Well, we’ve come to the final installment of our Scarecrow Video psychotronic challenge series. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, and thanks for watching along with us! We hope you found some new favorites, or at least had fun checking out some unhinged, off-the-beaten-path films you wouldn’t have otherwise.
In case you missed our previous posts, the good people at the world’s best video store, Scarecrow Video, are running their 2026 Psychotronic Challenge, which contains 31 prompts for a movie each day throughout the month. The rules are simple: Watch at least one film each day that falls under the psychotronic category “in whatever order suits you,” and “have fun and get weird.” My fellow Stranger staff writer Audrey Vann and I have been putting together weekly posts with our picks—catch up on week one, week two, and week three to see our previous selections. In this last batch, we’ve filled up a metaphorical trick-or-treat pumpkin pail for you, but instead of fun-size Kit-Kats and Twix bars, it’s full of murderous women, sexy puppets, and evil robot mall cops. Enjoy, and watch out for razor blades in your apples! –Julianne Bell
22. PRONOUNCEMENTS: “Wordplay! He/she/they/it and an action word in the title.”
Audrey’s pick: I Was a Teenage Serial Killer (1993)
I am aware that “was” isn’t an action word, but Sarah Jacobson’s I Was a Teenage Serial Killer warrants a little bit of cheating. The 1993 underground short film follows a 19-year-old named Mary, who has a mission to murder “sexist pigs.” It’s comical, seething, heartbreaking, and joyful all at once. The film also has an amazing soundtrack that features the early Heavens to Betsy song, “My Secret.”
More ideas: We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011), They Live (1988), It Follows (2014), They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)
23. NOT-SO-FUN AND GAMES: “Today’s terror has to include a game, could be a playground game or a board game or we’d even accept mind games if that’s your trip.”
Audrey’s pick: Death Game (1977)
This film caught my attention because of the Letterboxd reviews, which call the film “the closest American cinema has gotten to making its own Daisies” and “Celene and Julie are pissed.” Like the feminist New Wave classics Daisies and Celene and Julie Go Boating, Death Game, at its core, is about female friendship. But instead of the besties enjoying fashion, freedom, and food, the women in Death Game enjoy torturing men who cheat.
More ideas: Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), House on Haunted Hill (1959), Ouija (2014), Funny Games (1997), Clue (1985), Ready or Not (2019), Would You Rather (2012)
24. MINDCRAFT: “Get cerebral with a plot involving telekinesis.”
Audrey’s pick: Puppet Master (1989)
David Schmoeller’s 1989 cult classic is like a Goosebumps movie, but rated R. Four psychics are contacted telepathically by a former colleague, which leads them to his residence, a creepy seaside hotel. Once they arrive, the terror begins: wooden puppets from the 1930s come to life and do deeply disturbing things. At one point, a sexy female puppet seduces a blindfolded human man, and the seduction turns violent when she vomits leeches upon his naked body. You’ve been warned!
More ideas: Carrie (1976), Scanners (1981), The Fury (1978), The Power (1968), Firestarter (1984), Altered States (1980)
25. LET’S GET DIGITAL: “For the more graphically inclined viewers amongst us, seek one out with calculator font on the box art or movie poster.”
Julianne’s pick: One Missed Call (2003)
One of the first horror films I ever fell in love with was One Missed Call—both the Japanese 2003 original from Audition director Takashi Miike and the vastly inferior 2008 American remake starring Shannyn Sossamon. For the purposes of this prompt, we’re talking about the former, which does have an official poster with digital font. In the film, a group of friends start receiving mysterious voicemails from their future selves as they die grisly deaths, timestamped with the exact date and time of their impending death. I haven’t watched this movie since I was a teen, but I’m looking forward to revisiting it, and the eerie, jangly ringtone from the film (which I set as my ringtone in high school) still sends instant shivers down my spine.
More ideas: The Lift (1983)
26. THE THOUSANDS: “This movie’s title must have a 4-digit number in it.”
Julianne’s pick: 1408 (2007)
Hey, ever see that one Stephen King movie adaptation about the scary hotel? No, not The Shining. I’m talking about 1408, the 2007 movie starring John Cusack as a writer and paranormal debunker who checks into the notoriously haunted room 1408 in New York City’s Dolphin Hotel. Although manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) warns him against it, saying that 56 deaths have occurred in the room and no guest has survived longer than an hour, he decides it’s still a good idea and promptly experiences maddening hallucinations and time loops. If you liked the horror film Hokum from earlier this year or the Widow’s Bay episode “Lodging,” you’ll probably enjoy this.
More ideas: 2046 (2004), 1984 (1984), 1922 (2017), 1920 (2008)
27. SITE OF PASSAGE: “This single location story doesn’t leave the property lines.”
Audrey’s pick: Chopping Mall (1986)
Chopping Mall ticks all the boxes: A neon-lit 1980s mall, comedy duo Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov (Eating Raoul, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School), and an anti-technology, anti-cop message.
More ideas: Pontypool (2008), The Shining (1980), Terror Train (1980), Daughters of Darkness (1971), The Lighthouse (2019)
28. THE BLACK AND THE YELLOW: “We’re partial to this palette, so please enjoy a film that includes this visual motif”
Julianne’s pick: Audition (1999)
I first watched the iconic 1999 horror classic Audition last October, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. If you haven’t seen it, all you need to know is that it’s about a middle-aged widower who decides to hold “auditions” for a new wife under the guise of casting for a TV show. I have a cast iron stomach and this almost made me throw up (complimentary). If you have seen it: Kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri!
More ideas: Killer Bees (1974), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Backrooms (2026), The Shining (1980)
29. LE VOYEUR’S VOYEUR: “A scene where you can see a movie (real or fictional) playing in your movie.”
Julianne’s pick: Pearl (2022)
Today, we’re watching the 2022 film Pearl, aka “the Joker for women” and the second film in director Ti West’s X trilogy. Mia Goth plays the titular farmgirl who resents her isolated life caring for her ailing father and answering to her stern mother. Abandoned by her soldier husband, she spends her free time killing stray geese with a pitchfork, fucking the occasional scarecrow in a cornfield, and sneaking off to the cinema in town, where she can fantasize about a glamorous life as a professional dancer. My favorite part of the X films is their strong aesthetic vision, and Pearl is no exception—drawing on the appearance of early Technicolor and the melodrama of Douglas Sirk films, it’s a delightfully campy pastiche.
More ideas: Video Violence (1987), Scream (1996), Blow Out (1981), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), MaXXXine (2024), X (2022), Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
30. SERIAL BALKS: “Any franchise film featuring an exceptionally deceptive character.”
Julianne’s pick: Smile 2 (2024)
I’ll die on the hill that Smile 2 is one of the best, scariest horror movies to come out in recent years. The first Smile had some genuinely horrifying moments and well-timed jump scares, but suffered under the weight of its flat, clunky script. Smile 2 takes everything that worked about Smile and cranks it up to 11, while getting rid of all the pitfalls of its predecessor and throwing in a fun pop star plot for good measure. Naomi Scott stars as Skye Riley, a world-famous singer who experiences nightmarish visions after becoming cursed by the “exceptionally deceptive” character in question—the creepy, mysterious “Smile Entity,” which can take the form of whatever it wants. Watch it, and you’ll understand why I flinched every time a passerby smiled at me on the way home from the theater.
More ideas: Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), Dead Ringer (1963), Face/Off (1997), The Bride Wore Black (1968), Cruel Intentions (1999), Double Indemnity (1944), Get Out (2017), Fatal Attraction (1987)
31. IT’S YOUR “ESP”ECIAL DAY: “Experience a sixth sense-ational extravaganza. The end, but you probably saw that coming…”
Julianne’s pick: Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
For our last movie, I’ve chosen The Eyes of Laura Mars, one of the most glamorous and stylish horror films of all time. Faye Dunaway plays the titular Laura Mars, a New York City fashion photographer who gains the clairvoyant ability to witness grisly murders from the POV of the killer. With a power ballad (“Prisoner”) recorded by Barbra Streisand specifically for the movie, fashion photography by Helmut Newton, and a script by horror king John Carpenter, it’s got everything you could want in a Halloween film.
More ideas: The Haunting (1963), Poltergeist (1982)
