Dread Central’s Best and Worst of 2014
Steve Barton
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Paul “Nomad” Nicholasi’s Picks
This year in horror had primarily 2 themes for me:
1. There was a lot of obvious crap on the big screens across the planet.
2. I had little free time in between trying to make rent money, so I suffered through very few of those obvious crap movies.
That said, it was a challenge to round out both my top 5 and bottom 5 this year as even a free advance screening costs money when you need to GET THERE first. As such, you’ll notice my top 5 is packed with film festival awesomeness, thanks in no short order to the wonderful folks who give me access every year, and my bottom 5 excludes much of the high profile junk you brave souls sat through this year as, obviously, I had better things to do with my time…like feed myself. LET’S DIVE IN!
In no particular order.
Big Bad Wolves: The story of men looking for vengeance against a man they believe to be a killer does an amazing job of blurring the lines between our conceived notions of good and evil and succeeds in grabbing the viewer with both hands, forcing you to ask yourself if you could be capable of horrific acts in the name of justice. These days it is a topic that comes up almost weekly, and so the subject matter is all too real, adding to our immersion as we watch. Excellently acted, completely engrossing and beautifully shot on every level.
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead: The Dead Snow series may have started out as a sort of formulaic, easy to get excited about premise (being Nazi zombies on the attack) but has since evolved into this generation’s Evil Dead series. The sole survivor from the original film wakes up in a hospital and quickly learns they’ve attached a zombie arm to his body! Not only does this make our hero a bit of a super-powered badass, but it grants him the added gift of resurrecting the dead… which will come in handy when those zombie Nazis are on the march once more. Packed with charisma, jokes you’ll actually laugh at (instead of just groaning) and characters you’ll cheer for, Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead was one of those films I entered with low expectations and left singing its praises to the masses. Tons o’ fun!!
Cheap Thrills: We’ve all heard insane stories of the eccentricities of rich people and how they spend their money on ridiculous things. Cheap Thrills introduces us to one such couple who decide to shower money on two old friends, challenging them to complete tasks for cash that range from the mundane to the criminal. Again, our notions of good and evil are tested as fantastic writing presents two men who can swing from sympathetic to damn near demonic in seconds. Cheap Thrills is violent to an almost hysterical degree, perfectly cast and keeps a flawless pace from beginning to end.
Summer of Blood: You can’t call it a slow burn film, as it doesn’t really build up to anything. You can’t call it a creeper, as there is not one creepy moment to be found. I’ve taken to calling Summer of Blood “Sienfeld with Vampires,” which I believe succinctly sums up this dryly funny vampire film that is, ultimately, about nothing. This is the tale of a man getting on in age with little direction, licking his wounds over a failed relationship, when a vampire bite opens up a whole new world of possibilities…which he squanders and ultimately becomes bored with. The comedy in Summer of Blood comes from this apathetic world view, which is only amplified when human blood is your only sustenance… and the casual conversations people might have even when drenched in the red stuff.
Creep: Most movies these days contain a WOA moment in the first 5 to 10 minutes. It’s mandatory. Indie films generally buck the Hollywood system, and so a film like Creep can introduce you to an odd man who has hired a cameraman to record his last moments on Earth, moving at whatever pace they wish. Oddly, the material in this film is so compelling and the acting performance of Mark Duplass so perfectly unnerving, you’ll be glued to your seat the entire time. The mundane becomes a source for potential fright around every corner in this very human drama. Creep reminds us that any situation can go from weird to horrific in seconds, and that human beings remain more terrifying than any CGI monster made to date.
Leprechaun: Origins: It must be my love for WWF days gone by that makes me root for every WWE film that gets released, because it sure as hell isn’t the agony of watching them teaching me a lesson. It seems the task at hand in creating Leprechaun: Origins was to strip away the playfully violent tone of the original film series and re-present the tale as one of balls-out horror. Welp… they certainly did strip away all the fun… and replaced the charismatic lead monster with an abomination of creature design. This film contains zero scares, zero originality and what seems to be a 5-page script stretched to its limits.
Open Windows: Ever scratch your head so hard you draw blood? Ever try so hard to finish watching a film you have to hit pause several times, making the ordeal stretch out along a 12-hour period? I’m no stranger to the films of Nacho Vigalondo, and so I entered this film with high hopes and nothing but love… only to be sprayed in the eyes with a plodding story, oddly miscast, unsympathetic characters, formulaic claptrap and a “viewing it all from your desktop” delivery premise that was very poorly executed. It still stings the nostrils.
Oculus: This story of brother and sister returning to the home in which their parents died under supernatural circumstances to prove there was spookiness afoot and end the terror once and for all was a tough one. The film starts out great with a gripping and original premise backed by a very likable cast. It’s not long before the whole thing becomes a mess of stereotypical plotting, countless gags that MIGHT be real or might NOT be real, boring monsters and very little meat for superior actors to chew on. Need I add THE VILLAIN IS A FRIKKEN MIRROR??!! Naah… didn’t think so. Unscary and unfun.
The Quiet Ones: Honestly I have very little to rant about on this one. It’s one of these new school supernatural films where nearly nothing happens… even when they are telling you something is happening. It’s like watching the chair stacking scene in Poltergeist over and over, gleaning from this moment that THIS is what scares people. YOU SEE THAT??!! THE GHOSTS STACKED THE CHAIRS!!! AUDIENCES WILL FREAK!!! There is little suspense, little horror, little action and very, very little story. Based on an idea some guy had… indeed. That should have been the red flag.
Odd Thomas: Cursed are the films that can’t decide what they want to be. CURSED, I TELL YOU!! Odd Thomas introduces us to a hero who can see dead people who demand justice, and so he launches into the fray whenever called to do so. This is not what the whole movie is about. “Odd” can also work a grill like a ninja master. This never comes up as some superior kung fu prowess used to thwart evil later in the film. “Odd” can also see monsters attracted to chaos. This is a device used for oo’s and ahh’s and very little else. Odd Thomas has car chases, explosions, supernatural creatures, mystery, suspense, love, nubile teens, men with guns, pissed off dead guys and a spectacular tweeest you won’t care about when it is revealed. They say too many cooks spoil the stew… well, too many plot elements just make a massive mess.
Remember to keep watching for news on all those excellent indie movie releases. Lord knows the big screen isn’t giving us much to look forward to. Happy Holidays!
