31 days. 31 years. 5 movies per year!
That’s the challenge a good friend presented me with recently, and I NEVER back down from a challenge! (well, nearly never!)
Every day through October I will be pondering and revealing my 5 favorite horror and monster movies from 1985 right up to 2016. When I was told I get to pick FIVE movies per year I initially thought this would be a fairly comfortable task. I’m one of those people who likes lots of movies but I only truly LOVE a select few. That did NOT make things any easier. This has been incredibly difficult, and there have been so many years where I could have happily selected 10+ films.
Until you attempt something like this you simply don’t realize just how many horror movies you have a passion for in different ways!
I’ll keep my reasons for selecting each movie brief, simply because I have to produce this every day for a month. The challenge starts with 1985, when I was 9 years old, and that’s pretty much exactly when I moved on from cartoons and family movies and began exploring the good stuff! Going back 31 years turned out to be the PERFECT place for me to start a journey into my movie watching past, and that made taking on this challenge a fascinating and rewarding experience.
I WANT feedback, and I would love to read your choices if you feel like getting involved.
It’s been ten years since – 2006.
I rate this movie so damn highly, and I PRAY it never gets remade or rebooted or any shit like that. What makes The Host such an incredible monster movie has nothing to do with the actual monster (even though it’s very cool), and everything to do with the characters and their development across the story. Their interaction with each other and the rescue mission they clumsily embark on is a joy to watch unfold, with the tone of the movie constantly being dictated by their successes and failures. You’ll laugh with them, you’ll worry about them, and by the end you might even shed a tear or two.
And YES, you ALSO get to watch a big awesome monster causing chaos and puking a lot!
Along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this is arguably one of the best remakes we’ve seen in recent times. It contains all the necessary brutality and danger you would expect to see, and the story perfectly builds toward a very satisfying and action-packed finale.
Another film adaptation of a legendary video game that didn’t quite hit the mark, but unlike Resident Evil it at least TRIES to replicate the quiet horror and atmosphere that fans of the game would have hoped to see. The story is strangely bland and populated by characters that were hard to care about, but when that siren goes off and darkness falls across the town, this movie becomes a visually spectacular nightmare.
I really enjoy a good home invasion movie every now and then, and this often overlooked French-Romanian film is one of the most intense I’ve seen in recent years. I “enjoy” these stories because they genuinely unnerve me, and always make me consider how I would deal with certain circumstances and situations as I watch them. Your home is your sanctuary, a place where you should feel safe, secure and completely relaxed. To have that tiny space violated and turned into a location to fight for your very survival … THAT’S some good horror.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
Probably the easiest choice for todays list. Behind the Mask is a love letter to the slasher sub-genre, and I constantly wish more people had seen and appreciated it outside of our dedicated horror community. It’s basically a PERFECT mockumentary concept, with a nice balance between dark comedy and some intensely serious moments that keep the whole thing respectful and strong. Throw in some glorious cameos from a few horror genre legends and you’ve got one hell of an entertaining movie!
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