Week 1: Jan. 1-Jan. 7
Anime Week

Covering an enormous range of genres, Japanese animation has had colossal influence across virtually all forms of entertainment throughout the world.

Week 2: Jan. 8-Jan. 14
Kinji Fukusaku Week

Week 3: Jan. 15-Jan. 21
Crown International Pictures Week

Week 4: Jan. 22-Jan. 28
Canuxploitation Week

Canadian Exploitation films, aka Canuxploitation. Expect lost of denim, flannel, and apologies. The blood is probably maple syrup, too.

Week 5: Jan. 29-Feb. 4
Ralph Bakshi Week

Week 6: Feb. 5-Feb. 11
Killer Animals Week

Killer animals, not to be confused with Kaiju, who will likely appear later in this list.

Week 7: Feb. 12-Feb. 18
Blaxploitation Week

Started in the early 70s with the studio-made Shaft and the low-budget Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, blaxploitation movies targeted the black urban demographic and typically featured stories involving characters from those very settings. Lots of stories of social plights, political tension, and gangs, but on top of the drama, there's also a fair amount of comedy movies in the genre as well.

Week 8: Feb. 19-Feb. 25
Peplum Week

Peplum Week makes its first reappearance since the original 2016 Cult Movie Challenge!
The Peplum genre came from (mostly) Italy production companies who capitalized on the biblical epic craze from the 50's after the success of films like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments.

Week 9: Feb. 26-Mar. 4
Shaw Brothers Week

Hong Kong based production company with an enormous library of films under their belt. Most notable for their martial arts action films, and for their influence on the Wu-Tang Clan.

Week 10: Mar. 5-Mar. 11
Spaghetti Western Week

Gunslingers, shootouts, and just all around cowboy shit. Happy trails.

Week 11: Mar. 12-Mar. 18
Composer: Lalo Schifrin Week

Lalo Schifrin is a five-time Grammy winner who has also received multiple Academy Award nominations. He is the soundtrack composer to several iconic films such as Mission: Impossible, Bullitt, and The Cat from Outer Space.

Week 12: Mar. 19-Mar. 25
Jean-Claude Van Damme Week

As a child growing up in the late 1900s, I used to say Van Damme felt like someone ordered Arnold Schwarzenegger from Temu. Then, people would look at me and say "what the fuck is Temu?" and my cover would be blown and then Jean-Claude Van Damme would show up from the future and hunt me.

Week 13: Mar. 26-Apr. 1
Joe D'Amato Week

Week 14: Apr. 2-Apr. 8
Psychotronic Encyclopedia Week

The movie guide that came the closest to defining what is a cult movie. You've got over 3,000 movies to choose from this week.

Week 15: Apr. 9-Apr. 15
Biker Movie Week

Week 16: Apr. 16-Apr. 22
Karen Black Week

Week 17: Apr. 23-Apr. 29
CAT III Week

Week 18: Apr. 30-May 6
Jess Franco Week

In of Italian sexploitation sleaze; few, if any, do it better.

Week 19: May 7-May 13
USA Up All Night Week

USA Network's late-night TV series would show everything from sex comedies to low budget horror movies to the Beatles movies and, most importantly, kept Gilbert Gottfried employed throughout the 90s.

Week 20: May 14-May 20
Shannon Tweed Week

I'm sure there's a joke to be made about Gene Simmons's's tongue but I'm not going to bother.

Week 21: May 21-May 27
70s Disaster Movie Week

The real 70s disaster is just how fucking ugly the decade was.

Week 22: May 28-June 3
Robert Z'Dar Week

The chin to end all chins. June 3rd is Robert Z'Dar's birthday as well as my own, so celebrate for both of us with one of his many appearances in everything from action, horror, and even a few family-oriented comedies.

Week 23: June 4-June 10
PM Entertainment Week

Throughout the 90s, the PM Entertainment Group cranked out nonstop direct-to-video action and sci-fi flicks with low-to-medium sized budgets. They also put out the occasional family-friendly movie too.

Week 24: June 11-June 17
Lucha Libre Week

See luchadores mexicanos fight everyone from mummies, mobsters, and even Spider-man at some point.

Week 25: June 18-June 24
Ryûhei Kitamura Week

Week 26: June 25-July 1
Video Nasties Week

Blows my mind that Margaret Thatcher somehow thought movies were somehow doing more damage to British culture than she was herself.

Week 27: July 2-July 8
Composer: Ennio Morricone Week

One of the most revered film composers of all time, and also one of the most prolific. Most well known for his western movies scores, especially those he did for Sergio Leone; his work covers a plethora of film genres and his career lasted well over half a century until he ed away in 2020.

Week 28: July 9-July 15
Nazisploitation Week

I'm sorry. At least it's not Bill Zebub?

Week 29: July 16-July 22
Leslie Nielsen Week

With career beginnings in more serious roles, Nielsen eventually became a household name for his comedic acting, most notably for his appearances in the Zuckers and Abrahams spoof movies.

Week 30: July 23-July 29
Shinya Tsukamoto Week

Week 31: July 30-Aug. 5
50s Sci-Fi Week

Alien invasions, nuclear fallout, mutated monsters, communism; they were afraid of a lot of things in the 1950s.

Week 32: Aug. 6-Aug. 12
Rarelust Week

Taken from their website: "rarelust is my personal project to keep rare flick rips alive freely and stop sellers who sell these movies at insane prices.."
This website is a treasure trove of obscurity, and offers a giant grab bag of potential options for this week's theme.

Week 33: Aug. 13-Aug. 19
Splatter Movie Guide Week

When asked what kind of category she wanted for her birthday week, my wife initially said "horror." After asking her to be more specific but refusing to give her any more direction, she settled on 'gore.' So Splatter Movie Guide it is. The goriest of the gore from the books written by the guy who coined the term. Who can forget such gore fests such as...Blade Runner? Okay, maybe use your own judgment as to what qualifies as a 'splatter' movie.

If the guy who created animated gifs can get the pronunciation wrong, the guy who invented the phrase 'splatter movie' can fuck up too.

Week 34: Aug. 20-Aug. 26
Linnea Quigley Week

Iconic scream queen and native of Davenport, Iowa where I live.

Week 35: Aug. 27-Sep. 2
Jean Rollin Week

Jean Rollin is a French director known for his erotic, gothic, and surreal horror films. Lesbians, vampires, and lesbian vampires are common in his films.

Week 36: Sep. 3-Sep. 9
Full Moon Features Week

Small-ish budget horror studio founded by Charles Band, further expanding his empire following the dissolution of...well, Empire.

Week 37: Sep. 10-Sep. 16
Cynthia Rothrock Week

Week 38: Sep. 17-Sep. 23
Pinky Violence Week

Good old 60s/70s Japanese sleaze with tons of sex, violence, and amazing poster art.

Week 39: Sep. 24-Sep. 30
Vampire Week

They avoid sunlight, wear dope looking capes, and refuse to come over unless very clearly and specifically invited to do so. They sound a lot like me.
I'm also being told they drink blood.

Week 40: Oct. 1-Oct. 7
Kaiju Week

As opposed to other killer creatures, these ones are larger than normal. Godzilla, Mothra, the BFG, probably Paul Bunyan too. Shaq maybe? Dude's big, how can we hope to understand his motives?

Week 41: Oct. 8-Oct. 14
Zombie Week

They're dead inside. They're hungry. They are hostile and will attack you on sight. They are retail shopping crowds in the US the day after Thanksgiving.
Oh, and they're also zombies.

Week 42: Oct. 14-Oct. 20
Vincent Price Week

One of, if not the, most iconic actors in classic horror. Celebrate the legendary legacy of Vincent Price this spooky season by checking one of his superfluity of horror films such as the House on Haunted Hill, The Masque of the Red Death, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, or The Fly.

Week 43: Oct. 22-Oct. 28
Slasher Week

Slashers were a dime a dozen throughout the 80s and into the 90s before seeing a resurgence in the mid-90s. Iconic characters, iconic kills, iconic music. For me, this is the quintessential horror subgenre!

Week 44: Oct. 29-Nov. 4
Joe Bob Briggs Week

Ending spooky month with arguably the most iconic horror host. Joe Bob Briggs originally hosted Monstervision on TNT in the 90s, recently he re-emerged to host The Last Drive-In on Shudder.

Week 45: Nov. 5-Nov. 11
Uwe Boll Week

Once facetiously described by me in The 2024 Cult Movie Challenge as 'Kubrick without the budget', Uwe Boll made a name for himself by proving true the old adage of 'video games adapted to film are never good' before eventually retiring from filmmaking.

Oh, apparently he returned to filmmaking a couple years ago.

Week 46: Nov. 12-Nov. 18
Chuck Norris Week

Whether he's roundhouse kicking Bruce Lee, or telling Haley Joel Osment he has AIDS, Chuck Norris always delivers.

Week 47: Nov. 19-Nov. 25
Cannon Group Week

The Cannon Group pumped out so many entertaining movies with b-movie plots and B+ movie budgets.

Week 48: Nov. 26-Dec. 2
John Woo Week

Part of me wants to suggest pre-Hollywood era only, but I'm not much of a stickler for rules. There's fun to be had in every era of John Woo's career, so just dive in where you want.

Week 49: Dec. 3-Dec. 9
Carsploitation Week

Roaring engines, chases, crashes. Gas crisis? Never heard of it. The more cylinders, the better!

Week 50: Dec. 10-Dec. 16
Cameron Mitchell Week

Incredibly prolific actor whose career spanned nearly half a century and whose credits range from Giallo films, spaghetti westerns, action, science fiction, horror, and more.

Week 51: Dec. 17-Dec. 23
Christmas Horror Week

Ah yes, that time of year where everyone gathers around to answer the age-old question: is Die Hard a horror movie?

Week 52: December 24th-December 31st
Bruno Mattei Week

Action, Horror, Sleaze. If it's Italian and one of those labels applies to it, there's a good chance Bruno Mattei had a hand in it.