Top Horror films of the last 15 years: All opinions welcome

[baumer]

This is a very slow week here at the forums and I thought i would write this to maybe start up some discussion and maybe a bit of debate. It feels more like the worldofkj here than it does our forums. There is just nothing really happening at this time.

So here is my list of the 10 best horror films of the last 15 years. I know there will be a lot missing here, so I encourage all of you to do your own top 10.

10) Eden Lake: A British production starring Michael Fassbender. This has a lot to say concerning the epidemic of British youth. In here, they are not just assholes, they are thuggish assholes who do everything they can to brutalize a couple on a romantic weekend getaway. They are ordinary people so when they are confronted with the horrors of being hunted by these hooligans, not all goes their way.

Violent, macabre and very disturbing in many scenes. This is one of the better horror films to come out in the last 15 years.

9) The Devil's Rejects: The strength of Zombie's two films is his eye for detail and his homage to 70's films he seems to love, like many of us do. There is a sometimes documentary style feel to this film as you seem to watching all of this debauchery unfold in front of your eyes. While I enjoyed HOUSE of 1000 CORPSES immensely, I have to admit that this one is better. The characters are more polished, the acting is much more cerebral and adding to the panache of the film is William Forsythe. I have been a fan of him since his turn as BUCK ATWATER in WALTER HILL'S EXTREME PREJUDICE. Here, he shines as the revenge obsessed sheriff, who not only wants the FIREFLY'S arrested, he wants them dead. How Zombie lured Forsythe into this role is a great mystery, but it works well. This film is disturbing and it is unflinching. And the end shootout to Skynnrd's Freebird is one of the best horror movie ending of all time.

8) Martyrs: There is a director/producer working right now named Richard Grandpierre. His mind sees things that most don't. In addition to this very tough film, he has done another French film called Ils and another French film called Irreversible which contains some brutal rapes in it. Martyrs is worse. I can't say I enjoyed this film but it is very effective in what it wants to convey. Two girls are kidnapped by an organization who basically wants to hurt them to the point of insanity. The reasons for this are shcoking when presented at the end. It is 45 minutes of extreme violence and you'll feel kind of icky after watching it. But it is a very well done film.

7) The Crazies: The Crazies is actually a remake of George A Romero's 1973 movie of the same title, which I have never seen, but critics are saying that this version is actually better than the original. The screenplay for the original was written by Romero and one of his closest friends, and in this remake a much more mature Romero is involved with the production of the film which probably contributed to the success of the movie. Breck Eisner (who directed Sahara) directs The Crazies and it is his best film to date. The adapted screenplay was written by Scott Kosar (who makes his first of two appearnaces on this list) who is really one of the main reasons for the success of the movie because he created a convincing plot with believable dialogue. Not only is the film frightening but it is superbly acted and incredibly well directed. The suspense starts slowly and then crescendoes to a mad, frenetic "all hell breaks loose" kind of pace. The Crazies made my top 10 list of 2010.

6) The Fourth Kind: The Fourth Kind is scary and disturbing. It is supposedly a film that is not only based on true events, but it shows you footage of taped interviews and tapes from police cruisers and so on. I'll tell you this right now. It doesn't matter to me if this is real footage or if it is fake. It doesn't matter if the story is fictional or if it is all true. This is a horrifying experience and it is one that left me physically shaken and psychologically damaged. Between this and other found footage films (that might make this list) I'm not sure if I'll ever have a good night sleep again. The Fourth Kind, in my opinion, is the highlight of 2009. This is one of the scariest films I've ever seen.

5) I Spit on Your Grave 2010: The 1978 version was banned in so many countries and imo unjustly so. The controversy was really overblown and if people had just left it alone, it never would have gotten so much attention. Now comes the 2010 version directed Steven Monroe and starring the ridiculously beautiful Sarah Butler. In my opinion, for revenge films to work, the revenge has to fit the crime. Nothing pisses me off more than watching the bad guys do all kinds of terrible and heinous things only to die in a 5 second scene at the end where they get shot or stabbed or some other kind of nonesensical copout. I want to see blood and I want to know that these fuckers got what they deserved. Jennifer Hills not only gets revenge, but her brand of comeuppance is at least on par if not worse than what the rapists did to her. There is no pulling any punches here and this makes it one of the most effective horror films of all time.....not just the last 15 years.

4) Paranormal Activity 1 and 2: I can't separate these two as they are basically two of the scariest films I have ever seen. To rank one higher than the other is futile, pointless and unfair. With a gun to my head I'd pick the second one as the scarier of the two, but not by much. By now you all know how Oren Peli spent $15,000 of his own money and hoped to break even by selling this at a film festival. Oren used his own camera, his own house and even spent a year redecorating his house to make it look more filmable. Steven Spielberg got a hold of it, and when watching it, his office door closed and locked on him. He declared it one of scariest and most disturbiong films he had ever seen. Dreamworks bought the film and they were going to remake it with a bigger budget and new cast and everything. Peli appealed to Spielberg to play it in college towns, just to see the reactions. The rest is history.

Truly a terrifying experience.

3) The Blair Witch Project: This is the film that started all the found footage craze. It is the ultimate slow burn in that it doesn't hammer you over the head with special effects or rivers or blood. It puts you into the world the three characters are in. You are there in the woods with them and you see it all coming unraveled before they do.

To people that don't enjoy this film, I honestly have pity for you, and I do not mean that in a pretentious "I'm better than you" kind of way. I know we all have different tastes in horror films and that is okay, but if you could just feel the raw fear and experience that strange sensation when your heart races at the end of the film, or to actually go camping and stare into the darkness and wonder what that snapping twig is about ten feet away from you, you would really thank the guys for making this. I love that this film could do that to me. I love that it could get inside me like that. And it's too bad that those of you that didn't feel that way, could, just for one moment. That to me, is the power of film making. To manipulate somone's emotions the way this film does is a treasure unto itself. This is a brilliant film and it is the pioneer to all that has come after it.

2) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: How do you remake a classic? In the history of horror films there might not be a more devoted fanbase the Chainsaw Massacre loonies. You can count me as one of them. But producers Brad Fuller and Michael Bay pulled out all the stops. They assembled an incredible team with talent oozing from their pores. From original 1974 DP Daniel Pearl, to the strong cast to German director Marcus Nispel, to just all came together. There were very few special effects used here, highlighted by the suicide of the hitchhiker. You see her blowing her brains out and the camera then moves from the front of the van to the back and out the hole in her head and then out of the van...all done in one fluid motion. Innovative and very creative. The producers knew you couldn't duplicate the original so they paid homage to it but put their own spin on it. The result is one of the most horrifying experiences of the last 15 years.

1) The Ring: This is the film that really introduced us to the brilliance of Asian horror. It is different than American horror films, but if we get right to the point, The Ring is the scariest horror film I have seen in 20 years. Horror had been enjoying a healthy revival since 1996 when Scream got everyone interested in horror again. That is a good thing. What isn't so good is some of the cheap crap that had come out since then. For every film like The Sixth Sense and Blair Witch, you have a plethora of other films that have no idea what true horror is really about. Too many film makers think the best thing to do with horror is make a rockin' hardcore soundtrack and give us buckets of blood because this disguises the fact that most of them can't pace a film or invoke true chills. Gore Verbinski's The Ring returns to the roots of horror and pays homage to the early greats like Halloween and Psycho but almost goes a step past the greats, not quite but almost.

The Ring does something that only a handful of horror films have done, and that is it stays in your subconscious hours and days and weeks after you watch the film. Gore Verbinski and Ehren Krueger have combined to make a masterpiece of modern horror that goes beyond anything that has come out for the last twenty years. This film is that good. This is the film that makes me look behind me at my silent television sitting in the corner of the room. Is Samara there? When my radio begins to go haywire and search for stations on its own, is that Samara? This film gets inside of you and stays there. But it eats away at you like the nightmares that Malcolm McDowell is forced to watch in A Clockwork Orange. It attacks your mind and berates your senses. Samara is one bad ass villain. The Ring is a masterpiece. The Ring may have it's roots in Japanese horror, but it owes much of its pedigree to all horror greats of the past, whether they are American, Canadian, Japanese or Italian. There is a bit of it all in here and the results are terrifying.

And there it is. I'd love to see your thoughts. Agree? Disagree? What are your 10 films?

Edited December 1, 2012 by baumer

[Jack Nevada]

Good writing, b. I have only seen BWP and PA. As some of ya'll may know, I too freaking love BWP. Its a great piece of filmmaking, man. It really brings out raw, primitive horror in me.. the build up is fantastic and boy does it pay off with possibly the creepiest scene I have seen

[CoolioD1]

You ever seen Open Water?

[baumer]

You ever seen Open Water?

I'm terrified of Open Water. It's the scariest film I have ever seen.But this is more about quality than just scares. So I kept it off my list. Here's a list of the scariest films I have ever seen, if you are interested:http://www.top10films.co.uk/archives/8393

[The Dark Alfred]

I'm not sold on the PA franchise and the Fourth Kind was boring to me. My list would be:1. The Mist2. REC 1-23. The Grudge 1-2 (Korean version)4. The Eye 1-2 (Hong Kong version)5. Saw franchise6. Open Water7. Eden Lake8. Insidious9. Drag Me To Hell10. The Ring (US)

[Jack Nevada]

Insidious had a few delicious scares but other than that it was pretty average imo

[The Dark Alfred]

It was one of the best low budget horror films the recent years. It had a great atmosphere, with a flawed third act.

Edited September 7, 2012 by The Dark Alfred

[baumer]

Insidious was terrifying. And I like most of your list as well Alfred.

[Goffe]

1. Drag Me to Hell/The Ring2. Devil3. Dawn of the Dead4. Scream Franchise5. The Invasion6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre7. The Amityville Horror8. 14089. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark10. InsidiousHonorable Mentions: The Wolfman, My Blood Valentine, When a Stranger Calls

Edited September 7, 2012 by Goffeweenie

[Jack Nevada]

Has anyone here seen Kill List? I've heard thats really weird and creepy

[Walt Disney]

The really great horror movies were mostly 80's and 90's, so the 15 year cut off date makes this tough for me. However, lets see what i can do. 15 years means that anything made in 1998 or later is available.10. Identity-The Dark Alfed and Baumer not believing WOTW is a horror movie gives me an opportunity to add a movie that I felt guilty leaving off the list. Identity is a great example of psychological horror done right. It's scary and has a great twist at the end. It's a quality horror movie.9. 30 Days of Night-A throwback to the classic vampire horror movies. These aren't the soft and cuddly vampires of Twilight. These are real vampires. True bloodsuckers that must be stopped.8. Hide and Seek-DeNiro is brilliant in this psychological thriller. He completely dominates the screen and truly shows his horror chops.7. Exorcist (the Beginning)-An interesting prequel to The Exorcist story. It kept the chills coming and gave a new entry to a classic horror franchise.6. Saw II-One of the few new horror franchises with some real scare to it. Saw II seemed better made than the original Saw.5. Hostel-Definitely gory, but it was scary and is probably the best example of a gory horror movie done right.4. The Ring-Excellent horror fun. It was scary and well done. One of the best of the new breed of horror.3. Freddy vs. Jason-Finally we got to see the event that kids in the 80's talked about ad-nauseum. We got to see Freddy and Jason together in one movie. Not the best outing for either character, but much better than most of the horror movies of the past 15 years. A throwback to the true golden age of 80's horror.2. Fallen-A true classic horror movie. Denzel Washington is brilliant in this film. It has all the elements of a successful horror movie. It may be a forgotten classic.1. Red Dragon-the prequel to Silence of the Lambs allowed me to see 2 cute girls hold each other tight because they were so scared. And 2 straight grown men told me that they held each other as well because they were so scared. Truly a great movie to use to scare a date.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Walt Disney

[The Dark Alfred]

I consider WotW as a sci-fi, but yes it had horror elements and it was the best Spielberg film ever after 80 mins, too bad that the ending is a bit rushed.

Edited September 7, 2012 by The Dark Alfred

[baumer]

I wouldn't put WOTW on my list as to me it is not really horror.

[Walt Disney]

It's possible I mis-categorized WOTW, so I will change my list. I will edit my list to include a new number 10.

[Noctis]

Insidious and The Ring are the only true frightening films of the last fifteen years.

[CoolioD1]

I really liked Insidious... but I honestly didn't find it scary.

[Noctis]

I was scared shitless.

[Kevin Bacon]

Nix Fourth Kind (ew), I Spit on Your Grave, and The Devil's Rejects and replace them with Drag Me to Hell, The Descent, and The Cabin in the Woods and you've got a deal.

[baumer]

Nix Fourth Kind (ew), I Spit on Your Grave, and The Devil's Rejects and replace them with Drag Me to Hell, The Descent, and The Cabin in the Woods and you've got a deal.

I see there is a lot of DMTH love on this site. I found it very average and I was surprised Raimi had his prints all over it. The Descent is very good as is the Woods.

[Ozymandias]

I really liked The Descent, I highly recommend that one. Easily the best horror film made in the last 15 years be a LONG shot. Just awesome.

The Blair Witch Project was an excellent one as well, the only movie thats ever creeped me out.

I see some people are mentioning torture porn movies like Hostel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the Saw series. I don't think those are scary, they're just gross. I'd also say zombie flicks have been so overdone that its not even funny.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Shpongle