American Horror Story: Asylum has this past season been the most disturbing and unnerving freak show I've ever seen. It successfully manipulates the mental elements in horror that so cunningly touches us in the most awkward and uncomfortable ways.
As for the horror movies of this past years there have been som treasures and some stinkers. A few have surely surprised us by pushing the genre boundaries and taken a new approach to storytelling. These following ten movies are my personal favorites from 2012.
10. CITADEL
Citadel brings you to dilapidated council flats and crumbling social highrises in a dirty British suburb, a dystopia called Edenstown. After the gruesome opening where Tommy Cowley's (Aneurin Barnard) wife is silently attacked by a gang of hooded children who stab a syringe in her highly pregnant belly, Tommy's left with their nine month old daughter and a severe agoraphobia. Convinced that the hooded gang is out to kidnap his daughter Tommy turns to the local vigilante priest (James Cosmo) who reveals to Tommy that the children aren't the result of a greater malaise - they're plainly a disease unto themselves and must therefor be extincted. And you're dying to know; are these unloved children from broken homes or creatures far more sinister than that? Together with the priest, and his blind son, Tommy sets out on a final battle to save his daughter. And his sanity.
9. EXCISION
AnnaLynne McCord does the convincing role of the disturbed and delusional high-school student Pauline, who daydreams of her future career in medicine and obssesses over her surgery-skills. While struggling with being an outcast in school and living up to the demands of her controlling mother (Traci Lords), Pauline plots how to lose her virginity and to save her younger sister from the effects of her cystic fibrosis. AnnaLynne McCord's gaunted sebhorrea face and awkward boyish appearances make for the perfect illustration of a flesh-obsessed fanatic who takes her visceral fantasies and self-diagnosed mind too far when planning the ultimate move to impress her mother.
8. THE PACT
When a young woman (Caity Lotz) returns to her childhood home after her mother passes away, she senses a mysterious presences disturbing the house peace. Unidentified noises and things that go bump in the night keep her awake, objects start moving and a picture of an unknown woman posing next to her mother in her younger years keeps falling to the floor. What starts out as a low-budget chiller turns terrifying with a shocker ending, turning the usual haunted house to an omnious cover-up that shows how far a person is willing to go to protect a loved one. Although not a pact per se, The Pact still shows that not all pieces need to fit together to make a surprising revelation, leaving you confused and creeped-out.
7. DARK SHADOWS
Yet another horror comedy from the master of modern fairytales Tim Burton, Dark Shadows is based on the gothic soap opera produced for television between 1966 and 1971. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), has everything a man during the 18th century could wish for; a wealthy fortune and appealing looks. But when breaking the heart of the town-beauty Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) he's doomed to a fate worse than death as Angelique, who is a powerful witch, turns him into a vampire and buries him alive. Two centuries later Barnabas is unearthed and returns to his ancestral home, now inhabited by his dysfunctional descendants, amongst them the head of the household Mrs. Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the family doctor, Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter).
6. THE TALL MAN
The small town of Cold Rock, WA, is struggling with economic hardships and growing class differences as the prospect for the town's recidents is slowly diminishing when the mine that has been the main source of employment is shut down. In the midst of battling poverty and lack of resources, the adults in Cold Rock are one by one experiencing yet another heartbreaking tragedy; the children keep disappearing from their playgrounds, their schools and even from inside their homes. Rumours surrounding the circumstances of the disappearances are widely spread; some believe it's a local child molester. Some say it's the Devil himself. Some talk about the town's own urban legend figure; The Tall Man - a mysterious man abducting children into the woods, after which they're never seen again. When the town nurse Julia Denning's (Jessica Biel) son goes missing the chase builds up in an intricate and inscrutable pattern, where The Tall Man's mysterious role decreases and the hidden role of nurse Denning slowly increases. The Tall Man is a heart-wrenching, shocking thriller that never fails to turn corners.
5. HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET
What feels like a 70's remake during the first 30 minutes, yet another high school-slasher during the next 15 minutes and a total "What the hell is this movie really about?" halfway through its running time; House at the End of the Street suddenly jerks into high-gear and presents a whole new side of the usual protective big brother.
Newly divorced Sarah (Elisbeth Shue) and her daughter Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) move to a woodsy, rural town to get a fresh start from their hectic life back in Chicago, when learning that their neighboring house has been the home to a grisly double murder. Years earlier the supposedly brain-damaged daughter killed her parents in their bed and disappeared, leaving her brother Ryan (Max Thieriot) as the sole survivor, who bizarringly decides to stay in the murder-house. It's not long before the gentle, sad-eyed Ryan picks up Elissa in his car during a rainstorm on her way home from a party, and delivers her safely to her mother. Yes, the oldest trick of all times; making the audience side with the underdog. The teen melodrama aside, this is still more angst than chills until its final act delivers a suprisingly good twist that although not answering all questions, still leaves you satisfied. And yeah, I also have a girl-crush on Jennifer Lawrence.
4. THE WOMAN IN BLACK
The young lawyer Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) travels to the marshy east coast of Britian to handle the paperwork of Eel Marsh mansion's recently passed owner. Still mourning the loss of his wife during childbirth, Kipps is faced with little welcome and no smiles in the little village of Crythin Gifford. Finding himself literally stranded at Eel Marsh when the island that the house is resting on is surrounded by the incoming tide from the nearby ocean, Kipps is suddenly confronted with the sinister and the supernatural. The apparition of a wraith in a black mourning dress catches his attention and the poltergeist acitivity that follows "The Woman in Black" is far too hair raising for the audience to not appreciate this as a more than qualified remake, and far too interesting for Kipps to leave uninvestigated.
3. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
The Cabin in the Woods is a simple idea executed into a whole different story. It positions itself amongst all previous slasher movies, all character clichés and genre zones just to deconstruct these very components into what can only be described as a wickedly entertaining caricatur and a brutal genre exercise. The rythm of the movie skilfully maneuvers its audience between stereotype assortments and commited actors, from scares to laughs, from hoarder basements to social science labs á la 'DHARMA in space', from hilbilly zombies to canned Silent Hill monsters, from haunted old cabin to futuristic force fields á la The Hunger Games in a surprising transition. The Cabin in the Woods is a ritual sacrifice that'll require a lot more than just the blood of a virgin; it'll need its movie audience too. Because this is a playground for a completely new set of horror chess. A total game-changer.
2. V/H/S
V/H/S is basically divided into six different sequences, opening with a group of sleazy criminals filming their en route of harassment which includes attacking women and acting like complete jerk-offs. For those who've read some of my previous posts you might be aware of the fact that I loath any sexual brutality or female opressing behaviour. Which made the first couple of minutes of V/H/S intolerable to me. Luckily the storyline changes direction as the gang breaks into a house to steel an important VHS tape. Who ordered this job or why is never explained (or I just missed that part) but wandering around the house leads them to different tv-monitors and recording devices, from which each of the five found-footage stories play out for the audience. Containing dusturbing nasties, each hand-held horror story has you on the suspense delivering unique turns and surprises; with shaky camera work, partly doubtful acting and seemingly incomprehensive plots and storylines. But despite its low-budget effects and low-rent feel it flashes some very sinister images and has some disturbed visual tricks up its sleeve. Truth be told - this is one of the scariest and disturbing movies I've seen for quite some time.
1. SINISTER
Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) is a true crime writer who, with the plan of writing his next book, moves his family (his wife Tracy, his 12-year old son Trevor and younger daughter Ashley) into a new house in Long Island, where the previous family was hung from a tree in the backyard. All but one. Their youngest daughter, Stephanie, is still missing. With the purpose of solving the murders and find the missing girl, Ellison sets up his ordinary office with a cardboard box wall of clues and evidence and starts the material hunt for his new bestseller. With the help of the Sheriff's deputy and a local occult professor, Ellison starts to piece together a gruesome murder puzzle. A puzzle which effects the entire family. Ellison's son starts having his night terrors again, his daughter Ashley starts painting images taken from the 8mm films on her bedroom walls and Ellison himself leaves his wife on the verge of a nervous breakdown watching him fall into pieces due to his obsession battling his paranoia.
Other mentionable additions to the stack of 2012's worth-watching
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Prometheus, The Possession, Lovely Molly
The total dissapointments of the year
The Apparition, Grave Encounters 2, The Loved Ones, The Devil Inside, Cassadaga
Yet to be watched
Paranormal Activity 4
Mostly anticipated for 2013
Carrie, The Lords of Salem, World War Z, Evil Dead, IT, The Host, Horns, I, Frankenstein, Warm Bodies, Dracula 3D, Haunt, Insidious Chapter 2
