*** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge - Page 3

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Then people need to count running times and not movies. You could watch SALEM'S LOT as one movie but I could watch THE APE, THE APE MAN and THE UNKNOWN in the same amount of time and be at three. If someone sticks to films from the 20s-40s then the running times are going to be between 60 and 70 minutes. If someone wants to 'win' they can simply watch stuff from these decades so there's always ways for people to sneak around and 'win' but I think most are doing it for the fun.

Plus, we never really know if people are watching these movies or if they just have them playing in the background while the viewer is cleaning the house, smoking a joint or talking on the phone and not paying a bit of attention to the movie. I think everyone is working on a trust level so I think people should have faith that people are going to be honest and watch what they want and not just "add up" titles to win.

Most of these have more than just a horror theme since I was talking about the very first horror picture (or at least the oldest one that's available for viewing). Plus, in 1910 ten-minutes was a movie just like in 1931 sixty-minutes was a movie. Neither of these times would fit in 2008 when we need everything to run 2 hours but that's just part of history.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Yeah, the 10 minute thing rubs some people wrong, but if it scares you and played in the theater, it automatically counts. I plan to watch some more exploitation/Grindhouse things during the month, which technically aren't horror either but would of played on a double bill.

less then 24 hours! Still don't know what to watch. Probably a misc hammer film to start off during my lunch break at work tomorrow.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I'll be participating, but I doubt I'll even come close to the 31 I watched last year. My viewing has slowed a lot this year...but I'll give it a shot to watch 13 at least.

1-10 scale
first viewings bold

10/1 War of the Gargantuas (English Version) (1970) 7
10/2 Mark of the Vampire (1935) 6.5
10/9 C.H.U.D. (1984) 5.5
10/13 Chamber Of Horrors (1966) 7.5
10/15 The Wizard Of Gore (2007) 4.5
10/16 The Gorgon (1964) 7.5
10/20 Friday The 13th Part 2 (1981) 6.5
10/27 Martin (1977) 8.5
10/31 Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) 6.5

A pitiful showing by me this year...oh well. Just don't have the time or inclination to be as ravenous about movies as I was the past couple of years. All were entertaining enough though, with Martin being the best of the bunch, the Wizard of Gore remake being the worst, taking an interesting premise but going off the rails largely due to the awful direction.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Karloff's Frankenstein is up first for me - tonight at midnight! Can't wait. Love the film! As a bonus to all the horror movie watching, this month's book reading for me will be World War Z by Max Brooks. Won this at a film festival last year and never got to it. Looking forward.

As far as inclusions - I find it hard to believe that you would offend anyone with choices you make. Does it really matter to anyone who wins? I always include my short film viewings in my yearly tally (I keep track of every film I watch) and every year, I've included shorts with my total. Usually only about 3-5 shorts, but they are films. And should be included if you ask me.

Anyway - to each his own. This is all for fun. So let's get ready! Midnight is only 6 hours away on the East coast!

Cheers,

Jason

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Radioman,

Yeah, it's the Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath"). It is a plainchant used during special circumstances in the Roman Catholic liturgy. As for the music, it is in a minor mode, and it's very dark. The text is quite chilling as well. That's what I was thinking of when I wrote that.

The brass setting of it used in The Shining works wonderfully, given what is going to transpire in the film.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I'm in for the very first time, and I'm going for the 31 movies. I still have some movies left in the Monster Legacy Collection, so the ten never before seen films shouldn't be difficult. And otherwise there probably will be a lot of them on tv, anyway. I'm really looking forward to it .
Going to start off tomorrow with, Dracula, I think. The original one, with the Philip Glass soundtrack (I love that).

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Speaking for myself: as I always like to say, I NEVER even remotely expect to "win", and for me it's just about chronicling myself each year and seeing if I can match or beat my own record. I certainly watch WAY LESS movies each year than many participants, so I'd just like to get that out of the way.

Having said that, it's just my personal opinion that watching shorts at 10 - 15 minutes is kind of "easy". I tend to watch a lot of old 30s and 40s movies which clock in at only around 60 - 80 minutes, but that's still not as short as 10 - 15 minutes. And plus, I certainly watch films that run 90 - 120 minutes as well. So it all levels out for me.


True. For me personally, I just couldn't live with myself if I was otherwise engaged doing something else while "watching" a movie, or if I nod out and don't finish an entire film and then still include it, but that's just me. I set my own rules and just try and top myself. It'll be hard to do this year because I'll be watching TV shows too, which I prefer not to count.

I know in the past I was one of the guys who made observations of the short subjects and things, but I say to each his own.. just have a good time.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I'm not sure. I think watching silent movies is hard for a lot of people and especially a 10 minute one, which is so pre-Hollywood that some don't know how to take them. One certainly has to be use to the style and look of a film from 1899 to really get what's going with it. I don't expect to see too many silent films watched by many as they aren't hardly watched in the TRACK, S&S or AFI threads.

With that said, anyone who feels cheated can watch FRANKENSTEIN at countless sites online. If anyone hasn't seen it then it would be a good time to start considering how important of a title it was.

Any of the other shorts that get watched can also be found on official DVDs, Fearnet or even TCM so anyone can get them.


As far as "Scary" goes, is anyone really scared by what they watch? If that was really a rule then I could only watch one horror movie (THE SHINING) because that's the only one I could call scary for me. Is suspense the same thing as scary? If so, isn't something like Holmes' HOUSE OF FEAR able to be watched and counted? These Holmes films are certainly trying to put the viewer in suspense. You could say the same with film noir, sci-fi, thrillers like BASIC INSTINCT or even dramas like THE VERDICT. They offer suspense more than horror films offer scares IMO.

We could spend 11 month debating these issues and never come to any sort of conclusion so I say just have fun with it. Even if you think PHILADELPHIA is scary.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Agreed.
But with the name "Scary", I think that's just a way to signify the genre, not that we're actually scared. It could be called "Halloween" or "Horror" challenge, whatever.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I need to ask this before I get going too far. Do the Disney films (e.g., the "Halloweentown" films and a plethora of other Halloween-themed movies put out by Disney) count? I have a steady diet of films that I watch each year at this time with my children.

I have the first six to eight (non-Disney) films lined up; I'll be beginning late tonight with at least one film. I'm really looking forward to it.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I'd certainly say they count, and I think I speak for everyone else here when I say don't sweat this at all; have fun and just watch what you like and what you feel suits your Halloween "needs"!

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Joe,

Sounds good.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I think all the above mentioned films count, other then maybe THE VEDICT which is much more of drama. BASIC INSTINCT is really more of fancy exploitation film, I suppose it would count. I'd think if it has Halloween in the title or setting you might as well count it, kinda like how DIE HARD is a Christmas movie in my house I remember one of the donald Duck shorts counting last year. It's all good. As said before, there isn't much of aprize for winning, other then taking the responsibility to start the thread the next year. I'm quite pleased not winning frankly! XD

Can't wait to get started!

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Can we count hot ass women making out in prison films while being tortured by the wicked warden Ilsa? What about nunsploitation that go around killing young ladies in the name of Satan and sex?


Plus, anyone want to make any recommendations? If anyone is looking for something to watch then I'd highly recommend BLACK WATER an Australian horror film that is another film that left my blood ice cold in terror. It went straight to DVD over here in the States but it's certainly the best horror film I've personally watched since Carpenter's THE THING.

Wish I could start tonight but I have to be at work at midnight.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I counted both those genres last challenge to no complaints, so go for it!

I'll have to keep my eye out for BLACK WATER, WOLFS CREEK was a good OZ horror as well. I thought anyways, but I'm easy to please.

I want to start at midnight too, but I think I'll be sleeping.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Speaking of recommendations, one of the 'new' films (for me) may end up being Theater Of Blood, on the recommendation of Radioman970. Now I just have to purchase it.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I'm in. 2 years in a row I've somehow been stuck at 30 movies, I plan to get to 31 at all costs this time around.

Right now I've got a mix of newer foreign horrors, some of the later Hammer Dracula and Frankenstein sequels I haven't seen yet, some Vincent Price stuff, some of the old Legosi films Joe and Michael are always on about, and a couple of Italians lined up at Netflix. I'll also squeeze in several favorites I watch every year like The Wicker Man, The Shining, The Bride of Frankenstein, I Walked With a Zombie, Carrie and of course Suspiria.

My first viewings will be tomorrow night, War of the Gargantuas with my son (ok a Toho monster flick and not really horror, but if Donald Duck counts...), and Lost Boys 2 or whatever it's called, which I'm expecting to be a different kind of horror, frighteningly bad, but I couldn't resist a rental.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I might get to "WAR OF THE GARGANTUANS" as well, so I'm fine with it. Giant monster rampage = horror in my books, even if it's more sci fi based. I also finally got those Universal Sci Fi collections that everyone watched the past couple years, so I'm going to check those out. You can kinda go by tone I think. A film like "2001" despite being creepy with all the HAL stuff is certainly more sci fi then spooky, but still, make your own rules.

My frist film is going to be the Coppola DRACULA I think. I couldn't resist, so I'm watching the extras tonight (I'm not planning on counting the extras, but I do plan to watch DEADLY MANTIS and the MST2K version of the same film since I never saw a mystery science theater thing before, and I'm counting both) so I'm all primed.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

The Toho giant monsters films had better count, since I plan on watching some myself. I also think this technical mincing of "is it horror or science fiction" should cease. Just watch what you want. There shouldn't be any concerns here and it should just be a good time. Though if someone wants to include something like COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER I'm sure it would raise some eyebrows!

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

I got an early start to my Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon.... I actually woke up and watched the first movie right at Midnight!

My Goals for this Marathon:
- Watch at least 1 horror/Halloween Movie or TV Show Episode per Day through-out October
- Beat Personal Best Total Movies (84)
- Beat Personal Best Total TV Eps. (34)

NOTE: I do realize that TV Shows don't count here.... but I have them included in all the other sites that I post on so I will leave them on here too... just for the fun of it... I know they don't count... which is why they are listed separately.

Here I will be listing what all I watch and will rate each show between 1 and 5. The titles I put in Bold is titles I have seen for the very first time.

Movies:

Oct. 1st:
1. Shadow Zone: The Undead Express
2. Embrace of the Vampire
3. Fright Night

TV Episodes:

Oct. 1st:
1. Masters of Horror: The V Word
2. Tales from the Crypt: The Reluctant Vampire

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

If somebody tries that this year I'll personally put em in the bunny costume and send them to the underground for conditioning!!!

All mine will be at least 1:20 since I won't be watching a whole lot of classics this year, Universal etc. I think in the case of shorts, there should be a time consideration. Group shorts to get a movie length to make it fair.

I watch each film from beginning until the end of the credits. And my full attention is on the movie and not other things. I avoid pausing whenever possible. My thought is to have fun with this and not even try to win. I'll be happy if I get the 55 new ones I got this year watched.

I'll mix up fun, disturbing and scary. A bravery award should be given to those who watch something really f'd up LAST! I love doing that. Something like The Entity or Blair Witch...TCM...some Japanese ghost movie. Then go to bed.

People got bent out of shape over at rottentomatoes when I included the Wallace & Gromit movie that year. Not scary, but there is actual suspense in it and it has that whole Wererabbit business!

I saw that at Walmart Monday. The cover looked cheesy. Thanks for the tip! I love stuff like this...Descent and Dog Soldiers! Last year I watched the french film High Tension and it was a crazy roller coaster house of horrors! This year I'll be watching Wolf Creek for the first time.

A blind buy of a Vincent Price film is a smart movie. I know you'll like it.

I've always been blown away by that music. But all these years I didn't pay attention to where it came from. It never stops being chilling.

I'll start at about 2PM this afternoon barring the unexpected. I'm not sure what I'll start with! I might watch 3 or 4 favorites right away. But I have to include something new. so maybe Halloween, F13th Part 1 and one of the ones I bought. Then an extra one if there is time.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

The "Masters of Horror" things are actually movies so they count as that.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Masters of Horrors was actually a TV Series that aired weekly on Showtime for 2 seasons. Only 1 episode in the entire series run was over an hour in length. Since it originally aired as a TV series... that is how I personally choose to count it.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

True but the director's all went into them as movies so that's why they were counted in previous years if you didn't want to break up your lists.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

Well, I'm off to a great start...fell asleep on Bava's Black Sunday last night. Still have yet to make it all the way through it, which has nothing to do with its quality, just my current affliction of falling asleep whenever I try to watch anything somewhat late at night.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

My wife's nephew from Mexico is staying with us this year, so I am trying to find more titles that he can watch as well. I usually lean more towards the R rated, or unrated, movies. This year I will be including more stuff like Monster House and Abbott and Costello meet the whatever.

I wish the Classic Sci-Fi collection Volume 1 was still available as a single release. I bought Volume 2 last year and now can only get 1 and 2 together. I remember seeing the Incredible Shrinking Man when I was a kid and would love to have a copy of that. Maybe I can find someone to buy Volume 2 from me and then I can get 1 and 2. I need more of those movies and classic horror to round out my collection. I do have Volume 1 and 2 of the Mario Bava collection ordered, so that's a start. I think I may be recording a few things off of TCM and whoever else is showing some classics this year.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

You all can count them as movies if you like... but since as I said I am doing a TV list also for other sites anyway... I prefer to count them as what they actually are.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

A. Theatrical Movies.
B. Made for TV Movies.
C. TV Shows.

If Argento or Carpenter ever slip to C then us fans are in real trouble.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

lol, there could be some confusing lists with the sub-catagories! MOH have always counted in the movie tally's, last yera I counted "Nightmares and Dreamscapes". If I had the TALES FROM THE CRYPT, I'd count those too. It's shows like "X-FILES" that tend to raise eyebrows. but to each his own!!

I got a handfull of hammers sitter here just CRYING for me to watch, have to wait till my lunch break though! *Bites fist*

They were showing clips of BLACK SUNDAY in the doc on Coppolas DRACULA I watched last night, looks like a cool flick, I don't think I ever got a copy of it.

Re: *** Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge

The Halloween decorations are up, the candy, salty snacks, and Coke purchased, and October is here. And so it begins...

001) 10/01/08 D The Fog (1980) (Out of 4)

The town of Antonio Bay is on the verge of celebrating its 100th Birthday. But the circumstances surrounding the village's founding are about to be brought to horrifying light as a ghostly fog slithers across the township. Director John Carpenter's horror follow-up to Halloween (1978) was considered a disappointment when it premiered in February 1980. But it has aged very well and is one of Carpenter's best films: efficiently told, moody, genuinely creepy, well-acted, and wonderfully scored. The ghostly villains are menacing and kept mostly hidden in the fog, which adds to the fright factor - figures suddenly emerge from the mist without warning brandishing sharp weapons. As in Halloween, Carpenter is more interested in creating atmosphere and suspense than showing gory killings, and the film is the better for it.


002) 10/01/08 H An American Werewolf in London (1981) 1/2

Two Americans hiking through Europe are attacked by a werewolf. One of them survives and awaits the next cycle of the full moon. This is one of the most highly regarded 1980s horror films and there are certainly wonderful moments - the initial attack and set up, David's massacre throughout London, and some really horrific nightmares. But the film is almost constantly undercut by misplaced humor of the slapstick variety (a cop spilling medical equipment, for example.) And the ending is absolutely terrible - the murderous beast could just as easily been a rabid dog or escaped lion attacking people based on how the werewolf is killed. David Naughton isn't a strong enough actor to convey the torture his character is going through and so the finale doesn't carry the punch it should, especially when compared to The Wolf Man (1941), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), or The Howling (1981). Still, the film has enough chilling moments to make it re-watchable.