Not fishing for sympathy, friends, but the year since the previous Hoop-tober has been an unusually rough one for my household, punctuated by a series of illnesses and deaths that kept creeping closer and closer to home. Although my absolute favorite season is upon us, I sincerely struggled with whether to participate in the annual challenge I've anticipated since last November. Bottom line, I hate to commit to things if I can't guarantee I'll finish them.

But, life being short and full of awful shit, it's important to spend our time on what brings us joy. At this point in my life, that includes watching and writing about horror movies. I've already got some scheduling help this season, as I'm going to both of Chicago's 24-hour horror movie marathons, The Massacre and The Music Box of Horrors. I also intentionally chose some that are barely borderline "horror," for variety's sake and to further dent my unmanageable queues.

Here is a trailer reel (aka a YouTube playlist of as many real or fan trailers as I could find)! Switch to LIST view if you're curious about my breakdown of the 31 titles.

Having scanned some of the great watchlists people already posted (we're all doing Pin, aren't we?), I predict this will be a particularly great Hoop-tober. Many thanks to Cinemonster for another fun set of rules and for keeping the tradition running strong!