Average rating: 62.6%

My fifth Hooptober promises to be an exciting one - if I can manage to fit it around moving house, which is scarier than any horror movie. I'm also constructing this list while awaiting the results of a COVID test and wondering how I made it through Hooptober 7 and Hooptober 8 and all the way to Hooptober 9 without this whole business going away. Personally, I've never needed an excuse to stay locked up indoors watching movies, but more's the impetus, less is the stigma. [Update: I'm fine.]

I would like to make it known that I have made my list scientifically accurate: I have avoided the temptation of using spiders or centipedes for the "insect-centered" requirement. Although I'm sure that either animal would fulfill the spirit of the criterion, I choose to be technical.

Cinemonster's master list is here for anyone interested.

EDIT: As perhaps I should have expected, the bizarre video project Tashkent Tram-Shark Attack is not really what I'm looking for in a horror film. I'm not sure that it fully satisfies either of those two descriptors. I decided to substitute Martin, which I'd been meaning to watch for a while anyway.

I finished this Hooptober around 1 am on October 30, cutting it a little closer than I would have preferred but nonetheless wrapping it up safely.

6 countries:
India: Phoonk
Canada: Rabid
Germany: The Student of Prague
Italy: The Whip and the Body, The Day of the Beast, What Have You Done to Solange?
France: The Whip and the Body, Achoura
UK: Horror Express
Spain: Horror Express, Monster Dog, The Day of the Beast, Valley of the Dead
Japan: Vampire Hunter D, The Complex
Mexico: The Bees, Tigers Are Not Afraid
Tunisia: Dachra
Indonesia: Ritual
Morocco: Achoura
South Korea: Whispering Corridors 4: Voice
Brazil: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
USA: Umma, Mad God, The Funhouse, Carrie, The Amityville Curse, Flesh Feast, The Giant Spider Invasion, The House of the Devil, Death Curse of Tartu, The Night of Bloody Horror, Eyes of Fire, The Phantom of the Opera, Martin

8 decades:
1910s: The Student of Prague
1920s: The Phantom of the Opera
1960s: The Whip and the Body, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, Death Curse of Tartu, The Night of Bloody Horror
1970s: Flesh Feast, Horror Express, What Have You Done to Solange?, The Giant Spider Invasion, The Bees, Martin, Rabid
1980s: The Funhouse, Eyes of Fire, Vampire Hunter D, Monster Dog
1990s: The Amityville Curse, The Day of the Beast
2000s: Whispering Corridors 4: Voice, Phoonk, The House of the Devil
2010s: Ritual, The Complex, Carrie, Tigers Are Not Afraid, Dachra, Achoura
2020s: Valley of the Dead, Mad God, Umma

2 insect-centered films:
Flesh Feast
The Bees

1 horror film set in space or the future (relative to when it was released):
Vampire Hunter D

2 animated films:
Mad God
Vampire Hunter D

1 bloodthirsty old person/people film:
Horror Express
Vampire Hunter D

2 1970s regional US films:
Flesh Feast
The Giant Spider Invasion

The worst horror sequel from the 1990s that you haven't seen and can access:
The Amityville Curse

1 German silent:
The Student of Prague

5 films from David Cronenberg, Ti West, Bill Rebane, Charles B. Pierce, William Grefé and/or Joy N. Houck Jr.:
Rabid (Cronenberg)
The House of the Devil (West)
The Giant Spider Invasion (Rebane)
Death Curse of Tartu (Grefé)
The Night of Bloody Horror (Houck)

2 Christopher Lee films:
The Whip and the Body
Horror Express

1 film with a musician or band in it:
Monster Dog (Alice Cooper)

1 Stephen King adaptation that is not the first go-around:
Carrie (2013)

1 Lon Chaney (Sr.) film:
The Phantom of the Opera

1 Tobe Hooper film:
The Funhouse