And the runners up are...

So now that you have a chance to review the full list of our 40 movies in detail, you may be wondering, how come such-and-such didn't make the cut. In almost all cases, it boils down to a simple answer. With very few exceptions, if we had already watched the film in The Slaughtered Lamb in the last two years, we set it aside to make room for a different selection.

For that reason, we aren't watching:

Night of the Living Dead

Day of the Dead

Knightriders

Capricorn One

This is Spinal Tap

Suspiria

National Lampoon's Vacation

Mad Max

Mad Monster Party

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

The Haunting

Poltergeist

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Near Dark

The Omega Man

The Last Man on Earth

Burnt Offerings

Blade Runner

Alien

And in some cases, we've got bigger and better plans lined up for a particular film, which would have been disrupted by their inclusion in the 40/40 Series.

So we also didn't include:

Back to the Future

Re-Animator

The Lord of the Rings

Planet of the Apes

Ben-Hur

Gladiator

Kill Bill

Braveheart

Highlander

Patriot Games

Lethal Weapon

Spider Baby

Carnival of Souls

Godzilla's Revenge

Willow

When we started down this path, I had no idea how hard it would be to come up with a list of 40 must-see films, while maintaining a mix of genres and appealing to a broad an audience as possible. In a few days, we'll find out how successful we have been.

See you in The Slaughtered Lamb next month.