Horror Movies For Halloween, 2014!
“Wanna see something really scary?” (Dan Aykroyd, The Twilight Zone)
I know I do, especially at this time of year. In fact, last year I spent October buried in horror films. Over at Quarter To Three, Tom Chick and I dual-blogged our impressions of 30 selected horror movies covering 30 years, from 1957-1987. It was a blast.
This year, I’m going to be doing something similar, but with a modified theme. For 2014’s horror movies in October, we’re going to cover the best 31 horror movies of the last 15 years. The premise–and I don’t want to spoil too much just now–is that the last 15 years for horror film have been a golden age in the genre, covering a wide variety of sub-genres. We’ve got found footage, fake documentaries, creature features, psycho killers, ghost stalkers and even a good ol’ fashioned werewolf or vampire, too. Oh yeah–we also got zombies. Boy howdy, do we have zombies!
I think we’ll be up again at Qt3, and so each day a friend and I will write about a new movie over there, and I’d love for you to show up and offer your own opinions in the frequently lively discussions that ensue. Consider this your invitation to join in!
On the movies chosen: I crowd-sourced it with some of the horror aficionados at Quarter To Three over the last few weeks. We started with nearly 100 films to fill 31 spaces. We wanted to get culturally significant movies in, we wanted a representative cross section of films, we wanted to give a leg up to artistically interesting movies, etc. etc. I can’t tell you how bummed I was to have to leave great flicks like Zombieland or Trollhunter off the list, but that’s just how strong the last 15 years have been. If your favorite movie isn’t covered, well…maybe we’ll get to it some other time? In the meantime, here are the 31 movies we’ll talk about in October, in the order we’ll discuss them.
The Blair Witch Project
Audition
Ginger Snaps
Session 9
Frailty
The Ring (US)
Ju On
May
28 days/Weeks Later (A two-fer!)
A Tale of Two Sisters
Shutter
Shaun Of The Dead
Call Of Cthulhu
The Descent
[rec]
The Orphanage
Lake Mungo
Martyrs
Let The Right One In
Splinter
Paranormal Activity
Triangle
Cabin In The Woods
House Of The Devil
The Pact
Berberian Sound Studio
Resolution
The Last Will and Testament Of Rosalind Leigh
You’re Next
The Banshee Chapter
Trick R Treat
Popnarcotic 