I think if someone is going to drop out because they don't like a movie on an optional list, they're going to find something else to complain and drop out about. All they have to do is find some other forum and start a challenge going there.

Not even close to as many as I'd like. Almost everyone I know in real life thinks it's scary and good.

The talk about Puppet Master 3, makes me consider the movies for this month's challenge.

I have the 2nd on blu-ray I still need to watch and I've considered it for this challenge too.

I have at least 2 copies of the Puppet Master films on DVD; they keep re-releasing them in increasingly more complete packages for cheap... but I've never watched most of them despite each year planning on it.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Some people like Full Moon and Troma, others don't. I like The Devil's Carnival, and everyone else hates it. And that's fine. A challenge is about discussing films from differing points of view; what fun would it be if we all shared the same opinions about every film?

I think folks are forgetting that the challenge is supposed to be fun. It's an entertaining diversion to celebrate all things ghoulish and ghastly during the days leading up to All Hallow's Eve. We have enough focus on to-do lists and tedious tasks at our day jobs; why make the challenge a chore?

Fun. That's what movies are all about.

I am starting to think that you guys didn't like The Killer Tongue

It's online that I read the hate. For the time, it was good. I mean, it is easy to get lost in the woods and have people messing with you. I like that we also don't see a big reveal (because it probably would have looked funny).

What are you considering?

I believe I did that a year or two ago. Some of them were hard to get through, but in the end it was worth it as my mom enjoys the series and was fun to watch with her.

So true. The whole point of this, for me, is to talk to other people and get insight while finding out new movies or talking about movies I love. That's why I'm apart of this.

Just watching some of the movies for the animation challenge.

I saw it in the theater and everyone in our group thought it was dumb. At the end, someone said what I was thinking "That's it?"

A large gripe of mine was everyone claiming it was unique and original with the found footage aspect, even though it isn't since it's been done at least decades earlier on more enjoyable films.

The only other film I've run across that was of a similar nature with fans and reviewers is Sans Soleil (1983).

My eyes roll when I read crap like that because it's a freaking mondo film and those also came out before this but people act like this is a new and original idea.

Back to a horror related topic, if you order from the yearly summer shout factory horror sale and find you want one movie in the weekly sale and don't want to pay shipping, just keep it in your cart. The price won't change in later weeks and if you find another film to go along with it, now you get your free shipping.

This is kind of why I was never a fan of the subset picks or even the checklists. What was intended to be a aid for discussion has become the primary focus, or appears to be. This challenge IS about the endurance test. You are trying to watch 100 Horror films in 31 days or, if you are doing this more casually, just logging the Horror Films you do watch in October. The checklists were just a way to encourage breadth and variety. Personally, I never even look at the checklist until the last week to see how I'm doing. The subsets were just to give something additional to discuss but there was just as much discussion when everyone just watched what they wanted and mentioned in the thread. I got several ideas of what to watch just from the discussion, or if I had seen it, then I could chime in my opinion.

This guy's friend COMPLETELY missed the point of the challenge. He seriously thought it was JUST about the pre-made lists?

And for the record, IMDB lists Nightmare Before Christmas as "Holiday Horror" in the tags. You have to click "more".

I doubt if anyone is into checklists and subsets and themes more than me, but they're all optional fluff. They can be completely ignored and probably are by most participants. Don't like a subset pick, don't watch it.

And yes, rbrown's friend completely missed the point of the Challenge. And apparently, you do too, rbrown, at least slightly, or you could have explained it to him and keep another participant around.

Yeah, it's like going into a restaurant and walking out because you didn't like the special of the day. They have a whole freakin' menu!

Also, considering every Horror Challenge has gone into 4 or more complete threads, we never really needed everyone to watch the same movie to get a discussion going.

I don't even want to get into the appreciation of "Bad" movies. That's half the point of the Drive-in challenge and that leaked over to this challenge for me. Horror is a genre with a long history of bad movies. A lot of nostalgia is just the lurid posters or VHS covers.

Obviously, I AM alone in this, so therefore I'm going to STFU as promised.

Just one more thing: I'm going to assume that, since everything's optional and very few care about exploring the options, no one would mind if Chad saves a TREMENDOUS amount of work this year and forgoes compiling the theme nights, the subset list, and the checklist. No one else seems to give a shit about them, so my suggestion is to do away with them this year and see how it goes.

And before somebody complains that I'm all butt-hurt about it, I'm not. If I know ahead of time not to expect much, I can't be disappointed, and I'm certainly down with that.

I can get behind that if you guys can.

The main reason I’m starting a new thread as opposed to posting it in feedback is that I’ll unfortunately be doing a half-ass job with the hosting duties this year, and by that I mean I won’t be able to tabulate and post the results thread afterward. I’ll be out of pocket the first half of November and time just won’t permit. The earliest I could start would be right before Thanksgiving, and I don’t really care to be working on it throughout the holidays and possibly into the new year. Also, I seriously doubt anyone wants to wait until 2016.

And while that happens to be a very convenient excuse that just so happens to be true, I’d be saying the same regardless if I were free to do it. I’m honestly just burnt out after essentially doing the same thing for the past decade. At one point I even contemplated not hosting at all, but that was earlier this year when The Monkees announced he wouldn’t be hosting the Academy Awards challenge, and I didn’t want to steal his limelight with a similar thread. That gave me some time to think it over and come to the realization that it was just the post-challenge portion I was dreading.

Other than the absence of everything that thread entails, nothing else will change. I’ll still be able to send in the winner’s addresses (w/ a deadline like last year) to where they need to go. That said, if anyone else wants to tackle it themselves, you’re obviously more than welcome, although let me warn you it’s one VERY time-consuming and patience-inducing endeavor.

I realize this is a big part of the challenge, and I'm sorry to just quit like this, but my mind's made up. Still, I definitely don't wanna discourage anyone from excluding stats in your lists. We'll still have the usual 'best list' contest, so continuing going nuts with them.


Alright, just a couple more things I wanna squeeze in here, and I'll include that in a spoiler tag to keep this from running 15 miles long:

Here's that thread I mentioned earlier:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/62...challenge.html

You didn't see the billboard I put up?

I'm okay with this. You do more than enough anyway, without doing all those stats after the fact. I've said it before, it's like you do three or four regular Challenges in a month.

I'm sure someone will volunteer to do it (probably Trevor, he likes to do stuff like that ).

Ditto. You do more than other hosts combined Chad.You deserve a break.

I am a fan of the checklist, it encourages me to watch many thing I might never have seen if it were not to hit certain criteria. An important part of the OHMC is discovery, getting out of your comfort zone and watching things you wouldn't typically give a second glance. It is my favorite month of the year and a big part of it is the things you seem to not be down for so yes I think you should stick to your promise.

Idea: Assign out the stats. One person checks all the FTV, one person tabulates the formats. Bring on 20 people or so to do all the counting for you? I would have no problem contributing in such a way towards a cause that has brought so much happiness into my life.

In fact I was thinking about running a month long horror sheep but if we can help make it fun for you again chad we will.

Over the years of participating in the challenge madness (all of 'em) I've become a bit iffy on the checklists. I'll usually work towards the main checklist *if* what I watch fits but now don't strive to complete it or the subsets and themes checklists in the Horror challenge. That's partly because I already have enough stuff to fill the month and just don't want/need that added distraction. BUT I *have* used the subsets and themes checklists to discover new films to throw into the ever growing unwatched piles for the next time out which makes them useful to me. The one year I tried to do them all pretty much wiped me out and took months to recover so I decided I'd not do that again. I now just watch from the unwatched piles or, like a year or two ago, come up with a "theme" for my own viewing and pretty much stick to it. That helps avoid sleep deprivation/burn-out for me. The *only* goal I absolutely shoot for in this one is 100 viewings.

I'd also encourage each participant to be more vigilant about compiling his own stats. Nothing I hate worse than trying to count asterisks buried in text. Each list should have a final summary of totals of anything that was kept track of, such as first time views.

I'd keep the checklists, but continue to ignore them. I followed the Drive-in Checklist the first year but realized there were some genre films I preferred over others. I'd rather watch a hundred Blaxploitation and Martial Arts films over a single Nunsploitation or Mondo film.

I really like the theme nights, subsets and check lists. I haven't been actively working to complete each one, but it's fun to fill out the checklist as I watch a movie, and the subsets and theme nights sometimes help out when I'm indecisive. Also, I think a really fun part of the challenge is coming up with the subsets and theme nights before October. Also, these provide great suggestions for movies I haven't heard of or had forgotten about.

I really like the Drive In approach to the checklist. I.E. Free spaces.

You still have to stretch to finish it but if you really aren't into watching a 30s-40s "Cautionary" film then you can skip it and still complete the list.