Top & Terrible in Horror Movies 2011
Top & Terrible in Horror Movies 2011
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by Staci Layne Wilson
It was a good year for dreamy, beautiful, violent and arty dramas -- to wit: Melancholia, Drive, The Skin I Live In, Tree of Life, The Last Circus – but for horror in general, not so much. In fact, relatively speaking, there were very few scary movies that really resonated on the big screen. The most outstanding, and certainly the box-office champ of the genre, was James Wan’s Insidious. But what else was there, aside from the usual sea-tide of sequels and remakes? Some were better (Fright Night) than others (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), but overall they felt pretty homogenized (I could easily swap the two movies I cited as better/worse, and really not bat an eyelash between the “meh’s”).
Some movies which did not make the lists below, but were memorable nonetheless, include Ti West’s The Innkeepers (in a good way) and Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch (in a bad way). I have to say, these two directors are like polar opposites: While West continues to improve with each outing, Snyder’s flicks seem to indicate a classic case of diminishing returns (Dawn of the Dead and Watchmen: awesome. Legend of the Guardians and Sucker Punch: abysmal). What I liked about The Innkeepers was its unapologetic, insular nerdiness and its refusal to adhere to the big special effects party line so prevalent in horror these days (and guess what? No 3D!). It’s just a weird little unrequited-romance comedy which happens to have evil, deadly phantoms as a backdrop.
Top
Insidious is certainly the best horror movie of the year. It’s the story of a family that’s plagued relentlessly by ghouls who follow them from place to place. While it pays homage to The Shining (as does The Innkeepers), it’s its own thing in that it introduces a trio of truly iconic new villains to the genre (Joe Bishara as Lipstick Face Demon, J La Rose as Long-Haired Fiend, and Philip Friedman as Old Woman… hm, cool as the creatures are, their names could roll off the tongue a bit easier). The director (James Wan) and writer (Leigh Whannell) team who brought us Saw on their first feature outing back in 2004 continue to show solidarity in their sensibilities. It’s clear they both love and appreciate stuff like Poltergeist and Twin Peaks, and they do more than just pay homage; they also add and layer. Each scare scene is eked out to the nth degree of suspense and tension, ensuring that Insidious lives up to its name as something that crawls under the subconscious skin and burrows there.
"I've got your Cover Girl right here, buddy!"
Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil is my second favorite of the year. It’s about a pair of backwoods brothers who may or may not be serial slayers. I daresay I may have enjoyed this film just a little more than Insidious, but I’ve seen both twice and would gladly view again. They very different from one another, so it’s nearly impossible to choose one over the other. Insidious is horror with comic elements, and this one is the inverse. What’s more, while I could perhaps imagine others in the roles of Wan’s demon-beset family unit, Tucker & Dale’s success is predicated quite a bit on its casting: Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk are picture perfect as the pitchfork-toting hillbillies who run afoul of a group of self-terminating teens, and it’s them-two who make the brew.
Yes, I liked Drive Angry. A lot. I thought it was hella fun, and Nicolas Cage was super-cool as the soul-collector sent to the U.S. from Hades to retrieve a particularly bad boy (Billie Burke, bent on blowing everyone away). Rounding out the list are Final Destination 5 (another well-done 3D horror flick, with some uber-inventive death scenes… you’ll never “look” at eye exams the same way again!), and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (it’s really nothing like the 1973 original TV movie, but much like a watered-down del Toro [no surprise, since the stylistic auteur produced this story, told by first time helmer Troy Nixey]).
Read the Reviews:
Terrible
There really wasn’t a clear “winner” in this category, but I suppose Priest takes the wafer in just plain gawd-awfulness because it’s such a sin that an actor like Paul Bettany would do not one, but two, terrible misfires with director Scott Stewart. I hate to say it, because as is the case with so many of the things I review negatively, I also know how smart/nice/funny/cool the filmmakers and actors are. Still, I have to call them as I see them, and I am sorry I had to see Priest at all. At first, I didn’t mind it so much (see: my original theatrical review), but the more I think about it, the less I like it. Priest is one of the many in a tidal-wave of Bible-drenched horror/action/revenge thrillers out in the past year or so. (Perhaps we can thank/blame Ti West for House of the Devil as the catalyst?)
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"Don't look now, but it's Scott Stewart with another script for you.
No, really: don't look."
While I disliked Apollo 18 and Chillerama even more than Priest, I hold big-budget wide-release films to a higher standard than smaller releases and indies; therefore it falls a few notches further down. Apollo 18 is one of the most boring, tedious and poorly shot debacles I’ve seen in quite a while. Chillerama is not boring nor is it poorly shot, but it’s quite low-brow and overly unwieldy even for an anthology. (My understanding is that since I saw the early screening at the 2011 SDCC, it’s been edited down… here’s hoping.) Apollo 18 is a lazy example of the dreaded shaky-cam / found-footage subgenre (sadly, it can’t be considered a trend anymore; this redheaded stepchild seems to have decided to take off its coat and stay awhile) with the audacity to take place on the moon. Ridiculous, to say the least. Chillerama is also ridiculous, but it has its moments (some of them in Wadzilla, and The Diary of Anne Frankenstein) and will appeal to a certain type of fan-base (the debased type).
The Rite and Dylan Dog were both lousy, but I can’t say I wasn’t entertained on some level and so they’re the least of the worst. The Rite has Sir Anthony Hopkins in it, and that says a helluva lot. Even in a completely predictable, silly sea of sanctimonious swill, the actor manages to raise the hackles with mere nuance in his glance and his voice. He’s a master at his craft. While Brandon Routh as Dylan Dog (a pitiful remake of the all-kinds of awesome mid-90s Italian grand guignol black comedy) is hardly on par with Hopkins in the chops department, he is always likable and absolutely watchable. I did enjoy the humorous aspects of the comic-book adaptation (especially Sam Huntington as Dylan’s zombiefied, one-armed sidekick), but overall found the film fallow.
Read the Reviews:
Apollo 18 – DVD review coming soon
Too Overrated
I know, I know – hate mail is forthcoming. But I didn’t think Attack The Block was all that. It reminded me a bit of District 9 (another little sci-fi horror SDCC fan-fave from a few years back, which I found quite underwhelming) even though it’s a comedy. Attack The Block is about how Average Joes strike against a possibly planetary-scale evil alien invasion. I found no element of surprise anywhere in the neighborhood. Send your follow up poison-pixel letters to me regarding my ennui-factor on I Saw The Devil. I just don’t get it. It’s a well-made film but overacted and certainly nothing I haven’t seen in the old torture-porn department already. Hyperbolic, yes. Up to the hype, no.
I must correct myself in regard to my DVD review of Lucky McKee’s The Woman. I said it was “instantly forgettable” but that prophecy didn’t prove true at all: I continue to remember it as one of the most distasteful, dreary and downright icky flicks I’ve seen all year. Perhaps that was the goal, because thinking about some of the scenes still makes me feel as though I could stand a shower in scalding bleach. The story centers on a self-proclaimed upright citizen and family man who rules his clan with an iron fist, but meanwhile has a woman held captive in his basement whom he uses and abuses until she fights back in the most cruel of ways (use your imagination and insert your own gore-soaked genital here).
Troll Hunter and The Thing are two totally different types of cold-centric creature-features: the Norwegian original is long on lore, while the big Hollywood remake is all about the CGI-gore. Both made a splash in their own ways, and while I did not dislike either of them I can’t quite connect the dots on the kudos.
For the record, I missed a few of the flicks considered by others to be best/worst (Paranormal Activity 3, and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1). I also completely failed to see this year’s tv terrors (no Walking Dead, Dexter, American Horror Story, or Bag of Bones for cable-free me).
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Latest User Comments:
| When someone starts saying Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Insidious are great but I Saw the Devil is average i stop listening. | |
| 04-24-2016 by Anthropophagus | discuss |
| I think the most horrible film of 2011 year is Saw 5 [URL="http://lodozo.com/files/images/41028-lodozo.com.jpg"][IMG]http://lodozo.com/files/timthumb.php?src=http://lodozo.com/files/images/41028-lodozo.com.jpg&q=100&w=300&h=300[/IMG][/URL] | |
| 10-06-2015 by denik15 | discuss |
| my top 12 horror movies | |
| 12. Renimator 11. dawn of the dead 10. 28 days later 9. fright night 8. saw 7. evil dead 6. house of a 1,000 copies 5. night of the dead 4. bride of chucky 3. evil dead 2 2. child's play 2 1. hellraiser | |
| 04-10-2014 by Jigsaw 666 | discuss |
| Free StaciLayne!!! | |
| Hey fellas, don't be messing with my homegirl, Staci! Let the grrrrrl speak her mind. Ok, enough of the testosterone overload. :D Great list, SLW, though I sadly can't speak for the titles that have stirred up all the controversy in this thread. It was a piss poor year for horror to be sure. Seeing folks lining up in hordes for stuff like PARANORMAL 3 just depresses me. And even though THE WOMAN is as bad you say it is, I'm glad I got to take that trip into the abyss with you as my pilot.:) Here's hoping for greener (or is that redder?) pastures in 2012! :cool: | |
| 01-27-2012 by StarWard77 | discuss |
| [QUOTE=DeathDog;915425] I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but yours is wrong.[/QUOTE] This might become my new signature.:D | |
| 01-07-2012 by TheWickerFan | discuss |