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Since they shaved a day off of the schedule at November’s American Film Market, my last movie day in Santa Monica is jam-packed. When all is said and done, I’ll have seen 25 new independent and foreign films in six consecutive days. Quite a haul, huh? You can read part one of my movie orgy here and the second chapter here.

It’s an unseasonably warm November day in Santa Monica, CA, with the temperature shooting past 90 degrees. You won’t find me at the beach, though. I’m ensconced at the American Film Market, watching movies from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the industry trade event. See part one of my six-day movie marathon here and stop back Monday for the final chapter.

I’ve been on the American Film Market beat since 1998, and at this year’s industry marketplace, held November 3-9 in Santa Monica, CA, I watched more movies in six days than the average person sees in a year. Then again, said moviegoers usually don’t have the opportunity to catch films such as THE DEVIL’S FLOWER (Russia’s TWILIGHT knockoff) or THE TERROR EXPERIMENT (C. Thomas Howell vs. zombies in a high-rise) at their local multiplex.

I’m just back from Santa Monica, CA’s American Film Market, where I screened over two dozen new and distribution-seeking genre films, and my eyes are so glassy that more than one person thought I’d been doing drugs the whole week. But before I dive into my annual review roundup of this trade event, I wanted to briefly comment on the death of legendary Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis (see news here) at age 91 and share with you my own personal De Laurentiis anecdote.

While the majority of October’s horror films have proven box-office disappointments or outright flops (PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 and SAW 3D have not opened as I write this), terror on the small screen is doing better than ever. The fifth season premiere of DEXTER, for example, was Showtime’s highest rated debut in 15 years, while HBO’s TRUE BLOOD also saw its ratings set records last summer. On the CW, SUPERNATURAL has survived the move to Friday nights and seen its viewership jump. While I’ve never watched an episode of CSI, AMERICAN IDOL or SURVIVOR, you can count on my butt being planted in front of the boob tube when a fright series airs. (Grades for current season only and thus far.)

In Part One of my look at the coming season’s fright flicks, Pervula in the comments section wisely pointed out that there were actually four genre films opening on October 1, not three. CHAIN LETTER, previously slated for Oct. 8, will now go head-to-head (at least in LA and maybe a few other major cities) with the previously announced HATCHET II, LET ME IN and CASE 39. The smart money’s on LET ME IN emerging as the box-office winner; the remake of the Swedish classic LET THE RIGHT ONE IN won raves after its Toronto Film Festival premiere, with many pundits predicting that the film’s young stars (Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz) may even nab Oscar nominations.

I recently caught the new PIRANHA 3D at a local theater (with only three other people in the audience!), and what impressed me the most, besides PIRANHA’s nude lesbian underwater ballet scene, was the plethora of trailers for upcoming horror movies debuting this fall: RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE, CASE 39, MY SOUL TO TAKE, LET ME IN, etc. In the lobby, the long walls of the multiplex were filled with one-sheet posters for more fright flicks: I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, SAW 3D, BURIED… From now through the end of October, prepare to be scared. Besides over a dozen major theatrical feature movies rolling out, ’tis the season for: horror film festivals from coast to coast; classic repertory revivals (happy 50th, PSYCHO); endless monster movie marathons on cable; terror TV series returning (SUPERNATURAL, DEXTER, FRINGE) and beginning (THE WALKING DEAD. Nuff said); and DVD debuts (the FANGORIA FrightFest hits everywhere September 28) will join the competition for our Halloween attention. As I’ve said before, can you think of any better time to be a horror fan? But will this embarrassment of riches, specifically movie-wise, cancel each other out? Is there a big enough horror audience out there to support, for example, HATCHET II, CASE 39 and LET ME IN all opening on the same day?! Will the box office be so divided that no one emerges as true financial victor and all the rival pictures cancel each other out? This fall could really be a Halloween bloodbath in more ways than one.