A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[10 of 13]

LAST SHIFT

(October 2014)

"I am safe in the arms
Of my master, my king,
On the last day, I will follow,

My soul, I will bring…”

Anthony DiBlasi has become something of a regular ¡Qué Horror! fixture ever since his excellent adaptation of Clive Barker’s Dread slotted itself neatly into the 2010 final rundown. (His Cassadaga was a 2012 Candidate. Additionally, he also Executive Produced Ryuhei Kitamura’s The Midnight Meat Train adaptation, which settled comfortably into the 2008 final rundown.)

He’s back ‘round these parts with Late Shift, where rookie cop Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) is given her first assignment: be the sole officer on-site at a police station that’s being shut down in favor of a brand new one.

And since we’re here deep in this year’s final rundown, then you know that Jessica’s first shift on the job goes spectacularly awry as only one can in a horror movie…

It’s an interesting take DiBlasi has on the traditional haunted house set-up, where the protagonist spends a portion of the running time wandering the (supposedly) empty halls and rooms of the structure, while the weird goings-on begin to gradually escalate in frequency and intensity.

So, yes, the manner in which Last Shift unfolds will be familiar to the long-time horrorhead, but, there is also a lot to be said for a masterful execution of this kind of horror film, and Last Shift is a chillingly efficient take, with well-timed and disturbingly executed funhouse scare/set pieces strewn about the film’s nearly hour-and-a-half running time.

“Missy, if you can’t handle one night alone in an empty police station, then I think you picked the wrong line of work.”

(Last Shift OS and Blu-ray cover art courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2015

Candidate #17

LAST SHIFT

(October 2014)

"I am safe in the arms
Of my master, my king,
On the last day, I will follow,

My soul, I will bring…”

Anthony DiBlasi has become something of a regular ¡Qué horror! fixture ever since his excellent adaptation of Clive Barker’s Dread slotted itself neatly into the 2010 final rundown. (His Cassadaga was a 2012 Candidate. Additionally, he also Executive Produced Ryuhei Kitamura’s The Midnight Meat Train adaptation, which settled comfortably into the 2008 final rundown.)

He’s back ‘round these parts with Late Shift, where rookie cop Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) is given her first assignment: be the sole officer on-site at a police station that’s being shut down in favor of a brand new one.

And since we’re here hip-deep in this year’s ¡Qué horror! Candidate rundown, then you know that Jessica’s first shift on the job goes spectacularly awry as only one can in a horror movie…

It’s an interesting take DiBlasi has on the traditional haunted house set-up, where the protagonist spends a portion of the running time wandering the (supposedly) empty halls and rooms of the structure, while the weird goings-on begin to gradually escalate in frequency and intensity.

So, yes, the manner in which Last Shift unfolds will be familiar to the long-time horrorhead, but, there is also a lot to be said for a masterful execution of this kind of horror film, and Last Shift is a chillingly efficient take, with well-timed and disturbingly executed funhouse scare/set pieces strewn about the film’s nearly hour-and-a-half running time.

“Missy, if you can’t handle one night alone in an empty police station, then I think you picked the wrong line of work.”

(Last Shift OS and Blu-ray cover art courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[10 of 13]
DREAD (July 2009)


Of the 3 recent Clive Barker film adaptations (the other two being The Midnight Meat Train and Book of Blood; reviews shambling about in the Archive), Anthony DiBlasi’s Dread is the one that can arguably be said to be even better than the source material, and considering the original is a Barker short story, that’s saying quite a lot.
What DiBlasi does here, is to personalize the phobias established in the original Books of Blood short story; fears are grounded in very specific childhood traumas. For example, in the film, we are made privy to the root cause of Cheryl Fromm’s vegetarianism (which, if you’ve read the short story, you’ll know is the crux of the powerful set piece that lies at the diseased heart of “Dread”).

There’re also some trade-offs (protagonist Stephen Grace-- played by Jackson Rathbone-- gets a new fear, while his phobia from the short story is fobbed off to another character), as well as a couple of new characters, setting up the film’s grim third act, which looks vastly different from the short story’s climax. It’s a darker, far more harrowing close that nonetheless still makes perfectly sick sense given the manner in which the narrative unfolds.
It’s also good to know that Rathbone’s sulky, pouty non-presence in the Twilight movies is all on the character and not a reflection of the young man’s acting abilities. He acquits himself well here, as do the other young cast members.

Dread is one of the best Barker adaptations out there and should be seen by any horror aficionado, even those who aren’t familiar with Barker’s work.
It’s powerful, dark stuff, this. The kind of indiscriminate horror that works in an amoral universe, where no one is exempt from dastardly fates.

(Dread OS courtesy of facebook.com.)