Disgusting Picks the Best Horror Films of 2. Mr. Disgusting’s Top 1. Horror Films. Even with mainstream news outlets constantly crying “horror is dead”, we all know the truth – our genre is on fire. It’s so hot, in fact, that it’s even taken over television. Beyond “The Walking Dead”, there’s “American Horror Story”, “The Exorcist”, “Channel Zero”, “Ash vs Evil Dead”, “Stan Against Evil”, “The X- Files”, “Wolf Creek”, and even Netflix’s “Stranger Things”. It’s everywhere. For 1. I’ve put together a list of the best and worst films of the year, only it’s getting harder and harder to dwindle it down; the last two years (2. I had to split it into two, while I’ve even been forced to make a special list highlighting the independent films that also blew my mind (it’s hard to celebrate a great year in the genre and leave some titles out). I’m in the exact same predicament this year as I was last, and even the year prior. There’s just an insane amount of good content out there that has to be seen. Hollywood.com's picks for the best horror movies of all time for when you need something scary to watch. Top 50 highest-grossing films of all time (not adjusted for inflation). From Wikipedia: Films generate income from several revenue streams including theatrical. And unlike previous years, there’s a nice mix of studio films to go along with the independent productions, which is a healthy sign for our genre. To kick things off, the first batch of films are first presented in no particular order, as usual, with the top ten shared on the next page. Honorable Mentions. HUSH (Mike Flanagan)BASKIN (Can Evrenol)THE INVITATION (D. Provides news, reviews, interviews and sections for eighties and British films. Because of their current status in the American martial arts community, Black Belt asked me to devise a list of the top 20 martial arts movies.
Karyn Kusama)PROJECT AVALANCHE (D. Morgan Spurlock)THE WAILING (D. Hong- jin Na)What really sells The Wailing is the absolutely stunning cinematography that brings the locations to life. It’s a gorgeous genre film that mesmerizes the viewer with a terrifying trip around a small village in South Korea. The fish- out- of- water perspective for the viewer drops them into an unique environment that’s both strange and haunting. It all begins when a man arrives in the town, and a plague begins to spread. A quasi- zombie film, there’s plenty of scares to go along with gore, although what makes this one of the best films of the year is a strong screenplay with engaging characters. If you’re looking for a supplemental film to Train to Busan, The Wailing makes its case as the perfect opener. IN THE DEEP/4. 7 METERS DOWN (D. Johannes Roberts)Johannes Roberts has the impossible task of having his In the Deep (possibly titled 4. Meters Down) compared to The Shallows, this summer’s other shark survival film that quietly took a chunk out of the box office. Fans of shark survival horror movies are going to love In the Deep, which is vastly different than The Shallows. In fact, they compliment, if not juxtapose each other into the perfect double feature. With Shallows, Blake Lively is trapped on a rock outside of the water with a great white shark circling to attack. In the Deep takes viewers to the bottom of the ocean floor with many other dangers, while sharks also happen to be swimming around. They’re two completely different beasts that both have their fair share of suspense. Deep is full of bite, and is vicious enough for the hardcore horror audience, while also providing an immense amount of thrills for everyone else. Don’t let this one swim past you. THE SHALLOWS (D. Jaume Collet- Serra)There was a lot of internal debate as to which I liked better, Jaume Collet- Serra’s The Shallows or Johannes Roberts’s Alex Aja- produced In the Deep/4. Meters Down, and I guess I give the edge to the former. Collet- Serra knows exactly what kind of movie The Shallows is and delivers exactly what’s promised; the shark thriller is more of a dumbed- down popcorn muncher that’s just straight- up fun, boasts stunning cinematography, wicked shark sequences, and of course tons of shots of Blake Lively in a skin- tight wetsuit. It was the perfect summer movie that also gifted us with one of the worst posters of the year. SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD (D. Chris Peckover)I loved Chris Peckover’s Undocumented and it kills me that we had to wait six years to see his followup feature, the awesome Safe Neighborhood, a suburban horror in which a babysitter must defend a twelve- year- old boy from intruders, only to discover it’s far from a normal home invasion. It’s hard to really talk about the film without spoiling anything, especially since it won’t be released until next year, but what I can say is that it truly is Scream meets Home Alone. It’s not only going to be a new horror classic, but will also be a holiday one as well. What I love about Safe Neighborhood is that the humor is situational, taking the grim out of home invasion subgenre and making it fun (think You’re Next). This is not to say that this slasher doesn’t have its fair share of gore, which come in crowd- pleasing moments that would have theatergoers erupting. This is one holiday horror you’ll be unwrapping every year. THE BOY (D. William Brent Bell)I’m not exactly sure what the majority of horror fans thought of William Brent Bell’s The Boy, but I thought it was brave, and thus paid off in spades. Starring “The Walking Dead’s” Lauren Cohan, the film went against the grain, pushing against what you’d expect out of a big studio release, and delivered a “Tales From the Crypt”- esque finale that surely divided audiences. Looking back at the January release, I loved that STX used false advertising (in a sense) to throw off viewers from being able to figure out the ending, which only aided in them landing one helluva punch that made The Boy the first great horror film of 2. FOUND FOOTAGE 3. D (D. Steven De. Gennaro)I reviewed Found Footage 3. D out of the Bruce Campbell Film Festival this summer, calling it, “An absolute riot that’s also quite scary, setting up a multitude of payoffs that deliver a flurry of satisfying punches. The comedy is a bit inside baseball, but the execution makes the overall experience fun enough to reach outside of just genre fans. It truly is a modern indie gem that really, really deserves a place among the greats.”UNDER THE SHADOW (D. Babak Anvari)The feature directorial debut of Babak Anvari follows a mother and daughter struggling to cope with the terrors of the post- revolution in a war- torn Tehran of the 1. The period setting gave authenticity to this indie horror that juxtaposes fear and paranoia from the war with that of a Jinn. The scares, albeit far and few between, were immensely impactful. Under the Shadow is a welcomed slow burn that’s carried by an outstanding performance by the mesmerizing Narges Rashidi. CLOVERFIELD LANE (D. Dan Trachtenberg)I forgot that I reviewed Dan Trachtenberg’s claustrophobic 1. Cloverfield Lane, the sister movie to the J. J. Abrams- produced Cloverfield. As I previously wrote, forget the Cloverfield connection, though, what we have here in a masterclass in suspense that can only be described as Alfred Hitchcock and Richard Matheson’s lovechild. Goodman is having a renaissance career; his character walks a fine line between sympathetic and terrifying in what could be his coup de gr. A mic- drop if you will. The early Oscar chatter was fully warranted, and I hope it pops back up in the coming months. Forget all about Cloverfield and just soak in the immense claustrophobia and paranoia that’s so unrelenting you’ll have to dig your nails out of the theater’s armrests. Up Next: My Top 1. Horror Films of the Year. Top 1. 0 Horror Films of the 1. Ah, 1. 95. 0s horror films. Part action- adventure. These movies are all true cinema classics and well worth watching. If you’re older than 3. That’s right, you heard me. Several of the Top 1. Horror Films of the 1. Dimensional movies ever made. Granted, it was nothing near the quality of today’s modern 3- D movie magic, but still very cool and ground breaking stuff for the 1. The Beast from 2. Fathoms (1. 95. 3)Movie Plot. After nuclear testing, a carnivorous dinosaur thaws from the ocean depths and makes its way down the east coast of North America. Professor Tom Nesbitt identifies the beast as a Diapsid Dinosaur – Rhedosaurus. Soon after emerging from the sea, Rhedosaurus wreaks havoc from city to city until he arrives at Manhattan Island, where Nesbitt comes up with a plan to try to stop the seemingly indestructible monster. Box Office: Budget = $2. Gross Revenue = $5,0. USA)The Beast from 2. Fathoms was the top grossing movie of 1. Fun Movie Facts: The dinosaur skeleton in the museum sequence is not a real dinosaur skeleton. It was borrowed from storage at RKO where it had been created for another movie – Bringing Up Baby (1. The “Coney Island Amusement Park” in the film is actually The Long Beach Amusement Park in Long Beach, California. The production crew was able to film at this park from 1. Chester and “Jack Deitz” for $4. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1. Movie Plot: Alien Klaatu lands on Earth with his mighty robot, Gort, just after the end of World War II. They have an important message for Earth’s inhabitants that Klaatu wishes to present to the representatives of all nations. Unfortunately, however, communication between the alien and humans becomes difficult. So, after learning more about the people of Earth, Klaatu decides on an alternative. Box Office: Budget = $1,2. Gross Revenue = $1,8. Fun Movie Facts: The role of Gort was given to a doorman from Grauman’s Chinese Theater – because he was extremely tall. However, he was not very strong and had to be aided by wires in scenes where Gort is shown carrying Helen and Klaatu. He also had issues with the heavy Gort suit and could only stand upright in it for about 1/2 hour at a time. To give the appearance of seamlessness to the space ship, the crack around the door was filled with putty, then painted over. When the door opened the putty was torn apart, making the door seem to simply appear. The spaceship from the movie was made of wood, wire and plaster of Paris. There were two different Gort suits – one that laced up in the back for frontal camera shots and a second that laced up the front for back- side camera shots. Harry Bates was paid only $5. Century- Fox for the rights to his short story “Farewell to the Master”. In the original story – Gort was the master and Klaatu was merely one of a series of doubles, or maybe clones, that died after a short time. The phrase “Klaatu barada nikto” has become a popular phrase among sci- fi fans and has been featured in other movies, such as Army of Darkness (1. The ants then terrorize American south- west cities as scientists and the U. S. Army try to find a way to control their spread of death and destruction. Box Office: Gross Revenue = $2,0. Them! Actors handling the weapons were WW2 combat veterans who had experience using them in battle. When Them! Two days before filming began, however, a nervous studio exec cut the budget and the film was made in black and white. The title of the movie is strangely shown in bright red against a black and white background. It was also supposed to have been shot in 3- D. Some elements of the 3- D effects remain in the film – like the ants having extreme close- ups and flame throwers shooting straight into the camera. The Fly (1. 95. 8)Movie Plot. A top scientist has a horrific accident when he tries to use his newly invented teleportation device. Unknowingly, a fly was in the device during his experiments and the scientist is transformed into a half human / half fly creature! Box Office: Budget = $7. Gross Revenue = $3,0. Fun Movie Facts: “The Fly” was originally a story published in the June 1. Playboy magazine. The lab set cost only $2. Army equipment. The original movie script was faithful to George Langelaan’s original story, but Fox executives demanded a happier ending. This became the biggest box office hit for director Kurt Neumann, but he never knew it. Unfortunately, he died a month after the premiere, and only a week before it went into general release. The Blob (1. 95. 8)Movie Plot: An alien life- form lands on Earth and consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows. Looking like a blob of jelly, The Blob spreads from town to town and just keeps getting bigger. Box Office: Budget = $2. Gross Revenue = $4,0. Fun Movie Facts: When the movie ends, it shows the blob being dropped into the Arctic. The theater everyone is seen running from is the Colonial Theater. The Blob was created with a modified weather balloon in the early shots. In later shots, it was created and filmed using colored silicone gel. In some promo material, the character played by Aneta Corsaut is referred to as Judy. Her character in the film is named Jane. Movie producers originally signed Steve Mc. Queen to a three- film deal with The Blob being the first project. Mc. Queen was so difficult to work with during filming that he was released from his contract for the other two films. This film was originally titled as “The Glob.” It was changed after it was discovered that cartoonist Walt Kelly had already used that title. When Steve and Jane go to the police station to report the death of Dr. Hallen, the calendar on the wall shows that it is July 1. Steve Mc. Queen was offered $2,5. OR — 1. 0% of the profits. He took the $2,5. It ended up grossing over $4 million. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1. Movie Plot: English Nobleman Sir Henry Baskerville returns home to his family’s house on the moors after his father’s mysterious death. Sir Baskerville is soon confronted with the mystery of a supernatural hound that is out for revenge upon the Baskerville family. The famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson are brought in to solve the puzzling situation. Fun Movie Facts: The Hound of the Baskervilles was the first “Sherlock Holmes” movie to be filmed in color. The hound used in the movie was a real dog named Colonel. On the set before the hound attacks Christopher Lee’s character Sir Henry Baskerville, they could not get Colonel to jump on Lee, so they started to “prod” him into action. Lee gave up and suddenly, Colonel lunged on him and bit right through one of his arms. For his role as Sherlock Holmes he of course had to smoke a pipe. But, Peter Cushing was either a non- smoker or didn’t like the taste of the pipe, so he kept a glass of milk always to close at hand to remove the taste. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1. Movie Plot. Dr. Miles Bennell learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates. After returning to his small- town practice, Dr. Bennell believes that several of his patients are suffering a paranoid delusion that their friends and relatives are impostors. Although skeptical, he is eventually persuaded that something odd is happening and determines to find out what is causing the phenomenon. Box Office: Budget = $4. Gross Revenue = $2,5. USA) / $5. 00,0. 00 (Britain)The film did over $1,0. Fun Movie Facts: Only $1. The tunnel scene where the hero hides briefly from the townspeople was filmed at Bronson Cave in Griffith Park – known to locals as the Bat Cave. SPOILER ALERT: The film originally ended with Dr. Binnell on the highway shouting “You’re next, you’re next!” to people driving by. However, the studio wanted a happier ending, so scenes were added to the opening to show him in a hospital telling his story to two other doctors and to the ending where the other doctors find out about teh pods and one of them contact the FBI for help. House of Wax (1. 95. Movie Plot: A wax figure sculptor for a local museum is disturbed when his partner proposes burning the unpopular museum to collect the insurance money. As the museum and its wax figures melt amid the blaze, the two men get into a fight. The sculptor is knocked unconscious and left to die in the flames. He later returns to launch his own wax museum, but the opening mysteriously coincides with the sudden disappearance of dead bodies from the city morgue. Box Office: Budget = $6. Gross Revenue = $9,5. Fun Movie Facts: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, while this film is far from being the first 3- D film, nor the first in sound or color, it IS the first 3- D film released with a stereophonic soundtrack. The name of Vincent Price’s character was changed from Ivan Igor to Henry Jarrod to avoid alienating Russian viewers. This was the first 3- D color movie ever to be produced by a major American studio. Shooting took place January 1. February 2. 1 1. 95. April 9. Nedrick Young (who played the alcoholic assistant Leon) was uncredited because he had been blacklisted during the Mc. Carthy “Red scare” era in Hollywood. The War of the Worlds (1. Movie Plot: Film adaptation of H. G. Wells’s classic radio radio story of the invasion of Earth by Martians. The invaders unleash a direct assault on planet Earth, using hundreds of indestructible space ships. The war takes place all over the world and all major cities are destroyed one after another. Even the atomic bomb can’t stop them. Box Office: Gross Revenue = $2,0. Fun Movie Facts: It was originally planned to have the Martian war machines “walking” on visible electronic beams. This was attempted by having electrical sparks flying from the three holes at the bottom of the machines. However, this plan was quickly abandoned due to fire hazards. During filming, the actors were under the impression that they were in fact dealing with the walking tripod machines of the book. The 2. 5 Best Horror Films Of The 2. Century So Far. By the pricking of my thumbs, a holiday- themed list feature this way comes. Yep, All Hallow’s Eve is almost upon us, and while the temptation to do some kind of “Before I Go To Sleep“- themed feature was a great one, we thought we should put together something appropriately spooky to get you in the mood for tomorrow night’s festivities. So, during a break from making our costumes for the annual Playlist Halloween party (popular choices this year: the Babadook, Kevin Feige, Alexander from “Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” box- office receipts for “Sin City 2,” a Gamer. Gater), we’ve been considering the state of recent horror. We’re now fifteen years into the new millennium, and while the horror genre is as ever responsible for more dross than most, it’s also been an exciting time for scary movie fans, with a new wave of filmmakers emerging from all around the world with smart new takes on how to make you scream. So after much deliberation/arguing, we’ve picked out the 2. Take a look at our picks below, and let us know your picks in the comments. Eventually, the studio started to produce different types of films, and “Orphan,” an original chiller co- produced by Leonardo Di. Caprio, might be the company’s very best film. Helmed by Spanish stylist Jaume Collet- Serra, the film is an endlessly fascinating take on the “evil child” horror sub- genre, this time centered around a young couple (played by Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard) who, following the stillborn birth of their third child, decide to adopt an odd Russian girl named Esther (a haunting Isabelle Fuhrman). At 1. 23 minutes, the movie is a decidedly slow burn, but it ramps up to a rare (and essentially unguessable) twist that doesn’t totally discredit the rest of the movie. Instead, it makes the climax, set in Connecticut but turned, thanks to Jeff Cutter. Even if you’re not a fan of this particular genre sub- set, it’s hard to argue with the effective and stylistic verve of “Orphan.” And even before the twist blows your mind, chances are you’ll already be shaken up. For the most part, the results of movies like “Pulse,” “The Grudge,” “The Eye” and “One Missed Call” were disastrous, but the first of the batch, “The Ring,” was against the odds excellent. Directed by a pre- ”Pirates of the Caribbean” Gore Verbinski, the film follows roughly the same plot as the original, with a journalist and single mother (Naomi Watts, who’d just broken out in “Mulholland Drive”) discovering that her niece has died a mysterious death, her body frozen in a position of horror. Digging into the case, she finds that the death may have been linked to the urban legend of a mysterious video tape that causes the death of anyone who watches it after seven days. It’s probably not superior to the 1. Verbinski retains much of what worked about Hideo Nakata’s film, and beautifully amps up the atmosphere, with an almost painterly feel to the photography by Bojan Bazelli, and a halting, jolting score by Hans Zimmer. And though the shock of the film’s ending was probably lessened for those who’d seen the original, those coming to the remake fresh almost certainly never forgot it. On the strength of this clever, funny, subversive home invasion movie and their latest “The Guest,” which sadly all but disappeared from theaters due to stiff competition in a very crowded market, they’re two upstart genre filmmakers whose careers you’ll want to follow. Without question what they do next is an exciting prospect (a remake of the excellent “I Saw the Devil,” the Korean revenge film to end all Korean revenge films, was recently announced), but for now we have “You’re Next,” currently available to stream on Netflix. It’s a thrill ride, a reminder of when horror films were fun, and almost never disappoints. It stars a rogue’s gallery of former mumblecore elites and current/past indie mainstays —Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, AJ Bowan, Kate Lyn Sheil, Larry Fessenden— all upstaged by the film’s MVP, Sharni Vinson, who takes what must have already been a great character on the page and infuses it with humor, bloodlust and urgency. We’ll leave it for you to discover what we’re getting at, because “You’re Next” works best when characters turn the tables and expectations are upended. As directed by David Robert Mitchell (“Myth of the American Sleepover“), “It Follows” is many things —it’s a fairly on- the- nose metaphor for the dangers of promiscuity, a superb modern campfire tale, and a loose imagining of what would happen if the cast of “The Breakfast Club” banded together to fight a horrifying otherworldly evil. It is also scary as hell. Mitchell captures the action in a series of queasy long takes, a welcome reprieve from the quick- cutting assault that helped define the “torture porn” slate of films, so the viewer is waiting for something terrible to happen instead of being bludgeoned with it; it’s artful and eerie at the same time. The mythology that Mitchell sets up makes a whimsical kind of sense (hopefully it will be left mercifully unexplored, should sequels be in the cards) and Maika Monroe (who starred in another killer genre film from this year, “The Guest“) is one of the most compelling female horror icons since Jamie Lee Curtis in “Halloween.” She is a girl whose fumbling one night stand ends up haunting her —literally. The result was that “Berberian Sound Studio,” his horror- tinged follow- up, was very much under- the- radar when it arrived, but the film successfully broke open the skulls of pretty much everyone that saw it. Influenced by both David Lynch and classic giallo horror, the film starred the great Toby Jones as Gilderoy, a sound engineer who travels to Italy to work on a horror picture called “The Equestrian Vortex” (the film’s director takes exception at calling it a horror film: one imagines Strickland might say the same). Gilderoy begins his meticulous work but finds himself rapidly unraveling. It’s in part a horror film about the effect of horror films, and that we barely see anything of the film- within- the- film only lets your imagination play havoc with the unpleasant squelches and screams that are being created by the sonic wizard (and Jones is absolutely terrific in the part). Pure genre fans might come away disappointed with the lack of jump- scares or actual gore, but this is a truer kind of horror, one that reaches in and shakes your skeleton through your ears.
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