31 Days of Horror: Past Revisited Part One

We are 2 days away from October, and the first day of the 6th Annual 31 Days of Horror, and I couldn't be more excited.

Over the next several posts, I will go over my previous years of October Horror movie marathoning, with some extra commentary thrown in.

Now obviously, I've always watched a lot of horror films during the month of October, but it wasn't until 2008 where I would get the idea from the message boards at Joblo.com, to watch as many as possible and chronicle it. I didn't start this blog until 2010, and the only mention on the Joblo message board was just a photo of whatever I had watched that day. It was fun, but once I joined Twitter in 2009, my message board days came to an end.

In bold below, is the list I kept on my laptop of my first ever 31 Days of Horror, printed here for the first time. I've added in commentary when appropriate. Enjoy.

31 Days of Horror 1: 2008

-Monster Squad

-Blacula

For the first night(that probably wasn't October 1st, I really can't remember), I decided to start things off on a lighter note with a comedy double feature. This was my first time seeing Blacula, and it was pretty enjoyable.

I may revisit Monster Squad this year, as one of my horror cohorts has never seen it before.

-The Hills Have Eyes(1976)

-The Hills Have Eyes(2006)

-The Hills Have Eyes 2(2007)

The Hills Have Eyes Triple Feature was an interesting one. The only of these 3 films I'd ever seen was the 2006 remake, of which I'm a huge fan. 

On this night, I found the original HHE to be very boring and the sequel to the remake to be terrible(except for the awesome mutant baby birth scene in the film's cold open).

I plan on giving the original HHE another chance soon. Possibly this year.

-Grindhouse presents Planet Terror

-Friday the 13th Part Vi: Jason Lives

-Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday

This was a Double Feature of 2 Jason films: one's my favorite of the series, while the other gets a bad rap. While this hate may be deserved, I'm still positive that there's a good movie hidden in there, which I plan on getting deeper into during 31 Days of Horror.

-An American Werewolf In London

-Maniac

-Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon 

-Saw

-House II: The Second Story 

-Night of the Living Dead(1968)

-Saw II

-Saw III

-Chopping Mall

-Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy's Nightmares - Freddy's Tricks & Treats

Watched the VHS release of this show. Hopefully there will be an official DVD/Blu Ray someday.

-Mothers Day

Pretty decent, yet short, list. In the coming years I'd try much harder to fit in a better mix of horror related films/shows/specials, to varying degrees of success.

31 Days of Horror 2: 2009

-A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors

-Headless Eyes

-Dead Dudes in the House

This year I went way in the other direction with my film choices, and tried to share the experience with some friends. This particular double feature was a total dud in that regard.

Headless Eyes is pretty bad, but despite this, owning the VHS Big Box is something to be proud of amongst collectors.

Dead Dudes, much like Jason Goes to Hell, is a bad movie that could be awesome with some(or lots) of work. It has some neat claustrophobic Haunted House ideas(being trapped in a house and the windows won't break, crazy old woman ghost who wants to kill you and may get off on it sexually), but it has purposely unlikable characters, which hinders everything. 

It's a Troma film, if that tells you anything.

-Godzilla Vs. Megalon

I'm pretty sure this was the Mystery Science Theater version.

-A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

-Laid To Rest

-Fido

-Shocker

-Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn

-Night of the Bloody Apes

Great "Mexican Wrestling/Human with an Ape's heart goes on a killing spree" film.

-Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974)

-Texas Chainsaw Massacre(2003)

Much like the previous year, gotta do the double feature of Original Vs. Remake. Here, the original wins with little problem, but the TCM remake is no slouch.

-Idle Hands

-John Carpenter's The Thing

-Army of Darkness

-Return of the Living Dead

-Satan's Little Helper

-Halloween(1978)

-Wacko(1981)

Those last 2 were watched on Halloween night. I decided to end with Wacko because the idea of a slasher satire from the '70s where the killer uses a lawn mower as his signature weapon had promise, but failed to deliver, as I remember. Might play better with an audience.