In descending order...
10. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
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| My favorite movie poster of the year was a book cover. |
I never said my top ten terrors would be films only. The return of REDRUM is the year's best horror cinema in novel form. This direct follow-up to The Shining is so strong, it makes me wish King would write sequels to more of his classics. This book even required a fright break, where the intensity reached a level that made me have to put it down to relieve, and prolong, the delicious terror. Pet Sematary and Under the Dome are two other King novels that required fright breaks.
9. Frankenstein's Army
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| Watch out, its a Nazi. |
This is one of two found footage film on my list. The joys of this film are all about the menagerie of mind-bending (and mind mixing) industrial/corpse/robots and the messy damage they inflict on humans. A subversive plus is that these are Nazi industrial/corpse/robots, which makes them doubly evil, and plants the film firmly in cult territory, the Nazisploitation subgenre.
8. Black Rock
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| Shoot his heads off! |
I'll admit to having a fondness for another one of horror's most sordid subgenres, the rape/revenge film. What makes this battle of the sexes, three men hunting three women on a remote island after an attempted rape, so unique and fascinating is the woman's voice, and rage, that informs it. Directed, co-written and starring Katie Aselton in a raw and gritty performance, this female perspective on gender war is precisely what's missing from 2013's far less successful companion piece, I Spit On Your Grave 2.
7. V/H/S 2
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| This is religion in V/H/S 2. |
This might sound like something Pervula would say, but I just love number twos! The first of two superior sequels on this list, and the second found footage film. An impressive slate of directors (Simon Barrett, Jason Eisener, Gareth Evans, Gregg Hale, Eduardo Sanchez, Timo Tjahjanto and Adam Wingard), a more solid and chilling wraparound, and a new focus on creative creatures instead of rapey fratboy cruelties made this anthology film a relentless thrill ride. A big bone... I mean bonus for featuring full frontal male nudity within the first minute of the movie. That's starting things out with a bang!
6. John Dies At The End
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| He's the good guy. |
Few films successfully capture the narcotic effect, among them The Doors, Hardware, the films of Coffin Joe, and my #1 pick below, and I'll add this Don Coscarelli adaptation of the cult horror novel to that short list. This film is basically Phantasm on acid (countless shots and scenes are nearly identical), with the addition of comedy and a touching bromance at its core. It helps to eat a pot brownie beforehand.
5. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
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| A body count is always better with Amanda Plummer. |
Based on my favorite novel of the trilogy, and they nailed it. The best thing to happen to this franchise was the departure of the original's director Gary Ross, whose ugly, shaky-cam, over-cut attempt showed he had no real vision for the material. This entry has moments of striking dark fantasy (the lightening tree), convincing and suspenseful threats (the poison fog, the baboons), and the addition of Amanda Plummer as a nutty tribute seriously sweetens this body count pie.
4. Evil Dead
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| The scene that threw me out of my theater seat. |
I have no problem with remakes. They are nothing but sequels in my mind. Remember in the 1980s, when horror sequels were accused of being nothing more than remakes, especially Friday the 13th Part II and Evil Dead 2? Remakes and sequels are just more of the same, and I'm fine with that. This return to the cabin in the woods had the most cringe-inducing ultra-violence I saw on the screen all year, delivered with wildly creative, Raimi-inspired camerawork. Best of all, there was no Ash or Bruce Campbell to cheese it up. One scene of mutilation literally flung me out of my theater seat with revulsion, a serious plus. The film's only glaring misstep, the one final post-credit shot.
3. The Cask of Amontillado from Tales of Poe
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| Brewster McCall and Alan Rowe Kelly create a new zombie king in The Cask. |
This Edgar Allan Poe anthology film should finally see release in 2014. One of my favorite films of 2012 was the first segment, The Tell-Tale Heart, directed by Bart Mastronardi, which I caught at the Shriekfest Horror Film Festival. In 2013, I was lucky to get an advance screening of the second segment, The Cask of Amontillado, directed by Alan Rowe Kelly, and it has been rooted firmly in my nightmares ever since. This story plays like the best segment of Tales From the Crypt you've never seen, but there's something even more remarkable about it. The Cask features one of cinema's most iconic zombies, a ghoul that can shamble proudly beside Return of the Living Dead's Tarman, Zombie's Maggot Face, Creepshow's Grantham, and Tales From the Crypt's Grimsdyke. And this new zombie king is played by Randy Jones, one of the original Village People. Once you see this creeping ghoul coming for you and looking in your eyes, you will never forget him!
2. Carrie
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| Best girl fight of the year. |
I reread the novel shortly before seeing this, and I could not have been more satisfied with the results. Some people took issue that Carrie was too precious a property to remake. Only this is not a remake; it's a new adaptation. Carrie was a hit novel before it was a movie, and it has become a modern classic, the new Dracula or Frankenstein. Every generation has the right to revisit and do a new take on these classics. Some will always see Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and others may prefer Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman in the role. I don't want to get into a comparison between Sissy and Chloe, because both offer honest and valid interpretations of Carrie. I had an intense emotional investment with all of the characters and their tragedy, especially with the new Sue Snell and Tommy Ross. Carrie 2013 also captures that rare small town, Stephen King atmosphere perfectly, boosted by a poignant score, my favorite of the year. I also appreciated that this modern take incorporated new technology while avoiding current teenager (and filmmaking) trends, an absolute rarity for studio based teenage films these days. Plus, the extended battle to the death between Carrie and Chris Hargensen was fierce!
It's also worth noting that this is the second film in my top ten directed by a woman. Kimberly Peirce is no Brian DePalma, nor does she need to be.
1. The Lords of Salem
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| Going to Hell in style. |
The visionary work of a master horror filmmaker. An American nightmare dressed in European art horror aesthetics. A hallucinogenic head trip dripping with neon style and populated with some of the most gut-churning monsters I've ever seen. Watching this in a near empty theater, I became so disturbed, I feared I was going to Hell. Revisiting it on Halloween night at home, my blood still ran cold. I could go on for pages on why this was an artistic triumph for me (The performances! The art direction! The cinematography! The music! The abundance of roles for amazing, mature actresses!). This is just one of those films where I found every frame and every note to be perfection. It's also the best and most terrifying monster movie since The Mist.
Finally, I'll give mention to my most anticipated films of 2014. As my 2013 list proves, I can appreciate mainstream, studio horror as much as the independents. And while I'll definitely be in line early to see the new Godzilla, it's two micro-budget offerings that I'm most excited for.
First is the completed Tales of Poe, with its extremely clever updates of classic Poe stories. These adaptations avoid stuffy period trappings and modern annoyances, instead taking place in a timeless milieu. This anthology is also populated with a dream cast of scream queens, including Adrienne King (Friday the 13th), Amy Steel (Friday the 13th Part II), Lesleh Donaldson (Happy Birthday to Me), Caroline Williams (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Debbie Rochon (Terror Firmer), Desiree Gould (Sleepaway Camp), Alan Rowe Kelly (The Blood Shed), and more. From what I've seen so far, the film is smart enough to use this talent pool to the fullest, giving them juicy roles to run with instead of just throwaway cameos.
My next pick is Grimewave: Cockface Killer 3. Seriously, director Jason Matherne is a mad genius, and possibly the illegitimate love child of John Waters and Lloyd Kaufman. Matherne and his company Terror Optic's last film, Goregasm, is a triumph of offensively hilarious, punk rock, exploitation horror that continually manages to make me scream out loud, scene after sordid scene. And this is coming from someone seasoned in shock filmmaking. Matherne is a criminally underrated talent of transgressive cinema, and I can't wait to be awed and appalled by Grimewave.
