Alright, call me a bandwagon jumper all you want, but I've been intrigued by the vast number of "best horror movies of the decade" lists I've seen popping up in various horror mags and websites, and I decided to do my own. But before I get to the list itself, I figured I might as well do a little prelude. You see, I know when I put my list up I will probably have people ask why I didn't include certain movies (assuming anyone actually ends up reading the list, that is). So I figure I might as well get it out of the way, and take a moment to share some of the films that will NOT be appearing on my "best of the decade" list, and explain why. These are all films that I think a large number of horror fans might argue should belong on a list like this, so I have no problem explaining why they're not making my cut. Alright, here we go.
THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE - This has just has always been one of the films that I wanted to like a lot more than I did. I love pretty much every other Guillermo Del Toro movie (well, except for Mimic and the first Hellboy film, but I at least like those). Truth be told, I've been meaning to go back and give Devil's Backbone a second chance, but I don't know...the first time I watched it, it just didn't really grab me. The visual of the little boy ghost and the blood floating out of his head is excellent, but I found the story to be a little slow-moving.
CLOVERFIELD - I've seen this included in some of the other lists. It is an awesome movie, and I do dig it. But I don't really consider it horror. And I say that knowing at least a couple films that are on my list are debatable as being horror, but hey, it's my list.
AUDITION - This would probably be in my Top Five...if not for the fact that it came out in 1999. A few lists have cheated the system by using it's US release in 2000 to squeak it in. But I'm gonna play by the rules. If it's any consolation, I'd probably say it's the best horror film of the '90s.
THE RING/JU-ON/PULSE/etc. - I liked Hideo Nakata's Ringu quite a bit, but that was 1998. I wasn't really that into Gore Verbinski's remake. And, for that matter, I wasn't really into the massive wave of Asian ghost movies that followed as a whole. Sorry, this is just one sub-genre that never appealed to me the way it did to many others. The films really started to feel interchangeable, and although some were technically impressive, I never found any of them particularly memorable.
HAUTE TENSION - This is all about the ending. The much discussed twist, which doesn't make a lick of sense. I don't know how all you feel, but I think it's awful. And it's a shame, because the movie really is as awesome as all the hype promised up until that moment. But the ending just pulls me out of the movie and ruins everything. I know the story is that Aja never really intended for there to be a twist, and it was something of a concession to the financiers. Bit whatever the case, it's just bad enough to keep this one off my list.
MARTYRS - I'm glad I saw Martyrs...the one time. I will almost certainly never watch it again. It's not even that it disturbed me that much (although it certainly is disturbing). It's just more that the seemingly unending torture the film's heroine endures does begin to feel repetitive. I think it's funny that some horror fans criticize films like Hostel and the Saw series as being "torture porn," but then go ga-ga over something like this, which is far more brutal and unrelenting, but gets away with it because it supposedly has some sort of deep message. Whatever. Like I said, it's not that I think it's a bad film. But it's not really a great one, either. It is an interesting film, and one that any horror fan should probably see at least once to form their own opinion.
BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON - This is one I came close to including, but much like Haute Tension, the end spoiled it. No, the ending here doesn't piss me off and ruin the movie like it does in Haute Tension, but it does make an otherwise great movie just "pretty good." The idea of a documentary crew following an up-and-coming slasher is a tremendous one, and the movie makes the most of it. But once the final act abandons the "mockumentary" approach, it pretty much just becomes the exact same kind of movie it's been poking fun at. I know, I know...that might be the point. But even so, I just feel like the film loses some of its momentum there.
ZOMBIELAND - Unlike the other zombie-comedy movie that did make my list (I'm sure you can figure it out), Zombieland just feels much more "comedy" than "horror." It's essentially a road comedy that just so happens to take place inside a zombie movie. Don't get me wrong - it's fucking awesome. But there's not really one moment of real horror to it, so I gave it a pass.
TRICK 'R' TREAT - This is a fun movie, and one that I might indeed end up watching every year as a Halloween tradition. But it's also a tad overrated by many horror fans, who I think were reacting more to Warner Bros.' treatment of the film than they were the quality of the movie itself. I appreciate its attempt to bring back the anthology format to horror, but a couple of the stories feel a little short-changed, and the movies desire to link together every story actually ends up hurting it a little (am I the only one who finds it odd and just a little stupid that *spoiler* the nebbish, nervous principal killer ends up also being the dark, mysterious vampire imposter?). The biggest problem here is that the movie is too concerned with the tricks of its storytelling, and not at all with the characters, not a single one of whom are well-developed or memorable. And now I'm gonna say something that is gonna really piss off some fans - Warner Bros. may have been right not to release this to theaters. Like I said, it's fun, but c'mon...a movie like this was never going to be a hit in the theaters. Rabid horror fans always seem to forget that the movie business is just that - a business. Put some of these fans in charge of a studio, and they'll bankrupt it within a year. Anyway, we all should just be happy that Warner Bros. even financed this movie at all. It's a movie that was made for a cult audience, and it thankfully found one. But there are definitely 20 better horror movies from the past 10 years.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY - Yeah. Right. Look, I'm sorry, but this is the most overrated horror film of the decade, not one of the best. I'm happy for those involved that it did so well. In fact, the story of the film is a hell of a lot more interesting than the film itself. I'm sure I'm not the first person to make this joke, but the problem here is that the movie's title is a damn liar. Not the first word, mind you. There is indeed "paranormal" here. But activity? I wish. If your idea of a scary time is watching two annoying characters sit up in bed and listen to footsteps for 90 minutes, than yeah, this is the film for you. Otherwise, I don't know. To me, there is no sadder statement about the current state of the horror genre (or at least its fans) than the fact that this was considered by many to be the scariest movie to come along in years. Have our standards fallen that low?
So that's it. Feel free to bitch about these all you want. Just make sure you save some of that emotion for my next posting, in which I'll reveal my official list of the "Top 20 Horror Movies of the Decade (2000-2009)."
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