Well we have passed the threshold of one week to go! This is the last Saturday for a month that we won't spend cramming as much horror into our eyeholes as humanly possible. And I am having a blast already, staying up late to bang out these posts and watching the contributor pool continue to grow. Between the Recommendations contest and my Killdozer review (only 3 more 2010 reviews to go!), we've seen both my sister and Cal of Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness show up. Welcome, welcome!Today's contest is all about themes, or roundups, or whatever you call the groups of similar movies that form either by accident or design in your Horrorthon lineup of any given year. For instance you might say "By gum! This year I plan to partake of several Mad Hillbilly movies," or perhaps you'll say "Say, how about another Seventies Animals Attack movie, my dear?"
Unless they feel like it, I don't want anyone to reveal any plans they have in the works for next month (I mean next week! Hee hee hee!), because surprising your fellow 'thonners with an emerging theme can be part of the fun. This discussion is actually intended to be pretty loose: bring up themes you've done in the past, themes you chip away at every year, themes you think you'd like someone else to tackle. If you don't really work with this kind of guideline, talk about horror subgenres that you either like or avoid.
The Sub-Themes, or maybe Sub-Sub-Themes, are less thematic and more about various horriffic occurances that happen in at least two different movies [edit: or, if the sub-theme is awesome enough, like "not only did I create this evil invention which might destroy the world, but I also fucked it," it can be just one movie]. I've done posts in the past about some of my favorites, but as an example I'll throw out a work-in-progress.
Sub-theme: Movies in which a topless woman is impaled on a pair of antlers mounted on the wall.
I'm calling this a WIP because I'm only mostly sure I'm right about either of them and I don't feel like watching either the Lost Boys sequel or the Friday the 13th remake again. Any help, gang?
As I just did there, if you have a bizarre sub-theme to list, it's good to mention the flicks on the list. (Stage whisper: Watch out for major spoilers!)
Okay, a few rules:
[Edit] Never mind! The discussion is unfolding perfectly without any rules. [End edit]
How about it, gang? You game?
(Stage whisper) Horrorthon....!
16 comments:
i plan to continue my personal quest to catch up on missed horror classics as well as horrible misfires. had considered watching all the alien, predator, and alien vs predator movies, but that just sounds like work, doesn't it?
hthon!
I often think I'm going to have a theme - zombie movies, for example - but more often then not I just end up picking things that sound interesting. I like to try to find movies that no one has reviewed before - a challenge to be sure! But I have also put a bunch in my queue from everyone's recommendations. Part of me hesitates since it means writing a review when others' have already been done, but at least I can employ the Whirly/JSP plot piggyback technique!
Squeee! Horrorthon!
I'm on a quest for the obscure. I know I've dug up some mighty obscure films the past few years, but most of those were found accidentally. This year I'm really digging, on a treasure hunt for those hidden gems.
We've already covered Evil Children, but on a broader note, I'm always interested in the ever popular, "Science Done Gone Crazy and Messed It Up for Everybody" trope of horror. Some metaphorical or literal evil child of over reaching scientists gets outta control, and mayhem ensues. Last year Splice fit right into that category. So I'm interested in that kinda stuff, and the polar and much appreciated opposite of that kinda stuff, in which scientists are actually the heroes (see Contagion for a great example).
A sub theme might be: not only did I create this evil invention which might destroy the world, but I also fucked it. (See Splice.)
A sub sub theme might be: And where do pharmaceutical companies fit into the evil plot? (See Splice and Contagion.)
I don't normally go into the contest with a strategy in mind, but somehow a theme eventually emerges. For example, as I look at past years I see that one year I tackled J-Horror and last year I ended up covering a number of 70s msde-for-TV movies. Every year I make it a mission to catch up on any new movies that came out over the past 12 months. I don't have a theme picked out this year although there is one area I'm thinking of tackling (stay tunes).
One of Octo's friends once remarked to him, "Won't you run out of movies to watch?" Silly mortal. If I've learned anything from looking over everyone's lists over the past 6 years I realize that I've barely seen anything.
Horrorthon!
This year I'm focusing on evil clowns. The sad thing is from what I've gathered there really isn't a "definitive" evil clown movie out there. I'm determined to find a good one though.
Incidentally I added 6 new killers to the banner. Can you spot them?
All I know Sweatpants, is I better see some Killer Klowns from Outter Space action from you! I know it will prompt a hilarious review.
I did the non-Anime animated horror thing last year. It was pretty disappointing as a whole, although, the good ones were especially good. I would like to see someone besides Handsome Stan & myself tackle some serious Troma flicks.
i'm toying with the idea of at least a few one-sentence reviews, particularly for oft-reviewed or well-known entries. would this in any way be contrary to the spirit of horrorthon?
This from the wife of the man who submitted haiku reviews?
I'd say no, absolutely not. All of our restructuring and cheerleading is meant to be about inclusion and not pressure; I want people to join in because it's fun and easy. Shorter reviews seem like a natural by-product of our new deadline; if I've got a slew of unwritten stuff in the last few days, I'm going to get them out there in SOME form.
Also, generally if you write a sentence it will lead to a few more anyway.
I was at 50P's until late last night and I was literally nodding off while I put the last few touches on this post, which is why I forgot to start off the comments. Thanks to everyone for jumping in. And now...
My favorite ongoing themes are:
Crawling Hand movies, because what's more useless than a crawling hand? (Maybe a crawling hand/Killdozer teamup?)
Giant Monster movies, because even when I'm not in the mood for heavy horror, I can always watch a giant monster stomping around doing his thing. This includes, but is not limitied to, Japanese kaiju movies.
My favorite ongoing sub-theme is movies whose titles end with exclamation points, like Them!, And Now the Screaming Starts! Leeches!, etc.
I'm studying the banner and I notice:
The girl from The Bad Seed
Gingerdead Man
It's Alive
A witch from Suspiria
A puppet from Puppetmaster
A piraña
Nice work, JSP! You're running out of room!
Was Tom Savini always in there? Is one of the Descent critters next to Herbert West?
I always think about your exclamation point trend, Octo. It makes me laugh every time.
Oops, that was me, not Julie.
I found my post called "Horrorthon Fun Stats" from five years ago, which is the historical underpinning to my whole sub-theme thing. I only listed the numbers and not the movies.
Here were my observations from 2004:
People getting caught in bear-claw traps: 4
People killed by being stabbed with the horn on a statue of a unicorn's head: 2
Here's a bunch more from 2006:
People getting caught in bear-claw traps: 3
Hero escaping but losing a couple of fingers: 2
Victims about to be devoured defiantly wishing their remains to cause gastric distress: 2
People using windshield wipers to wipe off blood: 3
Incidents in which people look to their car to escape but it's suddenly and inexplicably surrounded by monsters: 2
Chainsaws turning on their masters: 4
Times that, even though I was looking at a pile of bloody corpses, some guy in my head said "hey...boobs:" 2
i've done five subgenres in my time here at horrorthon
-holidays
-serial killers
-animals gone bad
-vampires
-anthologies
i've always wanted to tackle satanic horror films. i might do it this year, but i've got an unwritten promise to myself to watch two movies i watched last year but didn't review, neither of which are satanic flicks.
Here's a list I started of horror genres. I'd like to make a complete list that would cover any and every horror movie out there. (Most obviously fall into multiple categories.)
Classic Monsters
1) Frankenstein
2) Wolf Man
3) The Mummy
4) Dracula
5) Invisible Man
Zombies
1) Romero zombies
2) running zombies
3) comedy zombie
4) old school “slave” zombies
Slasher
1) traditional 80’s slasher
2) mad hillbillies
3) killer dolls
4) Evil clown
Serial killer
Anthologies
Monster movies
Supernatural
1) Paranormal
2) Japanese ghost
3) Satanic/pagan cult
4) The Devil
Torture porn
Found footage
Predicament
Wild animals
Evil children
Sci-fi horror
1) mad scientist
2) aliens
3) Skin graft
Witches
Italian horror
Comedy
1) Blaxploitation
2) Parody/homage
3) Troma
Stephen King
HP Lovekraft
Alfred Hitchcock
Icon vs. Icon
Virus
Loss of sanity
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