*Quick Note: I am currently putting together a charity horror comic anthology from different writers and artists where all proceeds after printing and shipping costs will go to immigrant and LGBTQIA+ rights organizations. It's called Horror, Not Hate and I'm really hoping the campaign starts while Hooptober is still going on. If you have a pod/mag/zine/blog that's interested in horror, politics, social justice, or focused on gay and trans issues or immigrant issues-- and you're interested in this comic fundraiser-- drop me a line so we can do something together. Or if you are just interested in the book whenever the campaign starts, follow me on Instagram or Bluesky for updates.

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I don't re-watch movies anymore.

I used to re-watch movies. I'd memorize lines. I'd chart the musical cues in my head. I'd notice things I missed the first time or first few times around. I'd reevaluate movies that I thought were worth a second chance. I connected to them more.

When Netflix started shipping discs and I could search a database by title to target movies I felt I should watch, things changed. My movie watching mission turned to exploration. See as much as I could. Streaming dramatically intensified things. Apart from showing movies to my son (who's too scared/young for horror), I just don't re-watch movies anymore.

This year fucking sucks. The world is on fire. My country is quickly reinventing itself as a dipshit fascist state. Genocides abound and are being supported by people close to me. And I'm dealing with major health/mobility/pain issues. I need familiarity. I need comfort. I need re-watches.

So unlike previous Hooptobers where I did my damndest to find movies that fit the criteria that I'd never seen before (which was fun and interesting because I'd already had over 1k horror movies under my belt), I am dedicating this year to as many movies I've already seen as possible. Only 1 of the 31 picks is a movie I've never seen before (Dead of Night qualifying for most popular 40s movie I've never seen and a movie from Cinemonster's list I've never seen).

This year is dedicated to revisiting movies I really liked or loved over the years that I've either only seen 1-3 times or haven't seen in 20+ years. I'm also using this Hooptober as a chance to re-evaluate movies that other people love as a consensus way more than I do-- to see if I was just not in the right headspace the last time I tried'em. I DARE YOU to figure out which is which. I'd love to see someone guess in the comments.

One more thing: why are there more than 31 movies on my list? Numbers 1-20 take care of all the requirements except the total number of movies I need to watch. So from 21 on in the list, it's a pool of movies that I will use to fill in the remaining slots-- dependent on my mood, availability, runtime, surroundings, etc.

Happy Hooptober to you all. Let's drown our sorrows in scares and spooks and gore!