edwardnortonfan

Oh yeah, GREAT idea to watch Paranormal Activity 2 AND 3 in the same night. Don't mind me, I'll be sitting in the corner curled into the fetal position for the REST OF MY LIFE.

mrcellophane

Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch a movie on actual Halloween since I had friends over and a paper to write over Byron. I really enjoyed participating and hitting a respectable 57 entries. This got five complete film box sets and two television box sets out of my "unwatched" pile. I pushed myself to watch a couple of things with more gore and violence and am already formulating a list for next year that includes some of the classic films that I haven't had the gumption to watch - such as Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street.

SethDLH

Halloween had me helping my little cousins get ready for trick or treating. this included the younger one, who is 6, becoming mesmerized by Dracula (he was dressing as a vampire) and seeing ads for Creature From The Black Lagoon and Frankenstein and wanting to know everything about them. He was just going wild with questions and interest because he knows that I love scary movies. After talking to him about those for a little while the Hammer version of The Mummy came on and he was in love with Peter Cushing and terrified (in a good way) of Christopher Lee as Karas. He didn't get to see that whole thing before leaving for the candy hunt but I've never been happier as an older cousin/relative. His older brother didn't care much about all of it until the fight over the remote broke out when The Mummy was changed to some crap and the younger one won the fight.

All of my personal bullshit that tried to ruin my Halloween that I won't even bring up here was worth it in seeing a little horror head born from the classics.

asianxcore

Horror?

EdTheRipper

Wrapped it up with Human Centipede II: The Full Sequence. Finished with 163. Not as high as previous years, but not too far off either. Blew away last year's total of 102, so I'm alright with that. Obviously there was a lot more stuff I'd have liked to cram in but I just completely ran out of steam over these last few days. I'll say the same thing I've said every year....for as much fun as I've had this month, I'm glad its over.

3onameathook

I just couldn't walk away without completing 200 films; since I was so close yesterday . Definately going to be hard to be it next years challenge. I'm hoping that I won't have as much free time on my hands.

EdTheRipper

I'm also hoping you won't have as much free time on your hands

SethDLH

Thinking the same thing. Some of the Godzilla films (first 2 mainly) are definitely horror, but after that it is highly questionable. Final Wars is a whole bunch of monsters fighting but it really doesn't come across as a horror movies. I won't create any sort of formal complaint about it but Godzilla movies certainly aren't automatic horror movies.



And for the record I really enjoy Final Wars.

SterlingBen

Godzilla = Monster

Movie About Godzilla = Movie About Monster

Movie About Monster = Horror Movie

Therefore

Godzilla = Horror Movie

asianxcore

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic

So, has this Challenge always gone until Dawn? (November 1st)

If so, I might be able to sneak in a couple of films to get over 50 before I have to wake up for work/classes.

Julie Walker

Exactly

Now if I were discussing films which have remakes with the exact same title. Then I'd at least mention the films year of release or state 'original' or 'remake' in the reply so it's obvious which version I'm talking about.

Speaking of which. Tonight I finished things off with a John Carpenter double feature of Halloween and The Fog both in their original mono audio versions. I shouldn't need to state anymore details on which versions I'm talking about.

I hadn't watched either film in years, though Halloween was something I hadn't watched probably since 1999 when the limited edition was released. I had seen it so many times as a kid, and it's so over praised by critics, that I basically needed to take a break from the film. So having not seen it in a long time, and also putting all the sequels and never should have existed in the first place plot aspects introduced beginning with part 2 out of mind, and viewing the film on it's own terms. It's definitely a well made and fairly scary little flick with a nice

The Fog I think I had watched in the first horror challenge way back when, and that would be the last time I had seen the film as well. It was nice viewing it in mono this time around, since it sounds so much better in my opinion and is extremely creepy. I've always loved this film and think it's very underrated, and delivers the goods. The cast is awesome as well, and it's well edited and filled with atmosphere and dread from beginning to end.







Yeah, The Ring was just lame in my opinion. I found the scene after the well scene hilarious(really bad exposition done in a soap opera fashion that didn't need any explanation at all since we 'got it' from what we saw), and then you think the film is going to end there, and then it goes on and on, with some laughable last minute attempts at being 'intense' and 'surprising'. Yet I was just disinterested by that point and wanted it to just end already.

I didn't like The Grudge 2 and I haven't seen part 3 yet though noticed it was available on Crackle.com or Hulu.com for streaming, and I was kind of curious to check it out. But I'll hold off on it for now. I'm not expecting it to be any good. But the first film is damn good in my opinion and extremely frightening, despite what the naysayers say.

cproaps

Do NOT stay up all night and then watch something like Repulsion for the first time! What a mind trip.

Ash Ketchum

GODZILLA FINAL WARS is far more suitable for the comedy challenge, which starts today.

SethDLH

Did that a couple of months ago... it was wild.


That was a fun challenge. No drama, good discussions, seems like a lot of people reached a good number or their goal.

Spiderbite

I decided to go a little different and watch Halloween II and III last night. That got me to my goal of 50.

Man, Halloween II is pretty bad. I have seen it several times but it seems to get worse every time I watch it. I think I end up watching it only because of the Nurse that shows her perfect titties who was on an important episode of Buck Rogers when I was a kid. Well...maybe not important to you but it was important to me. Great body. Anyway...the whole thing is just done soooo hokey. From Donald's over exaggerated lines ("I shot him six times! I shot him six times! Hey...Did I tell you I shot him six times") which he screams most of the time. Yeah, it held some crazy charm in the first one but seems old this time around.

Then you have to try to accept so many dumb things for this movie to make any sense. The most completely deserted hospital in the world. The dumbest people making the dumbest decisions. The whole There were several other things I noticed but I have forgotten them by this morning. Just a silly, silly movie. I still mildly enjoy it for some reason (could it be the tits?) but I seem to enjoy it less and less the more I see it.

The kills are not very inspired either. To be honest, the little boy with the razor blade in his mouth going into the hospital and the needle scenes when giving Laurie shots creep me out more than any of the kills. Though the way "Tits" goes out is pretty rough. I don't know...I was rather ho-hum on this. And disappointed in the quality of the film transfer on BD. I was expecting a little better.

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch is a strange film. Not very scary and the plot is just wacky and dumb. The movie hasn't aged well at all. I like the idea of dumping Michael Myers and starting fresh but they should have done it with a stronger story. Other than an obnoxiously catchy commercial running throughout the movie, this film doesn't have much going for it.

SethDLH

Halloween 3 has melting faces, warlocks, kids biting it, stone henge, robots, silver shamrock, Tom Atkins hooking up with women half his age... it's win all around.

Trevor

Amen!
I think that was added a couple years in.
Yep, Halloween 3 is the third or fourth best Halloween film. I think people are biased against it because Michael isn't in it.

NoirFan

I ended up fading late last night, so I didn't end up reaching my goal of 180 or completing the checklist (six movies short for both), but still a most enjoyable month.

Ash Ketchum

I just added my checklist to my list post (post #54) and the edit time read:


(I love when that happens.)

Trevor

Yesterday I noticed that it was 11 days until my wedding on 11/11/11 and we had 111 confirmed guests.

omike

I also watched Halloween 3 last night. Count me as another fan. Maybe some folks don't care for it because of the SF elements. Before that I watched Jack-O a first time viewing. Not a great movie but I liked it, possibly because it was a bit different from a lot of the stuff I'd been watching lately. The not very well acted family was strangely appealing. I wanted to finish off the challenge with some cheesy monstery goodness so the last movie I watched was From Hell It Came about a slow moving tree monster on a tropical island that kills people who run into it or are pushed into it or are just standing around. Perfect! I would have liked to do one more but I was just way too burned out.

Still it was a great month. I made it to 105 movies (one more than last year), finished the checklist and watched at least one theme night movie each day.

Bladz

I recently watched Halloween II for the first time in over 20 years. When I saw this scene, what immediately came to mind is the number 666. He says 6 three times and I've noticed that if you pay close attention to certain horror movies, you'll catch a good amount of references to numbers like 666, 13, etc.

Giles

okay now that's eerie.

had fun with the challenge - some thoughts to follow shortly

oh and my list is finalized.

clckworang

I watched Halloween III for the first time this month, and I thought it was pretty good, too. I had avoided it for a long time because of bad word of mouth, but I didn't think it was too bad at all.

As for the realism complaints concerning the original Halloween, I love how the list doesn't include Michael Myers' many injuries that never kill him. But I guess I can excuse some of the cartoon physics in the film because I don't see the movie as real life. It's more of a fairy tale. Like the characters say, Michael Myers is the boogeyman, a bigger than life force. It makes sense that he can be everywhere and yet not be seen because of that and be able to do things that shouldn't be possible. Little Red Riding Hood is a very apt comparison. You don't ask why she can't recognize that it's a wolf wearing an old lady's clothes.

As for the challenge, I can already feel myself going back to reality. It was a lot of fun this year. I once again bettered my previous year's total, something I'm especially shocked by considering I was unemployed last year. But that wasn't the only shocker of the challenge for me. Going into October, I didn't plan on doing any of the optional things, but once the month began, I decided to toss myself into those things as well and successfully completed the checklist, theme nights and daily films. I'm still mixed over whether I would do all those things again. As fun as it was to be exposed to new films in the daily subset and be able to do some programming ahead of time with the theme nights, I know it also restricted my viewing and was largely the reason why I wasn't able to watch the few movies remaining on my unwatched list. But that's what November is for, right? I have to admit that I was at least partially persuaded to do all those things when I saw what dynamite prizes our generous sponsors donated this year. I've been drooling over the idea of a Synapse Blu-ray all month. I was hoping for that last trivia question! But regardless, I would happily do it all over again.

The outdoor theater really added a new dimension this year. I actually watched something outside every day in October. I guess I'm getting my money's worth from that investment. I'm already thinking how nice it will be to take a couple nights off from setting everything up outside, though. The movies this year were actually of a higher overall standard than past years. Yes, there were a few really low moments mixed into the month, but it felt like I revisited more movies this year (I will have to verify that when I finish and double-check my numbers) and didn't seek out so many stinkers just because they were conveniently streaming on Netflix.

A big thank you to all the participants and a big congratulations to all those who met their goals. And an advanced apology because I wouldn't be surprised if I end up having more challenge thoughts to share later. For those of you who are carrying over into the next DVDTalk challenge, my hat goes off to you, but I'm ready to get out of challenge mode and go into catch-up mode. I would still be up for further horror discussions, groups or whatever else we come up with. It would be nice to figure something out, though I worry about a repeat of the past horror club.

Whiskey Warfield

Only forty-eight movies but not bad for a first-timer.