Thursday, March 15, 2012

TGT11: The Scary Movies of 2011

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While there were no straightforward horror masterpieces like Martyrs this year - every year I want another Martyrs and every year I am let down - there was a lot of fun and jumps and scariness to be had at the cinemas in 2011. Now is the moment when we honor them. The top three films on this list were already named on my Top 20 Films of the Year countdown, but we'll get to that semi-anticlimactic moment when we get to it. Y'all will probably haggle with me over my definition of horror at that point, anyway. Onto the spooks...


Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (directed by Troy Nixey) - I still haven't seen the original TV movie which apparently freaked out an entire generation of slightly-older-than-me folks, but I found Nixey's film a real treat - a dark and nasty-spirited fairy-tale for the twisted kid in all of us. Bonus points for what happens to Mrs. Tom Cruise. (original review)


The Tunnel (directed by Carlo Ledesma) - I have a hunger inside my belly and the only thing that will sate it is more Blair Witch rip-offs! Seriously though I have an apparently undying affection for a solid found-footage effort, and this more than fits the bill with its [REC]-ish creepy sewer people and darkness so much terrible darkness into which we stare and stare and oh yeah there is something moving there and oh my god oh my god make it go away. (original review)

TrollHunter (directed by André Øvredal) - If there's anything I enjoy more than found footage of horrible underground swamp-people, it's found-footage of giant fantasy man-eating monsters laid out from big to bigger to biggest in excessively descriptive almost textbook form. And then we met this one, and hold god was it big, and here's all the stats from the backside of its monster baseball card. I love this shit so much. (original review)


Final Destination 5 (directed by Steven Quale) - Almost as good as the second one, which is the highest praise I can give without saying it's better than the second one, which is nigh impossible. I enjoyed part four more than most, but then I am genetically incapable of not adoring this series, but then this one reinvigorated the whole shebang all the same. (original review)


Kill List (directed by Ben Wheatley) - I don't know at what point I'll feel comfortable talking about the last twenty minutes of Kill List, but it's not yet. I think that there must still too many people out there who don't know what's coming. My original review's even vaguer than what I'm giving here. Just see it! Even before things go wrong so wrong the film's dripping with an uneasy and bizarre dread... and then things go so wrong. 


I Saw the Devil (directed by Jee-won Kim) - A year ago I couldn't get enough of this movie and it probably would've topped this list, but my enthusiasm has dampened a little bit with more viewings - the visceral shock of that first time through wore off some with revisits, and the lulls between incredible scenes begin to stand out a little bit. But man, the incredible scenes in this thing are hardcore, and it's spectacular to look at. (Especially Lee Byung-hun.)


Insidious (directed by James Wan) - Yes I had and still have some issues with that slack-jawed poppet-netherworld that Insidious builds to, but for sheer "make me jump out of my seat" chills and thrills nobody topped Wan's ode to things that go bump in the morning afternoon and still of the night. I'm not really a jumper either, but this thing had me bouncing around in my seat like a pinball. (original review)


As for the movies I consider horror that already made my earlier Top 20 list, they are Contagion, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Take Shelter. I don't think anybody will argue over me classifying Contagion as horror - and Contagion freaked me out so badly I literally had to stop it every fifteen minutes to catch my breath before I totally hyperventilated - but I know pushing MMMM and Shelter under the genre umbrella might engage a few side-eyes from y'all... but side-eyes be damned, I says. They both present us with worlds where our protagonists crumbling grips on reality render the world a deeply unsettling and eerie place filled with monsters, albeit less fanged or troll-footed than these other picks. And they both end on notes of that incomprehensible non-reality tilting over into the real deal, sealing our dooms. If that ain't horror then consider that mewling off-screen kitten or a dripping wet  and dead-eyed Jessica Chastain fingering a fly-covered kitchen knife and get back to me.
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3 comments:

remy said...

No Scream 4 love!

Fernando Moss said...

Oww, I was expecting Scream 4

Jason Adams said...

I love you guys for hating on me for that. I totally deserve it. I decided I need to see Scream 4 again before I could honestly judge it, so it got sidelined. I know! I should have mentioned it since I was one of what, ten people who gave it a good review? But I haven't seen it since and I couldn't decide if my original enthusiasm was because I'm such a super-fan or if it was actually worthy and it's one of the movies that I didn't find the time to rewatch and yadda yadda even though it was on my list I just couldn't decide what to do so I set it aside for now. Once I get around to rewatching it this list might have an addendum! Sigh. Making lists will be the death of me.