The Best Of 2011

This year wasn't exactly a booming one for horror but even if 2011 was somewhat soft for genre fare, it still delivered its share of memorable scares - even if some of the best were found on the small screen. Over at Shock Till You Drop, my top five of 2011 are listed, along with a few honorable mentions. Some might find my top pick questionable (or all of my picks, for that matter) but when I look back on 2011, there's no question what my number one genre addiction was.

All in all, I'd consider 2011 to be a definite improvement over 2010. Hopefully the films of 2012 will be even better.

10 To Watch In '10

Now matter how horror-heavy a year has been, genre offerings usually dry up during the holiday season and that's definitely been the case with 2009. But I think a few horror-starved months only makes the anticipation of a new year in fear all the more exciting.

Last year when I posted my list of movies to watch in 2009, I jumped the gun on a few titles - putting Piranha 3-D, Shutter Island, The Wolfman, Splice, My Soul To Keep (formerly known as 25/8), and The Crazies as some of my most-anticipated of '09. Well, twelve months later these films - all pushed back to this year - are all high on my must-see list again but in the interest of spotlighting new titles, I'm going with an all-new Top Ten for 2010. And in considering what the future holds, it's worth remembering that some of 2009's most exciting films - like District 9 and Paranormal Activity - were completely off the radar right up to prior to their releases. So who knows what (hopefully pleasant) surprises 2010 might deliver?

As of now, though, these are ten can't miss movies for me:

10. Stake Land

One of my favorite indie efforts of recent years was the impressive Mulberry Street (2006) in which a disease spread through Manhattan, turning residents into rat creatures. Now the core talent behind that minor gem - director Jim Mickle and writer Nick Damici - are getting even more ambitious with their next film, a road movie set in an America taken over by vampires. Can't wait to start hearing more about this one.

9. Frozen

The buzz on Adam Green's tale of snowbound survival is already high. I wasn't too keen on Green's debut film Hatchet (2006) but it had its heart in the right place and Frozen looks to be an entirely different style of horror. I'm not a skier - or even a sledder, for that matter - but I'm sure this cautionary tale of a trio of friends stranded on a ski lift will be able to strike a chord with me anyhow.

8. Dread

Advance word on this adaptation of one of the more disturbing tales from Clive Barker's Books of Blood - the story of a college student conducting an experiment in fear on his classmates - is very strong so far. Unlike the previous Books of Blood films, Book of Blood and Midnight Meat Train, this one will actually see a decent theatrical release as part of the 2010 edition of the After Dark Horror Fest so I'm looking forward to seeing this on the big screen. If Dread lives up to its rep, it's going to be a winner.

7. Season of the Witch
Period-set horror films are a rare occurrence these days (as far back into the past as filmmakers like to go now are the 1970s) so I think it's pretty neat to see a new horror film set in the 14th Century. Better yet, this tale of Crusaders who have to contend with a witch accused of causing the Black Plague looks like its going to go all-out with cool supernatural shenanigans. Maybe for some it's a detriment to see Nicholas Cage in this but hey, Ron Perlman and Christopher Lee are in the cast too.

6. Black Swan

I don't know how much of a true horror film this is but so far it sounds like it's got its feet solidly in the genre. Telling the story of a ballerina (Natalie Portman) who has a rival (Mila Kunis) that may be a supernatural appariation, Black Swan promises to be a eerie mind-bender. It's written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, who isn't one of my favorite directors, but he always does interesting work. Some would say he already tackled the horror genre brilliantly with the brutal drug saga Requiem for a Dream (2000) but I'm excited to see him take on a more traditional scary movie.

5. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

The 1973 TV movie that this is based on remains one of the most beloved TV frights of children of the '70s. The story of a family who discovers that they share their home with goblin-like creatures, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark ought to be perfect material for an upgrade. Director Troy Nixey hasn't made a feature before but if producer Guillermo del Toro (who also co-scripted this remake, along with Matthew Robbins) hand-picked him for this project, it's a safe bet that he's got the goods.

4. Cotton

Eli Roth produced this Blair Witch-style look at a disillusioned priest's final exorcism (I'm guessing that it doesn't go well!). Director Daniel Stamm is something of an unknown quantity but I think the sub-genre of demonic possession movies is an ideal fit for a faux-documentary so I can't wait to see how Cotton plays out (another film in the same vein, The Vatican Tapes, is in the pipeline as well).

3. Area 51

Trying to catch lightening twice, Paranormal Activity writer/director Oren Peli is quickly following PA with another hand-held style movie, this time about aliens instead of ghosts. Fine by me. We're overdue for a great scary alien movie and if Peli can pull one off, I'm all for it.

2. Predators

One of my favorite man-in-suit movie monsters is the Predator and even in the could've-been-better Alien vs. Predator movies (I still maintain that the first was lots of fun while the second was just dismal), any moments involving the Predators had me pumped. So my anticipation is sky-high for a new film getting the solo Predator franchise back on track. Up front, there's not much - if anything - about this project that has me thinking it might suck. Director Nimrod Antal isn't a big name yet (although I really dug Vacancy and his first film, Kontroll, was widely acclaimed) but with a story set on the Predator home world, plenty of new Predator weaponry to check out, Robert Rodriguez producing, KNB handling the FX, and a more than likely R-rating - there's no reason to be anything but jazzed.

1. The Ward

I don't care how disparaged John Carpenter's later-day work has been, he's still my all-time favorite filmmaker and this supernatural tale - set in the '60s - of a girl who finds herself in the psychiatric ward of a hospital where all is not as it seems looks like it has plenty of creepy possibilities. Carpenter's entries in the Masters of Horror series showed that he could still deliver some iconic imagery (Udo Kier feeding his own intestines into a projector in "Cigarette Burns" certainly ranks as one of more indelible movie moments of the 00's to me) so I have every confidence that The Ward will be something special. Come on, John - show 'em how it's done!

And in the interest of spotlighting some non-horror offerings, here's ten more films I'll be blowing my geek wad over next year:

10. The A-Team

Yes, I do love it when a plan comes together. Hopefully this'll be an easy slam-dunk of retro fun.

9. Ninja

To see the blood-soaked Ninja Assassin in the theater was one of the cooler thrills of 2009. This movie will be direct-to-DVD, unfortunately - but hey, I'll take new ninja movies wherever I can get them and this one looks badass. Here, I'll just let the trailer speak for itself:

8. The Mechanic

This is a remake of a classic Charles Bronson movie that really shouldn't be touched. But it's starring Jason Statham so I'm totally down for it anyway. It won't be as good as the Bronson movie but, again, it's Statham so I'll be checking it out.

7. Machete

One of the fake trailers from Grindhouse breaks out as a feature. I never thought it'd actually happen but it's coming, damn it! I guess that's what happens when you're Robert Rodriguez and you can just walk down to your basement and make a feature film. I'm praying that this is a huge hit so Eli Roth will feel compelled to push ahead on Thanksgiving.

6. Clash of the Titans

The original is a sentimental favorite but it's hard to honestly say it's any good outside of the justly famous Medusa scene. I have a feeling this remake will obliterate all memories of Bubo, the mechanical owl.

5. Inception

As far as batting averages go, director Christopher Nolan has a pretty stellar one so far. I'm glad that he used his post Dark Knight clout to get an original sci-fi screenplay made. From the little that's been revealed of it, this looks like some heady, trippy stuff - here's hoping Nolan delivers something thrilling and provocative.

4. Kick-Ass

The hype on this is getting ridiculous - I can't help feeling that it's going to be hard for the film to deliver on the expectations that are building on it. But the comic from Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. - detailing the injury-laden efforts of a teenager to become a real-life superhero - is terrific and from all accounts, director Matthew Vaughn has nailed it.

3. Iron Man 2

Two words: War Machine. While a return of the Armored Avenger is more than welcome, the fact that his buddy Jim Rhodes will be suiting up as War Machine is the real news.

2. Tron: Legacy

It's Tron, it's in 3-D. Tell me how that's not awesome.

1. The Expendables

Sylvester Stallone has been on an incredible roll lately with Rocky Balboa and Rambo being two of the best films of his career - pitch perfect returns to his most famous franchises. With his latest, the mercenary tale The Expendables, Stallone has the most geek-tacular action cast ever assembled. Besides Stallone himself, there's also Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lungren, Steve Austin, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't know if The Expendables will be a classic action movie but I do know that it'll be fun finding out.

So that's 2010 at a glance. Will it be a great year? I don't see how it couldn't. In the words of Spinal Tap, this one goes up to 11.

Ten Favorites From 2009

I'm way too behind on the movies of this year to deliver a legitimate 'Best Of' list so I went with a 'Favorites' list instead. Maybe I'm just getting soft but there was a whole lot of films I liked this past year and very little that I didn't. Sure, there were some I wanted to burn off the face of the planet, like Rob Zombie's Halloween II but for the most part the horror offerings of '09 kept me in a good mood. I don't how many true classics, if any, this past year produced - time will have to tell on that. But whether they go on to have a healthy shelf life or not, my favorites of '09 still made this a good year for me.

Click over to Shock Till You Drop for the full list.

The Top 25 Of The Decade: Post-Script

Over at Shock Till You Drop, we've just published our picks for the Top 25 Horror Films of the Decade. As the combined effort of four opinionated horror fans, this list took plenty of twists and turns along the way before we settled on our final choices. Contrary to those who claim that nothing worthwhile has happened in the genre over the past ten years, we found it extremely hard to narrow our choices and, in the end, several films that each of us individually argued for were left outside the Top 25. Now that the list is up, I wanted to give a shout-out to 25 films that were a part of the debate. Some were mentioned and then quickly shot down, others fell off only at the very last minute.

In alphabetical order, sans editorial comment:

1. Behind the Mask: The Rise and Fall of Leslie Vernon


2. Brotherhood of the Wolf

3. Bug

4. The Devil's Rejects

5. The Exorcism of Emily Rose

6. Feast

7. Final Destination

8. Hatchet

9. High Tension

10. Hostel Part II

11. Irreversible

12. The Mothman Prophecies

13. The Others

14. Paranormal Activity

15. Saw

16. Silent Hill

17. Slither

18. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

19. The Strangers

20. The Texas Chainsaw Masscare

21. 30 Days of Night

22. Wolf Creek

23. Wrong Turn

24. Uzumaki

25. Zombieland

One title that I'm surprised never came up once in our discussions was Grindhouse. I would've been against it myself but I'm surprised that it didn't even get that far. It also would've been nice to get some quirkier titles like Bubba Ho-Tep or Shadow of the Vampire on there but 25 is a small number to work with when you're talking about ten years' worth of films. That's mostly why borderline genre titles like Mulholland Dr. (for my money, one of the scariest movies ever), Rambo (a true splatter classic, with heavy echoes of the 'mondo' cinema that was such a part of the early days of VHS) and The Passion of the Christ (the most successful splatter movie of all time and a key addition to the sub-genre of Catholic horror films) aren't on there. Four titles that I wish I had seen so I could have argued one way or another for them are Antichrist, Grace, The Host, and Martyrs. But at the end of the day, no list is ever perfect or quite complete. Of all the titles that didn't make the cut, the only one I was sorry to see not make it is The Others. But in looking over all the films that were a part of this discussion, it's nice to be able to say that the last ten years have delivered so many horror films worth talking about.

The Horror Canon: 35 Horror Films You MUST See

If you're a horror fan, a question that's usually asked by non-fans is: "what's wrong with you?" But a more friendly question that you also sometimes hear is: "what should I watch?" It's easy to forget that not everyone has already seen the same classics that you have. And with almost 80 years of genre cinema to explore, the uninitiated could use a suggestion or two on what to see first. Luckily, Brian Solomon (aka B-Sol) of the esteemed The Vault of Horror, has put the collective minds of the best horror bloggers to work - a group who he dubs "the Cyber-Horror Elite" - at assembling a list that could stand as "The Horror Canon". Each member had to compile a list of ten films and then the final list would be tallied from everyone's individual picks. It's not easy to choose just ten films but if I didn't comply, I'd be kicked out of the Cyber-Horror Elite and that means I'd stop getting the perks of membership - like 5% discount at all Arby's restaurants (except in Ohio) - so I had to step up and do it.

For the record, my picks were:

1. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

2. Freaks (1932)

3. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

4. The Exorcist (1973)

5. Halloween (1978)

6. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

7. The Thing (1982)

8. The Brood (1979)

9. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

10. Audition (1999)

I don't quite stand by my list as I forgot to include the one film that I believe no list of great horror films should be without. But that's the kind of gaffe that happens when you're in a rush, right? If I had to correct my mistake, Freaks - as great as it is - would have to go to make room for Psycho (1960). Or maybe The Brood would be better left off instead - but then I don't think any list of indispensable horror should be Cronenberg-free. Other than needing to place Psycho somewhere, though, I think the list is pretty sound.

The full Horror Canon list of 35 films is now up at The Vault of Horror, and it's a pretty interesting one. Lists like this aren't so much interesting to me for what classics make it onto them, but for the newer films that do. It's a given that films like Frankenstein, Psycho, and Night of the Living Dead will be included in any "must-see" list of horror classics but I like to see what new films fans consider to be worthy of that company - even if I don't necessarily agree. Some are obvious, like Saw (2004) - other are a complete WTF, like Orphan (2009). I loved Orphan but a film that's still playing in theaters shouldn't be on a list of the Horror Canon (ranking above Jaws and The Evil Dead, no less!). If any film that recent was going to make it, it should've been Drag Me To Hell. Still, it's nice to see some excitement out there for the latest genre offerings.

As for what didn't make the list that really should've - the omission of Carnival of Souls (1962) jumps out at me, as does the absence of Carrie (1976). I mean, come on - it's not a true list of the Horror Canon without Carrie! And no An American Werewolf in London (1981), either? And not a single David Cronenberg film? And I'm not seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) on here - what gives? But of course this is what happens when people vote separately. I'm sure if all these horror-savvy people were brought together to pass choices between each other and refine the list, it would look very different and be much more definitive. But these lists are just meant to be fun, to be enjoyed, and to spark debate. And this definitely does that - and then some!

Although I believe we all made a terrible mistake by not including Popcorn (1992):

What were we thinking?