jholmes

I didn't know yesterday was any different than any other day. Guess I thought the name, Mass Marathon of the Damned, was a regular theme (Briggs/Fangoria) rather than an actual marathon. How does it work for next year? I watched 5 movies yesterday but that was what I've been doing.

clckworang

I'm knocking on the door of 100. Sitting at 95 right now. So close yet still so far. This weekend, I mainly focused on subset films, crossing off eight these last couple of days. That means for all intents and purposes I'm done with the subset. I still haven't watched The Zero Boys, but I might use my theatrical wildcard for that one. It's not that I don't want to watch it. I ordered the Blu-ray in the recent Arrow sale, and it hasn't arrived yet. I'd rather wait to put my Blu-ray to use, but I intend on watching that one first when the order arrives and will still try to comment on it. Until just finishing with Sleepy Hollow, it has been a rough day of subset films for me today. I haven't really liked any of them (Marrowbone, Repo, Brainscan). I might just be getting grumpier as the challenge reaches its conclusion.

Trevor

Anyone else a little too OCD about the themes? Chad tends to combine multiple sub-themes into each day, sometimes very similar but often quite different. I love that, but “have” to watch something covering every link. The only day I fudged was European day, with it’s links to two dozen countries.

Chad

It's just an optional standard marathon where you watch pretty much whatever you want. Only mandatory part is you need to watch one film from the attached theme like you would with any. Back in the early days, it didn't have an actual theme attached, which is why I always include the 'Only One Theme Required to Complete' disclaimer. In other words, it's really more a tradition that doesn't particularly serve a purpose other than encouraging mass viewings on the last Saturday of the month.

Chad

One very late reminder...

Dick Laurent

For the last 5 or 6 challenges I believe I did 100% theme days. But this year I wanted flexibility so planned to stick to one theme movie a day and then watch whatever else. This kind of backfired on me though as I just end up trying to decide what to watch and watching less, compared to planning out the theme day and watching more. I'll probably go back to all-theme days next year as I seem to prefer that. Maybe the restrictive nature of the theme is what I need to keep on track better.

jholmes

Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense.

I did that with Dogs/Bogs/Logs, watched one for each. But it didn't even occur to me to do it to other days where there were multiple list links. I might have tried if I'd thought of it! I did try to stay generally in theme each day, though except for a movie here or there where I really needed to get a checklist item.

This is my first year doing the whole challenge. I decided midway through to try to do at least the minimum checklist without using any film more than once. That reshuffled and forced some of my latter watching. I don't know if I will do that again, but it was an interesting effort.

SethDLH

I went to Chiller Theater in Jersey yesterday and before the gas leak and bomb threat shut the show down for the evening I met some rad folks - The 3 ladies from the first Evil Dead, Cinzia Monreale from The Beyond, director Ruggero Deodato and Carl Gabriel Yorke from Cannibal Holocaust and Pauline Peart from The Satanic Rites Of Dracula (3rd Hammer girl I've met). Spoilered the pics for size.

Chad

And the winner of the third and final trivia round is...

Shack

Congratulations! You're now the owner of the HamiltonBook.com Prize Pack #3:




Courtesy of...




The winner of the bonus question is...

Surfinhank

Congratulations! You're now the owner of the item of your choice from one of our remaining four sponsors - Celluloid Terror, Synapse Films, Cult Epics or Vinegar Syndrome!

Courtesy of...











The top three Vincent Price answers were:

1. House on Haunted Hill (1959)
2. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
3. The Tingler (1959)

The top three Frankenstein adaptation answers were:

1. Frankenstein (1932)
2. Young Frankenstein (1974)
3. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

mrcellophane

I watched Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein today. I forget just how much I love both movies when I haven't seen them for a while. While the film largely jettisons Shelley's original plot, it excels at exploring the themes she sets out and making the creature sympathetic and still menacing.

To fulfill the Dan O'Bannon check, I watched Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce and was pleasantly surprised. For a Cannon flick, it's surprisingly coherent and gets a lot of thematic mileage out of its vampire/alien hybrids. My only (pervy) complaint is that out of all the naked guys running around, we only get the briefest glimpse of side butt. I want to check out the book on which it is based.

SethDLH

Congrats to the winners!

mrcellophane

Congrats to the winners!!! The Vincent Price answers remind me that I really need to see The Tingler.

Gobear

Congrats to the winners!

SethDLH

Days 20-22 post is up! A very mixed bag.... https://celluloidterror.blogspot.com...8-days-21.html

shadokitty

Congrats to the winners!!

Trevor

Disgruntled congrats to the winners!

And my annual complaint that best list voting shouldn’t be mentioned until after the list finalization date.

Shack

Thanks everyone, and thanks Hamilton Books. That was a nice surprise. And one can never have too many copies of Frankenhooker.

wishbone

Congrats to the winners!

WillieMLF

Congrats to the winners!

I really thought I would hit 100 this weekend, but I'm at 95. I was trying to beat a total of 106, but it's unlikely. I'm planning on 2 movies a night and getting to bed at a reasonable hour.

I ended up going to BJs on Sunday to pick out the Halloween candy and other essentials. Ended up getting 2-3lb bags of assorted chocolates. Now the kids really need to come Wednesday night as I'm not rationing.

Trevor

The following snippet illustrates how exhausting it is juggling multiple OCD quirks.

Looking at the various sub-themes last night, found one film that made at least two of the lists, so popped in the BD. I thought I vaguely recalled liking Return to House on Haunted Hill, but after a couple minutes my memories of hating this film returned. A sensible person would have ejected the disc and picked another. But no, I watched that dreck again. It wasn’t laziness, it was more a combination of wanting to get my money’s worth out of that purchase, and my stubborn insistence on sticking to the plan after I had already added it to my tentative list. I’m strongly considering adding that disc to the “to sell” box, but then I’d be missing a title in a “series” that includes one of my favorites, the original.

Gobear

So far, I've managed to watch at least one movie per day, so I'm still on a theme streak, but there's no way I'm going to hit 100 (at 87 now), finish the checklist, or watch all the subset movies. If Halloween were on a weekend, I think I could make a stronger finish and get to 100, but I can't stay up til dawn on a work night.

Trevor

Chad, in planning for tomorrow, I see that several of the theme links are down. Looks like buried.com hit a bandwidth cap. Anyone save a backup of those lists? Or maybe I’ll look for this way back machine thing I’ve heard people talk about.....

Trevor

Search engine archives are pretty cool!

Broken links for tomorrow’s themes:
Witchcraft
https://web.archive.org/web/20160817.../Witchcraft/1/
Satanic
https://web.archive.org/web/20180110...ywords/Satanic
Demonic possession
https://web.archive.org/web/20180110...nic_Possession

ViewAskewbian

Congrats to all the winners

BobO'Link

I feel your pain. I'm frequently in that same boat! I own dozens of movies I'd just as soon never see again but just can't bring myself to get rid of them all because they're part of a "series" going so far as to occasionally watch them anyway if I'm watching all of the movies in the series.

FWIW, I hit 100 last night with a 2nd viewing of The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974) (aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie among others). The first time I watched this one was the 2007 Blue Underground re-release of the Anchor Bay Let Sleeping Corpses Lie DVD. Last night I finally watched the Blue Underground DVD upgrade with the The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue title. I honestly can't compare the two releases as it's just been too long since I watched that first release. That said, the newer release looks excellent (and I think it's now OOP which is a shame). It's a very under appreciated Zombie movie, one of the better ones IMHO.