Fire away.


Suggestions include...

Are there any Werewolf movies that take place on Halloween?

Ginger Snaps, Silver Bullet, My Mom's a Werewolf, and that one story from Trick 'r Treat are all that come to mind.

How 'bout adding "Listen to a horror movie soundtrack" to the list of optional items at the end of the Checklist?

Wasn't a big fan of the 50 Horror Movies You Have Never Seen list, didn't seem like a good representation of unknown horror movies, many felt like very mainstream titles.

Ooooh. I like these.

I would say, most people here have seen most.

We'll need to have a Political Theme Day with the elections coming in Nov 2020.

Also with the year being 2020, maybe a Theme Day about Eyes or Eyeglasses.

How important is 'format' on the checklist? It might be good to remove format because anyone who watches 100 movies is likely to watch at least 3 formats anyway.

Over the past 15+ years since the challenge started physical media is less common so watching a VHS might give epic bragging rights but seems less likely. Also there is some question if different streaming qualities might count (?).

With the 2019 challenge I watched 206 movies on digital, 3 theatrical, and 1 blu-ray.

Agreed... By the time i have four movies in, I usually have three formats. Maybe, piggybacking off your thought, have a checklist item for watch a movie on a dead format... VHS, Laser Disc, HD-DVD, etc etc

I am a fan of format listing, there is a big difference to the experience when watching something on VHS to UMD, it says a little something about your viewing experience. It is also an interesting barometer as to how in touch our out of touch you are with the community. Undeadcow above watching 98% streaming vs me watching 18% streaming.

I think we're on the same page. It's true most people don't watch primarily streaming, but that's beside the point - which is that more than ever few to no people are watching anything other than mainstream no brainer formats like DVD, blu-ray, or theatrical to the point that it's perhaps irrelevent to keep a category for three different types of media. That checklist item should be increased, changed to 'watch a movie in a dead media format,' or removed because otherwise it's no effort filler. As it is now it doesn't really encourage any varied in viewing experience because three formats is a given.

When I started the challenge I could go rent a VHS tape at one of the holdout video rental places near me; now that's impossible. I did stream a VHS rip on YouTube (Night Vision 1987, don't do it) but even thought the quality and source is the same as tape I suppose it's a digital format the same as Gremlins in 4K.

In addition to the 25th-, 50th-, and 75th-anniversary films in the "Chronological" category, we could actually add a 100th-anniversary film to the mix next year, as there are at least five horror films from 1920 readily available for viewing (i.e., on YouTube) -- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Golem, and Barrymore's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde chief among them.

While we're at it, we could have a theme night for split personalities, a la Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or even just a night for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-based films, such as Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, I, Monster, etc. Have we had one of those before?

Pre-challenge prep update! I'm a little behind as usual, although I do anticipate having it up maybe a week or so earlier than the last one, which was already the earliest posted to date. Starting it too early would be a pointless endeavor considering most don't show up until later anyway. And yes, there is a corona-related theme suggestion already that's pretty extensive.

Also wanna start the challenge itself a week or two earlier this year? There's been some talk in last year's thread, and it already happened back in April with the Exploitation challenge. Why the hell not considering the circumstances? I'm up for it if everyone else is. My only suggestion is if we do go that route to make those days a free-for-all with no themes/subsets. Too much extra workload involved.

A month, a month early.

Make an optional checklist check for put up halloween decorations. Liked the Horror movie soundtrack idea above.

Also did anyone else listen to John Carpenters Lost Themes?! I just found out about this and it is awesome.

I’m actually against starting it early, fwiw, unless it is Criterion only for the September Challenge.

I'm ok with starting early, though I would probably separate my stats between September and October. Or maybe I'd only watch light horror (thrillers and the like) before October which might be a fun challenge in itself.

This is where Chad comes in and says, 'We can do anything we want'. I've started to get some organization going this year, so I'm going to be ready. In addition, I'm doing the yearly Shudder, and really liking it.

We can do anything we want because we're the OG challenge and rules don't apply to us ...is what I'd normally say. But this issue requires a good dose of feedback and a specific answer of *when*. So I'm going to resort to doing something I haven't done in at least a decade, and that only the first global pandemic in 100 years could bring about: a poll. I'll post it when I put up the pre-challenge thread, either in the actual thread or possibly on its own.

A poll is obviously going to overwhelmingly be for starting it as early as you make an option. So don’t use those results to justify whatever you want to do.

My thoughts are that each individual is always able to do the Horror Challenge as much as they want, year round even. But even better would be for those individuals to do so within the confines of the 12 existing DVDTalk Challenges. One could easily watch 100+ horror movies a month but have them also count in Criterion, Comedy, Sci-Fi, etc.

There is a long history here of the month-long Horror Challenge, with records and stats and compiled lists. Adding the dusk to dawn hours, and the every 7 years Friday the 13th is one thing, but making an entire extra week or month “official” would tarnish the legacy imho.

If we do add extra time, I’d suggest making it for discussions and list making and total fun, but not counting the viewings for stats, or total views. Only October should count for any numbering or checklist or themes or stats.

I don't see the point of starting early. With everything going on it seems like people would have more time to stay at home and watch movies.

So I didn't realize the irony of that post when I initially posted it. Turns out that was posted exactly one year to the day last year's pre-challenge thread went up, so it's not going up a week early after all. I guess chalk it up to this topsy-turvy year we've had. Anyway, the good news is it'll only be a week late because the thread's going up sometime tomorrow night (7/9). There's also already an abundance of theme suggestions as I just added more than a few over the last few weeks, which means voting can still kick off earlier than last year despite the later start. Please get to preparing any suggestions if you got 'em.

Lost Themes II and the Anthology are both really good too. His band is really solid. They were great live. He also just released a new ep called Skeleton.

Looks like the November 2019 update strikes again. Besides having to fix broken formatting I'm getting 60 image limit messages. That sure used to be considerably higher. Give me another day or so to figure out this mess. Oy.