Gorepedia 2015: The Year in Horror Movies (Best Gore, Horror Heavies, Sc(a/o)res and More)

A great old school premise with a terror focused execution. It seems to take place in a dream world, that could be at anytime (notice those old TV sets playing black and white films mixed with that clamshell smartphone device from a supposed future); it must be someone's half-remembered youth, maybe everyone's.

There is great tension and fun mythology at play in this. That it doesn't completely capitalize on its promises and some of its early triumphs is only somewhat disappointing. There's too much good here though to dwell too long on its shortcomings. It's mostly an anti-climactic finale and a general sense that poor character decisions seem to go on a bit too long that hold it back from classic status.

Surprise, Surprisingly Scary Award for Best Tease and Release This is also one of the great scares of the year. Right as *beep* is beginning to hit the fan, as Jay (Maika Monroe) is freaking out and her friends are trying to calm her down, they pull a classic horror movie move and open the door that Jay has just slammed shut on IT. Except nothing is there. And then the scene moves on and suddenly IT has changed shape and it's some weird tall dude ducking under the door frame and coming in and after her. Preceded by no loud music bursts or loud screams. It's just cohesive filmmaking and pure tension.

Scary Beautiful Shot Composition The shot from the main poster for the film is even more stunning in the film itself. The lighting and composition; the car is gently lit, with Jay leaning out of the open car door picking at dandelions (or flowers, because she's just been de-flowered?) that are growing up between the cracks in the pavement. It's the calm before the storm and packed with meaning and beauty. The darkness everywhere, closing in, the small patch of light Jay lives in in the moment and the carefree almost childlike way she plays with the dandelions. Alas, it's not to last.

Synth Renaissance: Keeping It Fresh Award Disasterpeace (another composing group(?) that I've never heard of with one of the best scores of the year) had the troubling task of replicating 80's synth music without becoming too mired in the cliches, having to dig their own niche. They do so wonderfully here. They hit on the creepiness and other-worldliness that synths do so well, even the strange beauty and melancholy needed for the film's themes.

A rapturous, beautiful, old-world gothic romance. It's stunning to behold; Del Toro understands the power of fairy tale and fable more than almost anyone alive. He can conjure horror and beauty in equal measure, without every sacrificing his clarity of vision. He's one of the few modern filmmakers who actually understands CGI dissonance; he is able to use special and digital effects in a rhythmic way that never reallly separates the mind from the material.

It's too bad the plot isn't more original. It feels like a part of the Gothic canon but not necessarily an essential part of it; that is, if it had been made during Gothic's heyday we probably wouldn't consider it vital (at least from a literature perspective). It's defining features are it's visual beauty, it's creator's utmost passion and it's timely originality; there hasn't been anything quite like it in a long while.

My Castle Tells a More Compelling Story Than Your Entire Film Award for Sheer Awe-Inspiring Set Design-
The castle in this film is an absolute sight to behold. It's not just beautiful in that old Gothic sense, it is its own beast in creation. Snow is allowed to fall through the cracks in its facade, a metaphor, a delight, a beauty. It carves it's own niche in the grand scheme of castles on film.

Some kind of gothic slow-burn by way of Fulci demented mishmash of genres. Every time you think you can pigeonhole this film into a particular category, it switches on you. Like how it starts as a slow paced New England ghost story, with long wide shots of countryside and snow and an older couple doing normal things and then suddenly people are being torn apart in the basement. It all leads to a gore soaked finale that's quite striking.

Minor quibbles include the awful CGI embers added to the "creatures", that took me out of the movie instantly and lessened their impact considerably. Also, the story doesn't really twist and turn or dig deep enough. It's actually all pretty basic when you get right down to it.

Blood Soaked Finale Doesn't Do It Justice Award- The entire ending is a non-stop splatterfest. It's chaos, but it's all practical and it lingers and delivers. Fulci-esque creativity but it's own beast in execution; it's not surreal and unsettling--it's chaos.

One of the best damn Christmas Horrors in a long time. It doesn't quite deliver in the end but there's more than enough fun to make up for it.

This has all the makings of one of those slow-burn foreign horror films that earns way too much undeserved praise. It's somewhere in-between. It's not original, nor is it especially scary or well-made but it does have a nasty scene or two.

Whoa, That Twist Ending Is So Totally 1999-
For the "holy *beep* everyone saw that coming, probably, at the end with the kid brother being dead the whole time. Right?

A minor key found footage thriller. It works mostly, with good solid lead performances (Mark Duplass does a good job changing that everyman earnestness into something with sinister undercurrents) and some effective tension. Ultimately though, there aren't enough surprises or twists, either with genre or convention.

Hey, How Did That Other Movie's Ending Get in Here? Award- I didn't care for the ending to this film. All sorts of great build-up, tension through character and interactions and then suddenly there's just a wide shot of an axe going through a neck. It's not cathartic, nor does it even make much sense.

This is a comedy through and through, at times playing like "Harold & Kumar" or some other raunch-fest. The horror comes from the fact that it's set in an 80's slasher movie but only really in the sense that dumb characters make stupid decisions and people get chased by a killer in a Scooby-Doo kind of way.

What makes the film work is the chemistry between Malin Akerman and Taissa Farmiga. As a mother and daughter bonding from beyond the grave, the film manages to find notes of real warmth and genuine emotion, in the unlikeliest of places--an 80's slasher movie. It also helps that the movie is actually fun and pretty funny, even if it doesn't get under your skin.

Music Doesn't Have To Be Scary To Send Chills Down Your Spine Award of Excellence in Song Choice-
Bette Davis Eyes, while mother sacrifices herself for daughter. Has to be seen to be believed but it works wonderfully.

Shymalan found footage low-key horror flick. What it lacks in originality it more than makes up for in unbridled fun. It works, mostly, because it never takes itself too seriously. And not just in a trapped in a box comedic way--this is horror played mostly straight that trusts the audience, which is a rarity.

Dirty Diaper To the Face, Par Excellence in Grotesquery-
For the scene where the kid takes a dirty old used diaper to the face. Because that's what happens at the climax in this film. It's bone chilling, goosebumps inducing...laughter.

It's really cool getting a neo-Italian cannibal exploitation film, especially in the hands of genre enthusiast Eli Roth. This film, however, is tepid at best. It doesn't usurp the nastiness of old cannibal flicks; it never feels dangerous, like you're in the hands of a madman. It's tonally jarring at times and mired with some poor CGI choices.

Almost a Godless Cannibal Flick Scene of Carnage-
So when the first guy goes, he goes hard. He's picked apart like a Thanksgiving turkey by a bunch of starved cannibals with skin shearing nails all whilst still being alive. Good, but where's the trump later?

This is an anthology film with 10 segments (which is a lot considering its runtime--13 minutes a segment). Most of them are short and involve classic Halloween staples. They kind of relate at the end--a bit too late.

The evolution of a serial killer cum slasher icon. Eh, not really. There's some neat images, and a pretty solid ending. But it's not as deep as it wants to be, and as a result, not as fun either.

It's funny, also obvious and clearly referential to a fault of other better films (ED, Dead Alive, Return of the Living Dead, Metalocalypse?). There's some genuinely funny things here but they're too intermittent. For a movie so full of energy it's sometimes baffling how uninspired it can feel--especially when demons are exploding and blood is splattered everywhere.

It's not original enough, it doesn't do enough to carve it's own niche and never surprises or excites in a way that moves you like the best of them.

Dead Rising Weapon of Choice Could Be Anything Mate, Award-
Dude uses a dildo to whack some demon ass.

Like Rodney Ascher's previous documentary "Room 237", this film is comprised almost entirely of people talking with little to no interruption or analysis from experts or anyone like that. It's like a bar conversation you'd have one night. About sleep paralysis. With reenactments. It goes on a bit long, and can be tedious, but there are scenes that are effective, where you really start to believe what it's like to be paralyzed and asleep and how awful that must feel.

The best thing I can say about this doc is that I left worried I was going to have sleep paralysis that night. The worst thing is that I had already forgot why by the time I went to bed.

This whole thing reeks of desperate millennial bating. However, it does kind of work. The "horror" scenes not so much. Some of the soap opera drama, with the multiple open web cams (like an uncool DePalma flick or something) pulls you in.

I quite enjoyed parts of this film. The boy scouts and boyhood bonding were really well-done, and the beginning promises a kind of zombie "Lost Boys" or "Fright Night" that never delivers. It gets pretty generic fast and is a bit tonally confused.

A should be creepier isolation piece. There are some choice creepy scenes but not enough.

An over-the-top comedy, with gore and screaming kids. This isn't really a horror movie, this movie is played for laughs, situationally. The situation just happens to be rabid kids who ate bad chicken nuggets at lunch (like in Poultrygeist, except not nearly as insane). That's ultimately the problem with this movie. It's played as a comedy but without great set pieces or wit. And it sometimes thinks it's scary or tense, and it never really is. Still, Leigh Whannell steals the show (mostly known for his writing work) and shows a real knack for comedic timing.

A mostly solid continuation of the Insidious franchise. Nothing terribly new, and it lacks that James Wan visual style and tension building, but it has a depth of character and theme that it does seem genuinely invested in, even if it is nothing new.

Badass In Search of a Better Movie Award For Villainy- The respirator bad guy in this film is pretty creepy stuff. It's too bad the rest of the film doesn't quite deliver on his potential. He has a great scene where he's sitting in the rafters just slowly waving down at the main girl. It's the kind of thing the movie needed more of.

The main villain has a really ensemble at the end. This is the kind of film where everyone is a serial killing monster in a small town. It makes no sense. Maybe as metaphor a bit, but not really.

A bully rises from the grave slasher. I think it's confused as a message movie and not an especially good slasher, but it has some interest in style and actorly character building.

Solid at times, kinda bland. Still Xmas horror is hard to come by and it's worth a watch.

Listless plot but carried by strong images and a solid atmosphere. It just adds up to literally nothing memorable.

An obvious attempt at fun and funny gore and sex filled comedy, along the lines of "Piranha" but with the none of the verve, wit or excitement. It does pretty well with the tone, mostly playing it straight although verging on self-parody at times (which is bad, because it's not nearly funny enough for that). This is a movie you want to have a good time with, and so you keep forcing yourself into it but without every truly getting caught up in it.

This is some trippy, dream-like metaphor for the fear of young parenthood. Little kids terrorizing a 17 year old who just found out she's pregnant. Does this whole thing take place in her head? It's presented as such, and even if it's not, you know from the way things unfold there's not much reality to the proceedings. This film should basically be a pure atmospheric horror ride but it's too much in the main character's head, a head we don't know that well and we know isn't that important beyond the type it represents anyway.

It's hard to find a tangible connection with this film and I found it hard to engage with the "terror" scenes outside a passing interest in the way they were shot and assembled. They didn't engage me, and in a non-cerebral film like this that's basically a death knell.