A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year [1 of 13]

SHIVERS

(October 1975)

“If this picture doesn’t make you scream and squirm, you’d better see a psychiatrist. Quick.”

That’s some of the most awesome copy ever heard in a trailer.

And yes, indeed, it’s from the trailer for Shivers, David Cronenberg’s first feature film in the wake of his self-described “underground” work, Stereo and Crimes of the Future.

It’s been a long quest, this, getting to see Shivers, and finally finding this particular Grail (thanx so much to Jeb for that) was certainly a rewarding experience.

For Cronenbergians out there, all of the themes and preoccupations that would subsequently recur throughout most of his body of work, they’re here, in this disturbing tale of a sexual parasite and the spread of its contagion throughout an apartment complex.

Quite tellingly, Shivers is also an unsettling, prescient take on the horror of AIDS.

In this day and age where even Steven Soderbergh is up for making a movie like Contagion, it’s also worthwhile to take a look at a very early example of the form; Cronenberg would, of course, journey through similar narrative terrain with Rabid.

And, all those zombie movies that are all over the place these days?

They may find their roots in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, but the influence of Cronenberg’s Shivers and Rabid are also undeniable.

Thirty-six years after it was made (filmed in just over two weeks on a very limited budget), Shivers still has a potent and disquieting impact.

I mean, how can it not?

Copy that awesome can’t be wrong…

(Shivers UK quad courtesy of wrongsideoftheart.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
The Preliminaries

Here we are. October again, and time for this year’s final list of the 13 best horror films I’ve seen in the past year.
As you may have noted if you’re a regular visitor to the Iguana, I’ve been keeping an online track of the candidates for this year’s list: 44 in all. As I’ve done in the past, I’ve tried my best to spread the ¡Qué Horror! love around, so this year, I’m instituting a list of runners-up, wherever applicable.
As always, you can break down the horror scene into the current sub-genre trends; these days, you’ll find zombies, vampires, found footage, faux docs, home invasion, just to name some.
To avoid instances where, say, zombies threaten to overrun the list, I’m giving each sub-genre a single slot, but in cases where the decision was difficult, or there were just several noteworthy titles, there will be a runner-up. Just think of it as a bonus, other films that are worthy of your time and some ¡Qué Horror! love.

As always, cut-off viewing date was September 30, and the list is comprised of the 13 best horror movies I saw for the first time within the window of October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011, regardless of initial public screening date.

For the past years’ ¡Qué Horror! rundowns, please scour the Archive.
Beyond that, there’s not much else to say but, Happy Halloween! Hope you enjoy this year’s baker’s dozen plus…

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 44

OUTCAST
(March 2010)


Directed by Colm McCarthy, from a script co-written by McCarthy with Tom K. McCarthy (apparently no relation), Outcast is a truly excellent dark urban fantasy that transposes ancient myth and folklore onto a modern setting.
What makes Outcast an even more impressive achievement is the fact that it’s McCarthy’s feature film debut, a very confident piece that’s got some notable performances in it, from Niall Bruton’s first feature role as “Fergal,” to those delivered by one of the resident cuckoos on Game of Thrones, Kate Dickie, and Rents’ Da from Trainspotting, James Cosmo.

(Outcast UK quad courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 43

INSIDIOUS
(September 2010)


When director James Wan and writer/actor Leigh Whannell made their feature length debut, they brought the world Saw, kickstarting what is now, to date, the most successful franchise in horror film history, for which it was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Horror Movie Series.
They followed Saw with Dead Silence (with a then-relatively-unknown-in-the-US Ryan Kwanten), a film they felt was compromised by the studio system, so they agreed that if they were to collaborate for a third time, it would have to be on a film where they would have creative freedom.
Enter Paranormal Activity, which made a squillion dollars on a practically non-existent budget. Paranormal Activity’s producers turned right around and, under the Haunted Movies banner, threw all that money back into funding five micro-budgeted horror features. Apparently, Wan and Whannell were the first creative team they approached, and thus, we have Insidious, the pair’s take on the haunted house sub-genre.
Thus, we’ve got familiar conventions here: the strange domestic goings-on; the family under siege; the paranormal investigators; the psychic; but Wan and Whannell throw in some interesting spanners into the works that make Insidious both a very excellent example of the haunted house form, and a title that strives vigorously to be something more.
Whannell (as in Saw) appears onscreen, as “Specs,” one of the paranormal investigators, acting alongside Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, who bring an earnest and genuine believability to the married couple at the centre of the film’s supernatural maelstrom. Wan, meanwhile, brings in his great design sensibilities, giving Insidious another edge up.
Whether or not a third act narrative turn works for you, Insidious is still an effectively creepy little number that doesn’t play it safe within a tried and tested sub-genre template, and that’s something to be commended.

Parting shot: As of April 2011, Insidious was the most profitable film of the year; at the time of this posting, the film’s worldwide box office receipts ring up to a total of just over $92 million, on a $1.5 million budget.

(Insidious OS courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 42

LOS OJOS DE JULIA
(JULIA’S EYES)
(September 2010)


Like past ¡Qué Horror! title, El Orfanato, Guillem Morales’ Los Ojos de Julia is produced by Guillermo del Toro, and, as if she hadn’t already had enough anguish on El Orfanato, Belén Rueda signs up for some more here.1
In a scenario that certainly has standard Hollywood thriller in its celluloid DNA, Rueda plays a woman with a degenerative disease that is gradually taking her sight away, who is convinced that her similarly afflicted twin sister’s apparent suicide was the result of foul play.
Los Ojos de Julia though, is certainly better than your standard Hollywood thriller, and is the sort of movie I wouldn’t be at all surprised will get the English-language remake thing done to it.

1 And while Rueda suffers here, El Orfanato co-star Fernando Cayo has a supreme b!tch of a time in fellow ¡Qué Horror! 2011 candidate [#37], Miguel Ángel Vivas’ Secuestrados.

(Los Ojos de Julia OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 41

THE CLINIC
(November 2009)


There are some horror films that you simply don’t show expectant mothers, films like Fruit Chan’s Dumplings or Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s À l'intérieur or Paul Solet’s Grace. Based on the one sheet above, I think it’s clear that James Rabbitts’ The Clinic is another of those films.
If you can get past the unsettling aspects of the material, The Clinic is an absorbing and interesting look at maternal instincts, at just how far a mother is willing to go to protect her child. It also cleverly plays with genre expectations, giving the audience a cinematic experience that may have familiar elements, but nonetheless feels like something we’ve not quite seen before.
For Gabriel or Spartacus fans out there, this one’s also got the late Andy Whitfield in it.

(The Clinic OS courtesy of wrongsideoftheart.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 40

THE REEF
(May 2010)


Another of those films that broke the mold? Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
So, yes, Andrew Traucki’s The Reef isn’t Jaws. But it is nonetheless an intense bit of man-eating shark cinema, one of those “Based on True Events” films, like Open Water before it. (For the record, I prefer The Reef over Open Water.)
This one also sports one of those awesome actor names in Damian Walshe-Howling (who plays Luke); I haven’t heard that great an actor’s name since 28 Weeks Later gave the world the double whammy of Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton.

(The Reef OS courtesy of impawards.com.)