Hooptober Origins: Spring Training

Over the last four years, I've participated in Cinemonster's annual Hooptober challenge, watching 31 horror movies (plus a bonus film or three) every September-October. I came in on Hooptober Cinco, which means that I missed the first four years.

In the spirit of completionism I have decided to try finishing one of the previous Hooptobers as a "spring training" exercise roughly six months before the big show begins in the fall. If this goes well I might make it a yearly thing until I'm fully "caught up."

I'm starting with the first Hooptober from 2014; It has the lightest requirements, but still has a few specific guidelines to follow. Here's the original list: https://boxd.it/gcAe

My plan is to start watching on the Ides of March and continue through April 30th. It'll give me the same amount of time as normal Hooptober, and should work with my busy schedule. I'm also going to integrate this slightly with my other challenge lists for the 2022 Cult Movie Challenge and Podcast Macabre's 2022 Horror Challenge. I'm starting the latter challenge a couple of months late, so this will hopefully help me catch up a little bit before it gets too late in the year.

I'm also using this as an opportunity to rewatch the entire Scream franchise in full now that Scream '22 is out on streaming.

(below are the rules, copy-pasted from the link above)

QUICK EASY RULES:

-there must be 31 horror films ✅ -have to have at least one film from 5 different decades. ✅ -have at least 5 films from one director OR 3 from 2 directors. ✅ <em>(My note: I have chosen 3 films each from Mario Bava and Brian De Palma)</em> -have films from at least 4 countries. ✅ -review them all.

<em>[My note: Although a Tobe Hooper movie was not yet a hard-and-fast requirement for the first challenge, I have included one because otherwise it's not a Hooptober, is it?]</em>