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THE GRAVEDIGGERS'S TEN BEST HORROR FILMS OF 2010!
Just when you thought 2010 was gone for good and you had bid good riddens to it... along comes The Gravedigger to put in his 2 cents about the best in horror for the past year. While all of us may not totally agree with the order of this list, we do agree that 2010 was a pretty good year for horror, and a pretty bad year for everything else. Put the past year to bed and get a load of what The Gravedigger thought was the best in horror of 2010!
10 BEST HORROR MOVIES OF 2010
PIRANHA 3-D
There's an earthquake below Arizona's Lake Victoria and it opens a rift to an underground lake inhabited by thousands of vicious prehistoric piranha's. Their first victim is an old man (Richard Dreyfus of JAWS) fishing. His rowboat is capsized because of the ensuing whirlpool and he's partially devoured by the fish. His body is found by sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue of LINK, HOLLOW MAN), whose inclination is to close the lake down while she investigates the cause of his demise. However, it's Spring Break and the lake is overrun by thousands of teenagers. This is good for the piranha's but very bad for the hundreds of eaten victims. This movie has some of the goriest deaths I've seen in quite a while, made even more gruesome by the effective 3-D. In fact, this is probably the best 3-D horror film to date. The main character of the movie is Forester's son, Jake, who is coerced to being the local guide for a sleazy T & A video producer (Jerry O'Connell). The only reason he's doing the job is because his would-be girlfriend is aboard. Their boat gets stranded on some rocks and slowly sinks while the piranhas circle. So it's up to the sheriff and her companions to rescue them.
This intense, relentless remake delivers the goods on all levels. It is definitely one of the best horror flicks of 2010. Of course, the sequel will be released in 2012...
RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE
A corporation digging in a mountain in Finland discovers that it is man-made, housing the grave of Santa Claus. But this isn't the modern version of the guy--this is the original, child-eating one. Let's just say that those workers meet a violent end.
The majority of the story focuses around a young boy and his father, who runs a reindeer slaughtering house. The day after the boy and his friend sneak in to look at the archeological dig their parents find hundreds of reindeer slaughtered. The adults thing it's wolves but the kid sees the human footprints and knows it may be Saint Nick. Then, someTHING falls into the deadfall pit the father had dug to catch the wolves. It looks like a white bearded sixty-year old man and at first they think he's dead. Then, he starts to awaken and ends up biting the ear off one of the guys. Strange things are happening in the area---all of the boy's friends are disappearing, replaced by effigies, and radiators are being stolen from homes. It's not until the last half hour when all the questions are answered.
This fascinating movie had me hooked from the beginning. RARE EXPORTS is one of the best Christmas themed horror movies ever made.
EVAN STRAW
Alice Marsh, a recently widowed woman, moves into an old stone house that was built in the 1700's. It doesn't bother her that there are rumors that it is haunted. That is, until one day she walks into a room and sees a human shaped shadow on the wall, which quickly vanishes. Then, stuff starts moving around the house, like a mirror on her bed, which creeps her out. She confides all this to her Aunt Gert, who lives nearby. She calls in a psychic to help deal with this and they contact Evan Straw, who doesn't want to leave. But at the same time Alice's dead husband decides to contact her, which makes it all even more confusing. Then they call in another supernatural expert, a Russian guy named Peter (Mike Legge), who has a reputation of getting rid of ghosts. He can actually see spiritual vortexes. Peter immediately makes contact with Evan and the ghost says that he needs the woman, for some reason. Exactly what the entity actually is is very intriguing and I don't think I've ever seen this tackled in a movie before.
Writer/Director Mike Legge's first serious movie is a success on many levels--it's well acted, interesting and will keep you guessing. EVAN STRAW is also one of the best ghost stories I've seen in a long while.
TELL TALE
This movie begins with a heart being harvested from a donor and transplanted into a new guy, Terry Bernard. Then it goes to five months later where he's in his bathroom, taking the regiment of anti-rejection drugs. He takes his daughter to her doctor, Elizabeth (Lena Headey), and we learn that the kid has a progressive bone disease.
Terry asks her out, something she's clearly been waiting for. Then, when he sees a paramedic passing by in the hallway he has a weird flashback, as if reliving a memory. But it's not HIS memory. When he goes to his own doctor for a checkup and is waiting in the room he looks through the medical records and finds the name of his donor.
He ends up killing two guys, one of them that paramedic, who may be responsible for the death of his donor. But every time he tries to tell someone what he's done, whether going to the police or confiding to his new girlfriend Elizabeth, his heart starts acting up.
His new heart has a life of its own and it wants revenge...
TELL TALE is a very well constructed movie, sort of an improvement on BODY PARTS.
Josh Lucas gives an amazing performance as the poor sap who has to deal with all this stuff happening to him and it's a different sort of part for Lena Headey. I am telling you to rent this tale.
THE ROAD
A man (Viggo Mortensen of LORD OF THE RINGS) and his young son travel across a decimated United States, walking towards the Coast and to the South to get away from the cold. Everything is dead, even the animals, so they must find food in the form of canned goods. They also have to avoid the groups of marauders that have become cannibals. The only thing they have for protection is a pistol with two bullets and the father intends to use these on himself and his son if things get too bad or if they're captured by the people eaters. But in one such encounter he uses up one of the bullets, though it allows them to get away. They also have to be careful about falling trees, especially with the frequent earthquakes. Since the trees are all dead and their roots rotted, they fall over like dominos anytime the ground shakes. There are also numerous fires. Every so often there are flashbacks to scenes with the man's wife (Charlize Theron) in happier times, usually a dream, which makes him worry. His health is deteriorating and he's begun to cough up blood. Now, he has to prepare his son for fending for himself. And it doesn't help that he begins seeing all other survivors as enemies.
The scenes of a ravaged world are impressive and it's a great use of computer effects. Although the gore is to a minimum it's effective, such as the human gutpile and the scene with the starving people kept in the cellar for food. It's also a very depressing movie, so be warned. This is one of the most realistic movies about people trying to survive the end of the word I've ever seen.
TRIANGLE
Jess (Melissa George of AMITYVILLE HORROR, ALIAS) is a troubled mother with an autistic son who goes on a day cruise on a friend's Yacht. Along for the ride is a couple and their female friend. Everything is a bit uncomfortable, as she only knows her friend. Things become worse, however, when they encounter a weird storm which capsizes the yacht. The weather clears up and out of the fog emerges a big old ship. They manage to climb aboard and find that it is deserted. Yet they thought they saw someone on deck as they were paddling over to it in their rubber raft.
The ship is from the 1930's and is running. There's even food in one of the banquet rooms. It's as if everyone suddenly vanished. Then, they see glimpses of someone running down the halls and noises of their footsteps. And the killings begin. Why does someone want to kill them? And why does Jess have the dreaded feeling that she has experienced all of this before?
They are caught in a weird time loop, though Jess is the only one who realizes what is happening. When she tries explaining it to the others they think she is crazy--and by then it's too late and it starts over again. But she thinks she may be able to stop it all, which leads to the whole scenario of someone wanting to kill them all. There are some truly unsettling scenes, especially one in which is becomes clear they've all been here a few dozen times before....
This time travel movie is along the lines of TIME CRIMES. In fact, it so closely parallels that movie, down to the sack cloth masks, that this could be a sequel to that film. And while it's not a Bermuda Triangle movie--the title refers to the name of the yacht--the Triangle, it thematically follows those flicks. Highly recommended.
SPLICE
SPLICE is a modern-day Frankenstein story. Two scientists, Clive (Adrian Brody of THE JACKET) and Elsa (Sarah Polley of DAWN OF THE DEAD remake) create a new species of creature, which includes some human DNA. At first Clive wants to abort the experiment, especially when it stings Elsa, but he soon begins to support his girlfriend's unorthodox experiment. At first the creature looks like a weird alien, with a big split head, catlike eyes and only two limbs. But it is aging at an accelerated rate and as it does so begins to look more and more like a human woman.
When one of their other experiments goes awry and they get in trouble from the lab they work for, they realize that they have to move their creation, now named Dren, somewhere else. So they take her to an old farmhouse that Elsa had inherited from her crazy mother. They kept Dren locked up in the barn, complete with a heater, a huge tank of water for her amphibious characteristics, and toys. Dren begins to develop a crush on Clive--and Clive begins to sense this attraction. In fact, he realizes that Elsa used her own DNA in the chimera's creation, which may be the reason why he's attracted to Dren.
But Elsa is going over the edge and begins to abuse Dren. It may be because she's back at the old house where she was abused by her mother or it's just an aspect of her personality coming out that she's hidden from Clive. Whatever the reason, a rift develops. When she finds the two having sex she retreats back to her city apartment.
SPLICE is a solid monster movie that feels reminiscent of an old David Cronenberg movie, back when he was making horror. The CGI effects are seamless and I was totally convinced that this creature actually existed. I also like the fact that the last twenty minutes came as a surprise but still fit well with the rest of the movie. Recommended.
LET ME IN
I enjoyed this American remake of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN far better than the original. It has better production values, better effects and the most important thing of all, better actors. The original movie had me bored. This had me hooked.
Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a twelve-year-old boy who is tormented by three bullies. To make matters worse his mother is an alcoholic, sleeping her life away, and he hasn't seen his soon-to-be divorced father in months. So when a young girl, Abby (Chloe Moretz of KICK-ASS), and her father move into the next door apartment he's curious. He ends up making friends with her, though she's odd. It's the middle of Winter and she goes barefoot in the snow, telling him that she doesn't get cold. And when he asks her age she tells him "Twelve-years-old, give or take". There's also a parallel story in which a policeman (Elias Koteas of THE PROPHECY) is investigating murders in the town, murders which have to do with Abby. Eventually Owen realizes that she's a vampire and he must decide to either help her or not.
I can't remember if the original took place in the early 80's but that actually works very well for the story. And, of course, I'm sure it helps the soundtrack sales (David Bowie and Greg Kihn) and opens it wide open for a modern-day sequel which would show an adult Owen and a twelve-year-old Abby...
BURNING BRIGHT
A young woman, Kelly Taylor (Briana Evigan), is all set to go to college on her scholarship, which comes to a grinding halt when she discovers her evil stepfather (Garrett Dillahunt of THE ROAD, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT remake) has taken out all of her money from the bank. Now, she has to look after her autistic little brother, Tommy, because she no longer is able to pay a special school to care for him while she's in school. Furious, she goes back to her stepdad's place and we find out he's starting up a Safari. In fact, in the opening scene he purchases a starved tiger from a circus. There's also a hurricane in the area, so the house in boarded up. When Kelly wakes up she discovers that she and her brother have been boarded into the house--and that someone set the tiger loose inside. So the majority of the movie is them trying to hide from the hungry beast. The movie is extremely suspenseful and the scenes with the tiger totally believable. One of the most harrowing scenes is when she's trying to recover her cell phone from the basement and hides up in a laundry shoot when the cat appears. I was honestly surprised how good this movie is. Highly recommended.
SUCK
A struggling Canadian rock band, The Winners, is in Montreal when one of their lead singers, Jennifer, goes off with a creepy looking guy who happens to be a vampire. This is one of the creepiest vampires depicted in the past decade! The other singer, Joey, doesn't like this since he still has a thing for her. But when she doesn't show up at their van the next day they take off to Toronto without her. When she shows up there, on her own, she looks different. She is now a vampire. When they catch her feeding, such as sucking the blood out of a detached arm, she exclaims "It's not what it looks like!", which is a running gag throughout the film. One by one she turns the other members of the band into vampires. The funniest is the roadie, Hugo, who is sort of the reluctant Renfield character. He reluctantly cleans up Jennifer's feeding messes with hopes of being changed into a vampire but she never does it.
There's also Van Helsing (Malcolm McDowell), who is after the vampire Queen. There's a flashback in which we learn his girlfriend singer was bitten by the same vampire who transformed Jennifer. What's cool about the flashback is that they use footage from an early McDowell film, so we seem him 40 years younger. The footage edits seemlessly in the flashback.
The music is great, there are good production values and the characters very entertaining. SUCK, this movie does not. It's QUEEN OF THE DAMNED crossed with the 60's television show, THE MONKEES.
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