Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

I can't believe that were going on our 6th year for this. It's a wonderful thing that I hope we can double, at least.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Are all ghost stories eligible for this challenge? I've got a ton of Hong Kong movies involving ghosts, e.g. the CHINESE GHOST STORY films, which have enough straight horror elements, I believe, to qualify. Problem is, a lot of the other ones are comedies, like Sammo Hung's ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND and the MR. VAMPIRE films. Or ghostly romances, like ROUGE and PICTURE OF A NYMPH. Do these all qualify?

And what about Hollywood ghost/witch movies that happen to be comedies or romances? E.g. TOPPER, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, I MARRIED A WITCH, and BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE. I never thought of these as horror movies, but would the ghost/witch elements qualify them? And how about cartoons about ghosts, like the "Casper the Friendly Ghost" cartoons?

Thanks.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

For those you're unsure of I'd start by plugging them in to both the IMDB and allRovi (formerly allMovie) since they can vary in their genre descriptions. For instance, "Mr. Vampire", which I counted last year, is listed as 'Action, Comedy, Fantasy' on the IMDB and 'Action, Comedy, Horror' on allRovi. That's all it takes.

For everything else you just have to use your own judgement calls. I personally would not count "Topper" or "Bell, Book and Candle" since they lie more into rom com territory. And I would count Encounters of the Spooky Kind, the Mr. Vampire films, I Married a Witch (due to IMDB listing) and Casper. The others I'm not familiar with.

For anything you can't make a determination on there's always the Wild Card option. They're for anything that lies outside the horror genre and normally wouldn't count or for those titles, again, you just can't decide upon. You can use them on up to three entries.

Sorry if that answer's a jumbled mess. I'm functioning on two hours sleep.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Another suggestion for checking genres I might make is Flickchart. One of the guys who assigns genres for allRovi also checks them for Flickchart, and users typically check IMDb when submitting so it's a pretty thorough amalgamation of the two. There are also some hybrid genres on Flickchart. For instance, Mr. Vampire shows up on Flickchart as: Comedy, Horror, Horror Comedy, Vampire Film, Foreign Language Film.

[In the interest of full disclosure, I'm an unpaid contributor to Flickchart. I don't benefit in the least from recommending the site. I simply enjoy it and find it useful.]

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

It seems to me that IMDb and allRovi have a double standard for witchcraft and ghost movies, almost always listing them as fantasy rather than horror, despite the fact that most people would consider witches and ghosts to be staples of the horror genre.

I would think that any movie with hopping corpses, like the Mr. Vampire series and Encounters of the Spooky Kind should qualify as horror. In Chinese mythology, ghosts and hopping corpses seem to be the standard monsters.

I view Rouge as more of a love story than horror, but the early scenes with Anita Mui trying to place her personal ad, her scene on the upper deck of the bus with Alex Man, and her exam by Emily Chu in the bedroom arguably put this in the horror genre. I'd be interested in your take on the ending. The last time I saw this movie, I watched Fleur's backward glance at Master 12 over and over, but its meaning remained ambiguous for me.

I favor expansive interpretations of these questions. I've been thinking of watching the Happy Ghost series of movies for this challenge, and maybe this time I'll take the plunge.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

"Spoof/Comedy" was one of the categories on last year's checklist, so romantic comedies with supernatural elements like "Bell, Book, and Candle" or The Ghost and Mrs. Muir should count, even though they are not, strictly speaking, horror movies.

I don't understand why there is a category for "--- appears on video nasties list -" because I have no idea what differentiates a "video nasty" from a regular horror movie.

Also, would there be any interest in adding a sub-category for extraterrestrials in the Monster category, as in Alien or Village of the Damned?

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

"Video nasty" was a specific classification of titles banned in the United Kingdom. Note: the link I've used was the one Chad provided in last year's checklist. You should have been able to find out then what the category was.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Thank you for the information; now I have the link bookmarked.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

It was also a link on last year's Theme Nights list under the category 'Condemned to VHS Hell!' and will be a reoccurring entry on both lists.

I'll add it to the main thread as another option. Just wish you didn't have to sign up to use it.

Just for the record, I never flat out said they didn't count. I simply meant I personally would not include them. If you plan on doing so, then by all means go for it.

Sure. Surprised it wasn't there already.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

How about a 'Watch a film that has only had a VHS release' checklist item? Though that might prove difficult for most folks.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Well, if Netflix streaming counts there's "The Video Dead" and a few more available. And TCM has aired "The Boogens" and quite a few others on Underground in the past. But yeah, it might mean having to resort to methods we're not supposed to discuss here.

Then again, I could always make it an optional checklist item ...providing I have help compiling the list.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

I can't wait for this, I wont come anywhere near my total of last year, with a newborn, but 2 a day would be nice.

I have so much amazing (and terribly amazing) shit pre-ordered that is horror related with September and October releases, can't wait to bust them out for this.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

I can't wat for this. I even just ordered the Puppet Master collection from Amazon yesterday in preparation for the Horror Challenge.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Have you seen the newest one? I thought it was pretty good.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

No, the only one I've actually seen is the non canon Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

I've been itching for this for a few weeks, glad to see excitement building. I'm going to start planning what I want to watch soon.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Incidentally, for any participants in or around Louisville, KY: Baxter Avenue Theatre will be screening a different Vincent Price movie every Saturday night at midnight throughout October. All are 35mm prints. Confirmed already:

10/01 Theatre of Blood
10/08 The Raven
10/15 Masque of the Red Death
10/22 The Abominable Dr. Phibes

I know there are a few regulars on this forum who live within a couple of hours of here. I have no way of knowing whether any of these movies would be worth the drive to those members, but thought with this much advance notice, I'd mention it.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Since I don't really know how much I'll participate in the Criterion challene, I may watch a few horror movies in September to wet my appetite for October.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

If you can lay your hands on 'em, there are quite a lot of horror movies in the Criterion Collection. And don't forget that Criterion titles released on LaserDisc only are also eligible--offhand, I know this means you can count Bram Stoker's Dracula. I believe Chad is removing Criterion from the Horror checklist, so maybe now is as good a time as any to delve into the Criterion Collection's offerings while it counts!

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Don't forget--Bela Lugosi's birthday falls in October (Thurs. October 20), so you can do a whole Bela marathon that day.

Just look what you've got to choose from:
DRACULA (1931)
MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932)
WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1933)
THE BLACK CAT (1934)
THE RAVEN (1935)
THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936)
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939)
DEVIL BAT (1940)
THE WOLF MAN (1941)
THE INVISIBLE GHOST (1941)
THE CORPSE VANISHES (1942)
GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)
RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943)
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)
ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (1945)
THE BODY SNATCHER (1945)
SCARED TO DEATH (1947-his only color film)
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)
BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (1954)
THE BLACK SLEEP (1956)
PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1956)

http://www.alicia-logic.com/capsimag...BelaLugosi.jpg

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

What about changing Elvira to just a generic horror movie host/hostess? There's a bunch of them out there and some of us still have a local show.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Speaking of Vincent Price, he celebrates what would have been his 100th birthday this year. In honor of that I have October 25 (his date of death) designated as 'Vincent Price Filmography' on Theme Nights. Of course we'll sync that up with the 31 Films Subset and add whatever of his films gets chosen as an individual discussion thread as well.

As usual, 10/20 is marked as the 'vampires' theme in honor of his birthday. That's a permanent staple.

Done. I regretted that decision two seconds after doing it.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Good! Without the boobs, Elvira would have been just another generic horror host. There are plenty better. I'll pull out my Count Gore de Vol DVD-Rs this year.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

The Monster Channel has plenty of streaming horror movies, many hosted by local horror hosts. I am part of the World of the Weird Monster Show and we air every Wednesday at 8pm EST.

Re: Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2011 "October Horror Movie Challenge"
 

Scorpion and Code Red are also now releasing movies hosted by former WWE divas.