The most wonderful time of the year... 👻💀

It's nearing October (well, close enough) and my thoughts are therefore OBVIOUSLY turning to this year's list of movies. Last October was sooo much fun that I've decided I definitely want to do it again: At least a film a day; as many reviews as I can possibly do from that number.

So here's a list of what I have so far, culled from titles that've caught my eye on various streaming services, plus new releases I haven't had chance to see yet. What do you think?

October 1st (Sun) - The Void

October 2nd - The Blob (1988)
October 3rd -
October 4th - Beyond The Gates
October 5th - Lumberjack Man
October 6th (Fri) - Gerald's Game // Prince of Darkness
October 7th (Sat) - Shelley // Antibirth (effed up pregnancy double bill!)
October 8th (Sun) - Back Sheep // The Strangers
October 9th - The Collector (2009)
October 10th - The Boy
October 11th - The Prowler
October 12th (my birthday!) - Get Out
October 13th (Fri) - IT (2017) - at a drive-in!
October 14th (Sat) - Train To Busan // Cabin Fever (2002) // Hostel
October 15th (Sun) - The Craft // (They're Watching - turned it off) // The Midnight Meat Train

October 16th - Pet Sematary

October 17th - Baskin
October 18th -
October 19th - Raw
October 20th (Fri) - Maniac // Body Bags
October 21st (Sat) - Return Of The Living Dead
October 22nd (Sun) - Saw // Saw II // A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
October 23rd - The Girl In The Photographs
October 24th - Psycho (on the big screen!)
October 25th - Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI
October 26th - The Blood Lands // The Walking Dead
October 27th (Fri) - Hostel: Part II // Stranger Things 2!!! (2 episodes)
October 28th (Sat) - Saw III // Saw IV // The Silence of the Lambs // Trick 'r Treat // Cube
October 29th (Sun) - Stranger Things 2 // Resident Evil: Extinction
October 30th - The Exorcist // It Follows
October 31st! - Evil Dead II // Army of Darkness (on the big screen ❤)

Overflow/reserve:
Tales of Halloween
XX
The Wailing
Willow Creek
He Never Died
Let's Be Evil
Camino
I Am Not A Serial Killer
Scream Queens
Critters
The Eyes Of My Mother
Refuge
Spring
Halloween III: Season of the Witch

#jumpscarechallenge

During October I joined in with a '31 days of horror' event, posting a picture every day in answer to a question related to the genre. I thought it might be cool to post them here, too...

Click to enlarge!

1. Your first horror movie: I'm too old to remember my first. But here's one of my firsts, and recommended by my dad, so holds a special place in my heart. It's now a Christmas tradition to watch it! 

2. Last horror movie you watched: Just finished it and now writing a review! 

3. Favourite Universal Monster: Frankenstein's monster! I love the grisly beginnings and the tragedy of the tale. Classic. 

4. Favourite horror franchise: Despite the later ones from Romero zombie canon not being... great (I don't think I've even seen Survival) that *still* doesn't take away how immense this "holy trinity" is. As a zombie fan, I have to say the ...of the Dead franchise. 

5. Best ending in a horror film: This kind of question drives me crazy, but in general I like my horror to end on a massive fucking downer. The kind that hollows you out while the credits roll and it all sinks in. So, Eden Lake. 

6. Favourite horror remake: You gotta be fucking kidding! 

7. Most disturbing horror film: That I've seen? Probably Martyrs. And I think "disturbing" does it a disservice somewhat, as it's a powerful film with some really interesting themes. But I did also find it almost unbearably tense and brutal. 

8. Horror film that needs a reboot: I've never actually made it all the way through Braindead. Maybe if they made a new one I would?? 

9. Most anticipated horror film: I took a day off work and baked brain cupcakes for the cinema for this one. Romero's first zombie film since Day?! SUCH anticipation. And it was... okay. I'm probably due a rewatch. But getting so excited was fun. 

10. Favourite horror director: I chose two, just because. John Carpenter for his undeniable classics and contribution to the genre. Adam Wingard for what I've seen so far, and hope to see more of. 

11. Favourite horror character: I'm going with my gut, the first ones I thought of were MacReady from The Thing and Dawn from Teeth. 

12. Favourite horror soundtrack: It Follows. 

13. Best line in a horror movie: See above. It's EXACTLY what you'd say in that moment. Perfect.

14. Favourite zombie film: Dawn of the Dead (1978). A classic. Every time I rewatch to check I still love it as much, I definitely do. 

15. Favourite scream queen: Always and forever, Jamie Lee Curtis. 

16. Favourite foreign horror: So many to choose from! I'll settle for this one. Beautiful as well as bloody, a combo I really enjoy when it's done well. 

17. Best 70s horror film: The Exorcist. An absolute classic. 

18. Best 80s horror film: Best decade ever for horror you mean? I'm absolutely spoilt for choice here. But The Shining swung it just because the first time I saw it I had to turn it off, I was so scared. Honourable mentions to The Thing and Dead & Buried! 

19. Best 90s horror film: Candyman! From that chilling opening crawl onwards, this film is one of my very favourites. Honourable mentions to The Blair Witch Project, Tremors and Se7en! The 90s really weren't so bad! 

20. Best 00's horror film: I have to pick 28 Days Later. I went to see this on my own at night and came out of the cinema shaking. It's one of the best "horror in the cinema" experiences I've had. Intense, very English, and unapologetic. It's a fucking great film. 

21. (there was no 21!)

22. Best vampire film: From Dusk Till Dawn. I loved this the moment I first saw it. Gore, girls, comedy, horror, a Tom Savini cameo...! 

23. Best sequel in horror: Friday the 13th Part 2. It's all about the pillowcase. Way more scary than the hockey mask. 

24. Best slasher film: I'm cycling back to Black Christmas. It's just so good! Also this artwork is great. 

25. Best werewolf film: Could I choose any other? An American Werewolf In London. This film is as old as I am, and the effects are still pretty much everyone's favourite transformation. 

26. Best sci-fi horror: Under The Skin stayed with me for many days after watching it. Weird, sensual, sinister and heartbreaking. 

27. Best satanic film: Rosemary's Baby may have been one of the first horror films I saw, and probably one of the first that made me realise there didn't immediately need to be buckets of blood flying everywhere to be genuinely chilling. I also have a vague recollection of my dad telling me to watch it, so that's also a good thing! 

28. Best death scene: "CHOKE ON 'EM!!!".

29. Worst horror movie: I've watched some right old shit in my time, but this was one of the hardest to get through. It's effing terrible. That artwork should have been a hint. 

30. Your horror collection: It's spread across shelves, wallets, hard drives, books, action figures and 2 countries. There's no way I can get a pic. So have this as a representation 

31. Favourite horror film: This is another kind of impossible question for me. There are so many different ones that satisfy different moods. If I HAD to pick, then Dawn of the Dead. But my favourite ever film is Jaws, and that's considered horror, too. Then there's Blair Witch, that gave me my first genuinely terrified cinema experience. So many! 

dive right back in.

Hi. So I've been slowly finding my way back to the genre after an extended hiatus, brought about by a combination of (too real) real life stuff and just generally being fed up with bad horror movie after bad horror movie...

It's pretty depressing in itself when you can't watch your once favourite type of film due to feeling too crappy... and when you do feel good enough to take the plunge, they almost always turn out to be stupendously disappointing.

A photo posted by Jo Finlay (@relaxcupcake) on Oct 31, 2015 at 4:09pm PDT

Apart from You're Next. That one I liked.

BUT, I miss it. And I miss writing about it! So with the spooky season upon us I wanted to set myself a little challenge. I'm going to watch at least one horror movie a day throughout October AND I'm going to write about every. single. one.

It may be a proper review... it may be a version of "live-tweeting" the movie as I watch it... it might be somewhere in between those two. Or something else. I don't want to limit myself or promise anything too lofty or specific, because this is really just an exercise in getting back into the swing of horror blogging.

I'm excited about it, which in itself is pretty thrilling!

So I've been working on the list, because I must have films in the barrel ready to go, or else I'll fall prey to the first world Netflix problem of taking longer to choose a film than watch it. So...

Does anyone have any recommendations? 

I've already filled a lot of the slots with movies I've had on my "To Watch" list for a while, so I'm excited to finally have a reason to get through those. The rest are some I've been wanting to re-watch for a while but have held off with this in mind. This leaves space for a few suggestions! (ideally something I can find on US Netflix or Showtime streaming).

This is subject to change, but here we go, so far:

October 1st - Holidays
October 2nd - The Babadook
October 3rd - Stung
October 4th - Housebound 
October 5th - Creep
October 6th - The Dark Hours 
October 7th - The Final Girls
October 8th - Hatchet
October 9th - Honeymoon
October 10th - Mr. Jones
October 11th - Dead Set (eps 1-3) 

October 12th - It Follows
October 13th - Night Breed (fell asleep, oops)
October 14th - The Facility
October 15th - The Pact
October 16th - Trollhunter
October 17th - Bound to Vengeance
October 18th - Creepshow
October 19th - Scream 2
October 20th - Final Destination 3
October 21st - Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween II, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
October 22nd - 
October 23rd - 
October 24th - Starry Eyes 
October 25th - Hush
October 26th - Black Mirror s:3 e:1, We Are Still Here   
October 27th - The Houses October Built
October 28th - Black Mirror s:3 e:2, 28 Days Later
October 29th - 28 Weeks Later, Zombieland, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
October 30th - The Thing, The Neon Demon, Trick 'r Treat, Dawn of the Dead (2007)
October 31st! - Halloween: Resurrection

Reserve:
Camino
He Never Died
House of Good and Evil 
The Awakening
Tales of Halloween
Halloween (1978) & Halloween (2007)