20. Dream Home (2010, Hong Kong)
Forget chocolate and peanut butter, the unlikely pairing you never knew you wanted should be a slasher film that delivers brutal, gory, terrifying deaths while also offering up a lead character and story line that’s both heartbreaking and tragic. Dream Home brings the goods for horror fans desiring bloody carnage, but director/co-writer Pang Ho-cheung’s atypically powerful feature also explores one woman’s downfall in the face of the global housing crisis. Josie Ho’s lead performance is on par with genre greats like Toni Collette (Hereditary, 2018) and Isabelle Adjani (Possession, 1981), and the result is a character who we sympathize for almost as much as we fear. She’s a force of nature fueled by a cocktail of good intentions and madness, and her path of devastation is mesmerizing. (Rob Hunter)
19. The Innkeepers (2011)
Horror/comedies are probably the toughest sub-genre to pull off depending on how the film balances the two. There are some very funny examples out there including The Return of the Living Dead (1985) and Zombeavers (2014), but while both are filled with horrifying imagery neither is (or even tries to be) a serious contender when it comes to scares. Ti West’s The Innkeepers, though, is the rarest of spooky birds in that it’s both laugh out loud hilarious *and* pants-shittingly frightening. The power duo of Sara Paxton and Pat Healy are our guides in the final days and nights of a legendary hotel’s existence, and the two friends share laughs and gags to stave off the nervousness they feel spending time in a place known for its hauntings. It’s a quality slow burn, one that surpasses West’s far more acclaimed The House of the Devil (2009) in my opinion, that explores our susceptibility and interest in terror up to its inevitable conclusion. Ghost aren’t real, of course, until they are. As funny and frightening as much of the film is, one of its other strengths is the heart and sadness it delivers in its back half. We like these characters and we worry for them, and there’s every chance that by the time the credits roll we might also be forced to grieve for one of them. It all combines for a fantastically creepy horror film perfect for watching alone or with friends — just leave the world’s distractions at the door and settle in for a night of terrifying entertainment. (Rob Hunter)
18. Deathgasm (2015, New Zealand)
Metal-heads are always getting into shenanigans. That’s just part of being a good metal-head. I know this, you know this, and director Jason Lei Howden certainly knows this. Sometimes those shenanigans involve dabbling in black magic to escape the boredom of suburban New Zealand living and unwittingly unleashing a demonic force hell-bent on destroying society. If you’ve ever banged your head to a band that writes their name in medieval black-letter text you’ve been there a time or two. And as all good metal-heads know, the best way to defeat an evil demonic force is with dildos and ice cream. Five stars! (Chris Coffel)
17. Maniac (2012, France)
Every time a new remake is announced people climb atop their soap box and scream from the top of their lungs, “Remakes are bad and lack originality!” These people are stupid and next time you see them you should tell them as much. After you rightfully berate them, tell them to watch Franck Khalfoun’s take on William Lustig’s infamous 1980 slasher. With a script written by Alex Aja and Gregory Levasseur, the film stars Elijah Wood as the creepy woman-killer with a bizarre mannequin fetish. The plot is similar to the original film, except this time around our lead is actually a charming, good looking fellow that we can buy attracting the eyes of the young, pretty photographer (Nora Arnezeder). The film is brutal as hell, upping the kill count from the original a bit and maintaining the signature scalping. The real kicker is that the film is shot entirely from Wood’s perspective — we never even see his face until about 12 minutes in. This should be a silly gimmick, but Khalfoun handles it in such a way that it not only works, but also adds a fun, interesting layer. (Chris Coffel)
16. One Cut of the Dead (2017, Japan)
If you have not already seen this film, just go out and watch it, then meet me back here. And whatever you do, don’t press STOP even when you’re rolling your eyes and aching to reach for your phone as a means of distraction. One Cut of the Dead demands your stern observation even when the first thirty minutes or so feels like a total waste of time. Trust me; it gets better. It gets way better, and by the climax, your heart will have grown three sizes larger, and you’ll want to run out and make your own damn movie. The movie is less of a horror film and more of a celebration of horror movies — or really, just movies. Director Shin’ichirô Ueda has delivered a warm hug to his audience, and it’s one you never want to free yourself from, but if you must break contact with the artist, you can at least return the favor by hugging all the other movie maniacs in your life by dropping a copy of One Cut of the Dead in their lap. Spread the love, team. (Brad Gullickson)
15. The Wailing (2015, South Korea)
The Wailing is kind of like getting slowly suffocated for two and a half hours, and I mean that in a good way. It’s a crushing film; pedaling in a slow-cooked intensity that eventually boils over into a full-on nightmare.The film follows Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won), a down-to-earth policeman tasked with unraveling the strange events bedeviling a rural village in the remote mountains of South Korea. After the arrival of a stranger, the villagers have started to succumb to a mysterious illness: a rash followed by murderous outbursts, and eventually, death. When Jong-goo’s daughter falls prey to the disease, he enlists the help of a local shaman… and things get freaky. Featuring one of the best child performances I’ve ever seen, The Wailing is a dense, twisted film that lives up to its name and will keep you guessing right until the very end. It’s far and away one of the wildest Korean genre offerings out there. And that’s saying something. (Meg)
Bonus! Unfriended (2014)
Here’s the thing: democracy is a flawed system. When the Boo Crew got together to vote on this list and the numbers were crunched, we were gifted with a clear demonstration of the problem with our tally: there’s no accounting for (incorrect) taste. Specifically, my colleagues fail to share my well-deserved love for director Levan Gabriadze’s magnificent, landmark found footage movie, Unfriended. While desktop-set horror movies have been popping up over the last five years, none of them have matched Unfriended’s prowess and understanding of how to use its format. Some (read: cowards) reduce this format to nothing but a gimmick. The truth is that when utilized well, this style has the ability to inspire a shift in traditional conceptions of cinematic technique. As our own screens become our most personal possessions, a film set in this format can reveal character traits with a simple glimpse at a Spotify playlist or a comment typed and then deleted rather than sent. Unfriended is clever, unnerving, and ingeniously well-crafted. I look forward to the day more people recognize that. (Anna Swanson)
14. The Conjuring (2013)
Haunted house movies are even more ubiquitous in the horror genre than vampires and zombies, and the reason why frequently comes down to budget. Invisible ghosts are a cheap effect. James Wan’s classiest genre film gives the spirits form, but even when they’re mere visual whispers he succeeds where most filmmakers don’t by making them terrifying. Part of the credit goes to his craftsmanship as the guy knows better than most how to structure and execute both atmosphere and scares, but the film is equally blessed with characters we actually come to care about. Imagine that! Both the family being haunted and the Warrens — the fictional ones on the screen, not the real-life hucksters you have a beef with — feel like real people. We see them in very human moments, and that makes their spooky encounters all the more unsettling. And it’s also worth noting that The Conjuring kicked off something of a creepy ass multi-film universe with sequels and spin-offs delivering their own varying degree of chills. They’re not all winners, but it’s awesome seeing a shared universe in the horror genre, especially one born from one hell of a haunted house movie. (Rob Hunter)
13. Revenge (2017, France)
It takes a lot for a film to truly blow the pants off of seasoned horror fans, the ones who know every trope under the sun and who’ve seen every kind of on-screen death imaginable and then some. Which is why it’s all the more impressive that Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge takes a feminist-angled swing at the rape/revenge genre and knocks it out of the fucking park. Matilda Lutz’s Jen is on vacation with her boyfriend when things go south and she finds herself fighting for survival while exacting much-deserved vengeance on her attackers at any given opportunity. This sun-soaked gorefest is a visceral and astounding take on some ideas we know well: that men can be entitled, vicious pricks and that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Revenge is a wholly original showstopper with impeccably well-crafted set-pieces and gorgeously vibrant cinematography. It isn’t just one of the best horror movies of the decade, it’s also a film that invites us to rethink how this genre can work best and how it can allow for empowerment. (Anna Swanson)
12. Starry Eyes (2014)
From the outside in, the life of an actor appears glamorous, their job easy. But for every starring role, actors go through demoralizing, soul-crushing auditions, facing a revolving door of rejection and thoughts of failure — all in pursuit of a dream. A dream that you’d do anything to get. Now imagine doing all that and having to sacrifice your body and soul to Satan. Thanks for nothing LA! Starry Eyes‘ writers/directors Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer take the unique experience of trying to make it in Hollywood and plop it right in the middle of a satanic cult story about — wait for it — predatory studio executives. What a stretch, amirite? While you don’t even need the demonic forces of evil to make that point, luckily because of it, along with an exceptional score by Jonathan Snipes, this dark story is made wickedly entertaining. (Jacob Trussell)
11. I Saw the Devil (2010, South Korea)
Only South Korea could produce a revenge film as grueling and as exhilarating as I Saw the Devil. The film is a punishing pursuit between cat and mouse where each party trades places three or four times during the run-time. After enduring the brutal slaying of Jang Joo-yun (Oh San-ha), the audience steadies itself for an agonizing confrontation with evil in which her fiance Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun) sheds his morality to meet her killer face-to-face. I Saw the Devil is the kind of film that permanently traps a lump in your throat. You know how movies work. You want vengeance for the hero, but South Korea never delivers precisely as one anticipates. Cinematic convention has no place here. The film is all the rougher and better for it. (Brad Gullickson)
Related Topics: 31 Days of Horror Lists, Decade Rewind, Horror
