31 Days of Spooky Movies: 2016

The leaves have begun to fall, there’s a nip in the night air, and October has burst into our lives like an Alien from the chest. That’s right, folks...

it's baaaacckkk...

Spooky Films 3-D:

The Revenge of 31 Days!

The Challenge:

• Watch a spooky movie every day of October
  
• Movies watched during previous years challenges don’t count towards your goal.

I, of, course will be chronicling all the films I watch here for your enjoyment / to do my part in giving you a fiendishly fun October. And if you so desire, feel free to attempt the challenge yourself! It’s really quite a lot of fun.

In the previous years I would post my little reviews for each day’s movie on this blog’s Facebook page and then assemble them here later on, but no more! I have since quit the FB habit and thus will be doing all my reporting right here at Excuse the Quality main base. As you well know, I am notoriously bad at “planning ahead” and “doing things on time,” so I can’t exactly tell you when each post will go up, but there will be a new post up here every day...probably...

I have been known in past years to push my luck, wait until the last minute, and finish a day’s movie right under the wire, thus not being able to put up the post for it until the following day. But if this challenge has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes life is horrifying and sad and that’s just part of the fun.

If anyone would like some ideas for some Spooky movies to watch, feel free to peruse my previous years' challenges:

31 Days of 2014

31 Days of 2015

And for my own benefit I’m going to provide both my Fright/Gore ranking guides & a chronological list of all the movies I’ve watched in past challenges at the bottom of this post.

So there you have it my friends! Have a frightfully ominous October, my little Hellraisers...

...if you dare!

--Keep in mind that ratings operate on a sliding scale and things like Execution, Realism, and my own unavoidable Bias all have an affect on the ratings.

However, that being said, these are the basic guidelines I work from.--

Guide to Fright Factor ranking:

0 - You’ve accidentally gotten a horror movie confused with your Yoga workout DVD.

1 - Sure there’s some “spooky” imagery/themes in here, but the same could be said of the Halloween section of a department store.

2 - You have started to feel afraid for the characters in the movie. Because...for the love of God, why are they splitting up? The killer is behind you! LOOK BEHIND YOU!

3 - The fear of the film has escaped into your real world. You’ll still go in the water, sure, but not with the same carefree abandon you once did.

4 - My door is locked, right? And the windows? I’m just going to go double check. Did...did you hear something? Ha ha...ha...have you seen my baseball bat?

5 - I’m going to need you to hold my hand to ground me in reality please. Just...oh dear sweet baby Jesus...oh, we’re all going to die. Why did I think I was brave enough to watch this?

Guide to Gore Factor ratings:

0 - Rom-com Level gore
You might see such horrors as a sprained ankle or a newly delivered baby!

1 - Monster Level gore
You’ll probably see some ooky-looking monsters. Possibly a touch of blood, perhaps even see a shadow doing something suggestive of violence to another shadow, but you probably really won’t be seeing anything worse than a cut.

2 - “I’m Serious” Level gore
Here you might start to see the film trying to prove that their threat is really serious! They’ll show some some post-attack wounds or some blood sprays, but you’ll never see the actual infliction of the wound UNLESS the weapon is a knife. Horror films love knives so they can have “Oh! He cut her arm that means he’s serious”-kind of stuff, where a fake knife and some blood packets suggest a lot without really showing anything that bad. You might also see something like a person transforming into a monster, a monster transforming into an even oogier monster, someone getting an injection, or even a corpse of some sort.

3 - Witness Level gore
Now we begin to see wounds actually being inflicted. You might see someone get bit or something lobbed off. Probably a fair bit of blood is being thrown around. Maybe even some organs making a brief appearance. The gorier bits are generally very quick though.

4 - WTF! Level gore
At this level the movie is showing exaggerated levels of gore and trying to elicit a visceral reaction from you. It will undoubtedly feature all sorts of over-the-top crazy-ass shit that you really will never see in your lifetime (thank God). Maybe a head will be torn in two, maybe a person eaten alive, perhaps even an unfortunate encounter with some farm equipment or something!

5 - Look Away Level gore
This movie has 100% completely crossed the point of no return and entered the realm of nightmarish blood bath. They are purposefully showing you all the grotesque shit they can think of in order to gross you the fuck out. Expect long-shots of really fucked-up things happening to people, and to be left with not only a queasy stomach, but also a sense that whoever made this movie has some serious issues.

Dead Films

1932:

• Murders in the Rue Morgue

1933:

• The Invisible Man

1934:

• The Black Cat

1958:

• The Blob

1959:

• House on Haunted Hill

1964:

• The Last Man on Earth

1968:

• Night of the Living Dead

1974:

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

1976:

• The Omen

1977:

• Suspiria [Sighs]

1978:

• Dawn of the Dead

1979:

• Alien
• Phantasm

1980:

• Friday the 13^th

1981:

• The Evil Dead

1982:

• The Thing

1983:

• Christine
• Sleepaway Camp

1984:

• Children on the Corn
• C.H.U.D.

1985:

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
• Re-Animator

1986:

• Invaders From Mars
• Poltergeist II: The Other Side

1987:

• Hellraiser

1988:

• Monkey Shines

1991:

• Ernest Scared Stupid

1992:

• Army of Darkness

1993:

• The Nightmare Before Christmas

1996:

• Scream

1997:

• Mimic
• The Relic

1998:

• Phantoms

1999:

• The Blair Witch Project
• Stir of Echoes

2000:

• American Psycho
• Ginger Snaps

2001:

• The Others
• Session 9

2002:

• 28 Days Later

2004:

• Kakurenbo [Hide and Go Seek]
• Saw
• Shaun of the Dead

2005:

• The Descent
• Noroi [The Curse]
• Saw II

2006:

• Goemul [The Host]
• Ils [Them]

2007:

• 30 Days of Night
• À l’intérieur [Inside]
• I Am Legend
• The Mist
• Shrooms

2008:

• The Ruins
• Splinter

2009:

• Coraline
• The Descent: Part II
• Død Snø [Dead Snow]
• Doghouse
• The Hole
• Zombieland

2010:

• The Crazies
• The Last Exorcism
• Piranha 3D
• Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

2011:

• The Thing

2012:

• Cabin in the Woods
• John Dies at the End
• ParaNorman
• The Woman in Black

2013:

• Evil Dead
• Haunter
• The Purge
• You're Next

2014:

• Død Snø 2 [Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead]
• Housebound
• Ich seh Ich seh [Goodnight Mommy]
• Tusk

2015:

• The Lazarus Effect