October Horror Movie Challenge 2023

Cue the music! :Turn down your lights where available:

Spoopy and Creppy Season approaches once more folks!  Yep, I’m going to be delving into the murky depths of the horror genre again, as part of the thing from the old IMDb message boards that just, Won’t, DIE; the October Horror Movie Challenge.  Same procedure as every year; if you want to play along at home, you simply have to watch at least 31 horror movies across the 31 days of October, over than half of which (so 16 or more) must be ones you are seeing for the first time.

I’m doing things differently this time around; before it's been mostly just random stuff I've found across the year gathered together, with the odd bigger marathon like when I tackled all of Halloween and Twilight.  This year, it’s going to be almost all marathons and double bills; I have set aside for this a whole bunch of film series, box sets, or ones connected by a common theme.  I’m going to stick to my spirit of randomness for most of these, so I’m not 100% sure what order it will all go in, how much of it I will end up covering, but I’ll be trying to clear the deck of pretty much all of them by the end of the month.

And this is just a sampling of the sets and series I have in store!

I will be covering other this month stuff as diverse as...

• A trio of Canadian werewoof flicks, that actually play the ol' "time of the month" gag for real drama and subtext.
• The works of Jean Rollin, a figure who has often been described as an intersection between the art-house and the grind-house (after Lesbian Vampire Killers last year, I wanted to have some good sapphic bloodsucker fare this time round).
• A big selection of classic forties horror films from Universal (naturally), Columbia Pictures, and even Republic Pictures (you know, the Flash Gordon serial guys).
• A quartet of Mexican titles from Alameda films (I am really looking forward to these, as one of my favourites from last year was a Mexican title, also released by Indicator).
• All the official sequels to one of my favourite horror martial arts comedies of all time (which is a wider subgenre than one might think) Mr. Vampire.
• A big chunk of the Ju-On/Grudge franchise (though far from all of it; it doesn't include the magnificently silly Sadako vs. Kayako!)
• And a quartet of Italian gothics.

Those are the main marathons, I will probably be include a few odds and ends in there too, including as usual any interesting oddities at the London Film Festival, and probably catching the new Saw and Exorcist sequels when they comes out. Now as in previous years, I will be doing this sponsored to help Crisis; at this time of year, with winter approaching, homeless charities need all the help we can give, so please throw in whatever pennies you can.  Once again, there are booby prizes for if my fundraising reaches particular values. You might notice that I have set the goal a bit higher this time around, because hooooooooo boy is what's unlocked by hitting the full target something extra notorious. Well, let's start with what happens if we get to what I usually set my goal at, £310...

Selected from the finest of charity shops

Yeah, if we hit my usual amount, I'll look at the film which marks a definite turning point in the public perception of M. Night Shyamalan. Lady in the Water I know vaguely by reputation, and like what I did with Twilight, it will be interesting coming to this one with the initial hype/hate around it having long since died down. For all my "booby prize" entries, I will have to do a 2000 word essay on them, so this will probably make for interesting writing if I hit the goal, discussing why this was where people really started turning on Shyamalan. But for the full goal this time, £500, it's a truly terrible trio of titles…

Never let it be said I do not suffer for my art

Yeah, we’re really doing this.  If we hit the full goal I will have to sit through, and write the two thousand words on each of the three Human Centipede movies! I will be seeing if there is anything to these things behind the grotesqueness of the initial premise. Is there some actual good to these things, or like the titular creation is it just crap running through the whole thing? Well, if you want to find out, and/or want to hurt me, pledge to the JustGiving Page. You'll be able to follow my progress via my Letterboxd account once October begins, so give me a follow to keep up to date with the madness I am about to put myself through.