I only joined Cinemonster's annual Hooptober challenge here on Letterboxd starting with the 9th iteration (but I was only officially listed in the roster starting with the 10th). I've enjoyed the scavenger hunting aspect of it and since I'm already actively searching for obscure or otherwise interesting horror films year-round, I've decided to do the time warp and retrospectively meet the criteria of Hooptobers 1 through 8 as much as I can.

For this project:
1. To ensure that most films in this list are first-time watches, I will start the count for films I've watched from November 1, 2024 onwards.
2. I will exclude the Tobe Hooper film requirement to reserve the remaining films of his that I haven't seen yet for future Hooptober installments.
3. There will certainly be more than 31 films in this list but I will not be doing 31 films for each of the 8 Hooptobers I've missed.
4. I will be including the EXTRA WORK / EXTRA CREDIT films that I haven't seen from Hooptober Neun and Hooptober X.
5. The "countries" requirement will be at the maximum of 6 based on the past 8 Hooptobers. The "decades" requirement will be at the maximum of 8 which started with Hooptober Ocho.
6. The "x" number of films from before 1970 requirement from Hooptober 3.0, 4.0 and Cinco will be set at the maximum of 6. The 6 films from before 1966 requirement from Hooptober 666 will be retained separately.
7. Remaining criteria will be maintained as much as possible, while allowing for possible overlaps across the past 8 Hooptobers.

FINAL CRITERIA
Across all or several Hooptobers:
● 6 countries
● 8 decades
● 6 films from before 1970

Hooptober (2014)
● 5 films from 1 director OR 3 from 2 directors

Hooptober 2.0 (2015)
● 5 franchises (2 films from 2 franchises)
● 5 slasher films
● 5 monster movies

Hooptober 3.0 (2016)
● 7 films from franchises (mix-and-match, or the same 7 total)
● 5 films from the following: Bava, Argento, Lenzi, Fulci, Henenlotter, Romero, Stuart Gordon (mix-and-match, or all one)
● 3 crazy animal movies
● 1 silent film
● 1 original film and its remake
● 1 Classic Universal horror
● 1 Stephen King adaptation (in tribute to Stranger Things)
● 1 film with a witch/witchcraft that is not The Witch (2015)

Hooptober 4.0 (2017)
● 6 films from the following: Carpenter, Raimi, Whale, Browning, Craven, Tom Holland (mix-and-match, or all one)
● 3 people eating people (non-zombie)
● 1 Hammer film
● 1 Romero Dead film
● 1 terrible oversight (the highest-rated unseen film in the link)

Hooptober Cinco (2018)
● 10 "Anniversary Films" (release years end in an 8, excluding 2018)
● 6 films from the following: Romero, Cronenberg, Clive Barker, Terence Fisher, Sergio Martino, Bill Lustig (mix-and-match, or all one)
● 2 flying things that kill you films
● 1 silent film as a tribute to A Quiet Place
● 1 aquatic menace film as a tribute to The Meg
● 2 women directed films
● 1 inanimate object comes alive film
● 1 film with Barbara Crampton in it

Hooptober 666 (2019)
● 6 films from before 1966
● 6 films whose years end in "6"
● 6 films featuring work from the following: John Carl Buechler, Jack Pierce, Rob Bottin, Screaming Mad George, Lon Chaney and Carlo Rambaldi
● The 6th film of a franchise
● 1 Reptile Rampage film as tribute to Crawl
● 2 women directed films
● The lowest rated film from the 80s that you can access
● 1 film where the men and women of the church are having a bad day
● 1 Larry Cohen or Dick Miller film
● 1 Classic Universal horror
● 1 film with Dee Wallace in it
● 1 film with a black director or a predominantly black cast (NO JORDAN PEELE)
● 1 film from a Mexican director to honor 2 great films from Gigi Saul Guerrero and Issa López (NO GDT, but it can be GSG or Issa)

Hooptober Se7en (2020)
● 7 2nd films of franchises
● 4 body horror films
● 2 films from 2020
● 3 disease based films
● The highest rated horror film from the 50s that you haven't seen and can access
● 1 film that is set entirely inside one location
● 1 Invisible Person film
● 1 Non-Dracula Hammer film
● 2 films with a black director or predominantly black cast or lead
● 1 film with a movie theater in it

Hooptober Ocho (2021)
● 2 folk horror
● 4 films from 1981
● 2 films from your birth year (1997)
● 2 haunted house films
● The worst Part 2 that you haven't seen and can access
● 1 film set in the woods
● 1 Kaiju or Kong film except Godzilla vs. Kong
● 2 Hammer films
● 3 films with a person of color as director or lead (excluding Asian)
● 3 Asian horror films