Mission Statement

A little over a month ago, I was at work and flipping around through my facebook when a friend of mine posted a link saying a comedian he liked (whose name I forget.  I could look it up, but I'm lazy) had apparently set some sort of world record for watching 501 movies in 501 days.  What was interesting about that to me was the sudden thought that I felt I could beat that given proper motivation and discipline.

I mentioned it to a co-worker and he basically said "So do it."

I looked around through various online lists of films and started theorizing about how I would approach such a task, and ultimately realized that 1) I could easily beat 501 movies, and do it in probably less than 501 days and 2) I wouldn't want to just do any movies, I would definitely want to do horror flicks since they've been my favorite thing for over twenty years.

So I'm going to do it.  The general plan is simple: watch as many horror movies between September 1st, 2015 and September 1st, 2016 as I possibly can.  At minimum, I would watch at least ten movies a week, ensuring at least 520 films in a calendar year.  My cautiously optimistic plan, however, is to try and hit 600.  I think I can do it.

I realize I probably won't really set any records.  There's a good chance nobody will care whatsoever about my watching 600 horror films in a year.  I also realize that this blog may not reach more than, like, five people, so I'm not really walking into this with stars in my eyes and dreams of some sort of fame.  I suppose it COULD happen, and that'd be nice, but in the end this is more for my own edification than anything.  I could use some focus outside of my career, I could use the direction to actually do some writing, and I could use the self-esteem boost of knowing that I did it, even if nobody ever notices.  So, I'm going for it.

Of course, there needs to be some rules and codes of conduct to all of this or it's just some guy watching horror movies...which is a pretty good summation of my regular life.  So, here are the rules and some things you can expect from reading this.

1) The general idea is this: I watch a film.  I take a picture of the film box and post it here.  I write about the movie in real time as it runs.  I post the blog when the film is over.  I repeat this process for every film I do.  I'll be trying to be vigilant about my writing but,because it is being written in real time there might be occasions where the finished product isn't as polished as I'd like.  I will, however, always be careful about writing well (since I'm an English Major and not doing so would drive me insane) so I dn't hav alot of type-o's or mispelings.  I have no plans for maintaining a "one a day" idea.  I don't want the whole thing derailed by me being called into work and being unable to watch a movie one day, so the plan is to stick to at least ten films a week minimum, even if all ten are watched over two days.

2) All films will be watched either at home, or in a movie theater.  No watching at work, on a bus, or whatever.  It's a pretty big violation for me to watch movies at work anyway, but I would consider it cheating even if it wasn't.  I'm also pretty sure I signed some waver that said anything I write on the job is property of my employers and I'm not into that at all.  So, it's all done at home.  In the case of theaters, I figured I'd take a photo of the ticket stub instead of the box, and would have to write about it when I returned home.  Obviously, it's pretty illegal for me to be blogging about a movie in the theater...and even if it isn't, it would certainly put me on some sort of FBI watchlist I'm sure.

3) All films are bought and paid for.  No bittorrent, Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Red Box, whatever.  I'll have bought everything, either from a local store or, in some cases, Amazon.  This is more me being anal than anything else, I suppose, but it's also for credibility.

4) I'm not here to hate on anything.  The blog is meant to be a celebration of the genre and not some sort of internet hate-rant.  There are bad movies out there, and I likely will make merry sport of them here with jokes and maybe a few mean-ish insults, but it's always done with love.  That being said, there are some cases where I may end up taking a very aggressive tone, and that usually means a movie has legitimately pissed me off.  I'll try to keep that stuff under control and keep things fun, but I'd be remiss if I didn't put that warning out there.

5) Speaking of content warnings:  I will occasionally use colorful language here on the blog, but I don't consider myself having an excessively filthy mouth.  I try to only swear when it's appropriate to do so, usually for emphasis, but you should be aware that's a thing.  What you won't find it depictions of violence or nudity.  Not that I don't like those things, but I'm not here to post screenshots of every titty shot from every horror movie-mostly because I don't actually know how to DO screenshots-because it's, well, crass.  I'm not saying I won't say something about it when warranted, but you don't have to worry about reading this at work and your boss seeing the naughty nurse's breasts from "Nightmare on Elm Street 3" or anything.

6) Speaking of mentioning breasts...I won't be getting into politics or social issues on this blog unless it's absolutely needed-such as a movie that is specifically talking about those things-because this honestly isn't the place for it.  I want this to be entertaining, so I figure my social views aren't anything you need to be concerned about when reading about horror films.  That being said, the genre does weigh in on a lot of things, and so I'll be discussing race, gender and the like when those happen.  Otherwise, I'll respect you by keeping my views out of your face...if you want to attempt a discussion on these elements with me, I'm willing to engage only in cases of respectful discourse and not, y'know, internet comment rage.

7) I've categorized everything into easy to digest sub-genres.  Obviously, things come up (like a new movie coming out in theaters that doesn't fit the category I'm currently immersed in, for example) and some things don't fit together well, but I'll be sticking to the categories as much as I can.

This has already gone on too long for an introduction.  So, 600 or bust over 52 weeks.  Here are my weapons of choice:

 The Base of Operations (and one of my Minions of Evil)

The Library

 The Library Part Two

I decided not to take a photo of whiskey.  Tomorrow, we get started.  Next, however, I'll set things off with a few words about the legendary Wes Craven.