Trevor

That gives me a thought. I wonder if picking the subset films months early would be beneficial. Gives us more time to plan purchases and hold off on watching them. I'm sure more work is the last thing Chad wants to consider of course...
How was it? I've been tracking it's price fluctuations in my cart for like a year now.

Gobear

You can always watch horror during the B-Movie challenge in the spring. I also have a pile of unwatched discs that I intended to get through.

Indy24LA

What a great challenge... "I believe it was our most horrible yet". I hit a new record with 65 and got in almost everything I wanted to see. I had a perfect blend of yearly staples and 28 first time viewings. Finally crossed off The Wicker Man (1973), The Changeling (1980) and Terror Train from my horror movie bucket list. Favorite recent flicks were The Caller and The Collector. And I cannot say enough great things about Crystal Lake Memories, what a great documentary.

I am a little sad too, but at the same time excited for both the comedy and holiday challenges this month. Great counter programming.

SnapDawg

We ended up having a small Halloween party while the trick or treaters came to the house. At the end I had too many brewskies and while I tried to watch the Wolfman, I couldn't stay awake so I ended up finishing with no movies on Halloween......We did have Fearfest on in the background though

SethDLH

And here's the wrap-up post for the challenge for me. Thanks to everyone who followed along http://celluloidterror.blogspot.com/...ears-2013.html

Trevor

Heck, one could do that every month of the year, I think. There are 100s of horror comedies for November, over 100 holiday horror titles for December, etc etc

EdTheRipper

Agreed 100%. The timing is beyond perfect.

Mondo Kane

I'll admit, this wasn't one of the strongest challenges I had (It might even explain my choices for the best movies that I watched this year)
I even mentioned in one of the earlier discussion threads that those first few weeks were pretty rough. I was watching so many mediocre movies (With a capital "M") and I had a weak Halloween night. Extremely low activity going on around town (It felt like everyone was mourning for some reason) and my final movie picks didn't get me in a better mood. To begin with, Frightmare (My netflix-rental) didn't arrive in time. Hands of the Ripper, while not a bad film, was the wrong thing to watch so late at night since it tends to be chatty. And Saw VI had me confused here & there (It's been about 5 years since I last watched parts IV & V) To end the festivities on a brighter note, I took a trip down memory lane and listened to this on youtube

Ended up going to sleep with a smile on my face.

On the plus side, I finally got to see Black Pit of Dr. M (Yay! A long-awaited platinum award at ICM!) and I was pulled out of a slump by choosing to watch Euro-trash/grindhouse stuff prior to midnight (Things like Blood Sabbath, Devil's Wedding Night, Alucarda, Nude for Satan) I got the checklist completed and a large chunk of unwatched Rue Morgue recommendations got viewed.

Lastly, not only did I have fun making those music videos along the way. But I developed a strange hobby. I'm starting to collect horror-movie newspaper headlines:


Okey doke! As is customary before my annual awards, let's go through misc. stats/mini-awards/observations,etc from my marathon:

Other holidays I encounted:
Easter-The Being, Critters 2
Xmas-Silent Night, A Cadaver Christmas

Before-they-were-stars-sightings:
Jason Scott Lee-Ghoulies III
Naomi Watts-That Children of the Corn sequel
Kim Coates-The Amityville Curse
Jack Black-I Still Know What Your Breasts Did Last Summer (Sorry, that's what my friends kept calling that movie when it came out)
Eva Mendes-That Children of the Corn sequel
That guy that hosted Win, Lose or Draw-Jennifer
Paul Rudd-Halloween VI
Kathleen Quinlan (Even though I didn't spot her)-Nightmare in Blood

For a moment there, these guys kept on unexpectedly popping up:
Roddy McDowall-Shakma,Embryo
Bob Gunton-Bats, Dead Silence

Nice casts:
Black Sleep-Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Tor Johnson
Deep Rising-Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, Djimon Hounsou, Cliff Curtis, Kevin J. O'Connor, Anthony Heald
House of Long Shadows-Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing,John Carradine....And Desi Arnez Jr
The Doctor and The Devils-Timothy Dalton, Johnathan Pryce, Stephen Rea, Patrick Stewart, Julian Sands....And Twiggy!
He Knows You're Alone-Seems to only be known for Tom Hanks. But there's also Paul Gleason, Don Scardino, Dana Baron and James Rebhorn

Music people appearances:
Marilyn Manson-Rise: Blood Hunter
Brandy-I Still Know.....
Pink-Catacombs (Actually gave a pretty good performance)

Cruel Oz-I watched 3 Australian movies (Snowtown,Razorback,The Loved Ones) and each one featured a brutal dog-killing by man. Don't tell me you're a doggie-hater too, Mightysparks!

Most overplayed song-"Ave Maria"
Barrio Tales
American Mary
Maniac

Best short film-La Cabina

Best soundtrack-Otis (After being subjected to so many 80's/early-90's films with generic-as-hell songs, I couldn't believe how refreshing it was to hear hit songs that I've heard before)

Best scores:
Abel Korzeniowski-Escape From Tomorrow
Raphaël Hamburger-Maniac
John Morris-The Doctor and The Devils

Best makeup-Altered

Best kill-Maniac (2012) (Opening murder)

Best nightmare sequence-There's Nothing Out There

Best false alarm-The Being (Tractor!)

Best prank-X-ray aka Hospital Massacre (It involves a hamburger)

Best montage-Shakma (Courtesy of DaveyJoe)


Most unforgettable moment-Plankton nsfw


Awards time!

Best Movie(s) (First time viewing)
The Lords of Salem-A love-it-or-hate-it movie. I loved it.
Escape From Tomorrow-Another love-it-or-hate-it pick. ditto
The Child (1977)-It's a movie divided by 2 completely different styles in two acts and I ended up appreciating both.
The American Scream-I thought this doc even edged out Crystal Lake Memories and (Certainly) Room 237. That father/son duo gave me the biggest laughs of the challenge.
Puzzle-I think this is the first giallo I've ever seen that featured a chainsaw!
And Now The Screaming Starts-Quite basic, but I found this so effective.
Honorable Mention
The Woman in Black-Interestingly, this was the only movie I saw that came close to spooking me out. I thought, for sure, it would've been The Conjuring.

Worst Movie(s)
Barrio Tales-Nothin' to see here, folks
Night of the Living Dead 3D/Zombies vs Strippers-I'm still trying to decide which one was worse.
The Presence-Good potential. Nice ideas. But just handled BADLY.
Crater Lake Monster-Crown International at it again.
So bad they were almost good
Blood Oath
Snake Island
Cheeleader Massacre
Leprechaun 4: In Space

Imagine My Surprise! (aka "holy shit, I actually enjoyed that!")
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money-There were a few other horror comedies I saw that tried their hardest to be funny (i.e, Cadaver Christmas, but I swear, just about every single line of dialogue in this movie got a laugh out of me.
Honorable mention
Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis-Couldn't believe that I actually had some fun with this. Shout-out to Peter Coyote for having one of the most creepiest permanent grins I've ever seen.

Biggest Disappointment(s)
The Stendhal Syndrome-Kept on hearing how this was the last great Argento film. But I just had difficulty getting into it.

Best "Better on a 2nd viewing" movie
Halloween-Curse of Michael Myers-First time seeing this movie since it's theatrical release. Absoultely despised it before (Saw it at a dollar-theater and wanted my dollar back) But how times have changed. It felt like a completely different movie this time around (Even though that ending is still one of the worst ever seen)

"WTF did I just watch?"
Borderline Cult
John Dies at the end
Hard Rock Zombies

Favorite Horror Babes:
Jaime King-Silent Night
Sita Young-The Last Resort
Katherine Isabelle-American Mary
Eliza Swenson-Satanic
Rosalba Neri-Devil's Wedding Night



Once again, thank you Chad for doin' ya thang. I'll finalize my list soon and I'm looking forward to the blogs/videos of Seth, ChuckD and others who participated.

Spiderbite

What saddens me most about this challenge being over is the lack of love the review forum will see over the next 11 months. The review threads where everyone gathers together to discuss the subset movies is my favorite part of this challenge.

mightysparks

Ooh, I'm stealing this awards thing coz I wanna do it too!

Best Movie(s) (First time viewing)
Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly (1970) - great acting and tension
Dead Heat (1988) - fun zombie buddy film
Manhunter (1986) - surprisingly tense and tight little thriller
Linkeroever (2008) - atmospheric and fun thriller
Twisted Nerve (1968) - liked the main characters and theme song was awesome

Worst Movie(s)
The Machine (2013) - so cliche and terribly acted it hurts
Garden of the Dead (1972) - just dumb and dull
Valkoinen peura (1952) - wut
Otto; or, Up with Dead People (2008) - too in your face, not funny, and annoying
Barn of the Blood Llama (1997) - wut

Imagine My Surprise! (aka "holy shit, I actually enjoyed that!")
Hostel: Part II (2007) - hated the first one, but this was ok
Manborg (2011) - don't know why
Sien nui yau wan (1987) - was expecting a slow boring ghost story, got the opposite
Silent House (2011) - had heard bad things, but found it pretty intense

Biggest Disappointment(s)
Antiviral (2012) - not horrible, just felt it was too shallow
The Human Race (2013) - poorly acted and written, was hoping for a deeper psych study
Found (2012) - not bad, but again, was hoping for more
Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (2001) - was hoping for weirdness, got mehness.

Best "Better on a 2nd viewing" movie
Evil Dead II (1987) - didn't like the comedy feel the first time, but found it funny this time
Army of Darkness (1992) - similarly, didn't like the tone orignally, but this time it worked
Day of the Dead (1985) - found it a bit boring the first time, this time I found it intense and pretty awesome

"WTF did I just watch?"
Manborg (2011)
Bobby Yeah (2011)
Barn of the Blood Llama (1997)
Winterbeast (1991)

Favorite Horror [male equivalent of babes, I guess]:
Dan Palmer - Stalled
Bruce Campbell - Evil Dead trilogy
Julian Morris - Donkey Punch
Tom De Wispelaere - Linkeroever
Kieran Keller - Slashers

clckworang

Last night was a real struggle. I got home earlier than expected from Boo at the Zoo, which I had to do for work, but I was really exhausted. Some of my co-workers and I collaborated with our costumes. We did an Up theme, and I was the cranky old man. So, when I got home, the first thing I had to do was wash out my hair, which was turned white, and makeup. Bad idea. It just relaxed me and made me more tired.

I struggled mightily. I kept fading in and out of sleep, and even though I was given the OK to use Boo at the Zoo as a wildcard, I hated the idea of it being the sole reason I made 100. I finished my last entry, a Masters of Horror film because of its short runtime, just before the sun was coming up, BUT I did keep my 100 streak alive.

Of course, it was also my lowest total since my first year participating. I did complete the checklist, theme nights and daily subset, though. Honestly, it's sort of a miracle I was able to do that well. Work was seriously crazy throughout the month, with me having to stay a couple of hours late on a few occasions and at least an hour late many more. And then having to work an event on Halloween as well ... I'm sad the challenge is up, but I guess it's time to catch up on a month worth of TV.


And in case anyone was curious, here's the Up team. I was trying to fight smiling in the picture and scowl in character instead. It didn't quite work! But the costumes proved to be very popular. We had a number of people ask us to take pictures with them. It was fun, despite getting stung by a bee for the first time. Damn that fuckin' hurt.

indiephantom

@Trevor re: Dorm That Dripped Blood. I liked it.
Here were my thoughts from my blog post: This overlooked slasher benefits from an unglamorous cast and an authentic location. Long tracking shots and low-angles seem inspired by Kubrick's approach in The Shining and there's a similar sense of foreboding and increasing familiarity with the space as we move through deserted dormitory corridors and labyrinthine basement boiler rooms. There's perhaps more atmosphere than genuine tension, but the final act revelations are creepy, fun, and somewhat atypical (for slashers).

DaveyJoe

Thanks for the shout out Mondo. And thank you, Shakma, for stealing our hearts.

Chad

The usual post challenge info, deadlines and reminders...

-The Planning Thread is already up and running HERE. Instead of waiting until the results thread goes up and forgetfulness sets in, I thought I'd try something new by posting it early while suggestions are still fresh in everyone's mind.

-Let's say there's a 2 Week deadline for completing your list. That's fair, isn't it?

-Any help with tallying your list stats would be very much appreciated. The sooner everything's tabulated, the sooner the results go up and the prizes can be distributed. Hopefully that happens before Thanksgiving this year.

-Don't forget to cast your vote for 'Best List'.

-Feel free to list what prize titles you already own. I'll *try* to send winners something they don't currently own, but no guarantees.

-If you don't stick around DVD Talk after the challenge PLEASE keep in touch somehow, whether it's periodically checking your PMs or adding your email address in the User CP. At the very least subscribe to either the Facebook page or instant email updates for this thread so you'll know when to check-in and see if Random.org chose you. I'll notify winners through both PM and email (if provided) to collect address info.

dcrw6

Man, I don't check the site in three days and 8 pages go by. Finished filling out my list and realized I was two directors and two producers away from completing the checklist for the first time. Damn. But I did set a new record for myself. Could have done more but pushing myself would have led to a big burnout so it's fine.

I watched 118 movies with two blocks of tv shows making for 120.
114 were first time viewings with 4 being repeats.

Favorites were:
Lords of Salem
Blood Diner
Detention
American Mary
I Bury the Living

Most Horrible were:
Night of the Living Dead Resurrection
April Fool's Day remake
Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave
13 Eerie
Megan is Missing

Most WTF:
Boardinghouse

Most Inventive Deaths:
Ghost Shark

coyoteblue

My list is final.

Here are my stats. Heh.

Stats:

EdTheRipper

I'm 36 years old and prior to last month, I'd never been stung before. I was on break at work when one ended up stinging me right on the goddamn neck. Highly unpleasant. At least I'm not allergic.

malazar

Unfortunately, I am not disciplined enough to allow the extra candy to last a week let alone a year or two. I was thinking of putting aside a handful of sets of pennies since I used to always hate when people gave those. I wouldn't mind giving them candy if they had put in the minimum effort of putting on a costume though.


I am working on some stats like total time watched, first time watches, breakdown of formats watched for my list, and ratings for each movie. Are there any other standard stats that I should be including?

Fist of Doom

I only watched 27 movies, so these awards are from a small sample:

Best Movie: Maniac (remake)
Best Actor: Blythe Auffarth (The Girl Next Door)
Best Horror Babe: Katharine Isabelle (American Mary)
Most WTF? Movie: Society
Best Kill: House of the Devil
Best Jump-scare: The Collection

asianxcore

Too many things happened while I was trying to do the challenge. Ended up knocking me out of it. I am happy that I was able to watch as many films as I did though.

Will probably have my list finalized by tonight or tomorrow.

EDIT: List is finalized!

nezumi

I watched 3 less films than last year, but I still managed to surpass the goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the month. Some random thoughts:

• Three years ago, I watched my very first VOD movie for the horror movie challenge and wasn't impressed by the format. This year, I viewed three of four streaming movies over my Chromecast. I still prefer physical media for viewing, but my opinion on streaming video has definitely softened.
• Biggest Surprise: Witchery. Don't let The Hoff's participation in this film put you off. It turned out to be exactly what I was expecting to see this month, and I was happily grossed out by the film.
• The Worst: Final Remains (2005). Not even the juvenile titillation of full-frontal female nudity could elevate this crappy slasher flick above "Z" grade. It's yet more proof that having access to digital video production tools doesn't necessarily mean you should use it.
• SHAKMA! Even now, the thought of that little red-assed door-humper brings a smile to my face.
• There was a time when I could marathon through all three "Evil Dead" movies in a single night after ten o'clock. Nowadays, I can barely get through one without nodding off.
• In a similar vein, stumbling across Fright Night Part II late at night on television filled me with a profound sense of nostalgia. It reminded me of my teenage years and how I would stay awake long into the wee hours of the morning to see some bizarre late-night rarity through to its end -- a little like Charley Brewster, I'm suddenly realizing. In a world where practically any title is readily available at your fingertips, there's something even more special about those middle-of-the-night chance encounters.

I always have fun with this challenge. Thanks to Chad and DVD Talk for respectively organizing and hosting it.

walletboyniac

Best Viewing:
American Horror Story: Coven (Eps 1-4)

Top 10 FTVs:
V/H/S 2
Black Death
Abominable
Puppet Master
American Mary
Cannibal! The Musical
The Lords of Salem
The Loved Ones
Dark House
Cockneys vs. Zombies

Worst 10:
Followed Home
Dorm of the Dead
The Zombie Diaries
Thale
Anamorph
Blood Creek
Antiviral
Blood: The Last Vampire
Half Light
Warm Bodies

Most hilarious:
Mother of Tears

One day too late:
Mutant Girls Squad

Dick Laurent

It'll take me a little bit to clear out my backlog of list updating, and seeing it's the weekend I'm having a hard time finding the motivation. My 16 y/o son watched a good percentage of movies with me this year so I also need to mark those so I can track how many we watched together.

I know you get this every year, Chad, but truly, thanks for your hard work and all you do for the challenge. It's a blast every time.

acubfaninmd

My List is final

Total Watched: 44
First Time Viewing: 23
Worst Movies Seen For First Time: Drive Thru and Someone's Knocking At the Door
Best Movie Seen For First Time: American Mary and Curse Of Chucky

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

If you do that, you might as well just attach a raw egg and a note that says "Egg the House".