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

[3 of 13]

CHEAP THRILLS

(March 2013)

Old friends Craig (Pat Healy) and Vince (Ethan Embry) haven’t seen each other for five years, and a chance meeting with Colin (David Koechner) and his wife, birthday girl Violet (Healy’s The Innkeepers co-star Sara Paxton) opens them up to the opportunity (and a night) of a lifetime…

This feature debut of E.L Katz, co-written by Deadgirl scribe Trent Haaga with David Chirchirillo, is definitely one of the most disturbing entries amongst this year’s ¡Qué horror! 13, and that’s saying something.

It’s got some streaks of black humor running through it, but ultimately, it’s a potent portrait of just how petty and cruel individuals can be in the light of monetary reward; it’s about the horror of how far desperate people will debase themselves for some cold hard cash.

Parting Shot: A review of past ¡Qué horror! title, Deadgirl, can be found lurking in the Archive.

(Cheap Thrills OS’ courtesy of impawards.com)

¡Qué horror! 2012

Candidate # 29

V/H/S

(January 2012)

Brought to us by a crowd of familiar genre names (most of whom are also quite at home on the ¡Qué Horror! front) and tied together by a concept from Bloody Disgusting’s Brad Miska, V/H/S takes on two standard horror sub-genres, one (found footage) currently more popular in the mainstream than the other (horror anthology), and does both of them exceedingly proud.

Surrounded by the preponderance of mediocre and derivative found footage titles in this day and age, V/H/S crashes the party and kicks all of the bland and terribly unimaginative pretenders in the ‘nads, planting a decisive flag to prove that the form isn’t just a way for Hollywood to make a quick profit from a low production cost, but can also take the audience to some really strange and interesting places. (Even when you may guess where the story’s headed--which happened to me a number of times--the end result is still worth seeing and still holds some startling moments.)

The segments are, to wit:

“Tape 56,” directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett, who brought us fellow ¡Qué Horror! 2012 candidate, A Horrible Way To Die, and who also both appear in the fragmented segment which acts as the connective tissue of the anthology;

“Amateur Night,” helmed by one-third of The Signal directing team, David Bruckner, and written by Bruckner and Nicholas Tecosky;

“Second Honeymoon,” written and directed by Ti West, who brought us past ¡Qué Horror! title, The House of the Devil, as well as current contender The Innkeepers (which I’ve already seen but have yet to write about here at the Iguana). This one stars Joe Swanberg, from A Horrible Way To Die, who also directs another V/H/S segment (see below);

“Tuesday the 17^th,” written and directed by Glenn McQuaid, who brought us I Sell the Dead, a previous effort I must confess, I wasn’t too overly fond of;

“The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger,” directed by Joe Swanberg and written by Simon Barrett;

and “10/31/98,” written and directed by the Radio Silence collective of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, and Chad Villella, who also appear in the segment.

Truly exceptional work from all concerned, and I, for one, am excited to see what all these gentlemen have up their sleeves next…

(V/H/S OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)