I watched 51 movies in November. That’s a lot of movies, even for me. It wasn’t really intentional. I’m still on a slow movie-watching kick so I can watch more TV kick, but I had a lot of reviews to do, including an Alec Guinness boxed set. Normally I watch movies on the weekend and watch TV through the week, but with reviews I have due dates, so I wound up watching a lot of those through the week while still maintaining my weekend movie schedule. 20 of the movies I watched were new to me. 29 of them were made before I was born.

It was Noirvember (which partially explains the numerous old movies; also see those reviews), and I watched 17 of those. I’ve decided that for December I’m going to try and watch a lot of movies that came out in 2025 and hopefully do a whole list of my favorites from this year. By the end of November, I got a little tired of noirs and started watching some new movies.

For my most watched actors category, Willem Dafoe jumped way up into #1 with 8 films watched. I’ve always found him to be an incredibly interesting actor, and I admire that he’s made a career out of choosing all sorts of roles, never pigeonholing himself into one type of thing. I didn’t intentionally try to watch a bunch of his films this year; it just sort of happened. I think I watched a couple early in the year, and had that kind of lightbulb go off in my head about how much I like him, and then whenever I’d see him show up in something, I’d automatically give it a shot. The rest of the actor’s field looks pretty much the same.

The most watched director’s list saw some small changes. Wes Anderson and Terence Fisher broke out of their six-way tie and moved into first with five films each.

Overall it was a very good month with some of my favorite new films being A House of Dynamite, The Man in my Basement, Caught Stealing, Predator: Badlands, Hell Drivers,and Cairo Station.

A House of Dynamite (2025) ****
Key Largo (1948) *****
Superman (2025) ***1/2
She Rides Shotgun (2025) ***1/2
The Man in My Basement (2025) ****
Knives Out (2019) ****1/2
Heart Eyes (2025) ***1/2
After the Hunt (2025) *
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) ***
Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock (1977) ****
The Long Walk (2025) ***
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) ***1/2
The Man in the White Suit (1951) ****
Ladykillers (1955) ****
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) ***1/2
The Mad Miss Manton (1938) ****
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) ****
Kansas City Confidential (1952) ****
Out of the Fog (1941) ****
Roast-Beef and Movies (1934) **
Manhattan Melodrama (1934) ***
Caught Stealing (2025) ****
Frankenstein (2025) ***1/2
Stakeout (1958) ***1/2
The Woman in Question (1950) ****
Burden of Dreams (1982) ****
Thunderbolts* (2025) ***1/2
The Ogre of Athens (1956) ***/1/2
Impact (1949) ***
To Have and Have Not (1944) ****1/2
Framed (1947) ***1/2
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) ***1/2
The Mothman Prophecies (2002) **
Predator: Badlands (2025) ****
The Social Network (2010) ****1/2
Dream Lover (1994) **
War-Gods of the Deep (1965) ***1/2
The Gun Runners (1958) ***1/2
Blowing Wild (1953) **1/2
Black River (1957) ***1/2
The Roundup (2022) ****
Guilty Bystander (1950) ***1/2
Memoir of a Murderer (2017) ***1/2
Blackout (1954) ***/12
Dead End (1937) ****
The Maltese Falcon (1941) ****1/2
Black Angel (1946) ***1/2
Hell Drivers (1957) ****
Cairo Station (1958) ****
Midnight (1934) *
The Blue Gardenia (1953) ***1/2

I watched 48 movies in October. 29 of them were new to me. 19 of them were made before I was born. It was scary month, and I watched 27 horror movies.

It was a good movie month for me. The best of the year in terms of number of movies watched. Over the last few years I’ve gotten to where I watch most of my movies on the weekend, and then weekdays are spent watching TV or doing other things. But this month I had three boxed sets of films to get through (Seven Nightmare on Elm Streets, Six starring Errol Flynn and Four starring Joan Crawford) and review, so I wound up watching a lot of films through the week and then even more on the weekend.

While I did watch a lot of horror movies, I didn’t write about them nearly as much as I usually do for 31 Days of Horror. Partially this was due to all the other writing duties I had – reviewing those boxed sets plus 5 Cool Things and Picks of the Week. But I also intentionally slowed down my horror writing. When I decided to come back to writing after a long break, I did so with the intention of keeping it fun. I don’t want to ever feel like I have to write something in order to keep up this blog. I’ve settled into the realization that this blog will never really take off, so it has to be enjoyable to do. I want to have fun with this, and pressuring myself to write more articles is a fast way to make it feel like work. I figure writing about my movie theme at least once a month is plenty.

Those boxed sets also had a good effect on my most watched stats.

The directors list is almost entirely different from last month. There is now a six way tie for first place, with the leaders having only four films watched. I feel like by this point I usually have one or two directors who have taken a clear lead with many more films on the chart than this.

The tie for second place goes on to eight people with just three films watched. With only two more months to go until the end of the year it will be interesting to see if anybody reaches the double digits.

The most watched actors list has seen some changes as well. This is mostly due to the boxed sets. Robert Englund jumps up to a tie for first place at eight films, which is entirely due to the Nightmare set. Peter Cushing was on the list last month, but he pushes forward to that first place tie. This is due to all the Hammer Horror films I watched this month. That’s the same reason Christopher Lee is now in second place. I fully expect I’ll watch more Hammer before the year is out, so you can expect both of them to rise even higher. Joan Crawford and Errol Flynn both make their debuts entirely due to boxed sets.

Anyway, here’s the full list.

Dracula’s Daughter (1936) – ****
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) ****
Halloween (1978) *****
Trick ‘r Treat (2007) **
The Terror of the Tongs (1961) ***1/2
The Women (1939) ****
Possessed (1947) ***
Grand Hotel (1932) ****1/2
The Damned Don’t Cry (1950) ***1/2
Aliens (1986) ****1/2
Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella (1990) ***
The Shrouds (2024) ****
The Thing (1982) *****
The Thing from Another World (1951) ****
Triangle (2009) ***1/2
Rogue (2007) ***1/2
The Cat and the Canary (1927) ****1/2
OSS 117: Mission for a Killer (1965) **
The Phoenician Scheme (2025) ****
Only the River Flows (2023) ***1/2
Cloud (2024) ****
A Better Tomorrow (1986) ***1/2
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) ****
New Nightmare (1994) ****
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) **
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989) ***
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) ***1/2
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) ****
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) **1/2
Objective, Burma! (1945) ***1/2
Edge of Darkness (1943) ****
The Sea Hawk (1940) ****
City on Fire (1987) ***1/2
Santa Fe Trail (1940) **
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) ****
Radioland Murders (1994) ***1/2
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) ****1/2
The Hard Way (1943) ***
The Strange Woman (1946) ***
Last Known Address (1970) ***1/2
The Forever Purge (2021) **
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) ****1/2
Heretic (2024) ***1/2
for The Mummy (1959) ***1/2
Body Puzzle (1992) ***
The Descent (2005) ****
What Lies Beneath (2000) ***
One Battle After Another (2025) ****