Horror Movie Challenge

We mentioned in our first post that we really like movies. We also really like horror movies, and in 2015 we set ourselves a challenge: to watch a horror film every night for the month of October. 

In hindsight, the year itself wasn’t ideal – we moved into our new house that year, and the challenge took place just before Aindrea left Rich for two weeks to go back to the USA for thanksgiving. But then again, if it was easy it wouldn’t be a challenge, would it?

For those of you reading this in a long distance relationship, fear not – fire up FaceTime, Skype or your preferred video chat app and watch the film together.

If you’re really brave, you could watch a horror that involves video chat – like Paranormal Activity 4 or Unfriended.

The rules

• One horror film a day. 31 days, 31 horror films
• We could watch other genres as well, but not instead of
• No skipping a day (yes, this challenge does involve having ample free time…)

The challenge

We began on October 1, and finished on Halloween.

“What happens to your mind when you watch scares, blood and carnage for a full month?”

The good news is we didn’t experience any bloodlust, or need psychiatric help. Personally, we experienced three distinct phases throughout the month (we’ll get to those shortly), we found you get good at spotting horror cliches and knowing what type of scare is coming up next. And we are now very particular about what horror films we like and would consider good. It is, unfortunately, a genre with a disproportionate amount of crap.

So, onto the films we watched (in order) and the three distinct phases we experienced:

“This is fun”. The first week or so was fun, we were bright eyed and bushy tailed going into the challenge and our mental health was unaffected. 

• Saw II
• 28 Days Later
• 28 Weeks Later
• Scream
• Scream 2
• Scream 3
• Scream 4
  
• Dawn of the dead

“There’s something behind every door in the house”. Ah, Phase Two. Maybe the Scream saga was to blame – there’s only so many “man with knife in that room” films you can watch before you start to worry – but in this second week, the fear started to creep in. Going into the bedroom or bathroom at night was not fun, noises became louder and more threatening, and “Oh shit what’s the dog barking at?” moments became regular. 

• An American Haunting
• American Mary
• Blair Witch Project
• Mirrors
• What Lies Beneath
• Friday the 13th
• Friday the 13th 2
  
• Nightmare on Elm Street (remake)
• The Omen
• The Omen 2

“Nothing scares me anymore”. Phase Two didn’t so much fade out as it just stopped one day, and we were in Phase Three. Hardened Horror Junkies. Perhaps we’d gone into the bedroom and bathroom enough, heard the noises and dogs barking enough to know that nothing was happening. We were no longer scared by horror films.*

• White Noise
• Wrong Turn 2
• Pernicious
• Insidious 3
• Eden Lake
• Hostel  trilogy
• The Devil’s Rejects
• Would you rather?
• Hocus Pocus
• Halloween
• Nightmare on Elm Street (original)