The Top 10 Horror Movies of 2017

It is still a rough time for horror. I am not a fan of the horror lite Conjuring sequels and tired special effects blow outs and teen movies. Here there are plenty of psychopaths, cannibals, aliens and even mer-maids. So the formula has not be reinvented. Hyper realism worked well this year and I was looking for something different that drew me in. There are a few classic franchises that showed up strong. Some of these the release date on can be iffy in the case of Foreign horror movies. In the past few years foreign horror movies did better than the Hollywood fare , however the tide changed this year as only 3 of the top 10 are foreign . So here are the top 10 horror movies of 2017.





10-the Lure

Almost did not make it and had me in the same debate I was stuck on for "the Shape Of Water" while this one was more malevolent in it's intentions with these mer-maids, and "Shape of Water' could have stood for it's creature to have been more menacing. This was also a musical which complicated things.




9-Hounds of Love

This movie was inspired by true events and I liked how it made you dread seeing how bad things were going to go. It flirted with being trashy exploitative torture porn and I wish it had been more committed to really going there. It handled things almost too tastefully, but it made you feel uneasy about how this was all going down so it gets props for that.

8- The Cult of Chucky

When asked about this movie I found myself saying it is better than it has the right to be. Cult of Chucky in terms of cinematic quality or eye-candy is exceeds the previous film. There a moments of camera that are quite pretty, some slow motion scene and bright vibrant blood. Yet there is never a sense of menace. I am not sure if I just could not get invested in the characters. But the stakes never felt high enough to get scared. This was an entertaining movie


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7-Alien -Covenant

I liked this way better than "Prometheus". It was not as massive in scope , but a return to the feeling of the classic monster movies with all the sex and blood of the 80s. It kept Scott's mythos going, explained a few things and kept going. I am not tied to this franchise emotionally so I might be more excepting of somethings than people who need a more slavish canon, if that is you I understand I am that way with comics. This was fun , dark and bloody that what I need from these movies.

6- Raw

Horror needs to make you uncomfortable in some way. There is a tension to the movie. Sometimes they hyper realism, adds to this and makes you feel like you can't look and want to crawl out of your skin, that is success. As far as the French art house fare this can be it certainly succeeds when not being full of it self in the way you almost expect french films to be.

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5-It


This movie did not limit itself to just being about a scary clown and the bigger more sinister picture is well painted . itself among the some of the better Stephen King adaptations to film, this movie falls short of the Shining or the Mist in terms of scares , but has a lot of heart.This is only the first chapter so if you go in wanting to for them to return to Derry as adults then you better stock up on pop-corn and wait for the next movie.

4-Mother !

This one was up for debate and I finally conceded that I a- liked this movie more than I would admit and b-it works off of the same kind of unease and tension that "Rosemary's Baby" does but in a more chaotic manner. I liked the middle finger it gives Christianity and as a movie think it was more layered and unnerving than "It" which played to a more mainstream lowest common denominator crowd.


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3-Life

This movie was a better Alien movie than Alien Covenant. Just a well made movie that also happens to be a horror movie rather than trying hard to be one. The horror hits you on many different levels. It is more of a bleak now you are fucked feeling that builds rather than playing off the same old tired tropes most movies resort to.

2-Split

Not too far removed from "Silence of the Lambs" in terms of the depth of horror. It is a much more intense character study than the Hannibal films. The intent is unclear where Hannibal is more calculated and some of this uncertainty is what makes the movie more unnerving.Pound for pound a better made film than the one occupying the number one spot , but more of a thriller and less horror than the movie taking the top.

1-Leatherface

It did give me what I expected and kept me watching.Reboots, and Prequels are normally not worth a shit. This movie however was fun, well-written and did not re-spin the same shit some of the other Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies have. We have even been done somewhat of an origin story before with the re-make. I think this movie falls in line with the established mythology of the character and doesn’t try to to give it any kind of a spin or shove some modern message down your throat. They gave just enough of the perverse twist this movie needed without trying to hard or playing it too Hollywood. I think the endearing nature of how it respected the legacy of the character helped put it here.

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Movie Review : "Leatherface"

It makes me happy that there is more worth writing about in horror over the course of the past month. This gives me hope that I might not be sitting here staring at a blank page when it comes to making an end of the year list. Reboots, and Prequels are normally not worth a shit. This movie however was fun, well-written and did not re-spin the same shit some of the other Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies have. We have even been done somewhat of an origin story before with the re-make. I think this movie falls in line with the established mythology of the character and doesn’t try to to give it any kind of a spin or shove some modern message down your throat. They gave just enough of the perverse twist this movie needed without trying to hard or playing it too Hollywood. It holds up to my no survivors rule when it comes to horror. Horror needs to be hopeless and the tension is waiting for the other shoe to drop. They fake you out in terms of who you think is going to become Leather Face until the film’s third act. The fake out is pretty heavy handed , but well done.

The gore is well done. Perhaps even more for gore hounds than not , as sometime in the original movie the violence was more implied where things get pretty graphic here. I think the ruthless nature of this film is what helps keeping this in perspective and helps with the story that they are trying to tell. While I like torture porn, I don’t feel this falls into that sub-genre, though it is firmly a slasher. The only obvious thing about the movie to me is that it feels a lot like “the Devil’s Rejects”. Granted those Rob Zombie movies were heavily influenced by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, it feels like those albums where Black Sabbath was trying to sound like Alice in Chains .Even to the point of having a bad ass demented female Anti- Hero like Baby.  This did not diminish my appreciation of the film.

The damsel in distress,who is the film’s by definition protagonist.Can be a mixed bag when you are sorting through how and when you want her to die. I think her fate could have held a little more impact in regards to the psychological journey of becoming Leatherface. I can always judge how effective the flow of a movie is based on how fast I get through it when watching it casually at home and I plowed through this in two sitting. I think some of the menace could have been increased in regards to what the protagonist endures and that she should have been broken down on more levels , but that is just my wishful thinking, the reality is I don’t have any major complaints with this movie and think it does what it set out to do very well.