2022 Halloween Challenge
 

Well it's that time of the year again, Summer is over and Fall is starting. So the challenge is simple...for every day in October you watch 1 horror film and then report in the thread your thoughts on said horror film. Each year I try and do a unique theme and as it's the rare triple double year this year's theme is .....

https://image-cdn.neatoshop.com/styl...555492396y.jpg


A. The Opening....
1. A Two Word Horror Film - Self explanatory this is a film which has only two words in the title...should be easy enough.

B. Double Feature.......
2. A film in a series
3. A Film in the same series
You may not know this but horror films have sequels....I know I was as shocked as many of you were. Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots you do whatever your heart desires.

C . Double Feature Duo Trio (Must be the same people)
4. A film with the same Director/Actor
5. A film with the same Director/Actress
6. A film with the same Actor/Actress
Here comes the opportunity to separate the wheat from the chaff...horror films can be a collaborative effort you can approach this section one of two ways. You can pick films that star all three or if you wish to make it more challenging you can pick three films that exclude one of the options.

For Example

Director - John Carpenter - Actress - Adrienne Barbeau - The Thing(1982)
Director - John Carpenter - Actor - Tom Adkins - The Fog(1980)
Actress - Adrienne Barbeau - Actor Tom Adkins - Creepshow (1982)
Or....
Director - Wes Craven - Actress - Courtney Cox - Scream (1996)
Actress - Courtney Cox - Actor - David Arquette - Scream 2 (1997)
Director - Wes Craven - Actor - David Arquette - Scream 3 (200)


D. Repeat After Me.
7. A film that shares a word with 8 and 10
8. A film that shares the same word with 7 and 9
9. A film that shares the same word with 8 and 10
10. A film that shares the same word with 7 and 9

So this could be
7. Night of the Living Dead
8. Return of the Living Dead
9. Halloween IV The Return of Michael Myers
10 Halloween Night

The Challenge is to do it in the fewest words possible, but it could also be just one word.

E. Horror Double Word Bingo

11. A Film with a Serial Killer
12. A Film with a Haunted House
13. A Film on a College Campus
14. A Film in a Dystopian Future
15. A Film with a Final Girl

F. Time man...it just keeps going
16. A film released in 2022
17. A film released in 2020 (Minus 2 years)
18. A film released in 2002 (Minus 20 years)
19. A film released in 1982 (Minus 40 years)
20. A film released in 1960 (Minus 62 years)
21. A film released in a double year (1922, 1933, 1944, etc.)

G. Sub-Genre
22. Anthology-Horror
23. Body Horror
24.Creature Feature
25. Historical Horror
26. Horror-Comedy
27. Psychological Thriller
28. Religious Horror
29. Science Fiction - Horror
30. Sex Horror
31. Supernatural Horror

Pretty much every sub-genre I could think of...let me know what you guys think and good luck.

Re: 2022 Halloween Challenge
 

Hooray! I'm hyped, will be my first halloween challenge. Better start preparing my films...

Nicely done, Siddon
I was anticipating this. Going to comb through Tubi, Shudder, Prime and Netflix to see what I can put to those categories. 👍

I coincidentally just watched Salo: 120 Days of Sodom tonight, which I think counts as historical horror.
Thoughts: I'm never watching this movie again. We all have limits. It hit some of mine.

Edited (10/16) to start listing out which movies I've seen, and this was my first post in the thread:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deep down I know that at some point……I’m going to have to watch this eventually.

Awesome. So here for this, as the kids say.

I'm in, but might not make it to 31 this year due to a vacation. Is there still a gif contest around here?

Re: 2022 Halloween Challenge
 

Here we go again! :)

3 more days. Already pencilled in movies for each category and I aim to actually finish it. October can’t come soon enough

I feel like 7-10, it seems like the greater challenge would be to do it in as many as words as possible, because with that one word clause, I'll just say there are certain words that show up in a lot of movies (and if I'm reading it right, if all four movies have a word in common, it satisfies them all, factor in proper nouns like Dracula...).

It doesn’t need to be that much of a challenge.
And yes, I’m that guy who is going to use ‘Dracula’ but they won’t all just be “Dracula”. Lake of Dracula, Blood of Dracula, and so on.

I can sense something....

Something is close by.

Whatever it is, it's near now.

https://media.giphy.com/media/dZbNN8...16kh/giphy.gif

I've penned my list as well, I believe I can complete the challenge but we'll see. :D

It's both...the bigger challenge is to do it with 2 word titles with different words

Am I allowed to say what any of these will be?
I know what I have for the first challenge. Mr. Vincent.

(actually I have four of them, but that's probably the one I'll start with)

Saved for ongoing use.

A. The Opening....
1.[b] A Two Word Horror Film
Killer Fish
B. Double Feature.......
2. A film in a series
3. A Film in the same series

C . Double Feature Duo Trio (Must be the same people)
4. A film with the same Director/Actor
5. A film with the same Director/Actress
Mother of Tears
(Dario Argento, Asia Argento)
6. A film with the same Actor/Actress
Argento’s Dracula
(Asia Argento, Thomas Kretschmann)
D. Repeat After Me.
7. A film that shares a word with 8 and 10
Countess Dracula
8. A film that shares the same word with 7 and 9
9. A film that shares the same word with 8 and 10
10. A film that shares the same word with 7 and 9


E. Horror Double Word Bingo
[b]
11. A Film with a Serial Killer
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
12. A Film with a Haunted House
Crimson Peak
13. A Film on a College Campus
The House on Sorority Row (1982)
14. A Film in a Dystopian Future
15. A Film with a Final Girl
Scream 4
F. Time man...it just keeps going
16. A film released in 2022
17. A film released in 2020 (Minus 2 years)
18. A film released in 2002 (Minus 20 years)
19. A film released in 1982 (Minus 40 years)
20. A film released in 1960 (Minus 62 years)
21. A film released in a double year (1922, 1933, 1944, etc.)

G. Sub-Genre
[b]22. Anthology-Horror
23. Body Horror
Body Melt
24.Creature Feature
Prophecy (1979)
25. Historical Horror
Viy (1969)
26. Horror-Comedy
27. Psychological Thriller
The Stepford Wives (1975)
28. Religious Horror
29. Science Fiction - Horror
Planet of the Vampires
30. Sex Horror
The Velvet Vampire
31. Supernatural Horror
It Follows

Gotta love that the month starts with a weekend, so I have plenty of time to watch movies. Opened my October 1 with:

1. A two word horror film: Horror Express (Martín, 1972)

https://i.imgur.com/zDj6XBD.jpg

Guys, it takes place on a train. All movies that take place on a train are great. Step onboard. Oh, that huge box with chains wrapped around it? I wouldn't worry about it, I hear lunch is being served in the restaurant car. Some spoilers ahead so skip if you haven't seen it.

Great atmosphere, strong cast, cool monster. A highlight is to along with Lee figure out how the monster functions, which is often told during dissecation and inspection. I was eating during the "scalpel, please" scene - not recommended. It wouldn't surprise me if this movie was one of the inspirations for Carpenter's The Thing. My biggest critique is that it transitions to early from slow-burning suspense into full on slasher. Combined with seeing the monster's face too often, it takes away a bit from its scariness. I think it could have been more effective if we instead saw from the monster's point of view more often. That said, its final big killing spree was very well directed. Despite its flaws, I had very fun with this one and it's probably highly rewatchable.

Best enjoyed late at night. No need to bring your brain for this one, the eye should be enough. Ba-dum-tish.

I'm watching many this weekend. Next one was Train to Busan (Yeon, 2016) which I'm not sure it will slot in to any of the list entries.

https://i.imgur.com/aRXatZ2.png

Guys, it takes place on a train. All movies that take place on a train are great. Step onboard. Oh, that trick you figured out early on where you cover doors with paper to completely stop the infested from caring? I wouldn't worry about it, that would negate what makes most of this somewhat dramatic and we really can't afford a better writer. Action!

If you're into quick and frenetic zombie movies you probably should give this South Korean one a chance. The main attraction is the action with some really cool and creative directing and good use of CGI. It has many flaws, the writing is weak and predictable, I didn't care much for the characters because they felt only like plot mechanics. It's longer than needed and includes many repeating ideas over and over, I'd much prefered if they had edited it down to be non-stop action. It lacks suspense, compared to movies like 28 Days Later, Resident Evil and the Dawn of the Dead remake which makes you actually sweat at times.

While it was not as good as I was hoping based on the hype, it's still an entertaining zombie/infected people action fest. Recommended!

Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)

https://i.imgur.com/2NEl0qT.jpg
Beautifully shot about a painter struggling with severe mental health issues, and his loving and worried wife, living together on an island off the coast of Germany. On the surface the story doesn't seem all that original but the more you piece things together the more cool ah-ha moments you have. The movie carries well by the performances by Liv Ullman and Max von Sydow, and the "madness" scenes are masterful done, and their bizarre characters manage to make somewhat sense. The pacing is on point and there's no fat in this 90 minute psychological thriller. The real star here is the directing and cinematography, the close-ups of all the faces and every shot of Liv talking to the viewer. I interpret the movie as a highly personal and carthartic examination of Bergman's own struggles. I'm not sure it's the kind of film I'm going to return to, but very glad to have experienced it.

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Vicious Fun, 2020

Set in the 1980s, Joel (Evan Marsh) is a horror magazine writer who has a hopeless crush on his roommate, Sarah (Alexa Rose Steele). One night, out of jealousy, Joel follows Sarah's new boyfriend, Bob (Ari Millen) to a bar. Joel gets hammered, passes out, and when he wakes up he stumbles into an after-hours support group type meeting. The problem is that the meeting is for serial killers, including a sorority slasher named Mike (Robert Maillet), a meticulous scalpel wielding sociopath called Fritz (Julian Richings), a femme fatale named Carrie (Amber Goldfarb), a cannibal chef called Hideo (Sean Baek), and a genocidal government official named Zachary (David Koechner).

This was overall a pretty fun movie, albeit a bit uneven at times, which I mainly chalk up to the writing.

I think that the movie gets stronger as it goes, but it definitely gets off to a rough start. It starts with Joel interviewing a horror movie director (Gord Rand) and asking just really dumb questions, like why the killers move so slow, or why the characters make bad choices. It doesn't sound anything like what any horror fan would ask a director and makes the character sound incredibly ignorant. There is a good running gag about how Joel has a theory about how taxi drivers would make the best serial killers. This joke gets multiple callbacks, and gets funnier as it goes.

So it's rough going pretty much until Joel arrives at the serial killer meeting, but once Goldfarb is in the picture and once (surprise surprise! NOT!) Bob shows up as one of the killers, things kick into gear and stay steadily good until the end.

Overall this is a horror comedy that does a good job of balancing its two genres. There are some pretty funny moments, both in dialogue/delivery and in the action sequences. There's some slicing and dicing, but the gore all stayed in the fun, over-the-top zone for me.

I also have to compliment its final act, which leaves room for a sequel but still comes to a good point of closure for the story it was telling.

A good way to start the month.

Okay, question on #7-10. The wording says, for example, that 8 should share "the same word" with 7 and 9. But in the example given, it's not the same word, it's a same word with each, right?

Like in the example 8 shares the word "living" with 7, and shares the word "return" with 9. So it shares a word with those other titles, but not the same word.

Am I understanding the category correctly?

7 has to share a word with 8 and 10
8 has to share a word with 7 and 9
9 has to share a word with 8 and 10
10 has to share a word with 7 and 9

You end up with 4 pairs of words across the 4 titles, right?