Chad

I believe my final tally was around the 157 mark, but won't know for certain until my uber neglected list is updated. This is the first time I didn't surpass the previous year's total, although it probably was more in terms of actual hours viewed. But whatever, this was an extremely enjoyable challenge for a number of reasons - no arguments, no questioning of totals, great discussion and, most importantly, everyone appeared to keep their sanity in check!

I regret not participating in the discussion as much as I would've preferred, but, hey, that's just my usual nature. Yeah, I'm not exactly the most vocal person in case you haven't figured that out in the last 5 years. But I always get the most enjoyment out of reading the various list/discussion comments, reviews, blogs, etc. ...a talent I unfortunately don't posses. In fact, the highlight of tallying of up the totals (and one that makes it more tolerable) is getting a chance to go back and read all the stuff I missed out on.

Anyway, I'm left with two Netflix titles, a full TiVo hard drive and an unwatched pile with enough to fill another challenge. I need coffee.

bse

My final was 162, the worst by far was Jason Goes to Hell, god I hate that movie. Favorite first time viewing would be Blood and Black Lace.

I managed to watch 54 titles out of the unwatched pile, sadly I was buying as many as I was watching though. I wish I would have watched the Nightmare on Elm Street series...

exharrison

I still have my wild cards unused. Would a Harry Potter movie and Nightmare Before Christmas be a suitable use for that? That would put me up to the delightful 100

Indy24LA

My goal was 37 and I finished with 50! For me, that is amazing. Had a blast and I still have about 20 films I wasn't able to get to that I'll have to save for next year.

Travis McClain

I just spent forty minutes typing an end-of-challenge reflection only to lose the entire thing when my router went down just as I hit "Post Quick Reply." Here's a distillation:

I'm amused that the only arguing came before the challenge started, over the inclusion of TV content this year. It turned out that allowing that content with the standard conversion formula seemed to eliminate a lot of "count total" issues. And from what I've read, long time participants found this one of the most friendly, enjoyable times they've had with the Horror Challenge yet so maybe there's something to be said for that rule change. Kudos to Chad for daring to introduce it this year.

I only really had one goal and that was to make it through as much of our unwatched pile's horror content as possible. We fell 11 titles shy of doing that, but I saw more than 11 first-time viewings from other formats (streaming from Netflix is a godsend) so I still wound up seeing more than 50 movies for the first time this month. Very satisfied with that.

I'm also thrilled that, in addition to the friendly and fun discussion threads here, I was able to get several blog posts out of this challenge. I watched The Wolf Man - The Legacy Collection in its entirety and reviewed it for my blog. I also got the inspiration for a rumination on torture porn from the first discussion thread (thank you, to the participant who started that side conversation). I also contributed two pieces to Flickchart's blog; one was an entry in their "Reel Rumbles" series in which I pitted the original and remake versions of Night of the Living Dead against one another (inspired by watching them back-to-back to satisfy the "Film and Its Remake" checklist item).

The big one, though, was the discussion that ensued after I declared I was underwhelmed by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Several people chimed in and while it was lively it was always civil. I thank all of you who argued your points, both for and against, because you helped give birth to "The Casablanca Chainsaw Massacre: Dealing with Underwhelming Greatness," which spawned its own conversation. I also dashed off three sketches, my favorite of which is "The Urbane Monster" (originally, "The Urbane Creature") featuring Frankenstein's Monster puffing away on a stogie.

Looking forward to 2011, I have two suggestions. One, given that Horror is very heavy on make-up work, perhaps one of the giants in that field might be added to the checklist next year? I can come up with some names given the time to do the research, but offhand the guy who did all the Universal Monsters work in the 30s comes to mind. Tom Savini has done quite a lot of it over the years, too, I believe. I'm sure you dedicated fans can name twenty others off the tops of your heads.

Finally, and I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but all the "Day of..." and "Night of..." type items felt tedious. I know you could complete them all without ever watching a single one of Romero's "Dead" movies but it just felt like that section of the checklist amounted to a thinly veiled requirement to watch that series. I was pretty deflated once I finished Dawn of the Dead only to learn that dawn is the one time of day not explicitly included on the checklist! Perhaps going forward this could be truncated into a "[Time of Day] of..." item?

exharrison

I know it ended at dawn. I had watched those earlier during the month of October and thought about asking since I was so close. Otherwise, 98 is still as good as I've ever gotten.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

One of my biggest disappointments was the ending of the original, The Bad Seed. A small part of me finds it slightly amusing but overall it seemed lame.

Fist of Doom

Sidenote: When I want to type a long post, I type it into a Notepad or Word file (which I can save as I go), and then copy-and-paste it into the Quick Reply. I've been burned before, too.

EdTheRipper

Same for me. I wasn't even going to participate at first. As the first week wound down, I got really into it.

The lack of drama was extremely nice this year. As someone who has also been in the middle of it, it was refreshing to see common sense reign supreme.

Mondo Kane

185 watched. A new record for me! Aside from the 3 wildcards, 169 of the movies were first-time viewings for me. Now That's what I want out of this challenge. And despite the long haul, never did a feel some fatigue (Only in the past 2 days were, like other members, we threw sleep out the window for the weekend)

Okay, before I get to my annual awards, some random stats:

British Power-Thanks mostly to all the unchecked horror movies I (Once) had at icheckmovies, this meant that I had to watch a hell of a lot of Hammer/Amicus films this year (Thank you for those fridays, TCM) But it didn't just end here, there were also a few contemporary flicks that I ran into along the way (Salvage,28 Days,Severence,Descent) I even dreamed that I was talking with an english accent at one point.

Meagan Good-I love me some Meagan Good, but I am now certain that it's in her contract to get killed in every horror film she appears in.

Chris Sarandon-I watched three of his movies (Sentinel,Fright Night,Bordello of Blood) that he had made in a span of 21 years. It looked like he only aged by about 4 years during all that time.

Scary train rides-I had no idea that I would eventually like two horror movies that were set on a train (Terror Train,Horror Express) Though the latter was more superior.

Isabelle Adjani-I had never seen or heard of this great actress before, but she blasted into my cinematic-viewing life by appearing in not one, not two, but three movies in this challenge (Nosferatu,Tenant,Possession) and she even made a unscripted cameo in The Last Horror Film!

Vincent Price vs Peter Cushing-For awhile there, it looked like it had become a battle on which of these two icons would emerge on top by appearing in the most movies. Even though Vinnie closed out my festivities, Petey had broke out into a bigger lead during the middle-part of my marathon. And since I watched his films completely out of order, it was strange to see Cushing go from looking old to looking mature to looking very old and back to looking more youthful. I also LOVED watching his hair fly around crazily whenever he got into a tussle with someone.

Alright, ceremony time:

Best Movie(s) (First time viewing)
House of the Devil-The only film in the challenge that came close to actually spooking me out.
Night of the Creeps-I've been very slow to embrace these "Space-slug" movies, but I had one helluva fun time with this one. Slither was also another great first-time viewing for me, but I perferred CREEPS a lot more.
The Devils-A pure visual mindblower that's taken to more levels thanks to Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Redgrave may have the greatest cackle I've ever heard.
The Skull/Kiss of the Vampire-The best Amicus & Hammer films I saw. Skull had my favorite nightmare sequence of the entire marathon and Kiss/Vampire turned out to be the best vamp film I saw (I wasn't a big fan of how the vampires are vanquished in the end though)
Honorable Mentions
Herzog's Nosferatu-Can't believe I neglected this for so long. Kinski is so amazing (Especially when he spots Johnathan's blood) The only thing I could've done without was that damn violin kid.
Nightbreed-Did Russ Meyer do the editing on this? I've never seen a Clive Barker film move so damn fast before!
Day of the Beast-Very fun film. I wish it was a LOT more well known.
Castle Freak-Jeffrey Combs' finest hour?
Brain Damage-Even better than I always thought it would be. Elmer rules.

Worst Movie(s)
(Techincally, The Black Witch Project was easily the worst, but I'd rather focus on something that was actually made on film)
Bloodthirsty Butchers-Ok, I'm not sure what kind of film this was shot on either, but I believe this is the 3rd Milligan film I've watched and this is definetly the worst of the three.
Stan Helsing-Alright, I can safely say this was the worst of my entire challenge. But to tell the truth, the movie wasn't bad untill that giant cockroach showed up.....And that was only within the opening 3-minutes.

Imagine My Surprise! (aka "holy shit, I actually enjoyed that!")
The Frighteners-Keep in mind that I had long gave up on this movie in the past. I could never make it past the horrid, hammy acting that occurs in the early going. But I was so glad to give it a chance this time. It turned out to be very enjoyable and much of the 90's CG & FX still holds up very well.
Final Destination-I've never had any interest in these movies. But as a dark comedy, this first movie is fantastic!
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats-So damn odd that I couldn't help but love it.
Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound-I don't know anybody who has ever seen this, but I'm sure they would be surprised by it. This had the best cast of the challenge. Jason Patric and Michael Hutchence as Byron & Shelly! Holy crap!

Biggest Disappointment(s)
Thirst-The Aussie vamp film. It felt like it just couldn't decide what movie it should be. The only highlight of the movie for me was the power-line death.
Fido-I didn't have the highest of hopes for it originally, but I was still expecting to be proven wrong. That didn't appear to be the case.
Smash Cut-Oh man. This teased me BIG TIME with the H.G. Lewis introduction, then followed by some spot-on Giallo credits with some Morricone-mock music. And then the movie turns out to be a comedy. Nothing wrong with that except I never came close to laughing,chuckling, or grinning.
Skeleton Crew-Great idea. Terrible results.

Best "Better on a 2nd viewing" movie
Hmmm. Not a lot to choose from this year since so many were first-time viewings. Psycho 2 seems to be gaining a big-following lately and it was certainly better to me now than when I watched it as a kid.
But I guess my big pick would be Brotherhood of the Wolf. All of the elements seemed to flow a lot better this time around. Since it was a different version (The Director's Cut) that might have also been a helping hand.

"WTF did I just watch?"
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders-I had no idea what the hell was going on here.

Favorite Horror Babes:
Amanda Donohoe in Lair of the White Worm (Without question, the best/hottest she-beast of the challenge)
Diora Baird in Stan Helsing (Movie sucked @$$ but good lawd, she looked great)
Nichole Hiltz in Trailer Park of Terror (Yowza!)
Barbara Bach in The Unseen (With Bach around, that's always a given)
Belén Rueda in The Orphanage (Great heroine,tragic figure,and caring mother all rolled into one. Sexy too)
Anna Paquin's gal pals in Trick R Treat (About to look them all up in a minute)



And as I've said before:

Travis McClain

I also viewed Horror Express for the first time for this challenge. My DVD transfer was horrible; it looked like someone had taped a TV broadcast of it. But the movie itself was rock solid with some great tension. Plus, it features three guys who've played in either a Bond or a Star Wars movie (including Christopher Lee, who's done both). Telly Savalas was great as the drunk, angry Russian official. I give props for the philosophical layers of the film; the discussion about religion vs. science is just as relevant today as it was at the time of production. And the creature itself is still pretty grotesque and threatening.

shadokitty

Kind of lost steam on the final day as I ran into things to do on Halloween and was too tired to run until dawn. My final total was 102, with my last one being a short I used my final wild card on. The Greatest Show Unearthed. A video a friend showed me on Youtube sung by the cast of Nightmare Before Christmas. I am happy that I was able to make the challenge goal and went way past my persoanl goal of 31, as I had more free time tha I expected to have this year. Even being retired, I still didnt have time to sit down and watch marathons every day like some of you were able to do and I salute those who were able to get in totals like 150-200 or more.

Trevor

Your perception is correct. I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to ever watch or buy them (the From Dust Til Dawn sequels).
Agreed on all counts! Never realized that was Savini though, cool.
That's pretty funny. I guess once you get that familiar with someone .....
I only did more than 12 once, our final day with 7.5 bonus hours. My "best" were a couple three day weekends where I literally did nothing except sleep the minimum amount and watch films as fast as possible. Still only did 12 each day and it was incredibly draining to do it three days in a row. 15 a day the whole month is impossible unless you can live without sleep or live in a pocket universe where time flows differently. The people that claimed those numbers in years past had to be fudging, or counting films that played while they slept, or watching two films at once. I think 325 or so is the most I'd ever believe, and that is an incredible sacrifice/commitment. More power to anyone who can do it. Personally, I will NEVER top 200 ever again, and will likely stick to my normal 31, 100 tops.
Don't forget that we have 11 other Challenges between now and then. But yeah, this one is always the most fun and I wish October came around more often.
Wow. Now they've really gone too far with these NOTLD spin offs.
You type pretty well for just one paw. Get better soon!
That idea has been brought up before, and I once again second it!

ParadiseVendors

Favorite Horror Babes (in no particular order):
- Half the cast of Strip Nude for Your Killer would probably have to make the list.
-Danielle Harris, who was the only reason I watched Burying the Ex and the Road to Frightfest.
-The ladies of the horror themed burlesque show I went to friday night.

Best Movies (First Time Viewing)
- The Walking Dead, not really a movie but the first two episodes were awesome and I can't wait to see the rest.
-Killer Klowns from Outer Space, have no idea how I managed to avoid seeing this for so long.

Worst Movies
-Stan Helsing and Transylmania. I knew I wouldn't like either one, but watched them anyway.

Imagine My Surprise! (aka "holy sh*t, I actually enjoyed that!")
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space, I didn't expect to hate it, but I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I had heard mixed things from people who usually I trust on that kind of movie.

Biggest Disappointments
-Survival of the Dead. I didn't think it was as bad as a lot of people did, but it was a Romero zombie movie and it wasn't good. How is that not a huge disappointment?

"WTF did I just watch?"
- Never Sleep Again, mostly because I started it without knowing that I was about to watch a 4 hour movie. Oh well, it was awesome anyway.


Better Upon 2nd Viewing:


Movies I was really looking forward to watching this year and didn't (d'oh!):
-Human Centipede
-House of the Devil
-Who Can Kill a Child
I had all 3 of those sitting right next to my TV for the entire month waiting to be watched. But I was sort of waiting for the perfect circumstance where I wasn't tired and there was no chance I was going to get a phone call and have to run out the door to film, and it just didn't happen. This was one of the busiest months of my life, it wouldn't have been but I put that much of an effort into getting to 100 that it felt like a responsibility at times. But it was fun, and after a marathon yesterday and only thanks to the go till dawn rule, I made it to 100 before passing out.

Now I have two days of non-stop political work and then maybe a break, except for the day job (which isn't a real job by any stretch) and the two movies I'm working on.

Dick Laurent

Thanks, I'll pass your concern on to my Australian Sheppard, whose paw it was that was bleeding, right in the middle of my pre-dawn home-stretch!

And I’m surprised typing is working at all for me today, I’m pretty out of it. And it doesn’t help that I already feel a hole forming in my horror-movie watching, emotional-receptors that are beginning to deal with post challenge reality.

When does that OHMC 7 discussion thread start.......

Undeadcow

My record for same day viewing (24 hour) is 15 hours, 14 minutes with 10 items during my Hellraiser marathon this year.

y goal next year is to break that; only then can I begin to approach a Trevor-like level of godliness.

Chad

Meant to post this last night, but my connection went down:

- I'll give the usual 1 week to get your list updated. Please remember to indicate when it's complete!

- And don't forget to vote for your favorite list. No rush - PM or email me your pick between now and when I get the results thread up, which is at least a couple weeks away. I'll post periodic reminders. This year the winner gets the honor of picking the prize of their choice. It seems only fair with all the work that's been put into them.

- If you haven't already and wish to be included in the stats, don't forget to include your formats viewed, first time viewings and what your personal goal was. And it would be appreciated if you could include your previous year's totals if applicable.

- Please do your part and help eradicate unnumbered lists!


It's been updated.

SterlingBen

My end of challenge stats:

Every numbered item counts as 1 in this list (ie 112 total instead of 102)

Number of 1st time viewings:
55 out of 112 (49%)

Number of titles watched with wife (all are 1st time viewing for her):
24 out of 112 (21%)

Most Watched From Decade:
1.) 1980's - 26 out of 112 (23%)
2.) 1970's - 20 out of 112 (18%)
3.) 1990's - 19 out of 112 (17%)

Most Watched By Rating:
1.) Unrated (post-MPAA) - 42 out of 112 (38%)
2.) R - 38 out of 112 (34%)
3.) Unrated (pre-MPAA) - 22 out of 112 (20%)

Most Watched By Format
1.) DVD - 65 out of 112 (58%)
2.) VHS - 21 out of 112 (19%)
3.) Via The Net - 20 out of 112 (18%)

Most Watched Listed Subgenre
1.) Slasher/psycho/homicidal maniac - 16 out of 112 (14%)
2.) Zombie - 22 out of 112 (20%)
.....Witchcraft/satanic/religious - 22 out of 112 (20%)
3.) Monster/creature feature/Godzilla - 26 out of 112 (23%)

Highest Rated 1st Time Views:
(4.5 out of 5 or better)
Zombie Roadkill (Episodes 1-6) (4.5)
It! (4.5)
The Walking Dead S01E01 (5)
Rosemary's Baby (5)

Highest Rated Repeat Views:
(4.5 out of 5 or better)
Tales From The Crypt Season 2: Lower Berth (4.5)
Wild Zero (4.5)
Fright Night (4.5)
Evil Dead II (4.5)
Night Of The Demons (4.5)
Deep Red (4.5)
Sisters (4.5)
Dawn Of The Dead (4.5)
Thriller: A Cruel Picture (4.5)
Suspiria (4.5)
Phantasm (5)

Wife's Highest Rated Of The Challenge:
(4.5 out of 5 or better)
Voice (4.5)
Phantasm (4.5)
Piranha Remake (4.5)
Thriller: A Cruel Picture (4.5)
Evil Dead: The Musical (5)
Watchers (5)

My Worst Titles Of The Challenge (obviously 1st time views):
(2.0 out of 5 or lower (1 being the lowest possible score))
Zombi 4: After Death (1.5) <--To be fair I did download the title song b/c it was awesome
Flight Of The Living Dead (Maybe 1.5)
Werewolf Vs The Vampire Woman (1.5)
Horror Of The Blood Monsters (1.5)
Tales From The Crypt Season 2: Mute Witness to Murder (1.5)
Le Manoir du Diable (1.5)
The Ghosts of Hanley House (1.5)
The Ghouls (1)

My Wife's Worst Titles Of The Challenge (I did try to only show her things I thought she would like):
(2.5 out of 5 or lower (1 being the lowest possible score))
Tales From The Crypt Season 2: Korman's Kalamity (2.5)
X-Files Season 2: Humbug (2.5)
Army Of Darkness (2.5)
X-Files Season 4: Home (2.5)

Trevor

I've been pretty out of it all day, and missing the discussion/Challenge. I've been in a sort of foggy dreamland most of the day, with actual dreams of people posting in this thread. I can't recall any exact details, but I remember thinking they were cool enough to post each time I almost woke up. I vaguely recall a dream of one of you posting something about trees near a creek in your backyard growing branches with human hands on them.
More like Trevor-level stupidity. Really, 8 hours a day was always my max, and I wish that I had not upped that to ~12 hours this Challenge. No one should ever try what I did, it was silly and hurt my soul.

Only thing I'm sort of proud of is the ~30 hour marathon to end things. That was grueling, especially since all but one or two of the films were quite bad.
I'll mention it again in the results thread I'm sure, but you really rock for doing this every year Chad.

Only suggestion I have is to not allow voting for a week. I'm pretty much done with my boring list, but I'd hate to have someone put in a lot of work for the next week on their list until your deadline, but for people not to see it before voting.

Dick Laurent

That's funny, because I had a dream of a girl in my backyard with twigs as hands. Oh wait, maybe I was sleep-watching Titus again.

And though I've mentioned it myself as well, great job again, Chad. Your hard work is much appreciated. This is going to be a l o n g couple weeks to wait for the results thread.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I have 2 things I'm waiting for this month, the results thread and my forced, non-paid, vacation from work on Thanksgiving week.

Travis McClain

I met her at the Fright Night Horror Fest awards ceremony in 2008. She's as friendly as she is cute. And OMG is she tiny! I remarked to my wife once she had walked away how big a thing I had for her back when she appeared in recurring role on Roseanne. My wife chastised me because Danielle Harris was a minor at the time, and then I properly pointed out to her: so was I!

I also saw this for the first time during this challenge and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Sheer, goofy fun and the clown designs have aged very well.

I like this sub-set of stats. A big part of the appeal of this challenge for me is that my wife got into it and it was something we got to do together in a month that otherwise sucked big time for us. I'll have to ask her what she liked and disliked from what we watched together.

I planned ahead for that. I fell short of my initial goal of clearing out the unwatched pile, but I decided that my post-midnight/pre-dawn time would be dedicated only to favorite movies of mine. Bubba Ho-Tep, Shaun of the Dead and From Dusk Till Dawn was the perfect way to end the challenge.

I concur!

You make a good point. Perhaps it would help if participants would post here to let us know when their lists are ready for judging? Or if they aren't interested in being considered for the judging, at least?

Darkgod

Yeah I went crazy the last day... but that was midnight saturday to dawn monday... with little sleep... only wanted to finish the 31 films and checklist

Undeadcow

Watching The Convent (2000) right now, screw it... I can't stop.

Horror film club? It's got to go on!

Not counting this in my tally, of course.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

No problem with that. I'm slowing down and watching non-horror but I'm not stopping till I get those last 8 done.