Best Horror of 2016

Here we are at the finish line of a year that if you're like me probably glad to see the ass-end of. So many shitty things in the news that it's hard to comprehend them all. I wish things had been better because for me personally, it was a pretty good year. My second short film Lively scored Canadian distribution and I produced two more that will hopefully see the light of day in 2017. I finished my long-gestating feature script and joined the programming teams of three different film festivals. Not too shabby. But we're here to talk movies...

It has been an up-and-down year and if I'm honest, a lot of the most resonant pieces of genre I've ingested have been outside of film (Limetown, Life Is Strange, Inside, Black Mirror, Channel Zero), but that's not to say there weren't some fantastic horror movies released. I would normally offer up five titles, but since I put The Witch on 2015's list, I can only nominate four that went above and beyond.

Raw
France, Dir: Julia Ducournau

Bold and veracious, this deserved every bit of praise it received at this year's Midnight Madness. Putting aside the circus of the premiere's “medical emergencies” its importance to the genre should not be overlooked. Using the platform of a coming-of-age film, Raw is every bit as evocative as modern classics Let The Right One In and Ginger Snaps.

Under The Shadow
Iranian/UK, Dir: Babak Anvari

This Persian powerhouse really took me by surprise when I saw it back in April. The comparisons to Jennifer Kent's The Babadook are valid, but I would propose that Anvari's film is even better pound-for-pound as it relies less on its production design to deliver the creeps. As if the backdrop of war-torn Iran wasn't unsettling enough, the addition of a supernatural element leads to almost unbearable amounts of tension. This is a terrific piece of horror filmmaking.

The Invitation
USA, Dir: Karyn Kusama

I adore this movie and have not seen suspense this well utilized in a long time. This movie took something as benign as a dinner party and through sharp writing and pace managed to keep me on the edge of my seat. I knew the what, but my anticipation of the when, why and how kept me razor focused. I'm so impressed by how well this movie is put together, as even something as small as where someone stood during a scene caused me so much anxiety.

Train To Busan
South Korea, Dir: Yeon Sang-ho

Let's all admit it. We're all a little bored of zombies now that they've passed their saturation point. Yet even despite this, Train To Busan still manages to be all kinds of awesome. There's an energy to this movie that you can feel when you watch it with a crowd. While it's true that the unique location provides some freshness, it's also the colourful characters (and there are a lot of them) that really give life to this movie. I think you may be as surprised as I was by how much heart it has -- where did all these feels come from???

Honourable Mentions

If you had said to me a year ago, “Hey Jay, your best of list next year is going to include a Polish musical adaptation of The Little Mermaid” I'd have asked what you were smoking and if I could have some. However, that is absolutely the case. Agnieszka Smoczynska's The Lure is tremendous. Even on a second viewing I was amazed by how much confidence and swagger Smoczynska shows in her debut! The Lure is an absolute joy!

This year, I finally got to see The Void. It was thankfully exactly what I was hoping for. It rose beyond homage to actually exist as one of those crazy creature fests we grew up watching in the eighties. I'm extremely proud of Steve Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie for what they accomplished here.

I was glad to lay my eyeballs on some cool indies this year, most notably Perry Blackshear's They Look Like People and Billy O'Brien's I Am Not A Serial Killer. Both were able to portray mental illness in a tangible and non-sensationalized way while weaving some fine storytelling.

I was also really impressed with 10 Cloverfield Lane. Dan Trachtenberg directed the shit out of this movie. His three leads (John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. - what a year for that guy with Hush and The Belko Experiment also on his 2016 resume) put in some of the best performances this year in my opinion. Say what you want about where the movie eventually goes, but this was a super taut thriller.

Lastly, I just wanted to bring up what a solid year it was for genre-related documentaries. In addition to the uber-creepy Beware the Slenderman, we also had a pair of great docs about the medium itself in The Frankenstein Complex and 24 x 36.

Moving onto the negative side of things, I am afraid I saw an unusually large number of things I didn't care for this year like the mind-numbingly dumb Yoga Hosers, the mind-numbingly gross The Greasy Strangler and that unconvincing not-as-clever-as-it-thinks-it-is bore Safe Neighbourhood. For the latter, I'm not usually in the minority when it comes to these things, but now I get the mindset of those people who sat in the corner and rolled their eyes at the praise heaped on Cabin In The Woods and You're Next. Except those two movies were awesome. Safe 'Hood can ess a dee.

However, nothing came close to my dislike for Mickey Keating's Darling. It is a mess in concept, in tone and almost everything else. It has been a while since I've seen something so unapologetically pretentious and I'm not having any of it.

So, that's another three-sixty-five down. Have a great New Year and I'll see you back here next week to rundown all the horror goodies coming up in 2017. 

Trailer Tuesdays: Home For The Holidays

Hey all. I hope your holiday festivities were as low-key and relaxing as mine. Here's a old TV spot for the 1972 teleplay Home For The Holidays.

I had not heard of this before I did a Xmas Horror search this morning, but considering that it starred Julie Harris and a young Sally Field it certainly has some cachet. I love the super breezy tone of the ad, like it's about unicorns and daisies rather than cold blooded murder.

Merry Crite-Mas!

The Horror Section wishes you a very Merry Christmas!

Shudder Canada

I know this post is long overdue, but I finally wanted to weigh on the recent Canadian launch of Shudder. For those who don't know, Shudder is a streaming service similar to Netflix, but exclusively horror. I've been in since the Halloween beta and I have nothing but nice things to say about it.

The first time I took it for a spin, I could immediately see that there was some significant curation going on. Unlike Big Red, where the majority of its horror titles are direct-to-video shovelware, Shudder has many different flavours from many different eras. My eyes immediately latched onto the bevy of older Italian titles (The Bloodstained Butterfly, Death Walks In High Heels, Don't Torture A Duckling) as well as several underrated festival titles (Citadel, S&Man & Sauna) that have hopefully been rescued from obscurity by their inclusion. It did not take me long to fill up a queue with things to watch. Netflix Canada's launch catalogue back in 2010 was a little anemic, but that definitely isn't the case here. 

Shudder has also followed Netflix's lead and started producing their own content. I haven't dived into the French mini-series Beyond The Walls yet, but I certainly intend to in the New Year.

What most impresses me about Shudder is that they are actively providing different kinds of experiences. I have noticed some short films sprinkled in with their content like Izzy Lee's Innsmouth and Jill Gevargizian's The Stylist, as well as the No Sleep produced audio drama Darknest Night, the latter of which I am really enjoying. I also observed that when Rob Zombie's 31 premiered this month, they also included a bunch of behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Shudder offers high value for the money and considering it is half the price of Netflix per month, this is a no-brainer for horror fans. It's kind of a drag that I have to watch it on my laptop because there is no Playstation app yet, but I'm sure they're working to rectify that. As for any horror fans that haven't tried it out yet. Get on that!

Texas Einstein Massacre

Despite being hungover as fuck on Tuesday, I dragged my ass to Hamilton's Trash Cinema (not to be confused with Trash Palace) to see a super obscure slasher from 1988 called Carnage Hall.

A killer in an Albert Einstein mask dispatches the residents of university dorm during an all-night horror movie marathon.

Filmed on video by a group of students attending Texas Christian University, this is the kind of stuff for which the term “z-grade” was coined. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy myself considerably, even if I was laughing at it as much as I was with it. I feel like the filmmakers were in on the joke though. 

The whole retro/self aware horror movement is all the rage today, so it was a little surreal to see a similarly minded movie of that time. While Carnage Hall isn't a full-on parody, like say 1981's Student Bodies, it does have a good deal of referential comedy. It's completely possible those movie posters and paraphernalia that littered the sets may have already been there before the cameras started shooting. Those trivia game show scenes were certainly pushing it though.

There are RELATIVELY no images of this movie online.

I can't say there was much attempt made at a story here. It was basically just a bunch of scenes and gags strung together, but it did boast a high body count even if the gore was somewhat rudimentary. If this movie had been feature length, it may have been less palatable, but at a scant hour-long I felt it entertained me throughout.

I was surprised that I hadn't at least heard about this movie previously, but then realized while watching why it never got any sort of release. Apart from the pretty snazzy music in the opening credits provided by Jim Wilson, the rest featured instantly recognizable riffs from John Carpenter, John Williams and Danny Elfman. They could've been there for comedic effect, but it's just as likely that is was temp music they never bothered to replace.

Carnage Hall is an amusing little oddity that's definitely worth watching if you are a slasher completist or just get off on silly DIY shot-on-video fare. Just know that you not watching something with any degree of polish. Fortunately, that happens to be my jam! 

Perhaps more importantly, I discovered a new screening series and they've already announced next month's flick -- Hellroller! 

Not only is it about a wheelchair-bound serial killer, but Hellroller also features the trifecta of Mary Woronov, Michelle Bauer AND Elizabeth Kaitan. Try and keep me away!

Trailer Tuesdays: Scream

Good afternoon! Since Wes Craven's classic nineties slasher Scream turned twenty a few days ago, it makes sense to mark the anniversary here on ye olde Trailer Tuesdays.

As you may remember, the coming of Scream was a much needed shot in the arm for the horror industry. Though there were some very cool genre pictures made in the early nineties it was a somewhat stagnated time and Scream brought horror back to the forefront. That is why I can forgive them for bringing the “floating heads” coverbox art trend with them.

Here's Blood In Your Egg Nog!

Hey all! You may recall that last year I worked on a little holiday short film for my good friends Serena Whitney and Justin McConnell called Do You See What I See?.

Well, Christmas comes early this year as, after a successful tour of the festival circuit, this short is now available to watch online. Enjoy!