Chad

Don't forget this is also being used for Horror Film Club feedback.

Darth Maher

2nd Post!?!?!?! Ok, why can't I be this on the ball with the LISTS threads?

Anyway, one thing that I suggested to Chad when I PM'd him my list votes was an idea for another "contest" next year... best picture/logo for each list. Of course, we could have boundaries and such so someone doesn't have an 800x600 pic at the top of their list.

As always, I'd like to see TV Shows/Specials/etc counted regularly, but if the majority want movies only, I'm happy to oblige. I have no other "suggestions."

Other than those two minor incidents, I think the challenge went smoothly this year.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

Only suggestion as a non-participant is maybe asking for a temporary sub-forum for the discussions of the movies afterward. The reviews/recommendation page was a mess during October.

Darth Maher

I think we did ask and were told to go to hell.

Cardsfan111

I'm not sure I understand this. At a glance, it looks like the horror subset threads caused more traffic to flow through the reviews/recommendations forum than the other 11 months combined. This seems like a good thing to me.

Fist of Doom

I agree. That forum is normally a vast wasteland.

And how does adding reviews for films "mess" up a forum that's specifically designated for reviews?

clckworang

Yeah, I don't get that complaint, either. I don't see how it was a mess during October. There was never a full page that was taken up, the new DVDTalk reviews were always easy to find -- or at least I didn't have any problems finding them. I'm always shocked whenever I see someone actually comment on that forum anyway. We drew in some non-challenge participants and still have some threads on the first page, which tells me that either we brought some good chatter to that forum or there isn't all that much activity there in the first place. Actually, it's probably a combination of both.

Trevor

Yes, the subset participants did dominate that subforum for a month. But in reality, that subforum rarely has more than a couple threads with posts active that day, and I've seen threads on the first page that were over a month old. And very few threads in that subforum get any discussion at all. Worst case scenario, you had to click to page two to see week old and completely dead threads.

Edit to add: Gave my reply before I read everyone else's answers to your observation burnside. They answered much better than I. We used the forum perfectly in my opinion, doing in it exactly what it was created for, and giving it more activity than it has ever seen.

caligulathegod

Yeah, plus it made it easier to discuss the films if you watched them on different days than the official days.

The basic challenge is probably perfected, but there's always room for freshening up the extras. I'm sure the checklist can use a tweak or two. I'd make pre-1920s films be "extra credit" rather than required to finish the checklist. There's only a handful of flicks that qualify and none of them are truly "features", so it makes the checklist nearly unattainable. Also, I agree about dropping the videogame movie. Or perhaps make it a movie that was either based upon a videogame or had a video game based upon it. That would open it up to The Thing, Ghostbusters, etc. I just refuse to watch the same Uwe Boll films over and over every year, so I can never finish the list. Perhaps the video game movie is too SF, anyway.

Truth is, I ignore the checklist until the last week and then check to see if I hit it at random. I don't want to make the checklist easier, but if there are categories that are so limited that there's only a handful of movies that qualify, or the category is stale, then they should be rotated out.

SethDLH

I agree with the talk on the video game section of the checklist. Until there are more movies (and good ones) that were based upon games I think it should be changed to something else.

I think I among others have expressed interest in a director's section of the checklist as well.

islandclaws

I thught this year's challenge was tons o' fun, as usual. The only changes I'd like to see would be made to the subset checklist. Maybe a poll could be used to determine what should be added/removed?

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

It was just a suggestion. As for me, I like the reviews and recommendations page clean and neat. Its easy to see when the new reviews are up in a concise manner. I understand it had some good conversations in it. I even posted in one or two. Im just saying that it was a jumble sometimes looking for the past few days worth of reviews.

clckworang

I see what caligulathegod is saying about pre-1920s films, but that's what the wildcards are for. Everyone can watch those films, whether they are trying to finish the checklist or not, and get some quick wildcards out of the way. No, I don't like using my wildcards for those films, but I still like the idea of hitting all the decades in film history on the checklist.

I'm still not sold on a director's section. I just think it would be more restrictive than the actors we now have listed. Most of the actors on the list, with a couple of exceptions, have a really broad filmography that allows for all types of movies, whereas a director's work is more limiting and often narrower in focus. Plus, a director's section is one of those that could get really out of hand. Just how many directors would be on the list? How would they be chosen? And all of this would be in addition to all the actors that are already listed?

Hell, we only had 6 people complete the checklist this challenge. I'm not sure if adding more stuff to the checklist would be the way to go.

Trevor

My thoughts on the checklist are that we shouldn't make it too easy to complete.

My initial thoughts in expanding it so much a couple years ago were for it to stay optional and be for the big diehards, masochists even. It shouldn't be easy. There should be a couple items on it that are painful to watch, and make you want to not finish it.

I totally agree with making some changes. Love the director subset idea. Love the adding "made into a videogame" to the "based on a videogame" category, that should make that one a lot easier.

See the point of some categories getting stale, but my thoughts are to not lose anything probably, just tweak a bit. The expanded checklist was created to be inclusive of all possible types of horror pretty much, so deleting something just seems wrong.

Of course, just my personal opinions, which could easily be changed in the coming months, and we have 9 or so months until we really have to get it all "official".

Trevor

That's cool, I understand your concern/suggestion.

You could subscribe to that forum, and get one email per day listing the new threads.

Personally, I pretty much do everything on these forums thru email, and rarely even look at the main forum/subforum pages.

clckworang

One of the only things that I think we could probably just flat-out remove rather than merely tweak is the Invisible Man category. There just aren't a lot of horror titles that fall under that category, and many films dealing with invisibility aren't horror at all. I don't know, there's certainly a lot to be considered with the checklist.

clckworang

Oh, I meant to say something else as well. If we change the video game category to include made into a videogame, that maybe opens things up too much.

That would mean all of these could apply:

Friday the 13th
Nightmare on Elm Street
Saw
Ghostbusters
The Thing
The Evil Dead films
Jaws
Halloween
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Aliens
Predator
King Kong
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Addams Family
Godzilla
Arachnophobia
Beetlejuice
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Coraline
The Crow
Darkman
The Mummy
Land of the Dead
From Dusk Til Dawn
The Haunted Mansion
Ju-On: The Grudge
Nightmare Before Christmas
The Ring
Underworld
Van Helsing

And then you'll also get into franchise issue. There's a video game for Land of the Dead. Since Land is a part of Romero's bigger saga of films, I could see where someone could watch Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead and have them count as turned into a video game. And someone could easily watch any film in the Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises and include them. Keep in mind just how many new movies come out with video game companions. Yes, the number for horror movies with video games is smaller, but there's a Saw video game out there for cryin' out loud.

I much prefer the other idea that was floated in the discussion thread: video game or based on a comic/graphic novel.

Trevor

I see your non-quoted points, but completely oppose this. They're two entirely different mediums, combining them makes little sense. If anything, make comic book spawned a separate item, or combine it with novel.

Trevor

I think that item was originally added to cover the Four Horsemen of Horror, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, and the Invisible Man.

Maybe tweak it to allow any invisible force/creature/person? I actually think that we would have already allowed this in our very liberal interpretation of checklist 'enforcement'.

So any film involving demons would count I guess, for example.

clckworang

Oh, really?

Couldn't resist looking that up. But seriously, a movie based on a video game is WAY too narrow, and a movie turned into a video game is way too broad.

And I understand the inclusion of the Invisible Man, but aside from the classic Universal films and Hollow Man, I can't think of much else that would qualify, without twisting the meaning beyond recognition. I guess Nightmare on Elm Street would qualify? But that's getting a bit weak.

I'm a bit worried about the checklist for next year. I've always enjoyed trying to complete it, but if we add a director subset, I probably wouldn't try for it again. Add that to the list of actors we already have to contend with and there would probably be too many movies that I would have to rewatch. I like to keep non-first-time viewings to a minimum during the challenge.

Including Carpenter, Argento, Craven in the checklist, along with actors like Bruce Campell and Jamie Lee Curtis, and I wouldn't have a choice. I fear I would spend more time trying to complete the checklist than watching new movies. The more restrictive the categories that we add (watch a film from a specific director or actor) to the checklist, the less freedom we have in the way we complete the checklist.

Personally, I think steering people to particular actors is probably a bit much as well. I think director and actor selections are something better for the horror club. I'm sure I'm in the minority, though.

Trevor

^ Ah, but the changes I mentioned did involve separating the comic book category you proposed. I love that comics might get some respect in the checklist, but immediately opposed having them lumped with video games. Really!

On your fears of adding directors making the checklist too imposing, I don't think just that aspect should worry anyone. We're talking adding 5-8 directors I imagine, and it wouldn't surprise me if most of them would be checked off even if you didn't know they were a category, just in your normal viewing and other checklist completion.

And again, all this discussion brings up the very nature of the checklist. It isn't meant to be something that everyone does. It isn't meant to be easy. We could change it to make it those things of course.

Trevor

Correct me if I'm wrong Chad, but I think you want to add some disclaimers/'rules'/suggestions before getting everyone to jump on board the Horror Club.

We don't want a repeat of the Criterion Club problems. We had about 100 people sign up, but only ~ 15 submit choices, and only ~ 10 participate in the discussions. Some people didn't even discuss the films they choose, and 'made' others buy/rent.

Add something like this to the Horror Club threads maybe?

Cool Ghoul

What about having a bonus day and extending the challenge till midnight Nov. 1?

I understand why some would not want to change it but I for one would enjoy getting to extend some aspect of Halloween for one more day and thus help numb the post-Halloween depression I get each year.

It also gives you a set deadline for the challenge to be over instead of the till dawn deadline now, which I like since Halloween night doesn’t stop at midnight to me.

You could have a Mexican Horror movie day for Day Of The Dead.

Just an idea…

clckworang

Sure, sure you had all this already planned out. But the original intent of what you were agreeing on was making the checklist have some more flexibility and broaden the eligible titles.

I get that the checklist should be difficult to accomplish, and I think it is now, which is evident considering only 6 completed it. But take Chad, for instance. He had said earlier that it's not that he can't finish it but rather he wouldn't want to get forced to watch the same old thing. Separating categories further and further, adding a comic book requirement, adding directors, it's just going to focus in on certain movies so much that you only have a handful of options on what you can watch. And chances are you've already seen it. Perhaps several times.

I was thinking this was probably going to be the last year I made the checklist a priority anyway. I don't mind that you are forced to watch some duds to complete the checklist. I don't mind that at all. I don't like that it's such a small pool of titles from which to choose. And now there could be even more small pools that I would have to add, with fewer and fewer films that I haven't seen.

As for directors, I don't think I've watched an Argento film in the challenge and only 1 Craven (because a friend had never seen the first Nightmare). It's not that I don't like them, but I've watched them so much that I like to use the challenge to find new things. The more categories and requirements that are added to the checklist, the less time people have to discover new things or at least the greater chance to have to rewatch previously seen movies.

I just realized I typed a whole lot but basically rambled and said the same thing over and over. That's what happens when you're not quite sober on a Friday night! Anyway, I realize I'm a minority opinion, so I'll bow out of this discussion and let the majority decide how they want do the checklist.

SanityRemoved

The only suggestion I have for the Horror Film Club is that the titles are selected far enough in advance and that they are carved in stone for the dates assigned. That is the one thing that really annoyed me with the Criterion Club was that the titles changed. Once the titles have been selected and dates assigned people shouldn't have to visit the thread on a daily basis to insure something hasn't changed.