MechanicalMan

So you and chad determined that episodes of TV shows that are over 40 minutes are "movies?" That's asinine.

edit: I personally don't care if you want to have a contest that includes episodes of TV shows, ET, The Great Pumpkin, or whatever you want to watch. But why are you calling this a "Horror Movie Challenge" when you aren't challenging people to watch things that are horror or are movies? You should have a "Anything Halloween-ish that is 40+ Minutes (or stars Charlie Brown) Challenge" next year.

Giles

"As we established last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, and the British Film Institute all define a feature as a film with a running time of forty minutes or longer".

and as the MOH series did happen to get released last year - it just also happened to allow people who did watch TV shows which fall in between 42-44min to get included - it's a loophole not 'asinine'

Mr. Cinema

An episode of a television series is not a movie for the 1,000th time. 100% not a movie.

I think I want to watch a horror movie, I will choose from: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Psycho, The Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Episode #27 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Series, The Shining, Dawn of the Dead, or Friday the 13th.

Which one of those titles doesn't belong?

Giles

and I'm not saying it is or should be, there is however an overall inclusion of the Masters of Horror series episodes - which are 'made for TV' movies.

caligulathegod

Do we want to include TV shows? We could dump the 40-59 minute rule and allow anthology TV Shows and film-lets, but still exclude "recurring character" type TV Shows. I'm only adamantly opposed to watching a film more than once, commentaries, making-of docs, and counting shows like X-Files or Charmed.

Giles

no

and that's the rule that should have been addressed and stated up front: regardless of running time, no tv series with reacurring characters

Mr. Cinema

A made for TV movie seems okay, since it's actually called a movie. Salem's Lot was made for tv and it sure is hell a horror movie. I'm just shocked that people are asking about tv shows being a horror movie. Do people really not now the difference or are they just looking for something to pad their stats? Lack of horror movie content maybe? Personally, I don't care how many titles people get to. I have no chance of winning because I work. Wanting to count tv shows as a full length horror movie is just lazy. If you're going to be in contest, at least put forth some kind of effort.

caligulathegod

Right, but how about things like that Twilighty show about that Zone? The majority of them are based on short stories from legitimate writers.

gutwrencher

Just got home a few hours ago from a long day to find a birthday gift....one day early

My order from Xploited was on the doorstep so for the next few days, I'll be diving into:

.....Baron Blood(German PalR2)

....The House With Laughing Windows(from Pupi Avati--UK PalR2)

....Zombie Holocaust(PalR2)

Awesome shit, Maynard.

...and I need to add these two to my total. Both great dvds

....Kwaidan(Criterion)

....Burial Ground


Btw, not that it matters...but my selections are from my library. I'm counting nothing watched on TV. Will change a little later when I switch from DTV to Dish. Really need MonstersHD.

Spiderbite

I haven't seen this mentioned but for some of you cheaters () out there, Starz is showing a documentary this Friday the 13th called Going To Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film.

And I would like to see the HUGE list of 40 minute horror movies that a couple of you are so adamant about being them left out with the 60 minute rule.

Caligula, I like the twlight zone but lets not lose sight of the name of this challenge. Sounds to me that there should be a Halloween/Spooky/Horror/Fantasy/Trick or Treat Challenge which could run in October which could contain whatever you fancy.

How about movie the Horror Movie Challenge to another month, go with some strict rules and put it in the Horror DVD Talk section. Say, Horror in April or May. That way the weenies can have their E.T.s and Harry Potter movies and the wackos can have the movies that gutwrencher has been posting stills of that get people in trouble at work.

TomOpus

I did a quick search for you in TV Talk where there was discussion of each episode. Hope this is useful:

Masters of Horror

gutwrencher

You say the sweetest things. I like the weenie stuff too...just not in October!

MechanicalMan

FWIW, the MOH episodes have ratings at IMDB.

Cameron

Hey Gut, still waiting on some Nunsplotation reccomendations. Also was cruising through your sci fi list and didn't see the new Gojira disc...I assume thats one of the 300 that hasn't been added

Shack

It is addressed in the rules in the first post -- there are numerous references to "films" and to "features" which automatically excludes episodes of TV series, it seems to me. We're getting a little hung up on the length, but it's not solely the length that makes something a feature, right?

caligulathegod

That was kind of my thought process for the hour limit. Forty minutes seems like a loophole to allow TV shows to count, not a realistic definition of a feature. There might be a handful of less than 60 minute "features", but none of them are truly features in any practical sense of the word. That's a rule for judging, but none of them are ever released as stand alone features for theatrical exhibition. DTV aren't released to theaters either, but they could be. If the Drive-in was still what it was (and video didn't exist), they WOULD be. Wouldn't you be pissed to pay full admission for a film that was less than an hour? Shortest feature actually released to the theaters I can think of is Dumbo, and that was 64 minutes. Most of the Universal Monster movies are barely over an hour, but none are under an hour.

I introduced wild cards to allow some exceptions to float through, but not make it one person's choice (which the Charlie Brown exception was-maybe I don't want to watch Charlie Brown and instead want to watch Frankenweenie). This is a horror MOVIE challenge, after all. We have to have a cut off to differentiate shorts from features and an hour seems reasonable and logical. TV movies count, but I'd just as soon exclude TV Shows, even anthology types.

gutwrencher

Hi Cameron....sorry I failed to respond to your first. And yes, I have and love Gojira set. The original is worthy of many repeat viddies. Thats one of the many I have yet to add at dvdaf. I never meant for it to get this far behind but once you slip back deep enough...."putting it off" becomes easier.

Nunsploiation? Although I have not added a new title in over a year, it's still a personal fave genre. Xploited has some new discs and I might include a few on my next order.

My top 5 that I own, are:

...Les Demons('72...Franco)

...Kloster der 1,000 todsonden

....Die nonne von Manza

....Die nonne von Verona

....Flavia the Heretic



Erotic, yes. But don't kid yerself. There is plenty of nun horror which would qualify for the challenge. Nipple removal, anal spreadification, throat slashings, toenail extractions, eyelid shock, clit stretch, various nasty injections, starvation....on and on. But mostly revenge!!

Sabrett

Cool, thanks! I'll have to check that out.

TomOpus

Sabrett, for some reason I can't link a search. It used to work. Anyhow, do a search for "masters horror" in the TV forum.

Sabrett

Haha, yeah...I clicked on it after I posted. I'll search for it. Thanks =)

MechanicalMan

Episodes of a TV series aren't films. It's not complicated. It's not a loophole. If you're worried about people watching student films and/or TV series, then exclude them.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/
Why should we use your rule instead of the Academy's? How many people even watched a movie under 60 minutes this year, and why do you care? If people can watch shit like MOH, then we should certainly be able to watch >40 minute films that were shown in theaters.

Giles

hey gut, have you seen Walerian Borowczyk's Behind Convent Walls or Satanico Pandemonium (my personal fave)

just ordered Flavia from Amazon to include in this month's list as well as finally getting around to watching Joe D'Amato's The Demons

is Die nonne von Veron still in print - I don't see it listed over at Xploited Cinema?

more than likely gonna order Die nonne von Manza along with Caligula 2 tomorrow.

Cameron

thanks gut...I was going to place an order at xploited...just waiting on my dust devil disc to get in first

Sex Fiend

I just watched Burial Ground a few nights ago. One of the best (unintentional) comedies containing zombies I've ever seen. The "child actor" in it is especially hilarious. Enjoy!

caligulathegod

First, I want to establish we are just debating and not arguing, so that no one gets confused. We're just hammering out ideas for next year.

The reason I make a distinction is that we've pretty much established this is a feature competition and as a practical matter features are over an hour. Obviously, you've found an exception, but even then it was intended for television and took quite a circuitous route to the cinema. But I won't split hairs. It did make a theatrical exhibition. I would have allowed it on that technicality. I have no idea where the academies got their definition, but I'd bet, in real world film distribution, features are at least an hour.

Anyway, I'm not married to the definition of one hour. It seems reasonable and practical but there's actual documentation of the 40 minute definition, so who am I to argue. Back in the days when films were measured in reels rather than minutes, I think 6 or 7 reels was standard for a feature. For what it's worth, there's even a line in Ed Wood where the Film Distributor bitches at Ed Wood because the film (Glen or Glenda) is less than an hour and he has contracts where they won't accept it if it's under an hour.

Anyway, we don't have to keep the hour rule.