As stated in a former review, I'm a member of HorrorMovieFans.com, which is a horror fan forum I have been a member of since 2009. Every year, during the month of October, we have an annual Halloween Horror Movie Challenge. Basically, each participant has to watch at least 31 movies, with 16 of the viewings being movies we've not seen before.
While that is technically the challenge, most people take is as a challenge to watch as many horror films in October as possible. I've been participating since 2009, and this year will be my sixth year doing the challenge.
I impose a self-rule on myself, which is not in the official Challenge rules, in which if I have watched a horror movie for a former Challenge, I cannot watch it again. For example, in the 2009 Challenge, I watched 110 horror films. I cannot watch a single one of those films again for a future Challenge. While not an official rule, in my opinion, it makes it far more challenging and interesting, as you have a more limited choice the more and more you take the Challenge. I watched Halloween (1978) in 2009 - I've not seen it in October since, which is sort of saddening, though it's for a good cause.
Generally, I don't really try to go all-out in the Challenges. My rankings/view count each month has been thus:
2009 - 110 movies
2010 - 166 movies
2011 - 225 movies
2012 - 68 movies
2013 - 275 movies
In total, I've seen 844 different horror films in the month of October since 2009.
For me, and many others on the forum, it's a month of chaos, stress, and fun. Some of us give running commentaries on the films we're watching, while others of us just talk about random horror movie shit in the conversation thread for the Challenge.
I mention all of this because I will not get any reviews up during this upcoming month - when finished, in the first week of November, I will share my results (I don't intend to watching anywhere near 275 movies this time, probably more around 115 or so), and then I will finally be able to focus on reviews again. I do apologize for the delay, but this is a tradition for me, and many of us on HorrorMovieFans.com (which I do link to on the side of my blog).
I will link both the Discussion thread for the Challenge, as well as the Tally thread, which is specifically for listing the films we've watched and nothing else, just in case anyone is potentially interested in checking out how I am progressing. My user name on the site is JigsawX, in case anyone ever cared to look.
I hope this finds any readers well, and I hope October treats you horrifyingly.
- Michael
