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*** Official 10th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge 2009 *** (1 Viewer)

Joe Karlosi

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Originally Posted by Russell G

Since the challenge hasn't started yet, I'm officially changing rule 6 for TV shows. I added it because last year (I think) Joe watched like, 60 plus episodes of "The Munsters" and didn't count them (his choice), which didn't seem all that fair since it was still a lot of watching, they should count for something right? And as we said before, we all counted stuff like "Masters Of Horror" and what not, so it's a real blurry line! So, here's the new rule for #6:

So two episodes of a hour long TV show count as "One" title on the list, three 30 minute episodes of some other 30 minute horror based show ("The Munsters") would also count as "One" title on the list.

At the end of the challenge, the TV content will be added up, and then added to the final total.
Thanks for thinking of this, Russell. But you're right - last year I did not wish to count any of THE MUNSTERS episodes in the challenge. For me it's always been about how many MOVIES I watch, personally speaking. But if you feel like adding the TV tally along with my movies at the end of the Challenge, that's up to you. What I've decided to try and do each October is always watch The Munsters every year during that month (since there are 70 episodes, I actually already began watching several during the last week of September).

My personal goal is to watch as many films as I can, but to watch no fewer than 31.
I'll list the TV Episodes as separate from the movies.
 

Pete Battista

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I think I did OK for the first day... Everything I watched today were ones I never seen before... except for 1 short.

Oct. 1st:
Movies:
- Brotherhood of Blood
I was actually a bit disappointed in this one. The main plot of the story was decent... and I liked the stars... but they had it jumping back and forth with flashbacks too much.. needlessly confusing you.
- Dead Set
This one I enjoyed quite a bit... is actually a UK miniseries I believe... Zombies attacking with a group of people stuck in the Big Brother house.
- Cadaverella
This is one of those cheap low budget movies that was in a 50 movie boxset. While pretty low budget and cheesy... still oddly entertaining.

TV Show Eps.
- The Hunger: Season 1 - The Swords
Entertaining but weird.

Other: (shorts/Documentaries)
- The Hitch
This is a short found on Fangoria: Blood Drive DVD. I enjoyed every minute of this short!
 

Jim_K

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Originally Posted by Ockeghem /forum/thread/293327/official-10th-annual-htf-october-scary-movie-challenge-2009/30#post_3612392
 

[SIZE= larger][COLOR= black]Oct 1st 1) Dark City[/COLOR](1998) [COLOR= black]++++ Technically a modern sci-fi, but the man said "scary," and by gum this one is more scary than a lot of horrors, for the tricks it plays with reality and the spooky green baddies. I hadn't seen this since I was about 15, at which age I just found it absolutely bewildering. 2) [/COLOR][COLOR= red]Dawn of the Dead[/COLOR][COLOR= black] (1978) [/COLOR][COLOR= blue]Blu[/COLOR][COLOR= black]++++ Despite technical difficulties, like the fact that a real mall was used, and therefore we couldn’t have scenes of zombies smashing through permanent fixtures like gates or doors, producing politer zombies than those who wreck the cabin in Night of the Living Dead, Dawn is the pinnacle of the genre because of the humanity lent to the dead, which provides food for its justifiedly famous satire and metaphor. The simplicity of the makeup I think really works for that, and helps make the "zombies" seem nothing more than just you and me, who'd just kept walking around restlessly after we'd died. My favourite scene involves a really impressively realized vision of zombies tearing a biker’s insides out and eating them. I still haven’t seen that done in Last House on the Left. Oct 2nd 3) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 4) Eyes Without A Face[/COLOR][/SIZE]
 

Michael Elliott

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I sat down to start BLACK FRIDAY around six o'clock when the girlfriend screamed "it's time" but that turned out to be a false alarm after four and a half hours at the hospital. I might stay away from that film for the rest of the month.


Schizophreniac: The Whore Mangler (1997)
Lucio Fulci
Italian horror from Fulci is his spin on the CARRIE-type tale. The film takes place at a female boarding school where one of the unpopular girls has a prank played on her, which leaves her in a coma. Soon after that a new girl enters the school and becomes possessed with the coma girl's spirit, which leaves to revenge. This is one of the director's least known films and there's probably a reason for that. Considering that it's not very good and that it came towards the end of the Italian horror craze, it's no wonder the movie has been forgotten over the past couple decades. This film should be remembered somewhat better just because of some of the horrid death sequences, which are the real reason to watch this film. There's not too much gore but we get an incredibly bizarre sex scene where our hero eats away at her lover. If that wasn't strange enough we get perhaps the dumbest death sequence in Fulci career and that's the scene where a girl just lays in bed while snails kill her. Yes, snails. The other death scenes are pretty generic, although Fulci does wrap them up in a nice atmosphere and one sequence inside a museum works pretty well. There's a subplot involving the new girl dating the coma girl's doctor but this just drags things down. The performances aren't anything special but they're not too bad either. In other words, typical Italian stuff. If someone is new to Fulci then they shouldn't start here but if you must watch everything the guy made then jump right in.
 

PatW

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Brides of Dracula (1960)

Not my favourite vampire movie but adequate enough. This is a Hammer production and one of eight movies on the Hammer Horror Collection. I found the pacing of the movie a bit on the slow side with nothing really going on for parts of the film. Though David Peel was handsome enough I thought he was dull and lacked fire plus the goofy look on his face when he reveals he's a vampire was laughable and lacking menace. The protrayal of the flying bat was also poorly done but I have to remind myself this is the 60's. The best part of this film was Peter Cushing's protrayal of Van Helsing. The film itself was moody and atmospheric and quite entertaining to watch. Despite the nitpicks and there was a couple more, this was a good start to this challenge.
 

Ockeghem

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1/2

Update:

[SIZE= smaller]01. Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) 4.5
02. Burnt Offerings (1976) 3.0
03. R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour (2007) 2.5
[/SIZE]
 

John Stell

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Originally Posted by Michael Elliott

I sat down to start BLACK FRIDAY around six o'clock when the girlfriend screamed "it's time" but that turned out to be a false alarm after four and a half hours at the hospital. I might stay away from that film for the rest of the month.
My wife called me at work around noon on September 30 to say her water broke. So instead of being poised to start at midnight October 1 I was at the hospital. Our daughter was born at 4:19 am October 1 - 6 lbs 3.5 oz. I came home to see the other kids in the evening and watched 5 Universals in a row starting about 9pm on the first. Too tired to write about them right now but will do so sometime over the next couple of days.
 

Radioman970

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I'm a little late to the party. Can't I still join?

Nice....an October baby. Congrads!

OCTOBER 1ST
1. Dead Alive. Finally picked up the DVD and can see all the cheese a little clearer. Stomach turning fun! Favorite line: "You're mother ate my DOG!" I got Frighteners from Big Lots for $3 and couldn't see having it and not this on DVD. Glad I picked it up so I can watch it over and over again...especially at Thanksgiving.
2. Mirrors. skcus! Sutherland should fire his agent. He's better than this. No real scares at all, just a few nice effects here and there with the best effect saved until the end. The honey that plays his wife is just about the only reason to view this at least once. She's dressed in tight clothing leaving nothing to the imagination (a good thing) and even get wet in strategic areas...clever how the water didn't wet her beast areas. Better films to watch instead would be: Session 9 and Jaccob's Ladder.
3. Sleepy Hollow. Among the perfect October flicks, capturing the feel of the season. I messed around with my sound equipment way too much during it. I regret that. ...still had a great time.
 

PatW

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Sleepy Hollow. Among the perfect October flicks, capturing the feel of the season. I messed around with my sound equipment way too much during it. I regret that. ...still had a great time.
I loved that movie. Isn't Chris Walken perfectly cast?
 

Ockeghem

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Radioman,

Glad to see you've joined the party. :)

John Stell,

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter! :)
 

re: Radioman. I loved Mirrors. Big fan of Aja (Haute Tension, Hills Have Eyes remake, Mirrors) even though he's got a tendency to go hokey and pretentious (cf. his twists, and "philosophical horror movies"). First viewing of Haute Tension was one of chillingest experiences ever.

Another fan of Sleepy Hollow here.
5) Child's Play [COLOR= #0000ff]Blu. [/COLOR]My Blu of this arrived just in time for Scary Movie Challenge! I watched it this first night I got it. I first saw this as a full proper grown-up movie lover. As a kid I remember friends passing stories of the demented toy, and being scared by the covers at the video store. Nevertheless, I really appreciated Child's Play when I first saw it last year. I was more distracted by determining how happy I was with the transfer on this viewing. If anyone else is interested in my thoughts, read on. If you love the film, you'll pick up the blu, like I did. I don't know enough about the blu ray transferring process to know whether I would have liked this better with a little less DNR and a little more grain, but it sometimes feels like detail is lacking. Grain is visible most of the time, which leads me to believe this is a VERY grainy film; yet I sometimes felt there was a real softness to the image. Its definitely not been overused a la Longest Day/Evil Dead 2, as surfaces don't have that waxiness; however, they often lack the fine detail seen in other transfers. Anchor Bay's Blu Ray releases have been patchy, to say the least. They were the ones responsible for the shocking Evil Dead 2 transfer that was DNR'd and EE'd into a wax museum. This release appears to be very natural and film-like, and probably true to the theatrical presentation in its graininess and its softness (it gives off a nostalgic childhood vibe on the surface). My only question would be whether others were distracted by DNR procedures, and whether they felt that they had sacrificed detail, because I'm often quite lost on the balance there. However, my love for the film remained undiminished this time over. Several times I tried to give it three stars, because of the serious person inside me who says its not serious enough; then the little Chucky inside me reminded me that its a brilliant high-concept horror that unravels beautifully and delivers on its premise satisfyingly.
 

TravisR

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3. Jaws

I decided to watch some of the 1970's animals attack/Jaws rip-off movies during the challenge so I kicked it off with the best.


Originally Posted by Ben Cheshire


re: Radioman. I loved Mirrors. Big fan of Aja (Haute Tension, Hills Have Eyes remake, Mirrors)...
After High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes, I had high hopes for Mirrors and, while I didn't hate it, I didn't think it even came close to Aja's other movies either.
 

Jim_K

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Originally Posted by Ockeghem [/b]

A cinematic take on Hansel and Gretel stars Shelly Winters as a crazed widow who sings lullaby's to her dead mummified daughter and ultimately goes nuts on a group of orphans. Has the feel of a Horror spoof rather than the grand guingol the subject matter suggests. In the end this is just another so-so "crazed old woman" horror film spawned by the popularity of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
 

Justin_S

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Originally Posted by MattFini ">[/url]

You're off to a great start, Justin!

I wish I'd been able to get another title under my belt last night, but staying up until 1:30 was enough for me on a work night.

I've often wondered about St. Francisville, but I recall our tastes as being similar from the old Gorezone days, so I'll likely skip this one.

[/QUOTE]Hey Matt! Yeah, having to work only three days a week certainly has it's perks. As for [i]St. Francisville[/i], I could only recommend it for potential camp value. Otherwise, steer clear.


[QUOTE]Originally Posted by [b]Russell G[/b] [url=/forum/thread/293327/official-10th-annual-htf-october-scary-movie-challenge-2009/30#post_3612370]
 

Ruz-El

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Nice start boils and ghouls, and congratulations John on the new baby! I finally got in a couple movies last night. After seeing all the reviews coming in, I'm insanely jealous of how far most of you are and quietly hate you all! :P

001 - [COLOR= rgb(153, 51, 0)]VAMPYR[/COLOR]
http://content7.flixster.com/movie/10/85/32/10853297_tmb.jpg">[/url]
[COLOR= rgb(153, 51, 0)][b]THE H-MAN[/b][/COLOR]
[url=http://apps.facebook.com/flixster/m/665928341] [img]http://content7.flixster.com/movie/10/88/45/10884545_tmb.jpg">[/url] 2/5
 

Scott!

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Nosferatu (1929) - I thought this would be a good one to start with since my girlfriend isn't into the scary movies much. She did enjoy this one though. We watched it streaming through Netflix and I'm not sure if it originally had color shifts between indoor and outdoor scenes. Basically the indoor was all sepia toned while the exteriors had a blue tone to it. It wasn't distracting it's just I don't remember it being that way when I watched it in film school.
 

MattFini

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[COLOR= #ff9900]End of the Line (2007)[/COLOR]

Director Maurice Devereaux's follow up to his nifty reality show horror flick, $lasher$, is a pretty well-written and directed horror flick, hampered by spotty acting and some underlying themes that didn't sit well with me.

But that said, this claustrophobic horror film about a group of strangers trapped in a subway system by a wacked-out doomsday cult has lots of gore and a few genuinely creepy moments. It doesn't all hang together, but it was a solid effort and something I'd recommend if anyone out there wants to see something with a little substance to chew on after the film is done.
 

Bryan^H

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October 2nd


-HALLOWEEN 2(1981). Not near as good as the first one. Jamie Lee Curtis being chased through the halls of a desolate hospital by Mike Myers is the highlight.
Grade: C

-IN SEARCH OF DRACULA(1975)
. Fantastic documentary about Dracula. Starring, and narrated by Chistopher Lee. filmed in Transylvania goes very deep into the vampire myths, and legends. I loved it
Grade: A

-
MAMA DRACULA(1980). I don't know what to say about this film. It's horrible, but also very weird. Weird movies like this don't happen very often so I will give it a passing grade.
Grade: C-
 

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