The Top 20 Horror Films of 2016 Pt.2 10-1

Uhhh....I'm up, I'm up!

In Part One I discussed the upswing of the genre and detailed movies 20-11 on my top twenty list, ranging from anthology films, Mother/Daughter bonding time, Cops against weirdos, and closed-door suspense thrillers.  I don't have much more to add, so we'll jump back into it.

10. The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Some movies work based entirely on setting and atmosphere, even though the story isn't exactly the strongest element around.  Autopsy does an excellent job at utilizing technique, character, and performance to gloss over some of the films weaker elements to create a thoroughly strong little horror film.  Occasionally it DOES overreach, but when this film works it works extremely well.  Brian Cox gives an excellent and relatively subdued performance as an aging, repressed Mortician who, along with his son, performances the titular autopsy and finds his beliefs and repression challenged.  It's a strong performance within a strong, if not a little overdone, horror film.

9. Demon

I was saddened to learn that Marcin Wrona committed suicide sometime after the completion of Demon, primarily because it grieves me to know that we'll never see if he could manage to follow up this really intelligent little horror flick with anything better.  What makes this film tick is a tricky element: using a ghost/possession story as a metaphor for deep seated cultural issues.  To reveal what that issue is would be something of a spoiler, but to see this film so expertly ford the rough waters of a society deciding to focus on celebration and revelry instead of confronting its own history.  There are scenes in this movie that I don't think I'll ever forget, such as a group of drunken revelers stumbling happily but shamefully past an aghast funeral procession.  It was truly haunting stuff.  But don't let that give you the wrong impression: in the midst of all this cultural commentary, it's also pretty funny.

8. Hush

The second of Mike Flanagans two efforts this year, Hush proves to be one the strongest home invasion film of the year (of which there were many, with mixed results), and provides a star making performance by a very talented actress in the form of Kate Siegel.  Siegel plays a deaf Woman living alone in a country home after a breakup, who finds herself menaced by a masked man whose only ambition is to ruin peoples days.  What ensues is a highly suspenseful and, most importantly, intelligent film.  The heroine is resourceful, the story doesn't gloss over minor (and very real) details, and the villain is bone chilling.  It's available as a Netflix exclusive, so do yourself a favor and check it out.

7. Nina Forever

This horror comedy combines deep seated emotional and psychological issues with strange tongue-in-cheek surrealism to wonderful effect.  A young woman becomes enamored with a troubled young man reeling from the death of his girlfriend, and begins a relationship with him...however, every time they attempt to make love, the aforementioned dead girlfriend squirms her way up from the mattress...usually to mock them.  It's not the most subtle metaphor, but it's deeply effective and well-played.  It has a sense of depth that bores its way into the mind rather quickly and stays there.  It's something special.

6. Under The Shadow

This Iranian horror flick does something that I feel is very important in todays world: reminds us Americans just how lucky we are.  While the ghostly elements of Under The Shadow are fairly hit-or-miss, the psychological bits of personal stress combined with the constant threat of having a bomb literally fly through your ceiling at any moment, and your safety being conditional upon how your own Government sees you (as one memorable scene shows: our heroine flees her tormentor only to be arrested because she didn't put her Hijab)...it's really haunting stuff. 

5. Train to Busan

Just when you thought the Zombie subgenre was dead (and it is, really), South Korea comes along and makes a Zombie movie that thoroughly and thoughtfully reminds us why the genre really exists: to discuss the selfishness and selflessness of the human condition.  Some excellent character work puts the icing on the cake, making the entire piece a very moving study of strangers going from being in it for themselves to forming a makeshift family in the face of unending pressure and tragedy.  It's a story of nobility from the most unexpected of sources, and a morality tale.

4. The Eyes of My Mother

This artsy, stark nightmare of a film was one of the most effective and unsettling films released this year in any genre, telling a sobering story of psychological damage and the banality of violence from the perspective of the one doing the violence.  Told in three acts, Eyes details the personal history of a character that is a person first, and a psychopath second, utilizing a fascinating amount of restraint (we see almost no violence whatsoever in its short running time, only the outcome of that violence), and a dizzying variation of intimacy and distance, both visually and emotionally.  What ostensibly occurs is a movie that provides us with a point of view that is both disturbingly familiar but morally alien.

3. The Neon Demon

Nicholas Winding Refn is something of a polarizing filmmaker, and his 2016 horror outing The Neon Demon is no exception.  Stunningly and hauntingly beautiful, confusingly surreal and disquieting, the film shows us a shifty, squirmy peak into a world of ambition, objectification and jealousy, all with an unbelievably intrusive (and beautiful) synth score.  It's a very quiet, slow movie, but if you give it the chance and keep an open mind, it will likely slime its way right into your frontal lobe, and stick with you for weeks.  

2. The Witch

I was incredibly torn on where to put The Witch.  My heart told me it was meant to be number one, but ultimately my brain won out and I put something else there, but you may as well consider this as the OTHER number one horror film of the year.  There hasn't been a movie like this in quite some time...actually, there may have never been a film quite like this before.  The most interesting element of this film is how you could set it in the modern era without changing anything outside of superficial details, which is exactly the point: the themes of religious intolerance, coming of age, freudian family dynamics, and even the high anxiety of trying to survive in a world you're not quite prepared to thrive in, for any reason.  The creepiest stuff in this film comes from those themes far more than it does from any witchcraft, with the titular monster being far more representative of a hostile environment encroaching upon those who arrogantly presume superior knowledge. 

1. The Invitation

Few films put me on the edge of my seat quite like The Invitation, and as such I chose it over The Witch, which was not an easy decision.  The ensemble cast is very game, with a quiet sense of menace being expertly presented by director Karyn Kusama. A man, who isn't exactly the picture of health, accepts an invitation to a dinner party hosted by his estranged ex-wife and her new husband.  Upon arriving he finds himself beset by the demons of his past and a very off-setting question: is his ex-wife and her Husband up to something sinister?  Is he being paranoid? Combined with those excellent mysterious elements, performances and a highly pressurized atmosphere (asking just how much weird would you put up with to be polite), there is a sense of progressive social ideas presented as well.  It's a truly stunning work, and is my favorite of the year...and believe me, that was NOT an easy choice to make.

So, there you have it.  Some good recommendations for you to check out.  It's been a great year.  I can't wait to see if 2017 can raise the bar.

The Top 20 Horror Films of 2016 Pt.1 20-11

Black Phillip says you're wicked.  He also welcomes you to this blog.

It goes without saying that 2016 hasn't been a particularly great year for most of us.  Me personally: ton of medical issues, financial problems, tons of anxiety about the future, loneliness and rejection...y'know, hilarity. For the rest of us: tons of icons from film, television and movies passed away, Brexit and, of course, a Trump Presidency.  Racism, sexism, homophobia have become dangerously normalized, and the threat of War and ruin looms above us all.

So, is it really so surprising that 2016 has been a particularly fantastic year for the Horror genre?  Not only have the films been excellent (which is, of course, the reason that you're reading this), but TV shows like Ash Vs The Evil Dead, The Exorcist, and even a particularly strong season of American Horror Story have graced the small screen.  Things are really looking up for the genre.  The reason for this sudden upswing in excellence is, in my estimation, a direct result of the political and social unrest that has been gripping the world: I think it's always true to say that as society suffers, art excels. On top of this, the horror genre has always been an outlet for our fears and anxieties, so it only makes sense that the genre would start representing some of those issues, while also throwing out a bunch of escapist scary stuff to keep us occupied.

In that spirit, I've expanded the list to Twenty films over last years Fifteen. This may seem arbitrary...and it kind of is...but it's to reflect the rise in quality that the genre has begun to exhibit this past year (not that last year was a slouch) and will hopefully continue to exhibit.

So, let's get the honorable mentions out of the way and get on with it, won't you?

Honorable Mention:

The Conjuring 2: Good, not great.  First one was better.

Green Room: Solid suspense outing, just not terribly engaging.

Phantasm:Ravager: Not the best film, but brought a cult favorite franchise to a close with dignity.

Last Girl Standing: Very good,just not QUITE good enough for this list.

20. Carnage Park/Darling

 

 While Darling is the better film, it's actual release date is kinda debatable.  It's not, for instance, on any critics top lists this year, but was on a few last year...while it was on the festival circuit last year, it got released to the public in early January.  So, even though it's an excellent film with an amazing performance by Lauren Ashley Carter (whom I adore), it may not be relevant.  So, in its stead, I've selected Mikey Keating's other effort this year. Carnage Park.  While she's no Carter, Ashley Bell is a very fine actress (best known for her turn as Nell in the underrated The Last Exorcism films) and gives a lot to enjoy here as an innocent girl who goes from being kidnapped during a bank heist to being hunted by a psychopath in the desert.  As a movie about isolation, hopelessness (Bells character is going through a tough time even BEFORE her ordeal) and helplessness, it hits home in a big way with a fantastic, though occasionally plodding, cat and mouse game.  Keating proved with these two films that he is definitely a talent to watch in coming years.

19. Southbound

One of the first horror flicks to be released this year (and quite possibly the first good one), Southbound manages to reclaim anthology based horror cinema from the disgusting, filth-encrusted hands of projects like ABC's of Death with an ambitious and surreal journey through hell.  While, as is the curse of all anthology films, not all stories are created equal and sometimes the movie finds its special effects marred by a lack of financial resources, some of the stories have a unique sense of danger and cleverness (the best of which being a Young Woman who ends up in a weird house when she and her friends van breaks down on the highway), while managing to keep everything moving forward nicely...and a connection between everything that is really interesting.  

18. Baskin

A gory, psychotic Turkish import about a group of Cops finding themselves dealing with a hellish nightmare.  While the characters feel somewhat shorted as the movie moves on (which, to be fair, is mostly caused by them being fully eclipsed by the films shocking and extreme imagery), it's still undeniably effective.  I'm not usually super into gore/torture flicks, but something about the horrific events performed in this film are hypnotic and, occasionally, beautiful.  It's one of this years weirder movies, and definitely one of the hardest to sit through (especially for the uninitiated or squeamish), but it's a really fascinating piece.

17. The Monster

Every once in a great while a film comes along and reminds me how effective simplicity can really be.  While director Bryan Bertino is something of a mixed bag as a director (what with the suspenseful but deeply stupid The Strangers and the cinematic stress headache that is Mockingbird), The Monster feels like his most mature and well conceived project to date.  The story revolves more on character than threat, focusing specifically on the dysfunctional but heartfelt relationship between a precocious and scarred little girl and her alcoholic, petulant and even more scarred Mother.  While the horror elements work well enough, it's the emotional moments that land the best, being moving without necessarily being too melodramatic.  Zoe Kazan gives an excellent performance as the Mother.  It was one of the biggest pleasant surprises of the year.

16. Creepy

Anyone who knows me knows that I've never been a huge supporter of Japanese horror: it isn't that I think it's bad, it just rarely ever works for me the way that, say, Chinese or Korean horror tends to.  With that in mind, know that I genuinely loved Creepy.  What impressed me to the most about it was the level of restraint it ultimately chose to exercise: considering that the film focuses a lot of psychological and emotional manipulation performed on Women by a sleazy psychopath, it never pushes the physical elements that an America film version certainly would have.  The general premise (an ex-cop and his Wife move next door to a dangerous, manipulative psychopath who manages to convince others to do his bidding) had me nervous about a rape sequence for most of its running time...and it never came.  This does nothing to diminish the films sense of tension or terror, though: the movie is without a doubt a hair raising ball of suspense.  On top of this, the performances are excellent, and some highly intelligent casting choices (the two men, the cop and the psycho, are played by polar opposites: the cop is one of the most handsome men I've ever seen, and the psycho looks like a Frog) make it a very effective thriller.

15. Ouija:Origin of Evil

One of two films featured on my best of list by director Mike Flanagan (Absentia, Oculus), who has become one of my favorite modern horror filmmakers, this one would have easily been one of the films this year I would have expected to be a pile of garbage but turned out to be a very effective film that performed a rare (but not unexpected, really, considering the source) feat: it outdid the original.  Again, this wasn't hard, seeing as how a kick to the face would likely be more entertaining than Ouija, but it still doesn't happen often.  And, more importantly, it's beyond being better than the original: it's actually Good. The performances are strong, and the story manages to be effective and even occasionally scary despite the handicap of being handcuffed canonically to an inferior film.  Annalise Basso, who had also performed in Flanagan's excellent Oculus, gives a teenage girl performance that feels very real instead of generic, and seems poised to be a legitimate star.

14. Evolution

I'm fairly certain that Evolution is the weirdest film on the list this year (well, close anyway), and that's a pretty big compliment.  Very sparse, very quiet, and undeniably creepy, Evolution challenges the viewer to piece together the information themselves, never succumbing to the urge to offer exposition OR denouement.  Never does the film explain its imagery, but that doesn't mean there aren't answers hidden within this bizarre little story of a Young Boy trying to figure out why the entire population of his home (or is it...) island is entirely populated by Women and Young Boys.  What any of it means tends to come second to the breathtaking, hazy and dreamlike cinematography that keeps things engaging.

13. 10 Cloverfield Lane

I really wanted this to be higher on the list, but its final twenty minutes feels so awkward and tacked on that I just couldn't justify it any higher despite its extraordinary qualities.  Easily one of the most suspenseful films of the year, with one of the strongest ensembles and fantastic set pieces, 10 Cloverfield Lane went from being a suspected joke to one of the best respected films of 2016.  While all the players are excellent, this film belongs to John Goodman who, with no doubt in my mind, is THE scariest horror movie villain of the year.  It's a performance that needs to be seen to be believed.  Extraordinary film, mediocre ending...but everything leading up to the end is a thing of absolute beauty.

12. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

The best thing about this buddy comedy/horror film mashup is how effortlessly and specifically it subverts expectations and tropes.  Any other film likely would have leaned even further on stereotypes when presenting its characters (especially in the main characters chubby, super-scout buddy, who is allowed to be a full-fledged character with thoughts and feelings instead of a walking punchline), which results in an overwhelming sense of honesty and charm.  While the comedy doesn't ALWAYS land quite right, and neither does the horror for that matter, the charm and sentimentality always does, leading it to be in the top movies of the year, and quite likely the most uplifting of the bunch.  

11. The Wailing

I've been a believer in South Korean horror films for quite some time now, so I was definitely excited at the opportunity to see this cop-drama/horror mashup.  A lazy, mostly ineffective police officer finds himself having to rise to the occasion when a series of strange deaths begin to rock his community, which might have something to do with the strange Japanese man who has moved in recently.  While a film of this kind usually would play itself painfully straight (and wouldn't be blamed for doing so, nor would such a choice damage the film in any way), The Wailing instead mines its premise and characters for just as much comedy as pathos, with extraordinary effect.  While it IS funny, the movie doesn't go full comedy, either, instead weaving the humor and drama together into a very honest slice of life: no matter how scary or funny things are, life always moves on.  While some of the story elements get muddy and obscure (even now I'm only half sure what the mystery amounts to), it's an excellent film.

On to Part Two!