Shack

I agree but would allow documentaries about the genre of horror as opposed to those about one film. There are a few of those out there, feature-length, that seem valid to me.

I support the inclusion of MST3K for a few reasons (apart from my being a big fan!). It is, as said before, watching most or all of the movie itself, and some of those features aren't easily available anyplace else. And they're certainly in the spirit of the horror comedies allowed. As for Rifftrax, sure, but not counting watching the movie both with and without the track.

Dimension X

Thanks.

EdTheRipper

I agree. I've spent most of my free time so far this month watching movies and I'm only pushing 40. I would love to be able to watch more but there's just not enough time in the day for me.

Eric D.

That's key. I don't really care how people watch a movie as long as it is not being counted twice, once with commentary and one without. I've seen a few lists doing that now and I don't agree with it. And I do think MST3K should count as long as the movie only counts once. Plus I wouldn't wish watching Manos straight up on my worst enemy. Well...thinking about it, maybe I would. It's a punishment worse than death. Manos...but no funny commentary.

caligulathegod

OK, I've been thinking. My Compilation DVD idea contradicts the TV show rule. Two ways we can rectify it. One, is to not count compilations. They are, after all, not features. We could also create a third wild card and allow the counting of one compilation of horror shorts, which would include a DVD of anthology TV shows, such as Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Outer Limits, Tales from the Dark Side, etc. We would still disallow shows with recurring characters. I just want to discourage popping in Angel the Series and counting that towards the total. We don't want a repeat of the notorious South Park lists. A compilation of unrelated horror shorts is not the same as a TV series. A lot of Twilight Zone episodes are really just adaptations of short stories, so I can see including them.

caligulathegod

So right now, we have three wild cards.

One Horror Short.
One Film between 40 minutes and 59 minutes.
One compilation of shorts, including anthology series, but not recurring character series (that is, typical TV Shows).

Eric D.

Sounds good to me.

caligulathegod

I updated my "rules" list with the new ideas.

caligulathegod

Is Ichabod an hour? All my research says it's about a half hour in which case it would have to count as the short wild card.

Spiderbite

I'm sorry but this is the dumbest idea that you keep repeating ad nauseam during this entire discussion. No one has agreed with it so it's obvious that this idea needs to be dropped. This is a horror movie challenge, not a Halloween or holiday movie challenge. Make a "trick or treat" movie challenge thread if you like or change the name of this challenge.

Maybe in the 50's and 60's but certainly not in the 30's and 40's.



Good work caligulathegod. Seems you have spent some time and much thought on this. I agree with pretty much everything you have laid out, especially the time limit! This keeps a lot of "what-ifs" to a minimum.

I do have to state that I disagree with including documentaries. This is the Horror Movie challenge and documentaries should not count. Other than that...looks good. I am still staying withdrawn from this year's list postings but I am glad to see some serious discussion finally. With some structure like this for next year, I look foward to joining back in. I still plan to watch only horror movies for the rest of the month though.

ps. Even if you are a Buffy/Angel/Charisma Carpenter fan...stay away from Voodoo Moon. Simply dreadful.

caligulathegod

How about a one Documentary wild card? I hate to keep copping out on that, but some of the films that break the rules are too good to not watch without some credit. It allows some variety and also prevents some arguments with a reasonable compromise but it also puts a limit on them.

Jediturtle

OK guys, due to all of the controversy, and good arguments made on both sides of certain issues, I've decided to do a little house-cleaning on my list of things counted so far. I'm removing the TCM True Hollywood Story from my count. Documentaries have kind of bugged me from the start, so I've decided that I personally will not be counting "making-of" or "behind-the-scenes" type docs. I may count a general horror documentary though if I come upon one...we'll see.

I am going to keep the commentaries I have listed counted though. My reasoning is that I watched the films without commentary in the very near past (less than a month). However, if I have a situation where I watch both the film without and then again with the commentary within October, I will not be counting it twice.

Also, my take on anthologies is this: If the shorts were made to be a part of the anthology, then the entire anthology should count as one. These were never meant to stand alone, so they should stand together and count as one movie. Example of this are Creepshow, Nightmares, etc. If, however, the shorts were made to be a TV episode, but were later shoved together, they should not count. To me these are collections, not anthologies. Think Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, etc.

As for other TV shows, for me they should not count. I do make one exception to this though, and that is the Masters of Horror. To me, these were meant to be considered short films, not TV episodes, and should therefore count. I will probably not have any of them in my list though, as I'm still holding out for a box set, so it doesn't matter for me anyway.

Still don't know how I feel about It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Part of me really wants to count Halloween specials such as this as that is what the holiday is all about. However, this is stated to be a Horror Movie Challenge, not a holiday special challenge, so from that standpoint I'm against it. I will be watching it, so I guess I'll cross the counting bridge when I get to it.

Even with all the controversy, I'm still having lots of fun with this. I appreciate the original poster coming up with and implimenting this idea. Let's remember to have fun guys.

Oh...one more thing and please don't get mad for requesting this, but Gutwrencher (and others)...while I do have a certain appreciation for some of the crazy images you have added to this thread, it might be nice to be careful with some of them, especially the more...er...sexual ones. I like to check out these forums at work, and I REALLY don't want to have to explain some of them! Also, I'm pretty sure this is considered an "all-ages" forum, so maybe a more appropriate place for some of these images would be in the adult forum. I'm no prude...but I just wonder if there is a better place for some of these. Again, this is just a request and I mean no offense. Thanks!

Shack

No need to penalize yourself. Both It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and commentaries are allowed under this year's rules. The Masters of Horror series is also specifically mentioned. If the guidelines are different next year, worry about that then.

Mondo Kane

I decided to do the same. But I'll replace it with upcoming "Going to pieces" documentary on Starz. No more doc's after that.

JerryKILL

Dimension X... your list is getting even better. I have that Redemption Devil Collection on order, hoping it will get here by the end of the month. And I love those 70s made-for-TV Satan films.

gutwrencher

And as far as how some of us get to viddey so much...oh brother, must we defend it again? Are some of you not reading posts? Some of us have explained this. And I'm too old and been here too long and I'm too serious of a total film whore to bullshit. Lying is a waste of time. I'm over 40 and stable with my own small company. I schedule when and if I work. Now I'm at only 2 films a day through the 21st...then I'm gone on my trip. I lose.

In fact....both today and tomorrow are 14 hour days and I'll be lucky to watch 1. So have fun.

Cameron

the full film is The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad with a run time of 68 minutes. The stories had been chopped in two parts (as one truly has nothing to do with the other), but original theatrical exhibition and the dvd run over an hour. You could argue that its two shorts bookended together, but thats now how the academy or golden globes viewed it. It even won a golden globe for cinematography.

Sabrett

As far as people thinking that it looks fishy when you watch so many titles is ridiculous. Most people on here are doing this for fun. I know I'm doing it to clear up my backlog, and because I love watching horror/halloween movies in October. I'm not doing it to win. I honestly wouldn't waste my time lying about something that isn't that big of a deal.

Cameron

and I still think the academy standard should be used instead of an hour. Its few and far between, but easy to clarify if you don't count television


movies under an hour off the top of my head...
Dementia (1955)
Murder on the Waterfront (1943) -warners shortest feature ever
The Longest Night -mgm shortest feature ever

OwlAtHome

I've got Simpsons Treehouse of Horror DVD and The Roseanne Halloween episodes. I figured I'd count each DVD as 1 title watched.

Simpsons includes these 4:
Treehouse of Horror V
Treehouse of Horror VI
Treehouse of Horror VII
Treehouse of Horror XII

Roseanne includes these 7:
BOO!
Trick or Treat
Trick Me Up, Trick Me Down
Halloween IV
Halloween V
Skeleton in the Closet
Halloween: The Final Chapter

I also have Beavis & Butthead Christmas/Butt-o-ween:
Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest
Pipe of Doom
Killing Time
Leave It to Beavis
Ding-Dong-Ditch
Late Night with Butt-Head
Candy Sale

Can this be counted?

Cameron

i would say that none of that counts since they aren't movies....same thing if you watched something like the fangoria blood drive...one dvd, all horror...but all shorts...so it shouldn;t be counted towards the goal

Shack

And the rule cited specifically excludes recurring character series. So Roseanne, Simpsons, etc. would not apply.

But in any case, these are proposed rules for next year, not this one. I applaud caligulathegod's work toward a template for next year, but can't we just enjoy discussing films in this year's challenge? Between the posts of disbelief that people are watching that many movies and the equally tiring discussion of whether those people have a life or not, we're not doing much toward discussing what we're watching now.

So just to throw out a few topics -- what new-to-you film(s) have you really liked? Which one(s) have you found overrated? For me, I didn't see Dog Soldiers when it was in theatres, but I liked The Descent so much I sought out this earlier film, and thought it was great. Nice eerie mood, good plotting, and sly nods to other films. On the other hand, Hostel may have suffered from overhype; I was disappointed when finally seeing it last week. Certainly big on the gore/violence/nudity front, but lacking a bit in plotting.

Spiderbite

By the way, here is another vote to move this challenge to the Horror Talk section next year (if it is still there).

OwlAtHome

Thanks for the feedback. It's not really a big deal I just wanted clarification. This thread is so big (that's what she said) that I didn't really want to go through the whole thing.

Anyway I'm trying to watch a lot of Stephen King adaptations and watched It last night. I first saw this when I was 13 and it scared me plenty. I read the book for the first time about two years ago and was disappointed with the movie afterwards but watching again last night I thoroughly enjoyed it and was pleasantly creeped out by Tim Curry's performance as Pennywise.

Sabrett

Can someone give me some feedback on the Masters of Horror? I caught one of them last night and thought it was pretty good. Recommendations? Likes? Dislikes? Etc?