Ringu1998
Overall7.0
Fear6.8
Atmos7.7
Gore2.0
Community Challenge
Hooptober 13
Our catalog, mapped onto the categories
Hooptober is the October horror challenge Cinemonster has run on Letterboxd since 2014. It is named for Tobe Hooper, on the reasoning that you cannot spell October without t-o-b-e. Hooper died three years later, in 2017, and the challenge has carried a memorial edge ever since. The shape is always the same: 31 horror films between September 15 to October 31, each one satisfying categories drawn from countries, decades, subgenres and specific filmmakers. A single film can tick off several categories at once, which is where the puzzle comes in.
The rules are his. This page is just the part we can help with. We keep a horror catalog where every scored film carries our own numbers for fear, gore, atmosphere and an overall, so when a category sends you looking for a silent film or a novel adaptation or a decade you have not covered yet, we can tell you what is in ours and how it played for us.
Categories from Hooptober 13 on Letterboxd. The rules are Cinemonster’s; the picks are ours.
6 countries
All categoriesSix countries
Eight films from eight countries, each unmistakably of the place it comes from, so you can tick six off without arguing about co-production credits: Japan, South Korea, Spain, Italy, France, Australia, Ireland and Sweden. We hold curator-scored horror from thirty-three countries beyond the US, so there is plenty of room to swap if you have seen these.
9 decades
All categoriesNine decades
Our strongest category. The catalog spans eleven decades, 1920 to 2026, so a full run is possible without leaving it. One pick per decade below, oldest first. The 1920s, 1930s and 1940s entries are catalogued but not yet scored by us, so treat those three as availability rather than as a recommendation with our numbers behind it.
5 sequels
All categoriesFive sequels
Comfortably covered and unusually strong at the top. All six are scored, and every one is a straight sequel rather than a prequel or a reboot, in case your reading of the rule is strict.
1 Steve Miner film.
All categoriesA Steve Miner film
We hold three. The two Friday sequels are scored; Halloween H20 is catalogued but not yet scored by us.
1 meta horror
All categoriesMeta horror
We carry meta as a tone tag, so this is a real filter rather than a guess. Tenebre is the one people tend to forget qualifies.
1 film with 'massacre' in the title
All categories'Massacre' in the title
Two in the catalog, and they are the obvious two. The 1974 original also covers your Tobe Hooper requirement, which is the kind of double-dip this challenge rewards.
1 film with 'devil' in the title
All categories'Devil' in the title
The Devil's Candy, Late Night with the Devil and The Devil Made Me Do It carry it in the title as released. Three more qualify under their English titles: I Saw the Devil, The Devil's Backbone and The Devil's Rejects. Those three are catalogued but not yet scored by us.
2 films that Screaming Mad George worked on.
All categoriesTwo Screaming Mad George films
Taken from Cinemonster's own Screaming Mad George list rather than from our data, since we do not store effects credits. Three of his films are in our catalog, so the pair is covered. Only Predator is scored by us; A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and Society are catalogued but not yet scored.
1 Romero film
All categoriesA Romero film
He wrote, shot, cut and directed Night of the Living Dead, which is the highest-scored film in our catalog. The other three are catalogued but not yet scored by us. Given who this year's list is dedicated to, this is not a category to treat as a box-tick.
1 Black director
All categoriesA film by a Black director
Hand-assembled, not filtered: we hold no demographic data on filmmakers, so this is a short list of films in our catalog whose directors are a matter of public record, not the output of a query. It is not exhaustive. Candyman and His House are catalogued but not yet scored by us.
1 Michael Gough film
All categoriesA Michael Gough film
One film, and we nearly missed it. Sleepy Hollow is the only title in our catalog he appears in, and he is billed ninth in it, one place below the depth our cast data reaches, so he will not show up in the credits on our own page for the film. He is in it: he plays the notary Hardenbrook. We have not scored it, so take this as availability rather than a pick with our numbers behind it. His Hammer and Amicus run is not in our catalog at all, so Cinemonster's list is still the better route if you want range.
1 haunted house/building/room film
All categoriesA haunted house, building or room
One of our best-covered tags, so this is a ranked cut of a much longer list rather than everything we have. All six are scored.
1 film with a character or actor that you had a crush on when you were younger. You have to call out your crush. (Catherine Mary Stewart)
All categoriesThe crush film
Ours to stay out of, and the calling-out is most of the fun. What we can do is help you work backwards. Open any film here and every cast and crew name in the credits is a link to that person's filmography, so once you have your crush in mind you can find which of their films are horror. Cinemonster names Catherine Mary Stewart as his.
1 film that Tom Savini worked on
All categoriesA Tom Savini film
Taken from Cinemonster's own Savini list rather than from our data, since we do not store effects credits. Eight of the films on it are in our catalog; these are six. Friday the 13th and The Final Chapter are scored; the rest are catalogued but not yet scored by us. Note that his acting credits do not count here, which rules out From Dusk Till Dawn.
1 cursed item film
All categoriesA cursed item
Read strictly as a cursed object rather than a cursed person or place, which is the harder and more interesting version of the rule. A tape, a mirror, a whistle, a wind-up monkey.
1 film with LGBTQIA+ character or story
All categoriesLGBTQIA+ character or story
We tag for this including subtext, not just explicit text, on the reasoning that if a queer viewer would pick it up then it is there. Hellraiser and Fright Night are on the list for exactly that reason.
1 baaaad kid film
All categoriesA baaaad kid
Read as the child being the problem, not the child being in peril, which cuts the list down a lot. Kevin is the purest version of it in our catalog.
1 Sam Neill film
All categoriesA Sam Neill film
All five are scored. He died this year and is in Cinemonster's in-memoriam list at the top of the rules, which is presumably why the category exists. In the Mouth of Madness and Possession are the two we would push hardest.
1 inanimate object is alive film
All categoriesAn inanimate object is alive
Three dolls and a car. All four are scored.
1 Horror at sea
All categoriesHorror at sea
Filtered to actual open water rather than anything merely damp, so no lakes and no flooded basements. All seven are scored.
2 Bela Lugosi films.
All categoriesTwo Bela Lugosi films
Exactly two in the catalog, which is exactly what the rule asks for. Both are catalogued but neither is scored by us yet, so this is availability rather than a recommendation. Note that his role in The Wolf Man is a small one.
2 films that Harry Manfredini did the score for.
All categoriesTwo Harry Manfredini scores
All four are Friday the 13th entries and all four are scored, so you can satisfy this and the sequel rule and the Steve Miner rule off the same viewing if you plan it right.
The lowest rated film from the 1980s that you have not seen.
All categoriesYour lowest-rated unseen 1980s film
This one keys off your own Letterboxd history and its ratings, not ours, so we would be answering a different question. Cinemonster links the sorted list in the rules. For what it is worth, the lowest-scored 1980s film in our catalog is Chopping Mall at 5.1.
1 film from 1981 that you haven't seen.
All categoriesA film from 1981
1981 is a deep year and we hold thirteen of them. The first five are scored; My Bloody Valentine is catalogued but not yet scored by us. Possession also covers your Sam Neill requirement.
And 1 Tobe Hooper Film (There must ALWAYS be a Hooper film)
All categoriesA Tobe Hooper film
The rule the whole challenge is built around, since his name is where Hooptober got its own. All three are scored. Texas Chain Saw also covers the 'massacre' rule.
FOR THOSE THAT LIKE TO DO EXTRA WORK: Dead Ant, Shriek of the Mutilated and Night of the Living Doo
All categoriesThe extra credit
None of these are in our catalog, and Night of the Living Doo is a Scooby-Doo short that Cinemonster links straight to YouTube. The swap he offers, Wolf Girl, is not in ours either. Nothing useful we can add.
Hooptober is Cinemonster’s challenge and we are not affiliated with it. If you are running it this year, his list is the authority on the rules. This page exists because we had a scored catalog sitting here and mapping it onto the categories seemed more useful than keeping it to ourselves.
If you are picking one film for the night rather than assembling 31, our ranked Halloween guide is the other half of this.