[Sinister]

Every year, as people do on other sites such as these, I always post a thread like this. This time around with all the woes that reared their ugly heads, I saw very few Horror films this year and almost not enough to constitute even posting for 2006, but I did and so here we go. It will be a top three in each category and after reading mine, maybe some board members will give us some insight into their picks and pans of the year. This time, the list is in order. And we begin with the best of the lot:

1. The Descent-Arguably one of the best Horror films to come along in some time. Neil Marshall did a most excellent job of creating a tale ofsix women becoming lost in a series of undiscovered underground caverns and having them systematically eliminated by ghoulish creatures. The movie is for the most part completely enshrouded in darkness and in some places things are nigh impossible to make out. Very violent, brutal, nerve wracking,and filled to the brim with genuine scares it has all the elements that makes for a good Horror film.

2. Hostel-Say what you want about Eli Roth, but I stand firm in my belief he is one of the saviors of the modern Horror film. Hostel is not for the squeamish or anyone put off by senseless violence. Three buddies hiking across Europe in search of a good time and hot sex get more than they bargained for when they park themselves into an out of the way hostel. They meet up with a few hot numbers who in turn give them the grand tour of Hell. Recommended family viewing.

3. Hard Candy-I have heard this not called your conventional Horror film, but in my sojourns around the net, it has made its way into several lists. Why? Because IT IS a Horror film. Just because there isnt someone wearing a mask of some sort walking around killing screaming teenagers with edged weapons, doesnt make it any less of one. IMHO Ellen Paige deserves at least an Oscar nomination for her the performance she put on. There is one VERY disturbing scene in the film that I dare any man to watch and not at least cringe a time or two. Both my thumbs WAY up on this gem. If you haven't seen it, I say run to your nearest video store and rent this one immediately. It's definitely going into my collection.

Now comes the bad:

1. Satan's Playground-Ever see a film where for it's almost entire runtime practically NOTHING happens? That would be this schlockfest. It never really gets off the ground or decides if it wants to be a movie about satanism, a cretinous murderous family in the Pine Barrens, or yes that bogeyman of the area, The Jersey Devil. The Devil, either infernal or Jersey is never seen, there's some nonsense with satanist that isn't given any real reason for being onscreen except for maybe they had no original ideas and needed something to fill space. This movie is as dry as Montana in the dead heat of summer and will have you checking the time to see how much longer it's going to go on. After doing my damndest to stay awake for the full 80 min. I understand fully why Felissa Rose doesnt have any movie career to speak of. I think after this failure to bring a legendary creature to celluloid, I will refuse to even pick up any movie having anything to do with The Jersey Devil. Save your money renting this one; it's a total bomb.

2. All Souls Day-Let me see, you have Danny Trejo, Jeffery Combs and Zombies. I know you're thinking, With all those elements in place, how can you go wrong? Believe me, whilst viewing this I kept asking myself the same question, and the answer is, its very possible and this film proves it. Combs and Trejo seem merely guilty by association since their screentime is very limited. The rest is an empty headed exercise that dead teenager films go into when faced with supernatural/psychotic entities. It makes all the mistakes of the ones before it and then some. More silly than scary, that after a certain point, I kept wanting to see the entire cast bloodily devoured by the undead, but some as always, escaped. Bummer.

3. Silent Hill-Easily the most disappointing of the lot and seeing so much great atmosphere go to waste makes it all even more depressing. Practically nothing happens the first hour and when something finally does, it's neither exciting or particularly frightening. If it wasnt for the fact I really like Milla Jovovich and the Resident Evil flicks, I would say stop producing any film based on video games. Dull as graveyard dirt, Silent Hill had so much potential that it was nowhere even within shouting distance of living up to.

There's my list, now lets see some of yours.

 

[Johnny Thunder]

I can't tell you how much I despised All Soul's Day. Sin hits it right on the head in his observations about what an astoundingly horrible trainwreck that film is.

 

[DeathTouch]

I will have to disagree with Sinister on Silent Hill. I just watched it not too long ago, and it is awesome. I can't stop watching it. The only part that I didn't like is when the girl is shouting Silent Hill in the first part of the movie.

 

[Revenant]

I'll have to agree with DT on the Silent Hill thing. I'll admit it had problems, and I found the climax pretty disappointing. But I thought the atmosphere and visuals were superb. That film's been dissed a lot but I thought it had a lot going for it. The gamers ragged on it because it didn't hold to the storyline of the game but I thought it really nailed the atmosphere and the feel of it. I'll buy it... hell as a simple reference for set design its worth the price.

And Hostel? To me, that one was the big disappointment. I didn't even think Cabin Fever was worth the hype. A lot of people rave about Eli Roth being the new godfather of horror and personally I think he's vastly overrated. If you like the visceral shock of buckets of blood and intense cruelty, check out anything by Eric Stanze of Wicked Pixel/Sub Rosa Extreme. All the sadism and violence you could ask for with less than half the stock characters and tired stereotypes.

But that's just me... different strokes for different folks. We all respond to different things.

 

[TwistedDementia]

I think when you've played Silent Hill the video game then saw the movie, that's where the big dissapointment comes in. I loved the game it was great in all aspects but when I saw the movie was very dissapointed in it.

 

[Death's Door]

After watching "Silent Hill", I must admit that I wasn't tooo impressed with it. Yes, it did have the feeling of the game background and the creatures were great but IMHO it was slow and the plot was drawn out.

I thought Hostel was a different movie from what I'm used to seeing and it did keep my attention. A lot of people complained that it was more of a soft porn flick but that was the storyline. It is definitely a gore movie which I didn't think I would like but the eye scene was freaky and cool at the same time. I do think that Eli Roth has a lot of potential as a director even though I wouldn't put him too high on the pedestal yet but as of right now, i'm willing to give him a shot at it.

 

[Revenant]

I guess with Silent Hill I just basically ignored the story and let the visuals do it for me. I was fortunate; I'd seen the game but never actually played it before I saw the movie, so the shredded storyline didn't irritate me as much as it could have. I won't even attempt to deny it wasn't well written... but I just loved that shadowy hell look, the creepy/claustrophobic atmosphere, and the transformation when the siren would sound. That corrupted, diseased look was great. And I thought Pyramid Head and the nurses made awesome movie baddies. I guess if I were a gamer who'd eagerly awaited the movie I would have been more disappointed. It's like reading the book first; the movie almost always sucks in comparison.

It was too bad about the writing. If someone from Konami (sp?) had at least advised them, they could have used the concept of the monsters being basically tailored to the main character's personal demons. That would've helped. That personal revelation thing is such an integral part of the games.

Movie story aside, I would definitely use it as a visual reference for building a haunt. Love it or hate it as a movie, ya gotta admit it looked pretty damned good.