October Horror Movie Challenge 2019 - Fundraising Begins, With a New Twist!

This year, I am once again taking part in what has turned out to be one of the most enduring things to come out of the IMDb message boards (outliving the boards themselves!), The October Horror Movie Challenge!  The rules are simple; across October's 31 days, watch at least 31 horror movies, and at least half of them (so more than 16) must be ones you are watching for the first time.  As in previous years, I'll be going for as many as I can fit in, including a few new cinema releases, stuff at the London Film Festival (already booked my tickets!), but the main bulk of them coming from what I've been gathering from charity shops and the like across the year, on a random draw basis.  There are a few interesting marathons potentially on the cards this year, so I'm once again doing this sponsored, raising money for Crisis.  If you have liked my witterings about film this year and want to show your appreciation, please give what you can to my appeal, help prepare the homeless and those that would help them for the coming winter.

Now as the title says, there's an extra twist to my challenge this year, as I think I have a new way to drive the charity donations, linking the fundraiser to the challenge more directly.  How I usually do the selection of what films from the pile of discs to watch at what time is a random draw of names from the Pumpkin, and I will be doing that again for the most part.  However, there are two special titles this time which won't be in the random draw; I will only watch those ones if my fundraising target gets to a certain level.  First of all, whenever I do one of these, I often make sure that one of the Video Nasties is somewhere in the stack, so I can work my way through that list one at a time. Well, this year, I have access to one of the most notorious of the lot...

"If" the brutal and explicit depiction of death is upsetting to you...?  "If"?

Hoo boy, this is one I have been nervous about seeing for many years, for the fact that the subject matter is that plain grim.  Well then, if I get halfway to my fundraising target this year, so at least £155, before the end of the month, I will watch Faces of Death and report back, to see if it really is one of those titles that will corrupt the youth of Britain, or whatever it was Mary Whitehouse said about it.  That's if I get halfway to the target, but what if I get all of the way?  Well, in that top picture of the pile, do you see that little black box on the bottom right, facing away from the camera?  That is something I found in an Oxfam for a mere fiver...

Dun-dun-DUUUUNNNNNN!!!!!

Oh yes!  Now I have not actually seen the Twilight Saga all the way through before, but know it by reputation.  I have been wondering over the last few years though if the films were really that bad, or if a lot of the reaction to it at the time was down to a misogynistic pushback at a major budgeted genre franchise being aimed at a primarily female audience.  It will be interesting to have a look, now that there's a distance of time to look on them more objectively, but I am prepared for the possibility that, well...

So, if I reach the target on the Justgiving page of £310 by the 24th of October (to make sure I have enough time for them), I will watch all five films and report back on them as part of this year's challenge.  BTW, yes that does mean I'd rather be watching a notorious "mondo" documentary about death, cannibalism, and stuff than Twilight.  I'm worried about the implications of that too.  Well, if you want to potentially hurt me this year, just pledge early (remember that you can make it have more impact if you go with gift aid).  My viewings will begin on, naturally, October the 1st, so watch my Tumblr, Twitter, and/or Instagram to get updates on them as they come in.  Now I'm really scared this season...