Just a quick chime in about Manos: The Hands of Fate. When IMDB first really got going, Manos was always the #1 bottom 100 movie. A couple of friends of mine joked that, someday, we *had* to see this movie. I had seen a couple MST3K episodes, but I did not know that the "popularity" of this movie in the bottom 100 was based from the MST3K version of it. Eventually, I went on ebay and found someone selling a VHS copy of the movie (this was just at the onset of DVD.) I won the auction and I had my buddies over to watch the worst movie ever made. Fortunately, we had a few (well, more than a few) beers in us to prepare us for this movie. Let me just say that this is, hands down, the worst movie ever, and it us unfathomable to me that it is still not the #1 bottom 100 at IMDB. Of course I know of the ridiculous voting there, but still, this movie is absolutely terrible. Even if it was meant to be a horror movie, it is more of a horrible accidental comedy. I cringe thinking about it. A couple years later I did learn of the MST3K version of it and watched it. Yes, it was funny, but I noticed they cut a lot of the movie in that version. I challenge people to watch it in the uncut/non-MST3K version (yes, it is on DVD, and apparently free for download.) Although it is a stretch to call this horror, it was intended to be one, so I guess it counts. After you watch it, read the trivia on IMDB, it adds more to the experience than you would think.

For my official selection, I pick something that's fun in the same vein as Manos...

Claw of Terror

Where do I find this masterpiece?
Online rental through Amazon - $2.99

Scream Theater Double Feature through DeepDiscount - $6.29

Scream Theater Double Feature through Amazon - $6.99

Or my personal recommendation
Blood-O-Rama (a dusk till dawn, 4 movie marathon) through Amazon - $17.99
Review of that set

Chilling Classics 50 movie pack through Amazon - $16.47

Looks fun! I think a couple of your links aren't quite right though.

The site's adding stuff to the deep discount link which ends up breaking it.

The $6.99 amazon link appears to be the wrong double feature too. edit to add, same movie by different name, so it's good

I'm going for the 4 pack probably.

Good catch, it's called Scream Bloody Murder in that set but it's not the 2003 movie of the same name.

Looks like Netflix doesn't carry this one.

Haha. That's the only version of Manos that I own! Got it for like $3 at a used book store.

I've never watched it though. I guess now I'll have incentive. :)

I considered that but since it's available for rental through amazon and it's really too amazing of a movie to not try and get people to watch. I wouldn't have picked it if I didn't think otherwise.

It's also included in a 50 movie pack, which I also own in addition to the 4 movie pack.

Chilling Classics 50 movie pack through Amazon - $16.47

Sweet, I already own it then! Glad I hesitated on ordering. Now if everyone else can please choose movies that I already own.....

I know we're in no hurry, but if anyone w/ PMs turned on wants to contact the winners from last year to get their choices feel free to.

That's PC only. I did manage to find a copy elsewhere though, so I'm all set. Mac users who can't watch the film through Amazon may not want to shell out the $6.29 though.

I know you know this, but just to re-re-iterate this, the 31 hand-picked films are optional only. No one is required to rent/buy/watch them to take part in the overall October Horror Challenge. They are just an optional subset of films to give us all something to discuss each day.

Speaking of that discussion, do we want to keep it somewhat spoiler free, by not talking about that days film until the next morning? A <s>lot</s> couple of these will be first time views for me, and I imagine many of you. We all just use spoiler tags of course, just agree that spoilers aren't necessary, or put those discussions in a separate thread. Just thinking out loud.

Can't please everyone. That's one of the problems when trying to spread the love for one of those "hidden gem" type movies.

When picking my movie I didn't want to go with that same things that'll get put on the list year after year, like Halloween or one of the other popular slasher films.

This was one of the 300 or so titles I watched this during the last horror challenge. When someone watches that many new things, the standard fare all becomes a blur, the horrible ones make the time seem like forever, and the fun ones reawaken you in the middle of a string of movies and you start to remember why one does this in the first place.

This is one of those movies and if I can get at least a couple people to watch this and experience something that they may not come across often, I've done my job and I'm happy.

At least that's they way I look at it. If I was going to pick something much more easily available, I would've gone with Ghoulies but I've seen that enough times that I wouldn't even watch it on that day. The Claw of Terror will be one of the few movies I've already seen that I'll pull out again to watch.

In the end though, I felt it was cheap and accessible enough to be a good pick.

Not trying to argue, just stating how I picked it.

That's perfectly fine, I wasn't trying to argue either, just make an observation.

I was thinking of a separate thread anyway, so we could focus entirely on the 31 films, leaving all of the other debates and discussions for the main thread. If we all agree not to discuss the film of the day until the next morning, we shouldn't have to use spoiler tags. An entire thread of hidden posts would be a bit of a headache to navigate.

Not sure if I'm going to participate in the 31 films. However, I do have one suggestion. October 30th is Frankenstein Day (at least according to a few different websites). So you may want to watch Frankenstein (or a Frank-related movie) on that day.

The nightly idea is completely optional. The idea was just to have a little extra something for us all to have in common, to add to the daily discussion as we proceed thru the month.

I'm all for that just as long as I have a DVD from the nightly topic to watch.
If you pick a topic that I don't have a movie for I'll just have to pick something that I do have to watch. I'll play along as best as I can.

I know I've seen the trailer for that movie (but I think it had the third alternate title: The Captive Female).

Here's another viewing option. Part One of Nine:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LUo7CPcNeuY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LUo7CPcNeuY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Edit: Here's the trailer I remembered.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5r2p33e4cGA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5r2p33e4cGA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I'll agree. A separate thread, and while we can talk of general things like how to find the listed films or such, actual discussion of the film should wait until the following day. Until Halloween maybe.
Thanks, moved.
It's amazing how many of these horror films have multiple titles.
Might not last long, so if anyone needs it I'd recommend saving it to your hard drive.

Multiple titles are usually a red flag that the film is going to be terrible. Some of them can be funny though, especially when they have absolutely nothing at all to do with the film in question. One of the alternate titles of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (itself one of the greatest titles in film history) is the only slightly less abstact Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary.

I just watched the MST3K version of that last week. Wonderfully awful.

Lester Bangs wrote a great essay about the film in his essential collection of rock criticism, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung:

If I get to suggest a horror movie everyone should watch, I choose "Hard." Netflix has it (I checked). Everyone should see it at least once in their lives (personally, I love it, but I always run into walls when trying to support alternative and indie horror). :-p

Never heard of it, will add to my queue. Doesn't sound family friendly though...

Trevor, are the films in the list in any particular order, other than Frankenstein and The Wolf Man? Should we watch them in chronological order? Also, isn't The Invisible Man more sci-fi than horror?

Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nosferatu so far.
:hscratch: We watch them on that day of the month, that's the whole point I thought. Oh, maybe you mean shouldn't they be ordered more chronologically? I thought about that, but then we had to have Halloween on the 31st, so that would mean no modern horror. People wouldn't like that. Also, Friday the 13th seemed best on the 13th. So I decided to rotate "modern" and "classic" a bit, for variety. We can totally move things around of course.
Probably. But I think most still consider it one of the "original horror" flicks.