It's the Time of the Season...

...for you-know-who! That's right, it's her, the almighty SHOCKtobra has risen from the depths to bring us all...uh, you know. SHOCKtober!

Y'all answered the clarion call and all month we are going to be counting down the hits, aka your favorite horror movies. There are a shitton of them! 816 to be exact. I didn't even know I could count that high.

This is the fourth time I'm running this little exercise and every time I'm, well, shocked to see how many films I ain't never heard of. I mean, I have a blog, you know. A horror blog. And there are times I feel like I've seen everything there is to see that was born before...mmm, let's say 2020. And then here you guys go, schooling the crap out of me with your faves. I love it.

Now then, the usual caveats: There could well be errors in this list. I don't think there are, but maybe there's some alternate title I missed or something. If that's the case, be gentle! We should all count ourselves fortunate that I can manage this thing at all, really. This is only the second time I've done this using a spreadsheet! The first two iterations found me writing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of titles in a fucking spiral notebook and somehow keeping track, like what?? Madness. I have no idea what I was thinking. Or not thinking, I guess. The point is joining the computer age has made it easier but my eyes do still fall out of my head from time to time, so forgive me if I screwed it up somewhere. 

Anyway, they're listed mostly--but not exclusively--alphabetically in order of votes received. So yeah, film #816 and film...I don't know, #600 each received the same number of votes and should technically be tied, but a huge list is more fun. 

So! Let's get this thing going and begin the month-long journey counting down to this year's most favoritest movie. I wonder who will wear the crown?? (I actually already know, mua ha ha.)

Each of the following films received one vote each: 

816. Zombies of Mora Tau -- 1957, Edward L. Cahn

815. Zodiac -- 2007, David Fincher 

814. Young Blondes, Stalked and Murdered -- 2024, Nick Funess 

813. You Won't Be Alone -- 2022, Goran Stolevski 

812. YellowBrickRoad -- 2010, Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton 

811. Wolf Creek -- 2005, Greg McLean 

810. Wolf -- 1994, Mike Nichols 

809. Winterbeast -- 1992, Christopher Thies 

808. Willow Creek -- 2013, Bobcat Goldthwait 

807. Willard -- 2003, Glen Morgan 

806. Whistle and I'll Come to You -- 1968, Jonathan Miller 

805. When Evil Lurks (aka Cuando achecha la maldad)-- 2023, Demián Rugna 

804. Werewolf of London -- 1935, Stuart Walker 

803. We're All Going to the World's Fair -- 2021, Jane Schoenbrun 

802. Waxwork -- 1988, Anthony Hickox 

801. Warlock -- 1989, Steve Miner 

800. Vertigo -- 1958, Alfred Hitchcock 

799. Verónica -- 2017, Paco Plaza 

798. Vampire -- 1979, E.W. Swackhamer 

797. Unsane -- 2018, Steven Soderbergh 

796. Uninvited -- 1988, Greydon Clark 

795. Underwater -- 2020, William Eubank 

794. Uncle Was a Vampire (aka Tempi duri per i vampiri) -- 1959, Steno 

793. B'Twixt Now and Sunrise -- 2022, Francis Ford Coppola 

792. Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness -- 1986, Tim Ritter and Yale Wilson 

791. Trouble Every Day -- 2001, Claire Denis 

790. Trilogy of Terror -- 1975, Dan Curtis 

789. Tragedy Girls -- 2017, Tyler MacIntyre

• Speaking of movies I ain't never heard of, this 1979 made-for-TV Vampire; Look at that cast! Not listed: Joe Spinell! And Barrie Youngfellow of television's It's a Living! Boy, I tells ya. 1979 was quite a year for vampires, eh? Made-for-TV, theatrical, romantic and handsome, gross and gross...pretty much whatever flavor you wanted you could find. What a time.
• Did I know that Mike Nichols directed Wolf? Huh.
• A reader who submitted Warlock: "I started a Warlock fan club in the 6th grade." I love to see that it's still going strong.
• I am always surprised when I see (or remember) that Uninvited, the cat-on-a-cruise-ship George Kennedy movie, came out in 1988. I feel like it should be older than that, although maybe that's just me thinking about that cats-in-an-anthology Peter Cushing movie The Uncanny, which was released in 1977. That's not an interesting story, I am just saying.
• A reader who submitted Underwater: "It is dumb, but it is entertaining, except for T.J. Miller's 'Paul' who is annoying. Kristen Stewart is really good at this kind of quiet, subdued emotionally intense performance." Agreed!