2 OCTOBER 27�NOVEMBER 3, 2021 STAFF THE OPENING ACT What we’re into HORROR MOVIES follow us ONLINE www.goeasternoregon.com TWITTER twitter.com/GoEasternOregon FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/ goeasternoregon INSTAGRAM www.instagram.com/ goeasternoregon contact us EDITOR Lisa Britton Go! Editor editor@goeasternoregon.com 541-406-5274 Sarah Smith Calendar Coordinator calendar@goeasternoregon.com SUBMIT NEWS Submit your event information by Monday for publication the following week (two weeks in advance is even better!). Go! Magazine is published Wednesdays in the  Wallowa County Chieftain and Blue Mountain Eagle. It publishes Thursdays in The Observer, Baker City Herald and East Oregonian. RAISING THE CURTAIN ON THIS WEEK’S ISSUE O ctober is here, and that means horror movie season. I’m a fan of the genre. But for a long time, a good horror movie was rare. For every “The Exorcist” or “The Thing” (John Carpenter’s 1982 milestone), there are any number of lackluster slasher fl icks and pointless gross-outs with nothing more than jump scares to give an audience a fl eeting fright. Then I found A24. Back in 2015, my teen daugh- ter and I took in the horror fi lm “The Witch.” No, this was not some found-footage rip-off of “The Blair Witch.” This was a brooding, methodical piece set in the era of New England Puritans and what then amounted to the American wilderness. The fi lm was a steady climb of tension and questioning reality, with an ending that delivered. A24 was the company behind it. I sought out some of its other works — “Green Room,” “Heredi- tary,” “Midsommar” and more. Yes, “Tusk” was terrible (A24 took a chance on director Kevin Smith), but the rest were good, and some, New releases ‘THE LOCKDOWN SESSIONS’ BY ELTON JOHN I t’s been more than 35 years since Elton John recorded with Stevie Wonder and that’s clearly way, way too long. But the wait is over: The legends join on the new gospel-fl avored song “Finish Line,” enlivened by Wonder’s trademark harmonica and John’s piano work. It’s a victory lap of a song. It’s also a highlight of John’s 16-track album “The Lockdown Sessions,” which sees the Rock- et Man outsmart the pandemic by working with an eclectic mix of artists, from Stevie Nicks to Lil Nas X. Not all of it works, but most of it does, and credit John such as “Hereditary,” are works of horror genius. These movies earn their R rat- ings for violence and bloodshed and scares, but these are horror fi lms for grown-ups, exploring themes such as isolation from society and the baggage we pack for the supreme musicianship to bend to his guests’ strengths in music’s every genre. John has a twang with Brandi Carlile on “Simple Things” — repeating a line about the fi nish line — and a foot-stomping, ‘70s rock groove with Eddie Ved- with us from childhood. And they are unusual, even cool. “Midsom- mar,” for example, is a horror fi lm, but it is more akin to classic thrill- ers such as 1973’s “The Wicker Man” than the dreck of the Saw franchise. A24 also does a lot more than horror movies. The company pro- duced and distributed the 2016 feature “Moonlight,” which the following year won the Academy Award for best picture. But I’m looking forward to A24’s latest horror eff ort, “Lamb.” The trailer alone delivers a bit of a shocker. — PHIL WRIGHT, NEWS EDITOR, EAST OREGONIAN der on “E-Ticket.” But John is a subdued presence on both Lil Nas X’s cut “One of Me” and a cover of Metallica’s “Noth- ing Else Matters” with Miley Cyrus, who, turns out, slays at metal singing. — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ADVERTISING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Baker City Herald 541-523-3673 The Observer 541-963-3161 East Oregonian 541-276-2211 Wallowa County Chieftain 541-426-4567 Blue Mountain Eagle 541-575-0710 Hermiston Herald 541-567-6457 Quality Vehicles. Reasonable Prices. 10500 West 1st St., Island City, OR• 541-204-0041 HOMESTEADMOTORSOR.COM