A RUN-DOWN OF THE BEST & WORST HORROR OF 2012

Another horror year has drawn to an end. Safe to say that 2012 was a solid year for horror television. Not only did The Walking Dead offer us its best season so far - True Blood was, as usual, a delight to watch. I also stumbled upon the haunted mansion on Upper East portraited in 666 Park Avenue, which sadly ended abruptly when ABC pulled the plug and cancelled the show. Although giving the creators time to tweak the last episode it, didn't offer as much closure as it left behind unanswered questions.

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

REVIEW: SINISTER (2012)

 "Sinister is a frightening new thriller from the producer of the Paranormal Activity films and the writer-director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Ethan Hawke plays a true crime novelist who discovers a box of mysterious, disturbing home movies that plunge his family into a nightmarish experience of supernatural horror." - (C) Summit

OBS! THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS! 
So last night my boyfriend texts me, saying we're gonna watch Sinister when I get home from work. Great, I thought, having waited for it for a couple of months now, despite not having read or knowing anything about it. Sometimes you just have that weird feeling that a movie's gonna be really good. And it was. Damn it was.

Ethan Hawke does the convincing and committed role of Ellison Oswalt, a true crime writer who's famous for his debut book Kentucky Blood, in which his reporting exposed some cracks in the local police department's murder investigation techniques. And as a result, cops don't like him very much.

With the idea for his new book, Ellisson knowingly 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 hunt for material for his new bestseller.

Stumbling upon a box of homemade Super-8 reels in the attic, each labeled with a disturbing title (BBQ '79, Pool Party '86, Sleepy Time '98), Ellison rigs up his home movie theater, pours himself a whiskey on the rocks and starts watching. Each of the 'snuff' footage shows a gruesome set up of a family being simultaneously murdered in sickening ways, suggesting that the murder Ellison is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose work dates back to the 1960's.

Once the filmstrips have begun rolling the movie itself suddenly takes on a dark tone.  After reviewing the films over and over, Ellison discovers a special mark and a demonic face that turns up on each of the footage. 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.

Sinister skillfully uses fragments of the supernatural to underline its investigation of the human mind and foibles of paranoia and insecurity, and does so with originality and a few genuine scares that will make you wet your pants. Apart from the few jump-and-scare tactics (desynced in video/audio which gives them a nano second's head start to your brain), it builds and broods atmospherically on the evil and hostility that mankind is capable of. When the demonic face from the filmstrips is identified as not only Mr. Boogie, but as the pagan Babylonian deity Bagul - he is inevitably invited to continue his work, resulting in the final film, House Painting '12.

On a personal note, this has been the atmospherically creepy and frightening movie I've seen in years. Adding to the scare is the fact the while we were watching the movie with all the lights in our house off, the globe lamp that's placed on one of the taller stereo speakers next to the TV suddenly lit on its own. An hour later when we were in bed (I'd already fallen asleep and J was laying next to me, watching Netflix on his computer) a flashlight on our dresser at the other end of the room suddenly turned itself on.

REVIEW: CITADEL (2012)

"An agoraphobic father teams up with a renegade priest to save his daughter from the clutches of a gang of twisted feral children who committed an act of violence against his family years earlier" - IMDB

OBS! THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Supposedly inspired by a violent mugging experienced by Irish writer and director Ciarán Foy, Citadel brings you to dilapidated council flats and crumbling social highrises in a dirty British suburb, a dystopia called Edenstown. The dingy surroundings and the bleak exteriors themselves make you cringe, and after the gruesome opening where Tommy Cowley's wife is silently attacked by a gang of hooded children that stab a syringe in her highly pregnant belly - you're left with a nauseating sub-textual message.

As a result of his wife's death (after being comatose for nine months) Tommy, played by Aneurin Barnard, is left with their nine month old daughter and a severe agoraphobia. Despite his intense therapy sessions, Tommy spends most of his days hiding out indoors in his new housing, cowering reduced to a gaunt wide-eyed emotional wreck. One night there's a banging on the door.

Convinced that the hooded gang is out to kidnap his daughter Tommy finds refuge in Marie, a sympathetic nurse that helped care for his wife during her comatose. Marie patiently explains to Tommy that his fear and paranoia are all in his head. “It’s so easy to demonize these kids. What they need is our sympathy." Well, what you got Marie, is blunt force trauma to the head.

In a last desperate search for an escape Tommy turns to the local vigilante priest, played by James Cosmo, who convinces Tommy that the children aren't the result of a greater malaise - they're plainly a disease unto themselves and must therefor be extinct. 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.

Citadel effectively rides on its initial tension through out the movie. The story balances between the feral reality of suburban brutality with poor economics and shattered homes, and the fragile mind of a young man who just lost his wife and is battling Social Services. For the main character Tommy, it's a parable of urban anxiety and the fear of fatherhood. For the viewer, it's an uneasy blend of horror of the psychological (the agoraphobia, the paranoia, the insomnia) and the supernatural kind; are those hooded child ruffians actually freakishly skinny zombies?

MOVIE REVIEW: V/H/S (2012)

"When a group of petty criminals is hired by a mysterious party to retrieve a rare piece of found footage from a rundown house in the middle of nowhere, they soon realize that the job isn't going to be as easy as they thought. In the living room, a lifeless body holds court before a hub of old television sets, surrounded by stacks upon stacks of VHS tapes. As they search for the right one, they are treated to a seemingly endless number of horrifying videos, each stranger than the last."

Partly produced by the site Bloody Disgusting, V/H/S is an anthology of found footage shorts written and directed by a bunch of grass-root filmmakers and horror geniuses (Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Chad Villella, Tyler Gillett, Glenn McQuaid, Adam Wingard, Nicholas Tecosky, Justin Martinez, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Simon Barrett and David Bruckner) with an appetite for brutal inconsistency, mind perversion and lethal suspense.

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 for 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 nasties as follows, each hand-held horror story has you on the suspense delivering unique turns and surprises as you don't know what each story holds or for how long it will play out. 

OBS! THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!

1. A group of horny guys set out for a night of clubbing wearing a hidden camera in one of their eye-glasses with the purpose of recording whatever sexual action will be achieved. This, however, goes disturbingly wrong as the guys bring back the wrong girl to their motel room.

2. An all-American couple is on a weekend getaway to Grand Canyon, when an anonymous intruder visits their motel room in the middle of the night. Although it sounds like the typical Hostel scene, it's anything but just that. This was my favorite segment of the movie and, directed by Ti West, it offered an unsettling enviroment disturbed by an even more uneasy ending scene, which was cut abruptly and without further explanation. Just the way I like 'em!

3. This segment offers the best visual effects with heavy distortions and blurry serial killers zooning in and out of the forest. A bit unnerving but as the sequence reminds a bit too much of The Blair Witch Project (c'mon, even stealing punch lines from it?) it's not far from lazy-ing back to being a gimmick.

4. During several Skype conversations with her boyfriend, a young woman reports having difficulties sleeping due to some racketing going on in her hallway at night. Her boyfriend guides her in trying to find out who's playing tricks in her apartment, but the man behind the machine turns out to be an unexpected guest. This is Joe Swanberg's 'The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger'.

5. Four party-hungry men drive to an address where there's supposedly a huge Halloween party taking place. Entering the house they realize they've stepped into another form of hell. This is rumoured to be favorite sequence of all the people involved in V/H/S and it is a damn fine and mind wrenching way to end the terror tales. 

 Each installment in V/H/S varies in quality and lenght; 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.

TWO CRAPPY QUICKIES: THE DEVIL INSIDE (2012) & CASSADAGA (2011)

OBS! THE FOLLOWING POST MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!

THE DEVIL INSIDE (2012)
A young American woman, Isabella Rossi, travels to Rome where her mother's been institutionalized for the past 15-20 years after killing three clergy people during what later turns out to be an exorcism. Trying to understand what happened to her mother all those years ago, Isabella brings with her a camera man in the hopes of making a documentary on her mother's case. When attending a seminar on exorcism in the Vatican City, Isabella meets two priests who explain to her that her mother's condition might not be medical, but could well be demonic possession. Together with the priests and the camera man she decides to perform an exorcism on her mother, which obviously goes horribly wrong.

US poster for The Devil Inside (2012)

Seems like a decent synopsis, doesn't it? Well... it isn't. In the range of exorcism movies The Devil Inside could be the worst example in years when it comes to storyline and acting, or rather lack thereof. Fernanda Andrade, who plays Isabella Rossi, is toe-curlingly embrassing in her lack of sensing the fine line of talking directly to the camera during a 'real' documentary and actually reading directly from the cue-cards, which in this case became extremely stilted. The two priests are the epitome of modern bad-acting crusaders; one a heavy American blabber mouth and the other a light weight British stiffness. Apart from some entertaining bone-breaking special effects this movie was just a huge waste of time.

CASSADAGA (2011)

What was time even worse spent was the 113 minutes watching Cassadaga. The deaf college student slash art teacher Lily Morel is devastated when losing her younger sister in a traffic accident. Being an orphan, Lily seeks solace in the spiritualist community of Cassadaga. Distraught by the recent tragedy of her sister's death, Lily visits a local physic together with some friends and her new hunky acquaintance (my long lost True Blood favorite Jesus). The seance is somewhat successful when the psychic manages to contact Lily's sister but also has the side effect of opening a passage for the ghost of a murdered young woman, whose hauntings soon start to jeopardize Lily's sanity and safety. 

Censored poster for Cassadaga (2011)

So far the story seems believable although Kelen Coleman has some difficulties tackling the deaf role. Having placed the spiritualist community of Cassadaga, FL, as the center point of a movie you would think that 'Psychic Capital of the World' would act a stronger foundation for the supernatural events of the movie. But these are suddenly pushed aside to give room for a serial killer plot, and that's how the movie starts go to awry. Although we learn that the ghost of the murdered young woman had fallen victim of a sadistic and sexually confused man who dismembers and reconstructs young women into marionettes, the two stories rather seem like incomplete sidelines than going hand in hand. Had the movie had a clearer sense of direction it might have been able to deliver on the tension it builds, but unfortunately it only left me with the sense that it actually didn't have much to offer.

MOVIE REVIEW: THE TALL MAN (2012)

"In an isolated, slowly dying mining town, children are vanishing without a trace - abducted, the townsfolk whisper, by a mysterious entity known locally as "The Tall Man." Town nurse Julia Denning (Jessica Biel) seems skeptical...until her young David disappears in the middle of night. Frantic to rescue the boy, Julia lives every parent's darkest nightmare in this twisting, shock-around-each-corner thriller from acclaimed director Pascal Laugier called The Tall Man." - Rotten Tomatoes

The small town of Cold Rock, Washington, 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 has 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.

One who's never fallen for the urban legend is the town nurse Julia Denning (Jessica Biel). Being the only medical practicioner in the area since her (doctor) husband died several years earlier, Julia Denning has become the antithesis of Cold Rock - the heroic baby deliverer, the house warming care taker and the loving mother. Naturally, as a counterpart to the social downward spiral, her son goes missing.

What starts out as a mother giving 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. We learn that the kidnapper is someone far less legendary than The Tall Man and that the urban legend figure himself exists in a whole other way than we are first to believe. The underlying supernatural prescence and the mythical references are soon diminished by the stereotype small town tropes being skillfully demolished into the heartbreaking conclusions of today; how a national economy crises always hits the hardest against small towns. The defiance and suspicion exuding from small town folks towards the outside world. The iron fist of distant and anonomous governments. The brutal consequences of class differences and the limited means of those less fortunate. The Tall Man is a provocative end twister that gives food for thought by putting an edge to the horror genre and leaves the viewer with more than one moral reflection.

MOVIE REVIEW: THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (2012)

Oh, wow. I haven't really made up my mind about this movie yet. Been digesting it for over a week now and can't seem to make up my mind whether this practical joke has just spun out of its own comfort zone or if it's in fact a master piece in the world of climax within the climax, and story on top of story.

It's safe to say that what starts out, after a thought provoking pre-credit sequence, as your typical teenage weekend getaway (yeah, you have the jock, the slut, the stoner, the virgin, the scholar) crammed up on an outback mountain dirt road with a name-calling, tobacco spittin' loonie stationed at the old gas station. You know the drill 'cause you've seen it before. Only, you haven't. And that's kinda the point.

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 to. Because this is a playground for a completely new set of horror chess. A total game-changer.

FRIDAY THE 13TH WEEK, PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD

A sequel in the true sense, the seventh runner-up in FRIDAY THE 13TH WEEK recaps some of the most memorable death scenes throughout the franchise during the intro of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.

The telekinetic girl Tina returns to Crystal Lake with her mother and her doctor Dr. Crews to try work out the guilt she's struggling with after being (somewhat) responsible of the drowning of her father. While thinking she senses her dead father, Tina activates her telekinetic powers and accidentally brings Jason back to life, giving him the chance to break free from the chains that have been holding him underneath the lake for several years. Tina later starts having visions of Jason killing people, as a holiday party group in a neighboring cabin gets offed, one by one.

BEST PART OF INTRO SCENE
The recap of death scenes from previous movies.

BEST LINE
Sandra (while skinny-dipping): "You need a formal invitation? Russell party for two, right this way place."

BEST NUDITY SCENE
Sandra frantically spreading her legs just seconds before she's drowned.

BEST SCREAM 
Maddy's mental breakdown when Russell's dead body comes falling from the sky.

 










MOST GORY SCENE
Dan getting a hand through his chest and his neck snapped.

BEST DEATH SCENE
From the unrated version: Judy hiding in her sleeping bag, getting swung against in of the forest's sturdier trees.

Check out the scene here.


BEST KILLER FEATURE
Tina's mind-tricks blowing up zombie Jason's head inside his mask.

If you wanna check out more Friday the 13th death scenes, check out the complete list compiled by UGO Team.

FRIDAY THE 13TH WEEK, PART VI: JASON LIVES

"He's back! He's the man behind the mask." Yes, in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Jason returns from the dead to stir up a new death frenzy at Crystal Lake. Although this is the fifth movie in the installment (check out the previous posts in FRIDAY THE 13TH WEEK) to take place at a camp around Crystal Lake, I have to say it's nice to come back to the campgrounds after the preceding movie's total failure at trying a new approach.

This movie could easily be watched without having seen its prequels, as it's a classic 80's movie; it's humorous, plays fierce music (Alice Cooper's Hard Rock Summer and Teenage Frankenstein, and Felony's I'm No Animal) accompanying got car crashes and police chases, it's got a various span of death scenes and more mature actors. I would say this is probably the best movie since Part I.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives movie poster

Despite being a huge fan of 80's rock and the fact that some of my favorite bands had their moment of stardom around the time I was born, I was never an Alice Cooper fan girl. However, "He's Back: The Man Behind The Mask" is a great example of a classic 80's song, twisted into Alice Cooper's own little version of music making. I've seen Alice Cooper live at several festivals (amongst them Sweden Rock Festival 2006 and Sonisphere 2010) but never performing this song, which would be fun to watch considering Alice Cooper's ordinary scen art and characteristic stage performances.

BEST PART OF INTRO  SCENE
Jason accidentally getting electrocuted in his grave.

BEST LINE
Lizabeth: "I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly."

BEST NUDITY SCENE
Although not so nude- Cort and Nikki's power humping in the trailer.

BEST SCREAM
Lizabeth, screaming as her boyfriend Darren gets slashed all over the windshield of her car, crawls out of the car and falls into a puddle of mud, shortly before getting her head pierced.

MOST GORY SCENE
With not so much gore to choose from I would have to go with Jason's strangling Nikki in the back of the trailer and pushes her face into the wall.

BEST DEATH SCENE 
Burt get's his forehead smashed into a tree. And a smiley-face.

BEST KILLER FEATURE
Jason drowns. Again.

FRIDAY THE 13TH WEEK, PART V: A NEW BEGINNING

Returning in Friday the 13th Week with the fifth part of the franchise, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning gives us an adolescent Tommy, who's transferred to a rural halfway house for troubled teenagers after being released from the Unger Institute for Mental Health. Struggling with his PTSD, Tommy needs to face the nightmare of Jason's return as a series of murders begin anew.

Although Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is trying a different approach to the franchise, the idea of featuring a killer besides Jason Voorhees (the first to have one that is not a member of the Voorhees-family) is just one step too many taken with lack of imagination. Or rather, lack of inspirational imagination. This movie just feels like a total rip-off from a number of different 80's landmarks. Foremost, the set of mentally unstable and institutionalized teenagers, the nightmares about the killer's return and the desperate attempts of survival from institution personnel just reeks of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Which totally sucks, since A Nightmare on Elm Street is an 80's masterpiece in my book, and this isn't.

With that being said, this is obviously not one of my favorites.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning movie poster

BEST PART OF INTRO SCENE
Jason awakening from his grave.

BEST LINE
Ethel: "I'm gonna chop you into itty bitty little pieces, my friend"

BEST NUDITY SCENE
Eddie and Tina's voyeur rendezvous in the woods.  

BEST DEATH SCENE
Violet's death scene is voted the best due to her bad ass robot dance (which was featured on my 2011 Halloween Top 10: Macabre Dance Numbers). 

BEST SCREAM
I can never remember her name, but she takes on the screaming role quite well as she wakes up to find her boyfriend dead in bed with her.

MOST GORY SCENE
Eddie getting his head wrenched around a tree.

BEST KILLER FEATURE
This one's just hilarious. First of all Jason's drowned. Then he's been stabbed, axed, hung from a rope around his neck numerous times. And what does he do when he gets his head kicked by a tiny woman's foot? He dramatically touches the side of his head, as it it's hurting. This just shows that it's obviously not Jason who's the killer.