Scary Movie Challenge 2009?

I'm in. As usual, I'll mostly rewatch the same movies over again since it seems like this is the only time of year that I get to check out my nostalgiac favorites.

I'd do this and like Travis said I'll probably just watch my favorites since my girlfriend isn't into scary movies...

Yeah I'm in this year too. Though not my genre, I still discovered some wonderful gems last year and it always good to broaden ones horizons.

I may be in, maybe not. As I often start out with, I'm thinking of focusing on the old Universal Classics for the month of October, and if I do that it doesn't really make for a very interesting or different Challenge!

I'll go again.  I've been putting off watching most horror lately in anticipation of the challenge.

I haven't taken part since either '05 or '04, but I feel like getting back into it this year. I watch horror all the time, but it's not that I got burned out on the genre. I don't think that could ever happen. I just got burned out on typing up so many admittedly bland reviews. Anyway, looking forward to it. With any luck, I'll be able to count Paranormal Activity as an entry in the challenge.

I'm not sure what's involved, but I love horror, so I'll play.

Guess we were all thinking the same thing!

I'm just amazed at how quickly time flies and we're right back here every October!

Let's get started; how do we play???

Count me in.

Be my guest if you want to start a new thread.  I wasn't sure when to start the new one but it seems people are ready.  I might have to cut my time short this year with the new kid coming and all so I can't even be certain that I'd be around at the end of the month to do everything needed.


My goal this year is to go through the PHANTASM and CHILDREN OF THE CORN series, although CORN II doesn't appear to have been released to DVD.  I'm also going for more Vincent Price films since I always overlook the poor guy this time of year.  I also plan on throwing in some real gems like LOBSTER MAN FROM MARS and the remake of ATTACK OF THE 50FT. WOMAN.  Kickin' it off with FRANKENSTEIN 1910, which has become the norm for me. 

I am looking forward to next month!

I already pulled the titles from my collection that I need to get "caught up" on and changed my Netflix queue to horror for the first 25 spaces!

I've already started.  This year will consist mostly of 30s/40s stuff since it's been four or five years since I've seen some of this stuff.

Michael E. and I will face a different kind of challenge - the cries of a newborn.  My wife's scheduled for a C-section on Wednesday, September 30, but I know I'll still have time to squeeze in a couple of films a night.

BTW Michael, congrats on the forthcoming bundle.  This will my fourth, increasing the odds that at least one of my kids will be a horror fan someday.

Just signed up!

This year, I'm in a mood to go through my Hammer Films collection.

Not that you shouldn't count it as part of the challenge but I think it was more of a dark comedy than a horror movie. It's not a bad movie but it's nothing to rush out and see either.

I'm a bit confused...are we starting now, or do they have to be viewings between Oct 1-31?

Congrats to you as well.  We're suppose to go into November but I guess you never really know.  This is my first and last as it's already killing me.

I'm very excited as you can tell.  And congrats on the fathers to be!  Any names picked out yet?  Michael?  Freddy?  Jason?  Carrie if it's a girl?

Dylan (after Bob Dylan, of course) for me.  I had the name picked out six years ago before I even knew I was going to have kids.


I too was actually holding out of JENNIFER'S BODY until the challenge started. 

I'm sure many records will be broken this year with the inclusion of TV shows.

I'll preface this by saying the challenge is all for fun and I'm not really worried about it but I don't count TV shows because they're too 'easy' to watch. I could go through all 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone in less than a month and that would most likely give me the highest number ever in a challenge but 156 episodes at 25 minutes a piece is nothing compared to the guy that views 75 or 100 feature length movies.

In the interest of full disclosure, I admit that that I'm being hypocritical because I have no problem counting Masters Of Horror episodes but at least those run 60 minutes without commercials.

Once again, it's all for fun so it's not a big deal but I think TV shows or shorts should be counted in parentheses next to your feature score.

It's all for fun so I personally don't care.  Those Masters of Horror and Fear Itself "shows" were originally meant to be Made for TV movies and that's how they were sold to their directors.  They just happened to get bought by Showtime so technically they're movies.    

The shorts are just a product of their time and really can't be avoided.  The only way to get around them is by counting running times, which would be rather hard to do.  I plan to stick to the 50s-80s this year so the average running time is going to be 90-100 minutes.  In previous years I did mostly 20s-40s where the average running times were 60-70 minutes.  So, a person could get the advantage by watching Universal horror movies instead of watching the F13 series.  If someone watched THE SHINING, I could just about sneak in two Universals, a 1910 short plus THE UNKNOWN (Chaney). 

There's really nothing to win so hopefully people don't get too worked up either way.  If Russell watched 200 films but I watch 100 films, 50 shorts and 51 TV episodes, I think the only right thing would be for me to forfeit to him since this is a movie challenge.  If I watch 51 tv episodes then perhaps I should beat the second place guy by at least 52 so that the advantage wasn't given by watching the tv shows.  However, you could even beat this to death because The Twilight Zone episodes are 30 minutes where The X-Files are an hour.  So, there's never any fair way to do things except to just have fun.

Not to mention, we're all on our word.  Someone could just keep his 5-disc player loaded with movies and playing all day while he's in the background sleeping, cooking, making out with the girlfriend or fighting with the dog.  Not watching a second of the movie but it is playing around him.

So glad it is time for this again! October being my favorite month of the year and horror movies being my favorite genre.... works out perfect! I'm in!

I just got the image of an episode of The Simpsons where they look at a photograph of Santa's Little Helper, up on his hind legs, wearing boxing gloves and hitting Homer.