You know, I was thinking about missing out on the A to Z Challenge again this year? I couldn’t think of a theme, which was a kind of fatal flaw right there, at least for me. I can’t imagine doing an A to Z Challenge without a theme—though I know that some brave souls do it!
But then I jokingly began to make an alphabetized list of all the horror movies that Alec and I have seen during lockdown. “I’m sure I don’t have an entry for every letter,” I said to Alec (he was sitting across the dinner table from me at the time, assembling a Warhammer miniature, because yes we are nerds like that), “but let’s just see how close I can get.”
I was amazed to find that I had about 5 entries for A. “But of course, A is easy.”
Alec grunted his agreement.
B and C flew by in a blur of titles. D was initially a stumper, but I came up with a couple of entries.
I began to get excited about telling you guys about some of the movies on my list, but I contained my joy. Pitfalls, I knew, lay ahead.
Or actually, did they?
“X is, of course, the stumper here. We surely haven’t watched any… oh wait Xtro. I liked Xtro.”
“Didn’t we also watch something called X-Ray?” Alec wanted to know.
“Yeah. That was no fun. People should be warned about X-Ray. Hospital horror ugh.” But as I spoke, I felt an inward elation.
Fellow A to Zers, there is a destiny about having an entry for X. When you have an entry for X, you’ve generally got pretty much a complete list.
When I finished my initial list, I was missing entries for but two letters, Q and Z. We have since filled those two gaps, Z with something wonderfully fun, and Q with a meh.
As of this moment, my list has 180 entries in it, and I keep remembering more. Plus, I mean, the pandemic is still pandemic-ing on out there, and we’re still watching movies. As almost all the movies we watch in this house are at least arguably horror movies, the list continues to grow.
I may therefore possibly have over 200 movies to tell you about by the time the A to Z actually begins. My idea is to list all of them, and tell you at least a little about each film. Sometimes, what I will be telling you is, “Yep. We definitely watched this. I remember nothing about it.” Sometimes, I may give you sort of tasting notes. “Sleazy. More or less porn in a horror suit. Oaky. Hint of lemon. Would not watch again.” I am not going to go into detail about every movie, because that would take too long (though when I have a lot to say about a particular film, I will say it).
And sometimes, my comments may end up being more about me and the pandemic and my year and stuff than about the movie I am nominally discussing. I’m really attempting to just give you my experiential notes here, to say what I remember thinking and feeling about each film. So there may end up being a lot of me in this. I don’t know.
How I Found Out About These Movies
Some of these movies I just sort of knew about. However, this list would not be the glorious, gigantic, subtly monstrous, dripping thing that it is without three YouTube channels and one book. The YouTube channels are:
Red Letter Media’s Best of the Worst
And the book is Nightmare Movies by Kim Newman. The 1988 version. I have just learned that he put out several updates to his book, and the latest one came out in 2011. I am gonna read that one now, but, I mean, in terms of this list, the 1988 version is the critical one here.
Name That Movie
And now! A challenge for the reader! The image below is from one of the movies I will be talking about for “A.” Can you identify it? Name it in the Comments below, or tune in on April 1st for the answer!
YYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Hi Melanie
Was looking for you. Glad you found a theme you’ll enjoy
YAYAYAYAYAYYAY
Hey Stuart! Thanks! 🙂 I am really excited to be doing this again, this year. And I sure hope I enjoy it! Still playing around with the format for the posts, but (and this is very unusual for me) I have actually started writing some of them. And every time I remember that I have an opinion about one of the movies on my list, I make a note.
Well, Let Loose The April 1st!!
🙂
So happy to hear from you! Truth be known, I have never seen that image before, but it makes me want to guess. “A Nightmare on Sesame Street” starring Guy Smiley as the Puppet Master Pianist. I’m close, right? Lol!
Ha ha, well I see what you mean. 🙂
My theme is horror movies new to me. Looking forward to your lists!
Hello Katherine! I am looking forward to your posts, too! It will be at least 10% more fun to do this A to Z now that I know about your site. If that makes sense. Every day, the tantalizing possibility will exist that we are covering the same movie. And that will be neat.
Do you happen to know if there are any other horror movie-themed A to Zs out there? If so, perhaps we could form some sort of list-thing.
My goodness! How is it that I missed you rTheme Reveal??????
But I’m so happy you are in teh challenge again 🙂
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter – The Great War
Ha! I think it was actually pretty easy to miss my Theme Reveal, because I missed the window to put my Theme Reveal on the Theme Reveal List. As always, I am running late. I don’t even think I’ve left a comment on your Theme Reveal yet, which is silly of me, because I did read it, and it sounds neat. WWI and its influence on society, if I am stating the premise correctly. That will be interesting. 🙂
I’m so happy you’re back with the Challenge this year…
But Horror Movies??? Nooooooooo!!!
Oh well, you said there would be lots of you in the posts, so I look forward to that! lol
Black and White: A for Atlantis
And look! My comments seem to be working again this year! That is joy sufficient to counteract even your dark and disturbing topic. 😉
Um. About the whole “my comments seem to be working” thing. I… don’t even know how to break this to you, but… the link you included in your comment, which reads “Black and White: A for Atlantis” leads me, when I click on it, to a “page not found” error on my site. This may be some problem on my end. What happens when you click on it?
Hey Anne! 🙂 Yes, I know. One of the first thoughts I had, after deciding on my theme, was that you were not going to like it. This is really true. But… I mean, I’ve watched a lot of horror movies this year, and it seems, somehow, like listing them all will be a fitting memoriam for this odd period of our lives.
Anyway, I won’t assume that you hate me if you choose not to slog through this one! Promise! And I will still visit your A to Z.