Eek! Speak's Top Ten Horror Films of 2016

Cinema church at dawn.

As we begin our journey into a new year of fear, I’m eager to shine my flashlight back at the films that most entertained, inspired, and downright frightened me in the genuinely disturbing year of 2016. In putting this list together, some surprising connections came to light, and looking back at last year’s horror entertainment was like looking into a cultural mirror. What frightening face does that mirror reveal? Let’s look at this list and find out.

10 The Invitation

Latest LA fad.

I went to see this film with apprehension, since my new novel Turkey Day shares one major plot similarity: a dinner party invitation leads to murder before dessert. Thankfully, The Invitation is a wholly original, unsettling mystery. I certainly benefited by seeing this in a theater very close to the Hollywood Hills where the film is set. This is not the only film in this top ten list to make Los Angeles a setting and an accomplice to terror.

9 The Eyes of My Mother

Hide your eyeballs.

Black and white German Expressionist horror and extreme modern horror are two contrasting subgenres that I love. Rarely are they melded together as they are in The Eyes of My Mother. Though this film runs a scant 76 minutes, every second is executed with quiet, artful elegance, leading you gently into excruciating narrative territory. The feel bad movie of the year.

8 The Neon Demon

Neon triangles of terror.

So there are a number of hot models splashed in glitter and gore lounging all over opulent L.A. landscapes. There’s some semblance of a story, maybe some commentary about beauty and drive, and lots of lingering shots of neon triangles. Whatever it is, I loved this self indulgent runway freak show. This may sound like a love letter from one of the director’s devotees, but I had never seen a Nicolas Winding Refn film before this. Curiously, this isn’t the only film in my top ten to seduce me with pretty neon.

7 Fender Bender

Retro slasher.

There has been a trend over the past decade for slasher films to mimic the 1980s in style and structure. Yet when I see new filmmakers straining to replicate the rampages of the Reagan era, I’m taken out of the film. I just stop buying it. Then there’s Mark Pavia’s Fender Bender. Pavia has a love of the retro slasher era too, but instead of recreating the MTV decade’s hairstyles and totally dated dialogue, he pays attention to details like atmosphere, isolation, an iconic new killer and likable victims. In doing so, Pavia creates a slasher movie that appears as though it was made in 1981. I really hope there is a Part 2 or Part II. I wrote about this film far more extensively in my last Eek! Speak blog entry, check it out.

6 The Girl in the Photographs

Modern slasher.

Not all new slasher films reflect the retro era. The Girl in the Photographs feels not only modern, but ahead of its time. That should be expected considering Wes Craven was an executive producer. Craven’s level of quality and care is obvious throughout, from Dean Cundy’s atmospheric cinematography to the brutal murder set-pieces. Sadly ignored upon its miniscule release, this is a rich and rewarding slasher film that is an important part of the Craven cannon, and a movie that I plan to analyze in depth in a future article.

5 Green Room

Ugly Americans.

I love horror with a political edge, when it reflects and dissects the issues that make America hurt and burn. Green Room holds a mirror to the country’s racist divide in the coolest of possible settings, a punk rock club. Neo-Nazi skinheads are the force of evil here, and they are not portrayed as superhuman villains. These skinheads are idiots, fearful only due to their numbers and their nonchalance toward grievous violence. The filmmakers’ message is simple and one I stand firmly behind with a baseball bat – Nazi Skinheads Fuck Off!

4 The Purge: Election Year

Today's Republicans.

I love how bold and outspoken this series has become. The Purge: Election Year made me as uncomfortable as watching the nightly news; the film is nearly indistinguishable from fact. And who are the bad guys here? A mix of white supremacists, conservative Republicans, and Evangelicals. They are cruel, crazy and prone to murderous violence. Couldn’t have framed it better myself. Plus, I love scary mask porn like this, with a hundred unique killer costumes. Those Candy Girls make my diabetes explode.

My diabetes just exploded.

3 31

A neon Samhain nightmare.

Trick or treat, motherfuckers! Rob Zombie delivers what is basically his Halloween III, a new tale of terror set on October 31^st. This carnival of killer clowns is looking awfully familiar. We have uniform wearing Nazis and evil rich overseers who look like the new first family. Some viewers may see only boobs and murder and trash, but I saw Zombie working on many intelligent levels here, including political commentary. Another neon filled nightmare with the most beautifully skuzzy horror bathroom I’ve ever seen.

2 The New Beverly Cinema’s All Night Horror Show

The most grindhouse night of the year.

I have been to every edition of the New Beverly Cinema’s 12-hour horror marathon but one, and it inevitably ranks as my favorite cinema event of the year each time. I pride myself in having seen a majority of horror films, and yet programmers Brian J. Quinn and Phil Blankenship always manage to assemble a secret line-ups of old favorites and undiscovered gems of the genre. Even films I have seen countless times like Trick or Treat, Hell Night, and Dawn of the Dead (featured previous years) take on a new significance and become more delicious when included in the program. This year’s line-up ran as follows: Race With the Devil, The Horror of Party Beach, Rawhead Rex, A Bay of Blood, Slaughter High, and Ticks. All presented in 35mm with vintage horror trailer reels running between them (full disclosure – numerous trailers from my personal collection occasionally make up these reels). Quite frankly, Brian J. Quinn and Phil Blankenship are the best in the world at what they do, continuing the pure grindhouse cinema experience. This is my religion, and my church.

1 The Love Witch

Love her.

This film isn’t just my year end favorite; it’s my new cinematic obsession. The Love Witch creates a genuine hypnotic, narcotic effect with its blend of beauty, intelligence, and dripping love of the horror and erotic film genres. Much has been said about the film’s strict adherence to the aesthetics of 1960s Euro-horror, but I found this film to be most similar to Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, in their structures, their portrayal of a voluptuous vamp using magic spells to procure love, and their gender politics. Luckily, The Love Witch gets to revel in all of the naked Satanic orgy action that Elvira could only hint at. The Love Witch is horror burlesque that stimulates your mind and inside your shorts simultaneously. Submit to her pleasures.

The 1988 35mm Love Witch.

In extra appreciation for The Love Witch, I had the joy of projecting this film on 35mm for its opening week at the famed Nuart Theatre, a rare film format for exhibition in this digital age. In 1988, the first film I assembled and projected on 35mm, beginning my longtime side projectionist career, was Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. It’s as though these vamps have me forever trapped in their celluloid webs.

Bathed in The Love Witch's lurid 35mm hues.

The changing political landscape should usher in a daring age of horror cinema like after Vietnam and during the conservative 1980s. If 2016 is any indication, an exciting new era is well underway. I’m eager to see horror get more political, activist, and inspiring in 2017, and if the majority of us feel the country is going to Evangelical Hell in a deplorable basket, take after the Final Girls of 2016. Blind them with your sex and fight back with a cry of “Neo-Nazis fuck off!”

Armando D. Muñoz

America 2017