Top 10 Horror Films of 2009, PoppaScotch Edition

Posted By : PoppaScotch, Tuesday Dec,29
Filed Under : Editorial, ,

Was it just me, or did 2009 go by quicker than a teenager staying at Chrystal Lake (GET IT!?!?!). Also, it’s in my contract that along with every other website in the world, I have compiled my top 10 horror movies of 2009. Now I want to remind you all again that just like last year, this is my personal list for the top ten horror movies of 2009 and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of everyone at horror-movies.ca. Also you may notice that there are some glaring admissions to the list including Pandorum, Moon, and District 9.

The reason for their MIA status was because I feel that these three movies deserve their place (along with Star Trek) in bringing the sci-fi genre back to glory. I always saw them as Sci-Fi movies first and horror films second (and I loved every minute of each one of them). Since you probably want to know anyways, gun to my head, District 9 would have been #1, Moon would have been #2, and Pandorum would have been in the 6 or 7 range. These three films deserve all the praise that they get, but since those movies were all pretty well known, I thought this would be a good time to highlight a few films that came out a little under the radar. So without any further babbling, here is Poppascotch’s list for the top movies of 2009. *All synopses are courtesy of imdb.com*

10. The Burrowers - Dir: J.T. Petty: Synopsis: In the Wild West a rescue party sets out to find a family of settlers that has vanished from their home under mysterious circumstances.

My Take: The Burrowers is a period piece of horror that excels in being a successfully creepy and fright filled good time as well as an accurate portrayal of America in the late 1800s. I find it very effective that the audience is taken through a surreal experience that doesn’t even show the antagonists for the first full hour of run time. However, you feel the tension of them all around you as the characters stumble upon the monster’s previous exploits and buried bodies. For that rare breed of fan who wants to see horror, deep character development, and key elements of Westerns without the exploitation, then this is your opus.

9. Grace – Dir: Paul Solet Synopsis: After losing her unborn child, Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) insists on carrying the baby to term. Following the delivery, the child miraculously returns to life with an appetite for human blood.

My Take: Grace is a wonderfully shot film that shows the viewer an exaggerated look at the absolutely horrific possibilities that are always in the minds of parents during childrearing. Of course the actions are overblown, but the core thesis of worrying about your baby’s health and well being are all still there. The movie succeeds by creating an allegory for a worried parent and their newborn baby which, in all honestly did go a little bit far, but still should be recognized for being a well thought out and wonderfully executed film.

8. Pontypool – Dir: Bruce McDonald Synopsis: A psychological thriller in which a deadly virus infects a small Ontario town.

My Take: I knew absolutely nothing about Pontypool going into the film, which probably helped me come out of the situation with a clear head. The source of the virus is a bit flimsy, but that doesn’t mean that everyone should be overlooking the entire first hour of the film. The idea of a crazed town ripping itself apart at the seams as heard only by a group of three people at a radio station is done to perfection. The film takes auditory clips from eyewitnesses on the ground as the chaos erupts around them and the characters act to discern the real from the imaginary. Like a good novel, we get the gist of what is going on, but the viewer is left to interpret the actual horrors at work.

7. Surveillance – Dir: Jennifer Chambers Lynch Synopsis: An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims - all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.

My Take: David Lynch’s daughter proved with this film that although she may have picked up a thing or two from dad, she has definitely defined herself as her own filmmaker. The film is a slow boiler that erupts into a commentary on violence on how it affects three eye witnesses to a crime. Bill Paxton and Julia Ormond were both fantastic as FBI agents who solemnly investigate the small town crime spree. A lot of people unfairly criticized this work because they compared Jennifer to her father David Lynch. Artisitc direction can be influenced by style, but ultimately it is an extremely personal expression that is crafted over an entire life time. Surveillance is by no means a perfect film, but what it strives to achieve; it does so with flying colors on the merit of the director herself.

6. Trick r Treat – Dir: Michael Dougherty Synopsis: Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween.

My Take: For a movie that lingered in post-production hell for almost two years then went straight to video, the quality of Trick r Treat never came under scrutiny. The movie in itself doesn’t really do anything different, but at the core, it is a loving anthology that celebrates everything fun and gore filled about Halloween. What makes it so unique is the fact that it plays on Halloween stories for all different age groups. There is the childrens Ghost story, the girls going to a costume party, and the crazy serial killing father for… everyone else. It’s a movie that you will watch for years while your perception of identification gets shifted from one story to another.

5. AntiChrist – Dir: Lars Von Trier Synopsis: A grieving couple retreats to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.

My Take: Lars Von Trier is one of two things, but not both. He is either a genius filmmaker or an absolute mad man, hell bent on stripping down the latent psyche of human behavior to its absolute bare bones. What you may have just notices, neither of those is a negative statement. Antichrist is a very difficult film to watch as a couple grieves for their child in two completely different ways. The husband, simply credited as “he” (Willem Dafoe) deals with the loss in a meditated and logical way. While his wife, “she” (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is going through the extreme physical and emotional stress of dealing with the loss of a child, He tries to use his background in psychology to try and help her. Of course, She goes off the deep end creating an absolutely terrible caricature of what grief may look like if it had a physical manifestation. It’s slow at parts, but the film is beautiful and terrifying. An absolute must see.

4. Zombieland – Dir: Ruben Fleischer Synopsis: The horror comedy Zombieland focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies...

My Take: Zombieland is the perfect nerdy internet… nerd fantasy that ever existed. Imagine that when the zombie apocalypse finally comes, you are left with a whisky slugging redneck, a hot girl, and her younger sister while the actual slaying of zombies shows no remorse for the poor souls that get a face full of buckshot. The film showed us that zombie movies don’t always have to be dead on serious to be good. Of course in the film, there are life or death scenarios that help to flesh out characters, but the main concept of this movie is the fun factor in killing zombies and destroying property. It does seem like it’s a comedy first and a zombie movie second, but when it’s done this well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

3. Drag Me to Hell – Dir: Sam Raimi

Synopsis: A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.

My Take: A lot of people were unimpressed with Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre, but I was definitely not one of them. What I loved about Drag Me to Hell was the simplicity of the story. The story is one that could be entirely summed up in less than a paragraph. That is the beauty of it though, it’s not overtly complicated, there is no twist to come out of nowhere and disappoint you, and there is no zombie-like slasher to hack you into bits. It’s a story that is told with such craft that even though you may have seen all these elements before, the movie is never boring and a brilliantly executed predictable ending that was never trying to be unpredictable.

2. Paranormal Activity – Dir: Oren Peli .Synopsis: After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

My Take: Paranormal Activity wasn’t the first “found footage” film in existence, but it is unarguable the best. Shot on a shoestring budget in the director’s personal home, this film is a clinic in fear and dread portrayed on the screen. Our two main characters are haunted by some kind of demon, while we the viewers are unwilling participants in their findings. It also baffles me to think that this film, which was the first film in a long time to leave me actually terrified, was made with no-name actors and a budget less that the vehicle you are probably driving. One hopes Hollywood will take a cue from this experience and start looking elsewhere for new and original ideas (or rather, just ways to execute ideas) in horror.

1. Dead Snow – Dir: Tommy Wirkola. Synopsis: A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.

My Take: What I absolutely love about Dead Snow is that fact that it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. It’s a movie about a group of kids vacationing in the hills of Norway to enjoy skinning and snowmobiling in a remote cabin when all of a sudden, Nazi zombies rise from the ground to do nothing else but f**k them up. What is more evil than Nazi Zombies? Nothing, that’s what. So after a very boring and predictable set up or kids in a cabin, the story starts to deviate away from normal conventions and into a film that slowly and precisely turns into a hard core exploitation. It’s a fun ride that knows what every horror convention is, and exactly how to break all of them.

Honorable Mentions: District 9, Moon, and Pandorum all would have made the list, but I felt that they were just too Sci-Fi for a straight up horror list. Also House of the Devil was a strong entry, as well as The Last House on the Left. All of those movies deserve a look too.

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