Chad

I'm not currently on my home computer, and my absent mind can't think of anything that was brought up earlier at the moment.

There was some recent conversation about whether or not the 'best list' category should remain.

Anyway, fire away.

Darth Maher

It doesn't matter to me either way. I'll never have the time or knowledge of all that code to make my list much different than it is now.

Darth Maher

Hey! You tricked me!

Quack

Forgive my ignorance, but did/do Halloween theme TV shows count for this challenge? ie, Home Improvement, Family Matters, other sitcoms, cartoons? I really enjoy that aspect for the holiday challenge.

Gobear

My $.02 is that Halloween itself should allow anything Halloween-related--TV specials, History Channel documentaries, cartoons--but the rest of the month should be horror movies only, with exceptions for The Walking Dead and American Horror Story. Sitcoms are not horror by definition.

Undeadcow

Theme/Checklist Ideas (not sure if previously used):
Ouija Boards
Dismembered Appendages
Sisterhood (could be sorority, female vampires, and/or actual sisters)

Will edit in links later.


The Criterion challenge has a checklist item 'watch a disc in it's entirety' to encourage featurettes, commentary, etc... maybe the horror challenge should too.I'm a big fan of 'best list' category... a large part of the challenge is sharing ideas and making it fun... People who put effort into a list that's more enjoyable should get some kudos - jotting down alone titles is no fun and it's nice to see an extra plum for people who decorate, showcase creativity, or offer insight. I'd even suggest there be a random drawing for a prize (quantity allowing) with people who put together video compilations now that those are 'trending,' and thankfully so.

SterlingBen

Keep best list but I say dump some of the cast related checklist checks. I find it to be a bit narrow and you usually do a lot of hunting online in order to watch what will most likely not be that great of a movie. I am not saying dump it completely but maybe get rid of producer, score or makeup.

Also secret bonus day on April 29th? Only comes out nice every 4 years and it is almost Halloween's half birthday.

TheBigDave

I'd like to see a requirement that the subset movies be available for streaming legally. Then everyone would have access to them through a rental or subscription.

Some of the movies this year were not available on DVD/BD or legal streaming site. The only way to watch them was a bootleg upload on Youtube or DailyMotion. There are plenty of legit streaming sites and thousands of movies to choose from.

Undeadcow

I second this, I enjoy the idea of spotlighting important personalities but the cast checklist has seemed more random lately often featuring marginal celebrities or those with limited horror contrabutions (granted combined with others) that is can feel arbitrary. Maybe something similar can be done by instead using studios/eras as a guideline (i.e. 'watch a Hammer horror movie,' Amicus, Universal classic, Ozploitation, Jhorror, Pinku, Bollywood, blah, etc) replacing specific producers/directors/etc with a general line of film. This year's checklist required a bit of research and I can't say many cast members made a lasting impression beyond checklist completion. Highlighting genre superstars is one thing but it's gotten too 'niche.'

TheBigDave

I agree. The cast and crew checklists were my least favorite part. Major horror icons are fine, but most of the names were just too obscure.

CrazyMat

Many people including me have counted them (this year, last year and research suggest previous years too), using the tv rules. (1 entry = 2 hours w commercials 90 without or .25 for 30 minute shows and .5 for hour shows). Home Improvement had some really good Halloween episodes, so did Roseanne.

hbilly

The cast related checklist is one of my favorite features. I have my movies listed on IMDb, and I'm always surprised to find more "obscure" horror movies in my collection I haven't seen in ages when I run the names through IMDb's search option for my list.
I've tried to do a cast related checklist myself, once you've done all the big names in horror it gets really hard to find somewhat decent but not so popular names.
I bow down to whoever does the cast checklist and comes up with "new" familiar and not so familiar names in horror every year. Good job.

exharrison

This is an idea I like. Just one question about it - is there a way to see a month or two ahead of time what is getting dropped from netflix, amazon, and hulu? I've wondered this quite a bit for my own reasons.

In regards to best list: I'll never win it, but I like having the super nice looking lists. Going all out on a list is something that people have done for many years. Even as somebody who only partakes in the challenge about half the years, it feels like part of the nature and fun of the challenge to have those there.

Trevor

Halloween episodes are integral to my enjoyment of October. If someone doesn't want to count Halloween episodes, they don't have to. If someone doesn't think TV should count, they don't have to count it. If someone doesn't think there should be wildcards, they don't have to use them. In other words, there is still way to much bitching around here. If you want a 'pure' horror film challenge, go for it. But if someone wants to watch 600 Halloween episodes of sitcoms, or count thrillers, or whatever, more power to them.
I didn't enjoy the cast checklist when it was having to watch an item from a specific list of 10 actors. But now it's choose 10 out of 39. That seems very lenient to me. It'd be a sad day if we ever eliminated it. Don't like part of the checklist? Skip it!

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I like the cast checklist if you group those that haven't done a lot of horror, so that you end up having a decent amount of films to choose from. Big names should also be grouped together because if you have a big name with a few small fish, the bigger actor would more than likely be the one getting marked off.

Halloween shows should always count. If there was no Halloween, there wouldn't be an October Horror challenge.

CrazyMat

True, I look at this Challenge/October as a celebration of Halloween. I also wanted to answer without being argumentative. Last year I had the same question on whether to count Halloween episodes or not but after looking at some of the lists, I decided to just go with the flow.

I think Halloween episodes accounted for about 6 entries on my list this year. Which I also have a short and Hammer House of Horror mixed in with that.

SethDLH

I think that's generally the idea, well maybe Youtube gets the pass year to year but I know one that was a problem was my pick in Screamtime which was streaming on Netflix when I suggested it and by the time the date rolled around for its subset day it was no longer streaming which is just bad luck.

Mondo Kane

I'm still cool with actors,composers,writers,directors and FX artists in the checklist. Wouldn't be sad to see producers go, though.

As for genre/sub-genre, I've really ran out of things to watch for the rape-revenge check. It seems like a large majority of titles are more towards crime/action than horror. The only horror ones that I could find (That I haven't seen yet) are those cheap scuzzy, shot-on-video ones that make me feel dirty afterwards. But maybe that's the point?

TheBigDave

Even though it was dropped by Netflix, Screamtime was still available on Amazon Prime. And if someone wasn't a Prime member, they could still rent or purchase it from Amazon Instant Video.

We should be supporting legal streaming options instead of promoting bootleg uploads. Maybe that would help us get sponsorship from streaming services like Shudder, Screambox, Fandor, Full Moon Streaming, etc. It would be awesome if we could get them to offer prizes and discounted memberships.

TheBigDave

There isn't any good way to tell what's getting dropped. Netflix and Hulu will often mention which titles are expiring in your queue. I don't know about Amazon.

But most titles that are available at subscription services (Netflix, Hulu or Prime), are also available for rental/purchase at Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, iTunes, etc.

Trevor

I'd prefer a streaming-only rule in the subset films too. Especially since watching all of them is tied to a possible prize, we shouldn't force people to either pay for specific films or break the law to watch them. Perhaps change the subset prize qualifier to 25 out of 31? Also, we could always change a subset pick at the last minute when something like Netflix dropping it happens, we've done that before.

CrazyMat

I had a ideal in my head before, I am posting it now while its still on my mind. What about alternate subset picks. Like have 2 or 3 for each day and let it be the viewers choice which one they watch. That may also make it easier about availability. I think having 2 or 3 to choose from along with Trevor's ideal ^ 25 out of 31 would make it a lot easier.

rbrown498

You probably just made Trevor's head explode.

indiephantom

That's pretty cool and it's good for those doing the April B-Movie challenge, which is among the other populare challenges.

Couple of themes I mentioned before for future challenges.

PREGNANCY HORROR
HIGH RISES/ELEVATORS
HIT SONGS ON SOUNDTRACK (eg. Ben, Bad Dreams, The Devil's Rejects)

Trevor

No explosion, my meds (twinkies and Fritos) must be working today. Maybe multiple picks a day would work. I'm sure many, myself included, would be tempted by OCD to try to watch them all though. We'd probably have not a lot of support for multiple picks.

I think the system we have in place works pretty well. There are enough horror films worthy of discussion to have 33 new choices every year and never have to repeat. It'd be nice to have everything viewable on either YouTube or Netflix (just $10 for that one month for those of us without it) or current in Redbox ($1.50 rental); but I don't know, how much do we need to stick to that? But if we don't, we should probably change something to make it possible to easily "complete the subset" without people having to illegally view on the Internet or pay for individual movies; something like the multiple picks (the backup picks being repeats allowed maybe?) or the 25/31 thing.

Another idea is to screw the Netflix/easily obtainable guideline but then pick the films 9+ months in advance, giving everyone plenty of time to track down the films.