Jeez, I fell off on blogging again. Not as big a gap as last time. Sorry about that.

In October, I decided to try to watch 31 horror films. It wasn’t exactly a film every day. Some days I watched more than one. I watched one film twice, but on different days and with different people, so I’m still counting that.

Here’ the list:

“Megan 2.0,” “Night of the Living Dead (1990),” “Sinners,” “Shaun of the Dead,” “Final Destinations: Bloodlines,” “Longlegs,” “Werewolves,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “Return of the Living Dead,” “A Thief in the Night,” “The Blackening,” “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man,” “Bright Red Sky,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “The Howling,” “Wolfen,” “The Mummy (Hammer),” “Alias Nick Beal,” “Nightmare on Elm Street 3,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” “Weapons,” “Scars of Dracula,” “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” “Fright Night (2011),” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein,” “The Thing,” “Gerald’s Game,” “Mad Monster Party.”

The films that I watched for the first time were “Megan 2.0,” “Final Destinations: Bloodlines,” “Longlegs,” “Werewolves,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “A Thief in the Night,” “The Blackening,” “Blood Red Sky,” “Wolfen,” “The Mummy (Hammer),” “Alias Nick Beal,” “Scars of Dracula,” Fright Night (2011,” “Gerald’s Game.”

I watched “Night of the Living Dead (1990)” twice. It was the newly released uncut version, and one person couldn’t make it to our watch party, so I rewatched it with her.”

The ones I saw in the theater this month were: “Shaun of the Dead,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Nightmare on Elm Street 3,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” “Phantom of the Opera.”

It was a lot of fun to see “Creature,” “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” and “Phantom” all in the theater within a few days of each other. “Phantom” was accompanied by the live band Invincible Czars. I saw them almost a decade ago doing a score for “Nosferatu.”

Two real standouts for me were “A Thief in the Night” and “Alias Nick Beal.” “A Thief in the Night” is one I’ve been meaning to watch for years. It’s a Christian horror film that was made in Des Moines in the 70s. It was interesting to see local landmarks, like the Iowa State Fair Midway captured on film. It was an influential film, leading in part to the creation of the “Left Behind” book series. Having said that, it was by no means a scary, or even good film.

“Alias Nick Beal” (Not to be confused with Ally McBeal) on the other hand, was great. It’s a 1949 supernatural film noir, two genres that haven’t mixed enough that feel like natural soulmates. Ray Milland was awesome as the titular Nick Beal, and Thomas Mitchell (Uncle Billy from “It’s a Wonderful Life” is great as an honest man seduced to the dark side.

I gave some thought about trying to continue monthly challenges like this, but decided to rule it out for a few reasons. First, October and horror is a natural pairing and one that’s fun to watch. If I tried to pick out 30 Thanksgiving films for November or 31 holiday movies for December I would probably lose my mind. Second, it meant not watching stuff I might have otherwise because it didn’t fit the theme. My TV , MST3K, and Rifftrax watching fell way behind because of this challenge. I briefly considered allowing myself to watch riffed versions of horror films, but that felt like kind of a cheat.

I’ll probably do this again next year, maybe trying to do 31 days of films that are entirely new to me.