October Horror Movie a Day 2012

[JimJ]

Movie #2: Session 9 (2001)

I've been meaning to check this one out for a long time, as I'd heard many good things.  Can't really say it lived up to the hype though.  It had some good ideas but it never really came together for me.  The characters were flat and it just failed to keep me invested.  It's not terrible, but I'm kind of disjointed with it.  2.5/5

[Zombie Monty]

Or you're pushing people to explore less "safe" areas for horror movies.

In addition to removing the slasher franchises in the title, you also remove most of the J-Horror resurgence , a good chunk of the later Italian zombie films, and a plethora of other films too. I'm looking at a list of Fangoria's 101 Best Horror Films that you've never seen and in the first 10 titles, you've got Apt Pupil, Alone in the Dark (not the Boll one), The Beyond, The Blob, The Boneyard and the Borrower. Those are all very different films from the Freddy/Jason films and none of those are particularly typical horror films, except for maybe the Blob remake.

And Monty, yes, I am very explicitly watching a horror film from every decade of film making, so yeah, your challenge doesn't work for me. Once again, the challenges should be "do something" not "Don't do something."

If it is going to be a problem then I will remove it as a group challenge and just do that one myself. 

Here are a few replacement challenges then:

COMIN' AT YA! - Watch at least one movie in 3D. (Medium)

YOU'LL DIE LAUGHING! - Watch at least 3 "funny" horror films. (Easy)

[Zombie Monty]

Quick question:

Do all of the challenges posted by Dragon count as "official"?  I noticed there are only two so far listed in the main post, do the suggestions get added to that?

[Relaxing Dragon]

I like to think that you can count whatever you want to count. Or maybe it's just a matter of waiting for SJP to come back, as I don't think he's seen the suggestions anyone else has posted yet.

[SJP]

I'm going through them now...only thing is, I was looking them over and realized the one I did today completes a challenge, but not in the way it was technically intended (as in, it's getting a U.S. release, but it's not out YET).

Challenges should be updated shortly.

EDIT: I do agree challenges should be things to DO rather than NOT to do.  Sure, the challenges do carry some inherent limitations, but I think so far the ones listed are doable.

The only things I changed was the numbers on a few of them...I just felt 5 and 10 were just a touch too high, especially for anyone going for them all.  I lowered them to 3 and 6 for those.  I didn't, however, touch the 1952 ones, nor the 50 movies.  It's interesting to think that, by pre-loading, it's possible to watch 50 movies and not actually finish the 31-a-day. so I left that as is.

And remember, the list isn't finished (though it certainly is a lot of them as it is).  Feel free to keep coming up with suggestions.

Oh, and as for my October 2...ah, the joys of the workplace with the early screening potential...

WEREWOLF: THE BEAST AMONG US

What would happen if the Asylum were a competent movie company?  You'd probably get this.  Trouble is, is it better to be mildly competent but forgettable, or outrageously and hilariously terrible?  Anyway, a werewolf is attacking some sort of Slavic village (inhabited by Americans, Stephen Rea, and a few bad accents), and the gunslinging hero troupe comes in to solve the problem.  The movie is not really all that bad, but it's not really much more than that.  It has some okay lines, and some decent enough gore in the unrated cut (some CG, but a surprisingly welcomed amount of the practical kind), but it feels more like a setup for the magic hero-slaying troupe than a film, like a failed TV pilot with more gore.  CG monster does subtract points, as well as relying on near pitch darkness to hide how bad the monster looks when it is a guy in a suit.

But, the highlights:
-Gratuitous shirtless smithing scene.  Honestly, the guy takes off his shirt to heat metal.  There was no reason to do this other than to give the ladies something to watch.
-Stefan, or as I affectionately dubbed him, "The World's Greatest Roger Rees Impersonator."  Not only does he steal the show, he also has the single best scene of the movie involving getting thrown through a window and then looking embarrassed about it.
-The werewolf's M.O.  Surprisingly well thought out, when it gets down to it.  Too bad it wasn't in a more interesting movie.
-HEY, LOOK!  OUR 19th CENTURY ACTION TEAM HAS A WOMAN IN IT!  DIVERSITY!  All joking aside, the team really doesn't do a whole lot, and they seem to have much crazier gadgets than they should be allowed to have at that time in that section of the world.
-The prologue.  I still have no idea what it had to do with the rest of the movie.  But then, I was seeing it on a terrible monitor, and couldn't tell what was happening in half the movie anyway since it's so damn dark.
And finally:The five minutes at the 70 minute mark where the movie forgets it is a werewolf movie and introduces two more villains into the plot.  Seriously?  Werewolf not good enough?  And come on, Stephen Rea can't possibly be suspicious...he was only in, what, ANOTHER werewolf movie this year already?

[Zombie Monty]

October 2nd - Incubus (1966)

Freaky film starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner about a she-demon tired of only going after those who are sinners and worthy of being brought to Hell so she decides to go after a good and worthy man.

This American made film was done in the Esperanto language, which just makes the film seem all the more creepier.  Very stylish and much better than what I was expecting.

[Zombie Monty]

Noticed that my two challenges did not make the list.  Is there a problem with either of them?  They both seemed rather simple.

[Compound]

I'll toss in a pair trio:

DOUBLE FEATURE: Watch a film and a remake of the same film. (Medium)
TO BE CONTINUED: Watch a film and a sequel to that film. (Easy)
THE REAL HORROR IS MAN: Watch a horror film with Nazis in it, either live ones or (un)dead. (Medium)

[MrTorso]

Sure why not:

Oct. 1 - The Victim (written and directed by Michael Biehn!)

[Compound]

ONE BLOODY BINGE - Watch an entire slasher franchise (5 entry minimum), start to finish, reboots/crossovers included, consecutively (as in at least 1 entry per day for however many days it takes to finish, no other movies in between) (Hard)

Okay, let me argue with this one, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly for the five entries part- I'm watching 100 of these, so the quantity isn't a big deal for me, but if you're only doing 31 films, well, that's a good chunk of your movie watching this month.

More importantly, most slasher films that hit the 5 film mark go faaar past it. Child's Play is probably the sole one at that number. (Oh, Psycho as well.) Every other slasher series that qualify (TCM, Nightmare, Saw, Friday the 13th, Children of the Corn) are at the 7-10 film range. Reducing the qualifying number and/or changing it to just a "horror franchise" might help more qualify for it.

Plus if I sit through all 6 Leprechaun films, I want credit for doing so.

[JimJ]

Movie #3: Black Death (2010)

I keep seeing this one sitting there on Netflix instant and I've been meaning to watch it, so I figured now was a good time to get around to it.  It's in the time of the black plague and Sean Bean is a knight who is seeking a village he believes is lead by a necromancer.  This kind of like what Season of the Witch would've been if it wasn't godawful.  Sean Bean is really good, as usual.  Story kept me interested throughout and I really loved the ending. 4/5

[Compound]

Okay, just watched a man castrate himself. Joy.

[SJP]

Noticed that my two challenges did not make the list.  Is there a problem with either of them?  They both seemed rather simple.

Oops, no, I just missed them.  Adding them shortly.

Also, good point on the slasher franchise.  I'm not sure necessarily about removing it entirely (though I could), but I can see where that could be a problem, especially since I already cut down some others.

I will make this quick rules change for the challenges...the list may have some changes and removals for a little bit to account for things I may not have taken into consideration.  However, ANY CHALLENGE THAT HAS BEEN COMPLETED BY AT LEAST ONE PERSON IS OFFICIAL AND REMAINS ON THE LIST.  If somebody's done it, I won't take it away from them.  But any that are added that have not been completed are certainly up for debate.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Noticed that my two challenges did not make the list.  Is there a problem with either of them?  They both seemed rather simple.

Oops, no, I just missed them.  Adding them shortly.

Also, good point on the slasher franchise.  I'm not sure necessarily about removing it entirely (though I could), but I can see where that could be a problem, especially since I already cut down some others.

I will make this quick rules change for the challenges...the list may have some changes and removals for a little bit to account for things I may not have taken into consideration.  However, ANY CHALLENGE THAT HAS BEEN COMPLETED BY AT LEAST ONE PERSON IS OFFICIAL AND REMAINS ON THE LIST.  If somebody's done it, I won't take it away from them.  But any that are added that have not been completed are certainly up for debate.

For the franchise one, there should be no problem in changing it to a minimum of four entries (for the shorter series) or taking away the Slasher modifier. My main point of creating that challenge was just seeing one franchise out to the end in an uninterrupted streak. First thing that jumped to mind just happened to be slasher franchises, even if finishing one of those out would take up a third of the finished total for most folks on the challenge (hence the Hard tag ).

And that's a good call on lowering the numbers for the other challenges, 10 is a bit much now that I think about it (as I said above).

EDIT: Also, just to clarify the "see a film currently released in theaters" one, that's meant for straight-up new released. So those themed revival screenings that always pop up this month don't count

[ScottotD]

Trying to think of challenges for non-English language or Black and White movies that make sense