Other staff 2013 Picks: Managing Editor Ryan Turek / Contributing Writer Ryan Larson / Contributing Writer Paul Doro / Contributing Writer Spencer Perry / Contributing Writer Christopher Jimenez
Jeff's Best of 2013
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#10
TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D: I’d like to think that if I had caught up to some of 2013’s more acclaimed titles by now, like Stoker, We Are What We Are, V/H/S/2 or Under The Skin, that this silly slasher sequel would be absent from this list. But, truth be told, I think that no matter how many better films I had seen in 2013, I still would’ve fought to celebrate this absurd entry in the Leatherface saga. I can’t make an objective case for Texas Chainsaw 3D on grounds of quality (although I was very impressed with the 3-D conversion on the footage from the original) but I also can’t deny that this goofy movie entertained me like few others this past year, triggering the irrational nostalgia I hold for the addle-brained slasher sequels of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, like Jason Takes Manhattan and (of course) Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. “Do your thing, cuz!” may not rank as high in the annals of classic horror movie dialogue as such immortal lines as “We belong…dead.” or “Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly.” but yet I’m certain I’ll never forget it.
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#9
THE CALL: While Texas Chainsaw 3D brought back fond memories of the franchise sequels of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, The Call served as a nice, um, call back to the upscale thriller trend of the ‘90s, back when studios were cranking out slickly made suspensers starring A-class talent with films like Sleeping with the Enemy, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and Single White Female. They were the kind of glossy genre efforts that Fangoria was forced to cover under the disclaimer of “It’s Not A Horror Movie!” during that time when horror was a tainted term to some. But, really, those films were horror and save for the modern cellphone technology the movie hinges on, The Call would have fit perfectly into that earlier era. Yes, the final act goes into ridiculous territory but by that point, I was willing to stick with the ride. And while The Call may not represent his best work, it was heartening to see Session 9 director Brad Anderson score a much-deserved box office hit.
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#8
WARM BODIES: I wasn’t expecting to warm up to Warm Bodies. In fact, I groaned when I first heard about what sounded like “Twilight with Zombies” but this was actually a charming, involving, and occasionally suspenseful zombie tale that made for a welcome change of pace from the monotonous, misanthropic dirge of The Walking Dead. Witty and affecting, this wasn’t a film that pandered to teenage girls but instead simply told the best love story involving zombies since Brian Yunza’s Return of the Living Dead III (1993).
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#7
THE WORLD'S END: We’ve come to expect excellence from the team behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and, sure enough, The World’s End delivered. Director Edgar Wright, co-writing with star Simon Pegg, crafted a movie that worked as a sincerely told sci-fi/horror tale of alien invasion, respectful of the tropes of the genre, but was also one of the year’s best comedies, with its laughs rising from its cast of relatable, vividly drawn characters.
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#6
EVIL DEAD: This remake did not replace Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead either in my mind or my heart and I don’t know if I’ll even revisit it that much in years to come. But I can say I appreciated the hell-bent energy and 100% commitment that Raimi, producers Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell and director and co-writer Fede Alvarez showed towards making this retelling a full-blown, pedal to the metal horror movie. As someone who grew up as a horror fan in the ‘80s, reading Fangoria editor Tony Timpone’s frequent tirades against the MPAA in the pages of Fango and Gorezone and suffering through the results of the MPAA’s handiwork in many a truncated gorefest, it still stunned me (even with how lenient the MPAA has become in recent years), to sit in a theater and see the insane amount of splatter that was permitted to flow in this R-rated film. Granted, a movie can’t exist on gore alone but, damn, this movie sure deserves a medal for trying.
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#5
WORLD WAR Z: I wasn’t all that taken with World War Z on first viewing. Maybe some of the mainstream accolades it received (Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Glieberman called it the best zombie movie since Romero’s Dawn of the Dead) had primed me for disappointment but my initial take was that it was simply ok at best. A second viewing at home, however, bumped up my appreciation. It’s still not the be-all, end-all of zombie cinema but on reflection it seems churlish to complain about a zombie movie mounted with solid skill and unprecedented scope.
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#4
THE CONJURING: I doubt if The Conjuring gave any hardcore horror fans sleepless nights as the scares were all culled from stock material. Still, it was nice to see familiar spook house staples assembled in such a handsomely mounted package. Director James Wan crafted a very classy ghost story, arguably his best effort in the genre to date, and that’s a cheer-worthy accomplishment in my book. What’s more, I loved the fact that this was a modern horror movie that featured such a likeable group of characters. What the real life counterparts of The Warrens and The Perrons were (or are) like is open to debate but in The Conjuring these people possessed a simple, irony-free decency that was refreshing to see in 2013.
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#3
CURSE OF CHUCKY: For aficionados of ‘80s slasher superstars, the return of Chucky in 2013 was cause for celebration. What was even better was the fact that, as writer/director, Chucky creator Don Mancini made a sequel that met (and likely exceeded) every bit of fan anticipation. I’ve loved Chucky from the start but never actually found him to be a frightening figure until Curse of Chucky. There are some genuine chills to be found here and that’s a feat I didn’t think would be possible to pull off in the sixth entry of this series. Bonus points to Curse of Chucky for having the best post-credits scene of the year.
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#2
THIS IS THE END: I didn’t even expect this to be funny – I thought with actors like Seth Rogan, James Franco and Jonah Hill all playing themselves this would be an obnoxious, self-satisfied slog – but not only did This Is The End prove to be hilarious; this apocalyptic comedy also fit the bill as a legitimate horror movie. The end of the world scenario it presented was truly dire and deadly, its array of demonic creatures (via KNB) were scarier and more vividly conceived than the kaiju-inspired beasts of Pacific Rim, and one jump scare in particular rates right up there with the legendary hallway scene in Exorcist III (1990). For me, This Is The End rates as the year’s biggest, and most welcome, surprise.
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#1
HERE COMES THE DEVIL: This Mexican-made tale of demonic possession is a spell-bindingly eerie piece of work, courtesy of Argentinean director Adrián Garcia Bogliano. There are heavy echoes of Peter Weir’s haunting 1975 masterpiece Picnic At Hanging Rock here in that this also involves children exploring rock formation with suggested metaphysical or supernatural properties (here in the Tijuana hills, in Weir’s film in Australia) who inexplicably vanish. In Picnic At Hanging Rock, the disappearance of three young students of a girl’s school and a teacher lead to an enduring mystery, even after one of the students turns up. In Here Comes The Devil, the young son and daughter to Alex and Sol (Francisco Barreiro and Laura Caro) are returned to them the next day, intact but somehow…different. What follows is a menacing slow burn as the increasingly fearful Sol attempts to unravel the strange truth of what happened to her children, climaxing in a chillingly bleak finale.
