100 Horror Movies in October: Update One

We're almost halfway through spooky month (although let's be honest it's 2020 so it's spooky year *laughs then cries*).

I have seen many posts about the '31 days of horror' challenge which is fun but a few years ago I found what was basically that challenge on steroids: watch 100 horror movies in October. I've tried and failed several times before but now I know there's a horror community here on Vocal I thought I would document my failings for this year, and review the best and worst.

I can't find recent updates from anyone doing it, probably because it's insane, but the rules that I can remember were:

- For a film to count it must have 'horror' listed as one of its genres on IMDb.

- No shorts, each film must be at least 60 minutes in length.

- You have 5 wildcards to use to count a non-horror film towards your total.

You will see that I have bent these rules rather a lot! So here is what I've been watching, and where I've watched them in the UK in case you fancy them:

1st October:

• Schemers (2019, IMDb genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama/History). Kicking off as we mean to go on by using my first wildcard straight away! Watched at the cinema.
• Black Death (2010, IMDb genre: Action/Drama/History/Horror/Mystery). This is of course the perfect climate in which to watch a movie about the plague. Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 2

2nd October:

• The Haunting on Dice Road: The Hell House (2016, IMDb genre: Documentary). I'm cheating and counting this without using a wildcard because it's a documentary about a cursed house. Watched on Amazon Prime.
• It Watches (2016, IMDb genre: Thriller). I'm cheating again and counting this one too. There's a lot of crossover with horror and thriller anyway, and this had quite a bit of gore so I'm counting it. Watched on Amazon Prime.
• The Other Side of the Door (2016, IMDb genre: Horror). I don't have to cheat on this one! Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 5

3rd October:

• Paranormal Activity 2 (2010, IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery). Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 6

4th October:

• Paranormal Activity 3 (2011, IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery). Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 7

5th October:

• Paranormal Activity 4 (2012, IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery). Watched on Netflix.
• Saint Maud (2019, IMDb genre: Drama/Horror/Mystery). My glowing review for this is also on here. Watched at the cinema.
• Current total: 9

6th October:

• Vampire Academy (2014, IMDb genre: Action/Comedy/Drama/Fantasy/Horror/Mystery/Thriller). This might be teeny trash but it's teeny trash with vampires and I love it, and horror is listed on its laundry list of genres so it counts. Watched on Netflix.
• Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015, IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery). Watched on Netflix.
• Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014, IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery). Watched on Amazon Prime, but you have to rent or buy.
• The Tunnel (2011, IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller). Watched on Amazon Prime.
• Current total: 13

7th October:

• American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020, IMDb genre: Documentary/Crime). Second wildcard used for this, it's not horror but it is interesting. Watched on Netflix.
• The Hunt (2020, IMDb genre: Action/Horror/Thriller). Watched on Amazon Prime, but you have to rent or buy.
• The Final Wish (2018, IMDb genre: Horror). Watched on Amazon Prime, but you have to rent or buy.
• Current total: 16

8th October:

• Storage 24 (2012, IMDb genre: Action/Horror/Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller). Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 17

9th October:

• The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020 IMDb genre: Drama/Horror/Mystery/Thriller). This is cheating because it's TV but I adored The Haunting of Hill House, and pretty much everything Mike Flanagan touches, so I couldn't not watch it so I'm counting it. I will add it to the total on the day I finished it. Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 17

10th October:

• The Haunting of Bly Manor again.
• Current total: 17

11th October:

• Completed The Haunting of Bly Manor. I decided to take the total running time and divide it by 90 minutes as that's an average film runtime. So 494 minutes divided by 90 = 5.48 rounded down to 5 films.
• The First Purge (2018, IMDb genre: Action/Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller). Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 23

12th October:

• Overlord (2018, IMDb genre: Action/Adventure/Horror/Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller). Watched on Netflix.
• Current total: 24

13th October:

• American Horror Story: 1984 (2019, IMDb genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller). I'm cheating again with a TV show, you can see that I am excellent at this challenge! I've been waiting a year though and it hasn't appeared on Netflix but I noticed you can buy it on Amazon Prime so I decided to go for it. We did actually watch the entire thing in a day so total running time 375 minutes divided by 90 = 4.16 rounded down to 4 films.
• Current total: 28

So that's 28 total so far and three remaining wildcards. Not bad, but probably not where I should be to watch 100. There will be another one or two updates depending on how many I watch for the remainder of the month.

Now I'll do a quick review of the best and worst so far so minor spoilers for The Haunting of Bly Manor & The Tunnel after this photo:

The Best: The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

I've seen a lot of negative reviews for this one so I needed to throw my positive one in the ring. As long as you can get past the fact that it's not as scary as The Haunting of Hill House (but my heart probably couldn't take another Bent-Neck Lady anyway!), and that some of the British accents are just plain bad, I think you'll love it. Plenty has been added so that it's hardly The Turn of the Screw anymore but at its core it is a heart-breaking, beautiful, love story. The ghosts just add some flavour. It isn't perfect; episode eight is a bit of a hot mess, and Uncle Henry's storyline doesn't entirely make sense. Also it's not a criticism of the show but T'Nia Miller's Hannah Grose deserved so much better. The acting is excellent, and the house is a character in its own right once again. I would give it a solid 8/10, and if you don't like it your punishment is to drink a pot of Dani's tea!

The Worst: The Tunnel (2011)

Admittedly when I watched this it was after all the Paranormal Activity movies so part of the reason I wasn't a fan may have been found footage fatigue. It isn't particularly scary, other than an interesting scene where the sound recordist can hear things the others cannot. There is only one sensible, appealing character and he doesn't make it to the end so you don't care about the people telling you the story so the whole thing feels a bit pointless. I would only give this a 3/10.

Thanks for reading, please look out for my updates on this insane challenge.