Darth Maher

I'm not trying to start an argument here, but why do we hold the "standards" for this challenge so sacred as opposed to other challenges? There are almost as many Halloween specials as there are Christmas specials nowadays. To exclude them kind of takes the fun out of it... for me anyway.

As I've stated before, I'll go with whatever the majority agrees upon. But you mentioned that nobody wants to "break the status quo" so I thought I'd voice my opinion in case others felt the same way as I do. If not, so be it...

Trevor

Relax people! There are only a handful of 40-60 minute movies. Why care if someone watches a few of them? It's not a contest, it's a challenge. Let people watch what they want to watch.

SpaceBoy

Chad

I'm willing to donate a few of my lightly used horror movies to a randomly selected participant like I did last year. Not sure what I'll send out, but last year I had 3 I was dying to give away (don't remember who you had me send those to)

Let me know.

FusionX

I'll be back this year, I am however skipping the Masters of Horror, documentaries, and what have you. I'm sticking with feature length horror films until I can take no more. I doubt I will match last year's run, but I will hit 100 for sure with a wishful thinking goal of over 200.

edwardnortonfan

I'm willing to donate some gently used movies as well.

NoirFan

While there may only be a handful of 40-60 minute movies, there are an endless number of 40-60 minute featurettes, which should not be included, as they are simply not movies, period. Making the required minimum length be one hour would eliminate any possible argument or controversy during the challenge regarding which films can or cannot be included. It would be a moot point, and one less bone of contention between participants. Setting the length at one hour would make any future disagreements about featurettes, tv shows, Masters of Horror episodes, etc. utterly nonexistent.

edwardnortonfan

My only problem with he length limit is that it would exclude Nosferatu and Les Vampires, and those are two awesome movies that everyone should try to watch, but they're under 60 minutes.

caligulathegod

What Nosferatu are you watching? Mine is 82 minutes for the Image and 94 for the Kino. Also, Les Vampires is something like 6 hours long, if you are talking about the silent.

NoirFan

He probably has some butchered public domain monstrosity with a metal/goth soundtrack, there are unfortunately several of those floating around.

It also has nothing to do with vampires. If he means "Lez Vampires", as in sleazemaster Jesus Franco's Vampiros Lesbos, that's way over an hour as well.

Chad

Basically a stand-alone documentary that isn't a featurette produced exclusively for a film's DVD as supplemental material ...if that makes any sense. American movie wouldn't qualify because the making of Coven is not the primary focus of the documentary - it's more about Mark Borchardt's life and struggle to become an independent filmmaker.

caligulathegod

The other challenges aren't as well represented theatrically as Horror and need all the help they can get. Holiday is mostly TV and shorts, really. It's also more nebulous, since it's any film that takes place during a holiday, whether or not it is intrinsic to the plot. Oscar challenge should really be all features, but short films apparently count since they win Oscars, too. Sci Fi is well represented, but it's also intrinsically tied to television. When you say Sci Fi, the first image that pops into everyone's head is Star Trek. There's just too much SF TV to justify an outright ban. Plus, there's almost a geek factor that requires something as obsessive as watching whole seasons as part of a challenge. Horror TV doesn't have the same cachet. Even when there is a Horror TV show, it's usually anthology type shows, with a few notable exceptions. Why not keep Horror pure?

Chad

I honestly don't recall us officially deciding on anything. And I don't necessarily disagree with you that the 40-minute rule is a bit outdated by today's standards, but that's what's there and it's something to refer to.

Besides, the fact remains that their are some under 60-minute horror films. For example, 1943's The Mysterious Doctor clocks in at 57 minutes. Why exclude those films even if there are just a handful?

And, of course, you've forced me to bring up MOH. Showtime's website even describes them as such:

Watch the Masters of Horror on Showtime - movies directed by horror film legends like Brad Anderson, Ernest Dickerson, Tom Holland, Dario Argento, ...

Don't want to reignite that debate, but agree or not, I don't see a reason to deny anyone that chance.

There you go. Why deny this man the chance to see his MOH? I see absolutely no reason.

caligulathegod

Ok, then. 55 minutes accomplishes about the same thing as 60 minutes. It knocks out featurettes and simplifies the rules. The thing is, I've never heard anyone really praise MOH. It's always left-handed compliments when it does get something positive said about it.

Chad

Thank you both! Just please hold tight for another day because I was planning on bringing up the prize situation tomorrow.

gryffinmaster

Guys, are we counting Elephant Man and Perfume?

poster mayhem

I asked for a clarification to be clear, personally...

I'm fine with a month of no commentaries or documentaries (or if I choose to watch them they're on my time, not a part of the challenge).

I just wanted some clarification. I wasn't sure what counted as a horror doc.

The concept that the doc must be released on it's own and is not a part of a DVD package makes perfect sense to me. It's the same argument that I make in favor of Masters of Horror vs. Buffy, etc.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

So what 40 - 59 minute movies upsets enough people so we can't watch them? If they're movies and they're horror, I don't see what the problem is. Just because there aren't a lot of them doesn't mean we should automatically disqualify them. They're horror movies and this is a horror movie challenge. If someone doesn't want to watch them then don't, someone else might.

caligulathegod

Remember, you can use your Wild Card for non-conforming material.

Trevor

Agreed. 40 minutes is fine. Movies only, no documentaries unless they are separately released.

Surfinhank

I did this challenge for the first time last year and had a blast. I could care less about winning (or the prizes). I'm starting to pull things out to watch this year and I'm noticing I have a lot of TV series that are horror related that I'd love to watch (Blade, Masters of Horror, American Gothic, Forever Knight, etc). Are people going to freak out and ban me from the forum if I put more than the 3 "allowed" so-called wild card titles on my list?

NoirFan

Feel free to put them on your list, just don't count them as part of your total.

caligulathegod

Here's the thing, with a 55 minute rule, it allows in legitimate theatrically released films as well as made for video films while excluding shorts and featurettes without encumbering the challenge with a bunch of rules and exceptions. There really is no such thing as a 41 minute feature film other than episodic television. That time limit is included in the rules of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a cut-off for short subjects and is really only a default when it describes features (they only have two categories: shorts under 40 minutes and features). Anything above that approaches feature length and the market takes care of that itself by insisting films be at least an hour (back in the double feature days) and perhaps 70 minutes today (I can't think of a movie in the past 30 years under 70 minutes counting credits), so the Academy doesn't need a specific rule slightly longer films. Some poverty row programmers managed to survive in slightly less than 60 minute prints, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Really, anything that would count will be about 55 minutes, anyway, so it's almost a moot point to have it or not have it. With it just makes the rest easier. Also, we don't have to be strict. If you have a programmer on one of those 50 movie sets that is 53 minutes, go ahead and list it. The rule is meant to be a simple cutoff rather than an absolute law. 55 minutes should allow in MOH while excluding TV shows.

Trevor

On the time rule, does anyone have any specific horror films that are less than 55 minutes? I'm sure there are some out there, and if they are horror, and above 40 minutes, they should count. I doubt there are enough of them to bother changing the rule.

konekonoir

These films (used a bit loosely) are all between 41 and 54 minutes according to imdb and/or my own notes - both of which may well be wrong.

Blood: The Last Vampire
Boy from Hell / Jigoku Kozo
Call of Cthulhu
Dead Girl Walking
Death Train / Kyofu Ressha
Digital Devil Monogatari Megami Tensei
Down to Hell
Evening of Edgar Allan Poe
Ghost Story for Christmas: The Signalman
Ghost Story for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester
Ghost Story for Christmas: Treasure of Abbot Thomas
Ghost Story for Christmas: A Warning to the Curious
Guinea Pig: Android of Notre Dame
Guinea Pig: Devil's Experiment
Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood
Guinea Pig: Devil Woman Doctor
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: Death Make
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: Diet
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: House of Bugs
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: Present
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: Snake Girl
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: The Wish
Living Dead Lock Up 2: March of the Dead
Masters of Horror: Incident On and Off a Mountain Road
Mother Tree [Kaidan Chibusu Enoki: Ghost of Chibusu Enoki]
Omnibus: Whistle and I'll Come to You
Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
Torched

Shack

Thanks. A useful term to know...
That's not about length, it's because they are seen as episodes of a series.
This is the only challenge which has the word "Movie" in the name, for starters. No one says you can't watch specials, MOH etc. as your wildcards, but the main focus of the Challenge has always been movies.