AWARDS:
• BEST HORROR OR THRILLER: The Number 23
• best creepy horror: Mirrors (honrable mention: House Of 1000 Corpses)
• best tension-building horror: Quarantine
• best make-you-squirm horror: Saw 5 (honorable mention: House Of 1000 Corpses)
• best psychological horror: Mirrors, Funny Games U.S.
• best psychological thriller: The Number 23, Live! (tho Live! is a bit more of a drama)
• best gross-out horror: Drag Me To Hell
• best sci-fi horror: Hardware
• WORST HORROR: Mimic, Rise Of The Gargoyles
Read past the jump for the lists of individual movies, separated by rating.
***** 5-star:
• * Hardware – listed under sci-fi as well; this is one of my favorite movies – seen it in vhs, dvd, and now bluray
• * Live! – kind of a thriller in a way, but not really — so it’s also listed under drama section. Want to see what a real life Russian Roulette reality show would look like in America? Nobody wants to admit it, but it would be the highest rated televised event ever.
• Mirrors (2008) – creepy as hell!!! So dark!
• Number 23, The (2007) – I never thought an abstract concept like a specific number could be scary, but this movie ended up being perfect!
• Quarantine (2008) – locked in a building with zombies, Cloverfield/Blair Witch-style. Remake of [rec].
**** 4-star:
• * Antichrist — listed under drama, though it’s quite horrific indeed. Some of the more horrible things I’ve ever, ever seen. Such suffering
• * Battle Royale 1 – listed under ACTION/REVENGE/THRILLER, but is kind of a horror too. Being in this society as a kid would be scary as hell
• Drag Me To Hell (2009) – more of a horror-comedy. such mouth play, as Eli says
• Faculty, The (1998) – surprisingly good
• Funny Games U.S. (2007) – such torture, a whole movie of being held hostage. Beware people with white gloves.
• House Of 1000 Corpses 1 (2003) – creepy. Her laugh, her laugh!!!
• Pulse (2006) – computer virus horror! great idea. wifi demons
• Saw 5 (2008) – the plot sickens
• Trailer Park Of Terror (2008) – sexy coherent redneck zombie FTW
**** 4-star: (low)
• Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007) – heroes with anger issues rule
*** 3-star (high):
• Donkey Punch (2008) – intense. possibly a “high 3-star”.
• Jennifer’s Body (2009) – way better than expected. A high 3-star, really.
*** 3-star:
• * Bad Girls Of Valley High — listed under comedy
• * Battle Royale 2 – listed under ACTION/REVENGE/THRILLER
• Broken, The (2008) – great for anyone who likes Mirrors. What a twist!
• Clive Barker’s The Plague (2006) – I already hated kids before seeing this. Kids as zombies suck!
• Friday The 13th 12 / Friday The 13th “reboot” (2009) – reboot fail
• Grudge 2, The – 60% as good as original?
• Grudge 3, The (2009) – 40% as good as original?
• Infestation (2009) – wanted to be a horror-comedy, but failed at being great at either. Decent, though.
• Vampires 1 aka John Carpenter’s Vampires 1 (1998) – meh. James Woods, haha.
• Vampires 2: Los Muertos (2002) – Bon Jovi vampire slayer!!!!!
• House Of 1000 Corpses 2: The Devil’s Rejects (2005) – great ending; liked 1st one better though
• My Name Is Bruce (2007) – for Bruce Campbell fanboys
• Prince Of Darkness (1987) – not as scary as when 12
• Shadow Of The Vampire (2000) – creepy, and the basis for Willem DaFoe becoming the Green Goblin in the Spider-Man movies
• * Twilight – listed under romance. Not really a horror. Click for my explanation of why I don’t think it’s so bad.
• Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2008ish)
*** 3-star (low):
• Cell 2, The (2009) – barely any semblance to the first
• Lost Boys 2: The Tribe, The – meh. Then we found out Carolyn hadn’t seen the original. Oh no!
** 2-star:
• Dust Devil: The Final Cut: Work Print (1992) – some real good artistic merit from the creator of Hardware; this is still worth watching. But I didn’t like it.
• Mimic (1997) – awful implementation
• Rise Of The Gargoyles (2009) (TV) – even avid Gargoyles [the cartoon] fanboys will hate tis!
By the way, here are some yearly breakdowns:
Genres: (comedy=89/36%, horror=38/15%, scifi=33/13%, action/thriller=25/10%, fantasy=18/7%):
Ratings: (5-star=19%, 4-star=32%, 3-star=42%, 2-star=6%, 1-star=1%):
Cartoons (7%) Vs. Live (93%): Fewer animated movies this year (10% animated last year):
Quality: 28% in HD this year (up from 19% last year, 14% in 2007):
Mood: full
Music: Freezepop – Outer Space (Boothnavy’s Vxxxger Remix)
Claire's blog 
January 21, 2010 at 6:36 PM
Anna Dynamite says:
Unasked-for thoughts! I love horror films a lot. :)
Battle Royale – Love this movie. Indeed, it can’t really be called horror, even though it’s a horrific situation.
Battle Royale 2 – Eh. This was too much like the original, only speeded up, for my tastes. The thing about the original was that the audience is given a chance to get to know many of the key players, which makes their deaths more upsetting in the long run. BR2 just kind of throws the kids right into the situation and kills off a lot of them at the start, so we don’t have time to care about them as much.
Drag Me To Hell – A really fun movie in the theater and a bit of a return to form for Raimi, but ultimately resembled more of a 90 minute shock/pop-up scare YouTube video. Definitely had some gross moments in there, though…. See More
House of 1000 Corpses – Oh, Rob Zombie. He showed a lot of promise with this one; it was like watching one of his songs come to life on screen. He was having fun here, something that didn’t carry over into the sequel or his Halloween remake.
The Devil’s Rejects – Not a terrible effort, but this is where Zombie starts to lose sight of what makes a horror film effective. You can’t rely solely on cameos to keep the audience entertained. Plus, the characters were entirely unsympathetic, including Wydell; however, Zombie tries to force his audience into rooting for the Firefly clan at the end. There is no glory to be had.
January 21, 2010 at 6:37 PM
Anna Dynamite says:
F13 reboot – Wholly unenjoyable and unnecessary remake/reboot/rehash featuring completely unlikable characters, aside from Jared Padalecki (note: I’m terribly biased, I like Padalecki quite a bit).
John Carpenter’s Vampires – I love John Carpenter, and this was a fairly decent entry in his oeuvre. James Woods eats the scenery like usual. Good times; not Carpenter’s best but certainly better than some of his other recent work.
My Name Is Bruce – Like you say, this one is just for the BC fankids. I saw this in Royal Oak, MI, when Bruce was touring with it. He did a great Q&A after. Anyhow, the movie itself is pretty lame, and only has one or two real laugh-out-loud moments. Also, Ted Raimi as the old Chinese man gives us one of the most teeth-grindingly racist portrayals in years.
Prince of Darkness – I like this one, but it’s pretty weak in comparison to a lot of Carpenter’s other films.
Dust Devil – Pretty to look at, but the running time and slooooooow pace keep this one from being too memorable. The ending would have been more potent had the cop been the new ‘dust devil’ instead of the woman.
January 22, 2010 at 9:08 AM
John The Canadien:
uhh, I’m pretty sure Prince of Darkness is a comedy
January 22, 2010 at 10:26 AM
I still haven’t seen “The Number 23” yet! Or “the Broken.” I will add them to my Netflix queue…….
January 22, 2010 at 10:30 AM
I think people had problems with The Number 23 because they can’t buy Jim Carrey in a serious role… But I have no problem with him in any kind of role!
Both are good movies :)
January 22, 2010 at 11:11 AM
I loved him in the Truman Show and that was a serious role! People are weird. :)
January 22, 2010 at 11:16 AM
He was awesome in Truman Show — a movie I’d call a horror of sorts.
January 22, 2010 at 11:48 AM
[…] NOTE: HORROR MOVIES for 2009 are listed in a separate blog post HERE. […]