31-in-31 – An October Tradition

Every October, Helen and I try to watch 31 pieces of horror and Halloween media in 31 days. I stream our picks over Discord too, and while not everyone joins every night, our friend John, who streams as LunarSketch on Twitch, is in for pretty much all of it.

We usually come close. Last year, for the first time, we actually made it. Nothing special changed. We just made the time fit, and on some nights we doubled up to stay on pace.

The rules, such as they are

It isn’t strictly movies. A marathon of The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror episodes counts, and I’ll defend that ruling.

We try to work in movies we’ve never seen alongside the staples we come back to every year.

An early start

This year we technically cheated. Helen had a busy work day coming up on October 1, so we moved our first movie up to September 29: George A. Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead. It premiered in Pittsburgh on October 1, 1968, so the timing felt close enough.

It holds up surprisingly well. The black-and-white photography, the farmhouse under siege, and Duane Jones as Ben still carry the whole thing nearly 60 years later. It’s where the classic zombie comes from, and the starting point for every version since.

And that ending still pulls no punches. I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but it’s as bleak and brutal now as it must have been in 1968.

The staples

At least one of Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead films always makes it in. We love the series.

Toward the end of the month, the first three Halloween films are essential. Yes, all three.

A public service announcement

Every year I post the same warning on Facebook:

It’s that time of year where I have to put out my annual PSA.

If I catch you dissing on Halloween III: Season of the Witch, I will find you - I will give you a strongly worded complaint in print and laminated.

I stand by it. Halloween III has no Michael Myers, and that was the point. John Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted the series to become an anthology, a new Halloween story every year in the spirit of The Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, audiences didn’t want a story about cursed masks powered by a stolen chunk of Stonehenge. They wanted the serial killer in the William Shatner mask back.

I love the Michael Myers movies. But if anything, he cursed the series. It spent decades retelling his story when it could have been anything. That’s on him, not Season of the Witch.

What’s next

Donnie Darko, obviously. October 2 is Donnie Darko Day, the date the jet engine crashes into Donnie’s bedroom.

After that, we’re digging through Grandpa Carl’s recorded movie tapes: The Omen, Scanners, Cronenberg’s The Fly, and Twilight Zone: The Movie. That last one is a fitting follow-up. It’s a 1983 anthology based on Rod Serling’s series, and one of its four directors, Joe Dante, was briefly attached to Halloween III before Tommy Lee Wallace took over.

Between Scanners and The Fly, I’m also slotting in my Criterion copy of Videodrome. That sets us up for a fun and goopy Cronenberg triple feature.

Thirty to go

One down, ahead of schedule. Last year proved we could finish. This year we’ve got a head start, Grandpa Carl’s tapes queued up, a Cronenberg triple feature on deck, and a laminator warmed up for anyone who comes for Season of the Witch.