Best DVDs of 2008 - Horror
From creepy killers who torture for fun, ironic sexual dysfunction ala Carrie, zombies galore, a singing and slaying Johnny Depp and the original slasher film in a brand-spankin new edition - 2008 has been a pretty good year for Horror fans. Here are my top ten horror picks of the year. --Kira
The Strangers feels like an old-school horror movie--dark, spooky, not too gory and ridiculously scary. First-time writer/director Bryan Bertino impresses by forsaking the current passion for over-the-top violence (save for the finale) in favor of more traditional means of generating fear, and if his project borrows heavily from other films, most notably the French chiller Them (which shares its "inspired by a true story" origin) and Michael Haneke's Funny Games, at least he's taking from the best.
Produced and presented by Guillermo Del Toro, The Orphanage is less fanciful than his works, though it does bear a vague resemblance to the ghostly Devil's Backbone. There are a few gory make-up effects, but director Juan Antonio Bayona mostly preys on our fear of the unknown to craft a first-rate fright fest.
A coming-of-age tale with a twist, Teeth takes a novel approach towards teen sexual angst. There's satiric humor, squirm-inducing gore, and a star-making turn from lead Jess Weixler, recipient of a special prize at Sundance for her "jaw-dropping performance." Teeth is neither anti-male nor anti-female--as some detractors have claimed--but it's definitely not for the squeamish or irony-impaired.
On the night of the prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance. Dance of the Dead manages to do what a few select films in the Horror-Comedy genre can - be both very scary and genuinely hilarious. A fresh and funny take on the zombie movie.
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
George Romero has always come up with new ways of treating his zombies, and Diary of the Dead is no exception: Romero keeps his dead fresh, with an original approach to the undying subject.
A classy new edition of the original slasher classic with a bunch of great special features. For all the slasher pictures that have ripped off Psycho (and particularly its classic set piece, the "shower scene"), nothing has ever matched the impact of the real thing. More than just a first-rate shocker full of thrills and suspense, Psycho is also an engrossing character study in which director Alfred Hitchcock skillfully seduces you into identifying with the main characters--then pulls the rug (or the bathmat) out from under you.
Stuck, a cunning and energetic thriller, takes its premise from the real-life incident of a woman who hit a homeless man, then drove home and parked the car in the garage--with the man wedged halfway through her windshield. This movie was made on a modest budget but has more thrills, laughs, and genuine tingles up and down the spine than all the special effects money can buy. A gem of tight, effective filmmaking.
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
For fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp who don't think they like musicals, Sweeney Todd should be a revelation (though not for the squeamish, as the gore is intense and completely appropriate). The show's mix of gothic horror, Grand Guignol, very dark humor, and witty and beautiful music never was the stuff of traditional musical comedy, but it's a powerful work, and perhaps the richest of the late 20th century.
Though perhaps not as iconic as their Dracula and Frankenstein pictures, this quartet of fright flicks from England's Hammer Films deliver enough Saturday afternoon creature feature thrills to please devotees of the legendary studio's output and vintage horror fans alike.
A delirious performance by horror vet Robert (Nightmare on Elm Street) Englund and the filmmakers' predilection for old-school monster suits over CGI help to make the Canadian indie horror-comedy Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer an enjoyable and entertaining alternative to the current rash of relentlessly grim fright fare. Director Jon Knautz's feature debut pays loving homage to all manner of boyish pop-culture touchstones, from Marvel Comics and Ray Harryhausen epics to the early works of fellow do-it-yourselfers like Sam Raimi.
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