Every January, blogs of all types are bombarded with loads of ‘Top Whatever Lists’ and well, FTS is no exception! It’s time to take a crack at the year past by putting together a few 2012 In Review posts. We’ll be taking a look at the best movies in multiple genres, our least favorite flicks, and of course, our Top 10 of the Year podcast. We start off today by giving you our collaborative list of the top 5 horror movies we watched in 2012. Take a look!
Honorable Mention: Lovely Molly
Just outside our top 5 list is this small indie horror film. The story follows Molly and new husband Tim as they try to start their life together at Molly’s childhood home. After a rocky first night in the new home, things only get worse for the new bride as she begins to be haunted by disturbing memories from her past. The movie is a hodge-podge of found footage and video flashbacks mixed into the conventional narrative. Performances are strong and director Eduardo Sánchez (co-director of The Blair Witch Project) experiments with the film medium to appropriately unsettling results. -Lindsay
#5. Silent House
This movie got a lot of flack this year, and it certainly didn’t make a killing at the box office, but we actually liked it a lot. The one take approach was more than just a gimmick and was used in very kinetic but fluid way. It followed our protagonist, Elizabeth Olsen, so closely that this movie felt incredibly first person which was interesting to experience. It works mostly though because Olsen’s performance is just so convincing. There’s enough scares, twists, and tension to land it’s spot at the end of this list. -Jess
#4. V/H/S
If I said it once, I’ve said it a million times, I love a good horror anthology and V/H/S definitely delivers. Each ‘video’ stands pretty well on their own giving the viewer different flavors of horror, but it’s the bookends (Amateur Night and 10/31/98) that really did it for me. At a time where I thought all the possibilities of ‘found footage’ movies were exhausted, V/H/S comes along and breathes some much needed life into the genre. I can’t wait for the sequel, S-VHS. -Marc
#3. The Collection
The Collection is a solid horror movie. While the story doesn’t make the most sense, the kills more than make up for this. The Collector is a mad man who collects people and in this sequel you get to see some of the things that he does with his victims. An abandoned hotel that he makes his home is filled with science experiments and art that makes for a visually stirring setting. This is a nice horror film to check out with some pals. -Rob
#2. Sinister
I think it’s easy to see why this film made it into our top 3 for horror. Sinister is a scary movie that leaves you feeling creeped out and frightened of what may have happened in your home. What really put this over the top for me is the creep-factor induced by the death scenes on film the main protagonist finds in his attic and is drawn to rewatching multiple times. There’s just something about seeing an entire family hanging from a tree that makes you a little uncomfortable. -Will
#1. The Cabin in the Woods
Really? Do you need an explanation? Cabin In The Woods took the horror genre clichés, dissected them, reassembled them backwards, poured in a bucket of humor and pressed out a film that delighted horror and non-horror fans alike. The film gets better after each viewing because you see more and more Easter eggs, winks, and nods that you hadn’t noticed before. I hope we see more concepts like this in other genres in the future. -Nick
*Notable Exceptions None of Us Have Seen Yet: The Bay, Maniac, Citadel
Awesome post, glad to see number 1 and 2 here – If I did the list, I’d chose these in the same order. Haven’t seen the Collection nor its predecessor yet, but I heard good things.
Thanks, they were two of my favorites as well. Cabin was a tough one to rank because even thought it’s classified as horror, it’s not really a scary film. We decided to stick with what we liked the best.
I really gotta get around to checking out V/H/S.
Definitely. It’s worth the watch for sure.
I’m in a weird place with Cabin because it’s one of my favorite movies of the year, and yet it’s not the best horror movie of the year. Even though it is. But it isn’t. But it is. And so on.
For anyone who loves horror, Cabin clearly stands head and shoulders above all studio-produced horror and most independently produced horror, too. It’s a classic. I don’t know if it’s a game-changer, but should the game change in the next few years we’ll all know why. More than anything it’s an amazing bit of intellectual, philosophical, moral horror– and I think that’s why I see Kill List as the best straight-up horror movie of the year, because Cabins isn’t viscerally frightening. It places far more emphasis on genre celebration than on terrifying its audience.
So as a horror fan, it’s the best horror movie of the year because it’s all about why we love horror, but Kill List is the best horror movie of the year because it’s really frigging unsettling and scary. I don’t know if that makes sense, but like I said, I’m in a weird place with Cabin; horror films should make us jolt, jump, and squirm, and while the subtext here is really frightening, it’s frightening in the abstract. Cabin is clearly the better film, but Kill List is the purer horror film.
I totally understand that, we actually had the same issue. Initially we were going to put it on the number five spot because it was a lot more humorous than scary. Ultimately, we decided that since it was classified as horror, we would rank this list based on favorites.
I also can’t believe I forgot about noting Kill List in our ‘notable exceptions.’ It was a film I hadn’t heard about til recently but now can’t wait to watch. Your comment confirms it!
Really glad to see Cabin here
It’s such an awesome fun filled movie. I do disagree about Sinister though, I found it a bit of a snoozefest haha.
I loved the home videos in Sinister. Even if some other elements of that movie were lackluster, those sequences completely elevated it for me. It also had a really creepy score.
Andrew’s right. Kill List kicks ass.
I was also a big fan of The Woman in Black and The Innkeepers, although both could easily be counted as 2011 movies.
Others out there: ParaNorman, Bedevilled, The Loved Ones…
The horror genre’s tough because so much of it gets a limited release one year and doesn’t hit wide release until a year or even two years later.
Definitely need to check out Kill List! I thought The Woman in Black was alright but sort of bland and I did like The Innkeepers but it just wasn’t quite scary enough for me.
Man, I have really wanted to see The Loved Ones since that trailer came out. Somehow it has eluded me. I need to get on that.