October Challenge Post Mortem

I finished the October Challenge right before going on vacation this year. My vacation consisted of watching more horror movies with distant friends, far away from a computer. I'll get to the stuff I didn't write about during October in the next few days, but I thought I'd include a short post mortem.

I finished the Challenge having watched 37 movies that I had never seen before, a new personal best. Since I'm only counting first-time viewings, that'll have to stand as my bench mark. I did actually watch more than that. Some of the repeat viewings include:

Forbidden Planet
Kiss of the Vampire
From Beyond
Poltergeist

I've written about all of these before, so I don't see the need this month. The stuff that does count that I still need to review:

Stay
Dead Set
Ink
Solomon Kane
Human Lanterns
Sauna
maybe The Walking Dead if I decide it counts. Right now, it doesn't. I'll end up writing about it either way.

The best thing I saw this month was Dead Set, which does so many things I hate that I'm completely shocked at how much I liked it. It might be my favorite zombie thing of the last 20 years, maybe since the original Dawn of the Dead. I was similarly surprised by Frozen, which I've already reviewed.

The process has also demonstrated both the utility and drawbacks of Netflix's instant watch feature. Most of the stuff Netflix has for instant watch is the sort of stuff that used to populate the back-shelves of video stores, unloved and unwatched. I'm happy to see this stuff get a new lease on life, but, well, to be charitable, there's a reason this stuff was unloved. Still, there have been some minor gems lurking there.

And so it goes. I doubt I'll better this year's final tally next year, but that's the nature of a challenge, isn't it?

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Final Challenge tally:

Total Viewings: 37

First Time Viewings: 37