Brian Terrill’s 100 Film Favorites Countdown – Introduction

brian3Hey everybody! My name is Brian Terrill. Diligent Earn This followers among you may remember me from the post a few months back about “Count Gauntly’s Horrors from the Public Domain,” the horror-host movie program I produce and host on Fairfax Public Access.

Well, I also happen to keep a (somewhat rudimentary) film blog, Brian Terrill Movie Night . The page grew out of, and is named for, an event held by my fraternity at the College of William & Mary. As Dan’s writeup on “Count Gauntly” indicates, I’ve long had an interest in obscure and unusual films.

Over the years, I’ve found that one of the only things better than watching weird movies is sharing them. In high school, I gained some notoriety for introducing annual busloads of students to the cinematic atrocity Troll 2, and the tradition traveled with me to Williamsburg. After I had coerced the brothers of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia into watching both Troll 2 and Tommy Wiseau’s more recent schlock-fest The Room, I thought they would be sick of me and my movie collection. You can imagine my surprise when, at the start of my junior year, the brothers suggested making “Brian Terrill Movie Night” an official semesterly event during our fraternity rush week. Over the course of my last two years at the College, I shared the cinema of the strange with my fellow students on a semi-monthly basis. I have continued to hold unofficial Brian Terrill Movie Night events when I return to campus, and have screened 25 films to date, including assorted shorts.

But the fact of the matter is that I’m not in college anymore, and now the Brian Terrill Movie Night page serves a different purpose. Rather than advertising upcoming screenings, the page now hosts a series of “Countdowns,” series of short film-and-television-themed reviews which I post daily, typically to commemorate a holiday. December 2011 saw the first “Christmas Classics Countdown,” with each post featuring a different song or poem taken from a Christmas-themed film or television special, along with some commentary and interesting tidbits of information about said special. I broadened the scope of my holiday analyses with the debut of the “Creepy Classics Countdown,” which featured Halloween-themed songs and poems throughout October 2012. That December marked the return of the Christmas Classics Countdown, with 25 more memorable Yuletide melodies to share.

Since Halloween is still a long ways off, and I was feeling the constant bite of the movie-sharing bug, I embarked in April on my most ambitious Countdown yet: The 100 Film Favorites Countdown, reviewing one hundred of my all-time favorite films in posts a bit longer and more in-depth than those of my earlier holiday Countdowns. While I’m already well into the second half of the Countdown on the Brian Terrill Movie Night page, Dan has graciously invited me to bring the Countdown here, in hopes of expanding my readership a bit, so I’ll be starting over from the beginning here.

My next 100 posts will feature short posts on my Top 100 Favorite Films. Actually, since my tastes may change and I’ll probably see more movies in the months to come, some films on the list may change ranking or be replaced entirely, so it’s more fitting to call them 100 of my “Film Favorites” rather than my absolutely “Favorite Films.” Regardless, these are all films I love and which I wouldn’t need an excuse to sit down and watch with any of you if given half a chance. Each entry will give some basic information about the film, as well as exploring what the film means to me. The posts are likely to also incorporate an assortment of music, videos, and fan projects associated with the films featured. And while some of the 100 movies to come probably fail to satisfy the cinematic palates of many professional critics, I hope that even the most cynical among them could at least respect my endeavor to analyze the films which have most enriched my life, and to share them with all of you.

So, without further ado, let the 100 Film Favorites Countdown…BEGIN!

P.S.: The first three “Count Gauntly” episodes are now available on YouTube, and the fourth one, a patriotic episode featuring 1950s shorts on American history and government, is set to begin airing on FPA in July. For a full schedule and updates on the program, please visit my digital crypt at www.facebook.com/countgauntly.

Brian Terrill is the host of television show Count Gauntly’s Horrors from the Public Domain. You can keep up with Brian’s 100 Film Favorites countdown here.


Dan and Brian from Earn This now have a film review site and podcast:

The Goods: Film Reviews

The Goods: A Film Podcast

Available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and more.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *