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Bride of Horror List
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5) Dawn of the Dead (2004)Why it's on the list: The best opening scene of the 2000s to date. Why you might be saying "Oh, hell no!": You are George A. Romero. --"Armageddon time is coming soon..." We hear Tyler Bates' version of The Hangman's Song blare out while we watch survivors customizing buses in an effort to escape the swarm of zombies outside the shopping mall they're holed up in. I find it a strangely euphoric moment, especially when considering what's just happened for them to reach this decision, as suddenly, the aimless characters now have a goal... to go sailing on an "asshole's boat." 28 Days Later popularised the idea of running zombies, and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead simply ran with it, amplifying the tension. The opening sequence doesn't waste any time in turning an idyllic scenario upside-down and having the first zombie attack performed by a young child. Also, the film makes for essential Christmas viewing for me, what with the zombie standing in for the whole dead weight of consumerism - just like in the original film. (Shalimar Sahota/BOP) --This film is the subject of much debate between the narrator of the original list, Chris Hyde, and myself. A Romero loyalist, the very idea of remaking one of his favorite projects of all time offended Mr. Hyde. For myself, I like the original quite a bit, but I am an obsessive fan of Alfred Hitchcock who gave the remake of Psycho the benefit of the doubt. I like seeing what new directors can create when they take a fresh approach to a well established idea. This borders on cinematic blasphemy to a lot of people and I understand the why of it. It's just never bothered me. I'm a huge fan of Charade who very much enjoys The Truth About Charlie (mmm, Thandie). Keeping this in mind, I was rewarded for my open-mindedness when I watched the remake of Dawn of the Dead for the first time. As I said back then, this film is liquid metal hot. The deliciously insidious tone of the opening scene sets the table for everything. We see a health care employee, someone who spends her life trying to help others, driving home to her idyllic neighborhood. The sweet little girl down the street is rollerblading, but she warmly approaches the woman to say hello. Moments later, this same little girl is busting into the nurse's home and chomping on her husband's torso. The man with whom she just made sweet, tender Women's Entertainment Channel love is suddenly chasing her through the bathroom, trying to eat her...and not the fun way. Inside of ten minutes, the viewer knows that director Zack Snyder is going for it, taking the concept and making it his own rather than worrying too much about being respectful to the work of Romero. This is exactly why Snyder has become one of the best directors of our era. His films are an exercise in ruthless aggression. What I particularly like about the Dawn of the Dead remake is that Snyder takes numerous ideas from the zombie genre and modernizes them. Several of the survivors wind up at the mall, but one of them is stranded across the street, trapped in his gun store. This allows for the great bit where they communicate by dry erase board and form little games like Zombie Target Practice. Eventually, Snyder moves on to that other zombie theme, ground Romero also covers in Land of the Dead, when the mall people create a Deathmobile. Everything in life is better when you have a Deathmobile at your disposal. By the time the group reaches the ocean and attempts to make a journey to Lake Michigan, there have been several unexpected deaths of central characters, always a huge plus in terms of element of surprise. My chief frustration from that point on is simple. The film hints at a sequel that has not been delivered as of yet. There have been like six million Saw films in the interim, yet Dawn of the Dead 2 is nowhere to be found. God, I hate Hollywood sometimes. I mean, sure, I'm happy for Zack Snyder for 300 being a mega-blockbuster and all, but it's cost me one of the few sequels I truly covet. Until then, I'll just keep watching the first ten minutes of Dawn of the Dead on a constant loop on my TiVo. You probably think I'm joking but... (David Mumpower/BOP) --I should begin these comments by saying that I think that George Romero's Dawn of the Dead is one of the finest horror films I have ever seen. When we published our original list in 2002, I commented on that film and appreciated Romero for his zombie work up to that point, which included Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. (Many of you, dear readers, will not remember a time when movie theaters occasionally showed movies that were rated "X". Day of the Dead is the only X-rated film I ever saw in theaters.) Now that you understand how highly I think of the original Dawn of the Dead, I can say that I definitely had some trepidation about a remake. Romero's film was a rather minimalist affair, with sublime political undertones, and I wasn't sure that a re-imagining was necessary. Still, the trailers for the Zack Snyder zombie-fest were red hot. Maybe the director was on to something... From the first minutes of the film, I was sold. The movie gets your adrenaline going immediately, and zombies are absolutely everywhere. Then, Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" provides the perfect context for the opening credits, which imply that Holy War brought on the pestilence that infects mankind in the form of (quickly) shambling undead corpses. The film is stylish, jarring and the scares hit heavily. I'll never say that the 2004 film is better than the original (surprisingly, Snyder's version lacks some of the pathos and humor of Romero's zombie flick), but the new Dawn of the Dead certainly delivers exactly what a fright film aficionado should hope for. Let the purists say nay. I like them both. (Kim Hollis/BOP) Dawn of the Dead Trivia Quiz |
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4) Shaun of the DeadWhy it's on the list: We think putting some funny in our scary is like putting peanut butter in our chocolate. Why you might be saying "Oh, hell no!": You don't think horror should be funny. (You're wrong.) --I love spoof movies. I mean, like, love in a borderline unhealthy way. So when Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg broke out with Shaun of the Dead, I nearly had a love seizure. What makes this zombie genre spoof so incredible is that it manages to 1) Accurately spoof its genre; 2) Work as a comedy even beyond the parody aspects; and 3) Actually works as a genre film! How is that possible? I think it has something to do with Wright and Pegg's love of Romero and his undead progeny. They understand the tropes and cliches and manage to manipulate them perfectly. In addition, they create incredibly rich and entertaining characters; one of the problems of many spoof movies is that you don't actually care about what is happening on screen, but that is not the case with Shaun of the Dead. Is this a scary movie? Maybe not, but it is an emotionally affecting movie, in addition to being a delight to watch. (Tom Houseman/BOP) --Making comedies is hard, but most of the people in Hollywood who work on them try as hard as possible to be lazy. Give the premise of Shaun of the Dead to the hacks who come up with such shameful pieces of film like Epic Movie or Date Movie, and you come up with a cheap and forgettable flick. But lots of people would screw it up. A zombie movie...and a romantic comedy? It can't work. In the hands of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead soars to comic and horrific heights. You probably know the story: Shaun's a nice guy, but is content in just getting drunk each night with his buddy at his favorite bar. His girlfriend wants more; does he want to grow up or be an overgrown kid all his life? A zombie apocalypse gives him a chance to prove his worth, but it's hard when you see your parents and friends getting turned into mindless drones. Of course, one of the great running jokes of Shaun of the Dead is that Shaun himself is pretty much a zombie, just without the lust for human flesh and blood. So which is scarier? Your friends becoming something inhuman, or not being able to be human yourself? Shaun of the Dead is, of course, one of the funniest films to come out of Britain since the days of Monty Python, but its love of zombie films and horror-movie conventions manages to not seem like cheap spoofing, but a new entry into the genre. Some of the great horror films are also explosively funny, and the folks behind the movie know exactly how to work every emotion a person could have. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll definitely scream. (Josh Spiegel/BOP) --I will forever be thankful to Ash Wakeman for introducing me to Spaced, the British TV series that brought together the talents of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes. I admit it. I have a little crush on Tim Bisley. I was devastated that the show had such a brief lifespan, but soon, Wright and Pegg would be collaborating again. The result was Shaun of the Dead, one of my favorite movies of the past decade. Shaun of the Dead is a zombie movie spoof, yes, but it's a lot more than that. The film has so much damn heart. Shaun (Pegg) is a bit of a zombie himself as he passes through his existence without giving much thought to how he does things, but he becomes a real man when extraordinary events (in this case, zombie infestation) require him to step up and do his part to save his girlfriend. The movie is chock-full of quotable lines ("Don't forget to kill Phillip!") and there is even a Spaced homage smack dab in the middle of the movie. Shaun of the Dead pokes fun at all of the typical genre conventions, but there are also some real surprises in the storytelling. Some of the people you might expect to live to the end...do not. Through it all, though, Shaun of the Dead has an unmatched spirit and takes absolute pleasure in dissecting a subset of movies that Wright and Pegg have loved since boyhood. The reason both the spoof and the horror work is because they respect these films and appreciate them. Ask the writers of Scary Movie 1-46 if they can say the same. (Kim Hollis/BOP) Shaun of the Dead Trivia Quiz |
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3) Pan's LabyrinthWhy it's on the list: That thing's eyes are in its hands! Why you might be saying "Oh, hell no!": Too much (post) Spanish Civil War, not enough Labyrinth. --I told a friend of mine that I was doing BOP's write-up for Pan's Labyrinth and he responded with a confused, "Pan's Labyrinth is a horror film?" Fair question. With a fantastical children's fable set against the backdrop of Franquist Spain, Pan's Labyrinth cannot strictly be considered a horror film. It cannot strictly be considered anything. And that, of course, is the beauty of this film. In Pan's Labyrinth, director Guillermo del Toro delicately weaves together two stories, connected by an 11-year-old protagonist named Ofelia. In one chain of events, Ofelia is the reincarnation of Princess Moanna of the Underground Realm and must complete three tasks in order to be allowed reentry to her father's kingdom. In the other, Ofelia is situated in the middle of a horrific struggle between the newly empowered Fascists and Spanish anarchists. Both worlds impose rules that could get Ofelia killed. The two worlds eventually begin to intersect in seemingly impossible ways. Magical items from the Underground Realm appear to exert force on the "real" world, while the malevolent actions by human villains begin to dwarf the menace represented by the Underground Realm's monsters. The ending scene of the film is also highly ambiguous; one cannot be sure whether to feel deeply sad or joyful. Roger Ebert named Pan's Labyrinth the best film of 2006 and it's easy to understand why. Whether or not this is a horror film or a nightmarish fairy tale or a horrific historical story, one thing is certain: it's a masterpiece. (Jason Lee/BOP) --Pan's Labyrinth, or El Labertino del Fauno as it's called in Spanish, isn't your textbook this-is-what-I-think-of-when-I-think-of-horror movie. In fact, it is more accurately described as a fantasy movie twinged with real-life horror. Not like The Lord of the Rings fantasy, but fantasy from the point of view of the protagonist, young Ofelia, who encounters a magical fairy-tale world filled with creatures and intricate set details that could only come from the mind of Guillermo del Toro. Make no mistake, though: this is not a children's movie. Ofelia is a curious, independent young pre-teen girl in post-Civil War Spain circa 1944. She and her pregnant mother move to a new home in the mountains to live with her new stepfather Captain Vidal, a tough military man who is dead set on smoking out the bands of guerilla fighters nearby. Vidal is the villain. He is Michael Myers. He is Freddy Krueger. He is Hannibal Lecter. Nothing gets in the way of his goals and what he wants. He is an abomination and one of the most frightening fictional characters ever brought to film. Meanwhile, amidst the unhappy, violent life around her, Ofelia encounters and finds solace in a magical fairy tale underworld. We meet a variety of fascinating creatures and situations, including the Pale Man who has an appetite for children and who has no eyes, and a giant frog who has swallowed an important key. This fantasy sets a new standard for cinematic imagination. Eventually these two worlds are bound to collide. It is a dichotomy that is striking in its clarity, shocking in its brutality, and elegant in the ambiguity of its ending. This isn't just the best horror movie of the past ten years. It may just be the best movie of the last decade period. (Michael Bentley/BOP) --It's rare for me, in this day and age, to not know pretty much everything about a movie when I see it. Most times, I don't know the major plot turns and twists or if there are any big spoilers, but I know the set-up, I know the cast, I know who's involved, etc. When I saw Pan's Labyrinth, I knew it was from director Guillermo Del Toro, was something of a fairy tale, and was rated R. Despite its success in the States (relative to it being foreign and featuring no well-known actors), there are probably plenty of you who don't know much about this surprisingly emotional, intense, nightmarish fable. Ivana Baquero stars as Ofelia, a girl who still believes in and can see tiny sprites even in the most mundane places. When she and her mother move to the countryside to join her stepfather, a Spanish Captain fighting for Francisco Franco, Ofelia discovers a labyrinth where she's offered the opportunity to become a princess in the fairy world; her quest coincides with her stepfather's gradual descent into power-mad insanity. Suffice to say, I was not expecting Pan's Labyrinth to hit me so hard emotionally; by the poetic finale, I was near tears (which, for me, is like bawling). But why is it a great horror film? Ofelia's quest is reminiscent of those nightmares we remember years after they occur. Her confrontation with the Pale Man - who has eyes in his hands - is one of the great frightening scenes in film; no language or subtitles are needed in these scenes. We feel what Ofelia feels. In these moments, and many more throughout, Pan's Labyrinth becomes one of the few films that deserves to be considered terrifying, edge-of-your seat, and other worthy superlatives. (Josh Spiegel/BOP) --This is one of the most remarkable fantasy films of recent vintage, featuring superb performances by wistful Ivana Baquero as a lonely 12-year-old trying to find her place in an unfriendly world, the great Sergi Lopez as her rotten to the core fascist stepfather, and genre vet Doug Jones (Hellboy's Abe Sapien) as a variety of extremely odd imaginary (?) creatures. Offering far more food for thought than your average run of the mill chiller, Pan's Labyrinth will, nonetheless, be a heavy slog for some, as del Toro is not afraid to lay on plenty of blood when necessary. (John Seal/BOP) |
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2) The DescentWhy it's on the list: Hot girl-on-girl-on-mutant-cave-dweller action Why you might be saying "Oh, hell no!": You saw the sequel and hold it against the original. --When it comes to horror movies, execution is everything. Give the premise of Night of the Living Dead to Uwe Boll, and you'd have an unwatchable mess. That's why the fact that The Descent works as well as it does is so remarkable, and a testament to the skill of director Neil Marshall. In its essence, the premise of the film is as simple as can be; six women enter a cave, things go wrong, and evil things attack. It's the way the film goes about depicting this that makes it one of the best horror films of the past decade. After a brief prelude to give us some idea of how the characters relate to each other, the film gets down to business of ratcheting up the tension. But wait – are those character moments from the start of the film actually becoming relevant to the plot? That's the point when we know we're in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing, and is working the premise for all its worth. As things proceed from bad to apocalyptic, there's no relief, no breaks, no room to breathe from the tension of the situation. It's a visceral (in both senses of the word) experience that places the viewer in its characters' position, and has the potential to rattle one's nerves for days afterward. (Reagen Sulewski/BOP) --I'll always regret taking my sister to see this movie. I mean, man, what was I thinking? The girl still gets nightmares years and years after seeing E.T., so thinking The Descent a good idea was a real lapse of judgment on my end. Those cave people alone are some of the most menacingly disturbing creatures I've ever seen on film. Images of those ghostly white guys crawling around the caves always get recalled first when thinking about The Descent. Anyway, what really made the movie for me was Sarah's (Shauna MacDonald) character arc from the shy sweet one to Ellen Ripley badass. One moment she's, you know, browned and bruised, duking it out with a cave baddie, and then – BOOM! – she drops into a bath of blood and emerges a new, alarmingly powerful woman. (And, obviously, a little sticky). She puts on a game face, which counters the sympathetic horror heroes we usually root for. (Eric Hughes/BOP) --Thematically, there is little difference between Aliens, Pitch Black and this. Not coincidentally, I adore all three titles. Simply put, this is a concept that always works when done well. Place a group of plucky humans in a location where they are the outsiders with the local species being the one who has overwhelming numbers as well as intimate knowledge of the terrain. Watch how the humans respond when they don't know many if any of them will survive. If this were a reality show, the ratings would be epic. Of course, that would be a horrible thing to do, but I've come to expect monstrous decision making from television executives. What I particularly like about The Descent, the film I voted as the best horror film since 2002, is that it underlines a fundamental aspect of the group dynamic among women. Never cheat with the significant other of a female friend. That's the law. If you break the law, it is perfectly acceptable for someone to butcher your leg and leave you to die in the subterranean depths inhabited by a species of underground cave dwellars. It's either that or go on an afternoon talk show and rip out one another's weaves while the viewing audience not so quietly judges you. The Descent is a tale of betrayal that masquerades as one of interspecies warfare. The way that Sarah plays judge, jury and executioner when she discovers what Juno has done has stayed with me for several years. It's one of the most shocking yet believable acts I've ever seen in a feature. (David Mumpower/BOP) --Perhaps the most impressive thing about a movie where a group of spelunking woman are terrorized in a cave system by mutant underground creatures is that the film is tense and frightening long before the creatures show up. A touch of claustrophobia doesn't hurt, but even in early scenes where the women are exploring the caves unmolested, the eerie tone and sense of dread is set, which pays dividends later when the mayhem starts, and boy does the mayhem start. Also, without going overboard on a sociological level, the presence of a cast of strong women who are more than just sex objects and fodder should be noted as a welcome addition to the horror genre. (Dan Krovich/BOP) The Descent Trivia Quiz |
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1) 28 Days LaterWhy it's on the list: Fast zombies. Any time you reinvent a decades-old genre, you deserve to be voted the best. Why you might be saying "Oh, hell no!": If you don't like 28 Days Later, you're reading the wrong site. We think ClubPenguin.com is more your speed. --In 1968, George Romero revolutionized the zombie movie with his classic Night of the Living Dead. The fact that I am opening with a comparison to that movie should give you an indication of just how terrifying and superb 28 Days Later is, as it is the first film since Romero's opus to bring something completely different to the zombie genre. While Danny Boyle's film begs comparisons to similar films, such as Outbreak, the incredibly effective storytelling and the constantly building terror sets Boyle's work apart from any other. 28 Days Later features one of the most memorable opening sequences of all time, as bearded Cillian Murphy wanders the bleakly empty streets of London. These haunting images perfectly set the tone for this film, which is so dark and disturbing that it is at times difficult to watch. But the payoff is completely worth it, as 28 Days Later is a perfect example of brilliant filmmaking that goes above and beyond what it means to make a great horror film and tell a compelling story. (Tom Houseman/BOP) --My first time watching this was on pay-per-view... at my parents' house... in the afternoon...and I was still supremely creeped out and amped up. Though everyone calls them zombies, I love the masterstroke of making it a "rage virus" that is doing the transforming. These are not your grandpa's living dead. Best scenes: Cillian Murphy awakens from a coma to find a deserted, ruined London; A single drop of blood proves to be enough to undo Brendan Gleeson. (Brett Beach/BOP) --Look, I love zombie movies as much as anyone in the world and certainly more than anyone else on BOP except for maybe Shalimar Sahota. I feel incredible disappointment that none of the Resident Evil films managed to make an appearance on our new list; that's how much I love zombie flicks. Even I must admit, however, that it is difficult at time to create a great deal of tension when the undead creature chasing you couldn't beat Roseanne Barr in a hundred yard dash. To his credit, Danny Boyle was not afraid to flout convention by saying, "Okay, this premise isn't working for me. Let's do something different." Enter the Rage Virus. Mankind as a hunted species doesn't work well when the creatures doing the hunting aren't even coordinated enough to do the Thriller dance. Turn them into a species who can outrun a cheetah and now we're talking. This one simple change, this flipping of the bit fundamentally alters the dynamic of the zombie movie, which is why we have already seen any number of impersonators in a few short years. Of course, Boyle doesn't stop there, either. That single shot of a deserted street in London is among the most iconic of the past decade. And he even punctuates the movie with that political theme that has been prevalent throughout the career of Romero, that the greatest evil is man. When we first decided to do a second horror list, my first thought was, "I bet 28 Days Later wins." While the results for the top three were much closer than I had anticipated, I am glad to see that it did. (David Mumpower/BOP) --The best British horror film of recent years - heck, one of the best horror films, period - 28 Days Later stars Cillian Murphy stars as Jim, a young man who wakes up in a London hospital one morning to discover that he's amongst the last survivors of a plague unleashed on the British Isles after the escape of dozens of genetically-modified monkeys from a research lab. It sounds like a predictable set-up, but thankfully this isn't a Resident Evil-style slash-a-thon, but an intelligent and thoughtful (and exciting and gory!) post 9-11 look at the diseases of fear and paranoia. The film echoes earlier post-Apocalyptic films such as Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Cornel Wilde's underrated made-in-Britain gem, No Blade of Grass (1972), but stakes out its own positions as Jim and his friends end up in the care of a beleaguered British army unit who have their own perverse ideas about the survival of the human race. The first 20 minutes of this film, stunningly shot by Dogville cinematographer Anthony Dod Mandle on the deserted streets of The Big Smoke to the accompaniment of the Goth rock orchestrations of Canada's Godspeed You, Black Emperor!, are drop-dead brilliant, and while the film can't maintain the ambience and tension it establishes during the first reel, it remains a deeply satisfying alternative to the carelessly-made fright flicks of recent years. (John Seal/BOP) --Danny Boyle made a splash on the arthouse scene with Shallow Grave and Trainspotting before going into a mini slump making the transition to bigger films. It was 28 Days Later that reset him on the path that ultimately led to a Best Director Academy Award® for Slumdog Millionaire. Where 28 Days Later stands apart from the vast majority of horror films is through raising the stakes by paying particular attention to developing a character drama within the confines of a horror thriller. In most horror films, characters exist solely to be knocked off one by one, which can be done to great effect, but 28 Days Later is rare in that character outcomes have as strong an emotional impact as in any serious drama. 28 Days Later also holds the distinction of reinventing and reinvigorating the "zombie genre." Even though the creatures in the film are not actually zombies, they have essentially been put into the same category, and it is the rare case where a film can radically depart from the very basic conceits of a beloved film canon successfully and be embraced by fans of the original. The introduction of "fast zombies" transformed the genre while still remaining true to the original spirit. 28 Days Later is not only one of the best horror movies of the last 10 years, it is also highly underrated when it comes to the best films of any genre for that time period. (Dan Krovich/BOP) --In discussing 28 Days Later, the horror movie I selected as my favorite of the past several years, many people point to the awesomeness of the fast "zombies." Indeed, this notion did revitalize the genre, with storytellers suddenly realizing that slow walking zombies are kind of...well...slow. Speed means they can catch you, and catching you means they can eat you. Recognizing the impact this simple innovation had, I actually believe there are a number of other reasons 28 Days Later should be remembered as one of the best horror movies ever. Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland create strong characters who are so empathetic that when they have to make the impossibly hard decisions or to witness the loss of beloved family members, we put ourselves in their place. Yes, if a catastrophe like the rage virus did occur, these are the kinds of real problems that would become a part of our everyday lives. Most of the movie was filmed prior to the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, but 28 Days Later plays out like a socio-political examination of the fear and terror that became prevalent after it occurred. Perhaps the most impacting portion of the film for me, though, is when our survivors believe themselves to be saved by military men, only to find that most of these men are as monstrous as the virus-riddled humans they are trying to escape. Before he charmed our pants off in Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston was this absolute villain and plays him to high effect. The worst part is that all of Major West's grand rebuilding schemes are as needless as they are cruel. And then, of course, it's impossible to forget the fate of Brendan Gleeson. (Kim Hollis/BOP) 28 Days Later Trivia Quiz Read the Bride of Horror List Introduction See selections 25-16 Read selections 15-6 |
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Friday, April 19, 2024
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