Wherefore Hooptober?

OK, I'll bite, what's a Hooptober?

It's an annual celebration of horror movies that takes the form of a film-watching "challenge" on Letterboxd, a social media site for cinephiles that provides an easy way to keep track of movies we've seen and make lists of ones we'd like to see.

Participants build a list of 31 films based on a list of criteria focusing on specific filmmakers, eras, countries, subgenres, and themes. Between Sept. 15 and Oct. 31, everyone tries to watch ALL the films on their lists, writing a short review for each.

The idea is to sample the horror genre in all its different varieties, discovering new favorites on your own while also keeping an eye out for hidden gems on other people's lists.

Why is it called that?

Hooptober is named in honor of Tobe Hooper, the Austin-born director of such films as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist, and Lifeforce. He was one of the early independent filmmakers who helped kick-start a new wave of '70s horror films that directly tied into the fears and anxieties of the era, taking the genre into directions that are still being explored today.

The challenge has since grown into a tribute to other horror greats, and often includes in memoriam categories for filmmakers or actors who have passed since the previous year. The one uniting factor for every Hooptober is the presence of at least one Tobe Hooper film.

Who came up with it?

It's the brainchild of Letterboxd user and Austin, TX film programmer Cinemonster, who thought it up as a way to add a little extra fun to his yearly "scary movie" viewing during the Halloween season.

Cinemonster publishes a new challenge list every year (on Aug. 26th, the anniversary of Tobe Hooper's passing) that contains both the new criteria as well as his own watch list. Here is the one for this year: The Twelfth of Hooptober: Diary of a Madman

So what's this blog about?

I'll be using this as a space to share all of my reviews for Hooptober 12, including my full list of titles for this year. Click below to check it out!

Film list: HOOPTOBER XII: Creepier By The Dozen, or: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Zwölf?

Although I'll be posting reviews directly to my Letterboxd account (AtomicPwrdRobot) as always, I thought it would be nice to create a separate "home base" for my Hooptober reviews that presents them in a way that is easier to access as a whole.

I'm also attempting to move away from Facebook as a venue for my personal writing for a variety of reasons, and thought that Leaflet (built on the same protocol as Bluesky) might be worth trying out.