used.
So there, you have it. I started with happiness and ended with misery. Isn’t that just life sometimes though. I think it’s time for a comfort horror movie.
