Eek! Speak's Top Ten Horrors of 2015

The author watches the following titles.

Before I share my favorite ten horrors of 2015, I have to say this was a difficult list to compile. There were simply so many effective, suspenseful, and varied nightmares to choose from, I could have easily made this a list of twenty. These horrors are not limited to cinema, so books and television are included. Befitting someone who goes by the alter ego Pervula, my tastes often lean toward the more transgressive and divisive titles out there, so strap in as we dissect some stellar sickies.

In descending order...

10. It Follows

This is not a safe sexual position.

I fell for the familiar charms of this breakout crowd pleaser like many horror fans. Nowhere near as scary as A Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween, the films It Follows follows, it's still an engrossing teen kill film that plays like a paranormal abstinence video. I welcome the inevitable sequel and a Follows franchise, but I hope the next film answers my burning questions. Does this ghost STD spread through unprotected sex, or protected sex as well? Would a condom catch these creepers? Is birth control a crucifix? Would an antibiotic or ointment knock out this occult chlamydia? Let's have an honest, open discussion about supernatural sex.

9. Krampus

Christmas Cookie Kill Kill!

I love a good holiday horror film, and this evil X-mas offering did a great job of painting a claustrophobic and dark holiday tableau bolstered by striking creature designs. What stood out the most, and warrants this title landing on my best of the year list, is the film's unexpected subversive political slant. Most of the characters are portrayed as such unsympathetic ugly Americans, namely selfish, gluttonous, rude, judgmental, bullying, right wing gun nuts, that I ended up cheering on Krampus and his merry minions as they decimate this family, young and old alike. That's a message movie I can get behind. Bigots taste better than Christmas cookies.

8. White God

Puppies want people chow.

This Hungarian film tackles another favorite subgenre of mine, animals attack films. A more fitting title might have been White Dog, but that one was already taken by the racist maniac mutt movie by Sam Fuller. This is an activist film, an indictment of Hungary's mistreatment of its dogs and citizens alike. If you can make it through the grueling, simulated animal violence and dog fight scenes, the final act canine revolt in the streets of Budapest is a stunner, filmed with hundreds of real stray dogs rescued by the filmmakers. As the population is reduced to puppy chow, horror becomes beauty, art, and a salve for the soul.

7. Goodnight Mommy

Goodnight Daddy?

This German art house horror hit was one of the most extreme theatrical experiences I had this year (I missed Human Centipede 3 on the big screen), and it was fun watching a packed audience squirm as this film tightened the screws and delivered the pain. There were no walkouts, since everyone was there for a communal experience in extreme cinema, and we were rewarded. This minimalist terror tale about two young brothers who suspect their mother is a dangerous stranger when she returns home from plastic surgery with bandages over her face has been accused by some as being misogynistic. Many critics claim the horror genre is misogynistic, and I strongly disagree, but on occasion I do find a film that warrants that criticism (such as another 2015 film, Old 37). I simply didn't see it here. Now when will we get a Goodnight Daddy?

6. The Walking Dead - Thank You

This scares me.

I've had a love/like relationship with this series since the beginning, but season 6 has been my favorite so far. The crowning segment was this episode, which immediately became a lightening rod of debate and controversy when one of the main characters was killed. It wasn't the character they chose to kill that got to me; it was the insanely graphic and grim double murder scene itself, which disturbed me deeply for days. This was the series' defining moment of horror, even if many episodes later one of those characters was revealed to have survived. I kept this episode on the DVR to watch again and see if it still packed a gut punch a second time (it did), but it took me many weeks to summon the courage for that second viewing. Thank You for reminding me that zombies can be scary.

5. The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker

Gag reflex.

Clive Barker's latest was my favorite book of the year, the one I most wanted to reread right away. Appropriate that it was also the most graphically violent and perverse book I read all year (and I read some gloriously X-treme titles, including The Day Harken Darringer Died by DoctorBuckles and Carsick by John Waters). I explored this novel at length in my last blog post, Get The Hots For Dark Plots - Barker, King, and the New Blood. Here's an excerpt: "a nonstop barrage of ejaculating evils, diabolical genitals, and unholy fornications. When a grinning face pushed out of a demon's butthole..." Barker's final Pinhead story is thankfully not a copy of Hellraiser or The Hellbound Heart. It is an entirely different, explicit beast best explored with an open mind, and a clenched sphincter!

4. American Horror Story: Hotel - Devil's Night

Yep, they went there.

I avoided season one when it first aired, due to my extreme dislike of Glee. Okay, dislike is too kind. I HATED Glee. But once I started watching American Horror Story with season two, I got hooked and have seen every episode since. I thought season 4, Freak Show, was a high point of horror and would be tough to top. American Horror Story: Hotel reached those heights, for entirely different reasons. AHS: Hunger, I mean Hotel, was a nasty, neon drenched cocktail as intoxicating as the blood drunk vampires cavorting on those fluid stained, ghoul stuffed mattresses. In all this gory glory, Devil's Night was the sickening standout. This episode, about a yearly dinner where the ghosts of dead serial killers, including Gacy, Dahmer, Ramirez, and Wuornos, torture and feast on a new victim, felt irresponsible, dangerous, and practically made my skin crawl off and hide under the sofa. I love that feeling! Another thank you to this season for featuring the true trans role model of the year, Liz Taylor (certainly not that other American Horror Story, Caitlyn).

3. Roar

Yep, they went there.

This little known film was originally released in 1981, but saw an unexpected rerelease in 2015. In today's post Midnight Rider filmmaking world, Roar could never be made. Apparently, you can't just throw your cast and crew into the jaws of hungry lions, at least not anymore. This may be the most pure animals attack film ever made, because its nothing but. The description on IMDB actually does it justice - "Ravening jungle beasts assemble in flocks to invade an otherwise quiet home where they chase humans up and down stairways and from one room to another." That's all it is, and it couldn't be more distressing. This makes Savage Harvest look like a Meow Mix commercial in comparison.

2. The Green Inferno

Satisfied my appetite.

Oh look, another totally disreputable horror subgenre that I love, the Italian cannibal film. That persecuted and prosecuted group of films is what Eli Roth's latest shocker The Green Inferno lovingly cannibalizes, chewing every tasty trope down to the bone. Bravo to Roth for sticking so close to the original recipe, while adding plenty of his own seasoning to spice up every death scene and make them taste fresh. This may sound repetitive, but I spent long portions of this movie squirming in unease, holding my breath, awash in dread, shocked at the extreme and boldly offensive levels of horror on display. What a great age of horror we are experiencing, really to my tastes, which brings me to my number one pick.

1. Sinister 2

Murder Movie Art.

Many Part 2s are among my most loved films of all time, including my favorite film, Halloween II. I felt lukewarm toward the original Sinister, even dozing in the theater, so I didn't have high expectations here. I'm glad I still ventured to the cinema for this, because Sinister 2 was the most atmospheric and engrossing horror film I saw all year. This felt like a classic Stephen King story, the hard kind like Pet Sematary or The Dark Half, densely layered with great characters and supernatural conflict. Basically a haunted house story about young ghost bullies, this follow-up thankfully does not follow in the overly nihilistic footsteps of the original. I was seriously engaged and rooting for this family besieged by spirits, a demon, and most frightening of all, an abusive dickhead father. Like the first film, Sinister 2 gets pitch black when it comes to those home movie massacre scenes. The church film reel, which had to be the black heart of this movie, sent a number of audience members fleeing up the aisles so fast you'd think their asses were on fire. They didn't return. I'd say that is a testament to the power of Sinister 2, my favorite work of horror art of 2015.

Most Anticipated Horrors of 2016

The Witch

This scares me.

I absolutely love goat horror (I'm bleating at the opening title of my number one film from 2013, The Lords of Salem). The aggressive goat in The Witch's trailer alone puts this film a cloven hoof ahead of most others.

Grimewave: Cockface Killer 3

This is entertainment.

This film made my most anticipated of 2014 list, but will finally see release in April 2016. Director Jason Matherne is my favorite new director of X-treme, transgressive horror smut, thanks to his criminally underseen trash-terpiece Goregasm. This one is Pervula's most antici-panty-pated.

Fender Bender

Evidence of a body count.

The latest from director Mark Pavia, of the atmospheric Stephen King adaptation The Night Flier, could be the year's scariest surprise. With this new teen slasher film, Pavia is setting out to scare us hard, basically giving us horror fans a bender! Fender Bender looks to be a serious scream generator. I intend to be first in line for this one, but I'll play it safe and take a bus or walk to the theater.

Back to 2015. In hindsight, I've decided to add one more title to my top horrors of 2015 list. I won't assign it a number, but I feel its worthy of discussion, because this film deserves way more attention than it has received.

The Curse of Downers Grove

The curse is real.

There's a curse in Downers Grove, where every year, right before graduation, one senior will die a horrible, untimely death. And graduation is one week away. I don't want to say any more about the plot, because there is a large element of surprise involved, and incredible suspense is wrung out of the discovery. The horror of The Curse of Downers Grove is frighteningly real, and important to discuss. Like many other titles on my list, this horror film has a political agenda that I wholeheartedly endorse. We are in a great new age of activist horror.

Armando D. Muñoz