October Horror Movie Challenge 2025 - Fundraising Begins!

Yes. IT'S TERRORRRRR TIME AGAIN!!!!

The thing that will not die from the depths of the IMDB message boards, the October Horror Movie Challenge, will return once more in a month's time, and I'm telling you about it now because, by doing a bit of good nice and early, you can have a big influence on how it all goes.

Same procedure as every year; to do the challenge, you must, across the 31 days of October, watch at minimum 31 horror movies, over half of which (so 16 or more) must be titles you're seeing for the first time.  As always, since I like to go beyond the bare minimum, I will be cramming as much truly weird schlock I have never seen before as I can between 12:01 AM October 1st, and the very stroke of midnight on Halloween.  To be clear on the rules, I'll only count as part of this challenge feature length films; if I see, say, a short film showcase, I'm only going to count that as one title.  Under these rules, I have previously hit a total of 53 horror films in one October; let's see if I can break that record this time!  This year I'll be covering Karloff classics, Canadian werewolves, Brazil's biggest horror star, a notable British purveyor of gore, titles from the Warner Bros. (and technically MGM) vaults, Italian & Spanish gothics, and I am not even going to try explaining at least one of them, as I'm pretty sure many social media companies will let me.

To help make this journey into cinematic depths worth it, I'll be raising money via Givewheel here to help three causes close to my heart; my usual cause for the last few years, Crisis, tackling UK homelessness, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, to bring much needed aid to the children of Gaza, and AKT (The Albert Kennedy Trust), supporting young LGBT+ people who need a home.  I'll be getting the ball rolling with the fundraising, I'm not expecting everyone to give nearly as much, but every penny will help these fine causes.

This is also how you get to influence the watch list; like every year, I have several "booby prizes" ready to watch if the fundraising hits certain targets.  So, if we get to a total of £750, I will finally get off the shelf the now infamous Human Centipede trilogy; I will watch all three, write 2000 words on each, and be able to tell you all if it is indeed (as far as one can measure these things), the Worst Thing Eric Roberts Has Been In.  (And yes, I have seen Blackbird!) This is the third year it's been on the shelf, I'm determined that there will not be a fourth, if I don't hit the target and watch it this year, I will take it to Computer Exchange with a big ol' grin... so will you wipe it off my face?

If we get to the next big target, £850, that will unlock... a mystery box!  Yeah, I'm not telling what this will be, what films will be involved, how many, but it will be something very special, unlike anything I have done for previous years' offerings, something I'm genuinely quite excited to see if it will happen and if it will all work out or not.  Whatever could it be?  What films does it involve?  You're just going to have to donate and/or share enough to find out.  (Tell you what; get me to Target One in less than two weeks, and I will give a little clue, promise!)

The final target (for now?) will be a round £1000, and if that happens, I'll be tackling (potentially all in one sitting if the timing works out) all six Sharknado movies, which I'll be seeing for the first time, and writing 1000 words on each, minimum.  I have held off on seeing those as I have... opinions of deliberately "so bad it's good" films (and I will be getting into those to help make that 6000 word total!), so let's see if you can force my hand this time around.

So, to follow my progress through this fascinating cinematic exploration/ annual cry for help, you can follow me on Letterboxd where I'll be logging all the titles.  Remember that every penny you give to the fundraising page, especially if it includes gift aid, will go to three fine causes.  And tell you what, if we do REALLY well and ace all the targets in good time, I might throw in a few extra booby prize titles for good measure; I have a few things in mind, and the CEX vouchers to get them with.  So, donate nice and early for a chance to start my October viewing with the bar set very, very, VERY low!