Julie Walker

I stopped a couple days ago and made it to 15 movies. Which is 6 more than I got to last year. But I had fun with it, which is what matters most. I barely got to 23 movies the first two times the challenge was done, and that was tough for me. So last year I dropped big time and barely got anything watched.

This year I think I did much better. I watched mostly films I enjoyed, but have not seen in years. Also had no repeats so far, as the goal was to watch numerous films I have, but haven't watched for the challenge yet. Eventually I will get into some repeats, which is fine. This also made it much more fun, instead of pushing myself to watch 'anything'. I just waited to be in the right mood, and then watched a movie or two with some gaps between viewings. Also I was able to keep my grades up and not do bad in my classes, which is another plus. I had to balance homework, my job...and occasionally movie viewings, while also going out with friends occasionally. But I couldn't let dvds dictate my life. So those were always last in the 'must do' list.



So here is my list with bits of comments on the films



October 1st

1: Hellraiser (1987) R
Classic, I love this movie. Very entertaining and unique. Best film in the series in my opinion.

2: Night of the Living Dead (1968) NR
Great movie, amazing atmosphere.

October 3rd
3: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) NR
I actually enjoy the book end scenes and the voice over, despite being studio imposed. It's a frightening flick that delivers the goods!

October 4th
4: Christine (1983) R
Kickass soundtrack! Very entertaining Carpenter/King film. Also first time seeing it in widescreen.

October 7th
5: Innocent Blood (1992) R
Anne Parillaud is so sexy! Extremely funny and entertaining flick, with some great cameos!

October 13th
6: The Grudge (2004) Unrated Version
Scary ghost flick, yes I like it and it creeps me out. The sequel is crap though(didn't watch for the challenge, but thought I'd make that clear).

7: Dressed To Kill (1980) Unrated Version
Erotic, suspenseful, darkly funny, oh so stylish. A very fun film.

October 16th
8: Fright Night (1985) R
First time viewing in widescreen, amazing. Highly entertaining film that still holds up.

October 21st
9: Friday the 13th (1980) R
Best film in the series. Simple effective slasher with a lot of atmosphere.

October 27th
10: Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993) Unrated Version
Fun flick, different for series and oh so extremely gory in unrated form!

11: Freddy Vs Jason (2003) R
Good monster mash up. Fun time all around.

October 28th

late night/early morning
12: Hellraiser III : Hell On Earth (1992) Unrated Version Laserdisc (97 minutes,complete version), 12 A.M.
Fun sequel. Cheesy, but fun. note- laserdisc is full print of the film. Paramount dvd does contain the uncut sex scene and gore though(despite R rating on package), but misses some character bits. The Paramount dvd also contains slightly different audio mix than the original version altering some music and effects.



13: Dead Alive (1992) Unrated Version Laserdisc, 2 A.M.
Epic splatter flick. So hilarious, sick and twisted, I love it.



evening..
14: My Bloody Valentine (1981), R 10 P.M.
Very effective slasher with a lot of atmosphere, and well rounded characters. Heavily cut to earn an R rating though, so there is no onscreen gore/violence really at all. Sadly it may never be released intact.

Oh and Happy the bartender just kills me each time! What a character!

October 29th
15: The Monster Squad (1987) PG-13
One hell of a great time! First time seeing it in widescreen which was amazing. Also having not seen it since I was a kid in the 90's. It's great to see it still holds up as fun entertainment.

Trevor

Thanks for the external hard drive advice all. When I get home I'll check to see if Verizon Fios uses Scientific Atlanta boxes, but I'm doubting it.

Anyone live near the International Date Line?

I just read that if one crosses it from East to West at midnight, you gain an entire day. Rinse and repeat to get those totals up!

Pizza

I just wrapped up my challenge and finished logging my entries. This was great fun! I watched twice as many movies as I thought I would. I enjoyed reading all the comments here and I'm sad to see it come to an end. My sincere thanks to Chad for setting up the event. Now I can start to catch up on all the other DVDs I bought this month like the BBC stuff from the DD sale and the 2 for 10 stuff (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls anyone?) from the Amazon sale and, of course, the non-monster titles in the Abbott & Costello box.

riotinmyskull

thanks again chad. it's been an awesome month and i'm glad i reached the 100 mark. now time to prepare for the upcoming holiday challenge!

Shack

Well I think I'm the one who watched the most but still failed the challenge, as I ended with 98. The vast majority were first-time views, though, and I'm happy as I saw a lot of stuff I'd heard about but had never seen.

Thanks to all for your entertaining lists, and to Chad as always for herding the Challenge. And now, to watch something completely different...

clckworang

I made it to 100! But only to 100. I am so exhausted right now. It's been a tiring month, but I've had a lot of work on my plate the last week so I'm really drained. I wish I could rest but I have to be at work in 2 hours. I did say I wanted some extra money for the holidays, though ...

But congratulations to everyone who reached their self-imposed goal. As much fun as I have had, I'm glad the challenge is over. Time to get back to reality and catch up with my TV shows and other Blu-rays. But I will definitely be participating again next year! And I'm betting I'll do even better in 2009!

Trevor

Shack, it's not too late. Get on a high speed jet and fly westward while watching two more!

But more seriously, did you use all 6 of your wildcards? If not, did you watch any shorts or television shows that were horror or Halloween related?

brainee

Just barely made 100! I'm not sure I can do that many again - I was really pushing. My DVR is at 98% capacity from all the tv that I wanted to watch, but put off because I didn't want to cut into my horror viewing time It was nice to work my way through so many "new-to-me" titles.

Darkgod

I only got to 62, 1 more then my total last year and my first level of a goal set. I got burnt out last week and only watched movies 1 out of 10 days.

Shack

Ha, that's a tempting idea -- perhaps I can fly across the date line, with a bag of DVDs...

Yeah, I did use all my wildcards, and it's fine. I did my best, got a slower start than in past years and that made the difference in the end. But I still had a great time, watching all I could in my free time, and that's what counts.

caligulathegod

I made it to 106 beating my last year's total by two, with 50% never before seen titles. I fell asleep early on my last one so I didn't count it. Only used 3 Wild Cards, but one Wild Card was 4 hours of Horror trailers and over half a dozen 5-20 minute shorts I compiled. Great fun.

LickTheABCs

I made it to 96. That sucks, but the last 3 days have been absolutely nuts. With lots of celebration, a parade and lots (and lots) of drinking.

I'm just glad it's over, and want to thank everyone for their lists and all the suggestions. Can't wait till next year. Maybe I'll be able to watch 4 more.

poster mayhem

I passed out hard after finishing Hellraiser III.

I'm both glad that it's all over and sad about it. My mind and body seem a little cranky, I think they're mad at me for mistreating them so much. Next year I will probably try for 100, but even if I would be able to take the month off I won't push for this level again, it was just too crazy.

Congratulations to everyone that reached their goals, if it was 31, or 100, or whatever and thanks to everyone who provided input and suggestions. What a blast.

Dick Laurent

I came in at 74! That's more than I expected, though I was shooting for the full 100. Maybe next year. I also managed to get in watching films on 9 different formats, and my hours almost made it to 100 (99.8). Anyway, I've updated the titles on my list, but I still need to add comments on a lot of them.

Thanks, Chad, for hosting this. And thanks to all of you for the great support. I enjoyed (and enjoying still) the conversation and of course the depth of movie knowledge I've gained here.

Can't wait for next year!

Trevor

Is it still cool to call someone "the bomb"? Probably not. But that is what Chad is.

For years I just used this forum for what it could provide me (not that there is anything wrong with that). But a couple years ago I started discovering that maybe I could be one of the people actively participating, and perhaps help provide/maintain useful information for others. Also began to learn that this forum was more than just a collection of information, but a community of people, real people, not just fake internet people. A big part of the reason that I thought those things, and changed my ways a bit, was because of these challenges, and the first one I found was the Horror Challenge a couple years ago. So if any of you don't like me, blame Chad.

Mondo Kane

Annual awards time! (Thanks to Chad for some of these categories)

Best Movie(s) (First time viewing)
1.Shivers-Barbara Steele and Lynn Lowry in the same movie?
2.The Tripper-Aside from the Scream movies, every horror flick that I've seen Jason Mewes in has been pure gold!
3.Living Dead Girl-I continue to be a rising fan of Jean Rollin's work.
4.The Maid-Just when I think Asian (Ghost) horror becomes too tiresome and predictable, along comes a movie that recaptures my imagination...Even if the movie is still by the numbers!
5.The Funhouse (1981)-Finally got to see this sucker from beginning to end. What I liked most was the bending of the rules:


Worst Movie(s)
Monster A-Go-Go:Made the terrible mistake of watching this without Joel & The bots.
Revolt of the Zombies-Boy, time sure hasn't been kind to this movie title!
The Boogeyman (1980)-Ever been afraid of a frickin' mirror before?

Imagine My Surprise! (aka "holy shit, I actually enjoyed that!")
Rob Zombie's Halloween-I'm assuming most of the negativity is geared towards the theatrical cut, but what I saw in the Unrated Cut wasn't as bad as I was led to believe. Then again, Part 2 was always my most favorite of the franchise.
Tales from the Crypt-Demon Knight-I've never heard one peep about this movie since it's existence, but I'm surprised it doesn't have a bigger following. I was shocked at how much fun I had with this.

Biggest Disappointment
Stacy-Aside from nothing happening untill the 40-minute mark, it's really too bad that this was shot on video because I would have loved to have seen how those special effects would have looked on film.
Raw Meat-Great cast and good concept, but jeez, I had a tough time staying awake through this one.

Best "Better on a 2nd viewing" movie
Cannibal Ferox-Don't get me wrong, this is still a piece of crap. But for the past few years, I've only watched this movie with the commentary on. Finally decided to watch this with the english audio and...What a blast! How silly of me to neglect the wonderful dialogue and hammy performances that I've ignored all along!

"WTF did I just watch?"
Night Train to Terror


Misc. final thoughts:

If you were a dog lover, this was a very brutal challenge for canines. (13 dead doggies)

Speaking of statistics, I've found a new inclusion for future challenges to go with dead bodies,dead animals,breasts,and nightmare sequences.....DEAD PHONES or DEAD PHONE LINES!

Trevor

Good reminder, hopefully this will stay an annual part of the challenge and everyone will contribute.
Wouldn't it be easier to count the films where this doesn't happen?

poster mayhem

Don't forget, phones out of service area. There's nothing more horrifying than a killer after me when I don't have any bars on my cell.

Trevor

Random observations from a brief scan of the list thread, compared to last year:

• We had slightly fewer super obsessed and sleep deprived people (or time travelers) who watched 200+.
• More of us hit the 100 plateau.
• More creative formatting and "blogging" of our films/time.
• A lot less arguing this year.

Could be wrong on them all, just typing to try to stay awake.

smashthesymbols

I made it to 100, barely. I finished the original Halloween, and movie #100, a little past 4am. It was a lot of fun, but in a way I'm glad it's done. I think I'm burned out on horror for a while. Not to mention I have an almost full DVR of TV to catch up on, plus all these other movies I've built up over the past month. I think tonight I'll go the completely opposite direction and watch something like Baby Mama or Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Now I have to go finish up my list and probably put together a bunch of needless stats and such.

Shack

For all of you who are sleep-deprived after finishing the Challenge, remember, you get an extra hour tonight!

Dick Laurent

You're "The Bomb" in my book, too, Trevor! I've always been against forums (just sounds so teen/MySpace to me) but this challenge has broadened my views. This has been great. I joined just to try this challenge out, and now I'm over 60 posts.

Fun times.

Oh, and I think kids today say, " 'da bom "

Proglodite

Here's my tally for the month of October. Because I own my own business and it was slow I squeezed in a number of movies on my computer in between customers. Listed in order of watching:

Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Phantom of the Opera (Webber movie musical version)
Whispering Corridors
Audrey Rose
Versus
The Ghoul
Venom
Squirm
The Bride
Satan's Blood
Horror of Frankenstein
Violent Midnight
The Island of Dr Moreau ('77 Lancaster version)
Ringu 2
The Equinox
Phone
Panic Beats
Shogun Assassin
The House Where Evil Dwells
Aswang
The Ghost Galleon
Azumi
The Haunted Strangler
Konga
Ringu 0
Rasen
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Jack the Giant Killer
Cello
Anguish
Dracula (FF Coppola version)
Bloody Reunion
El Hombre y El Monstruo
Corridors of Blood
Scanners
Guys and Dolls (ok, so I needed a break from horror!)
Scanners 2
The Killer Shrews (colorized)
The Giant Gila Monster (colorized)
Scanners 3
The Magic Sword
Attack of the Puppet People
The Antichrist
The Oblong Box
The Atomic Submarine
Downfall (technically not horror, but fantastic film of real life horrors)
First Man Into Space
The Living Coffin
Fear No Evil
Village of the Giants
Hell Night
Snakes on a Plane
Scream and Scream Again
Murder a la Mod
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Black Pit of Dr M
The Moving Finger
The Curse of the Crying Woman
Dr X
Predator
Return of Dr X
To the Devil...a Daughter
The Mask of Fu Manchu
Mark of the Vampire
Dawn of the Dead (European cut)

Runner Ups (watched 11/1/2008)
Mad Love
The Black Room
Devil Doll

--Peter

caligulathegod

You should put that in the list thread. It's stickied on the first page.

jmsmath

This was my first time participating in a challenge on here, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely be back. My modest goal was 30, but I managed to get in 36. With a little better planning, I could have gotten in a few more. It would help if October wasn't in the middle of football season!!!