Horror flicks of 2003

[rxfiend]

well, it seems like there aren't any other horror flicks coming to the box office for the rest of the year (at least i know of), so i figure i'll discuss my fav and least liked horror flicks of this year.

Favorite: Cabin Fever. I LOVED this movie. I thought the idea of a flesh eating virus was great. The comedy worked well, for the most part, and it wasn't over abundant. just the right amount. the gore was surprising (as was the gore in a lot of flicks this year) in how much was able to get on screen. the leg shaving scene actually had me squirm a little bit, which isn't any easy task i must say. i know a lot of people didn't like this movie at all, but for me, it's the best of the year.


Worst: Jeepers Creepers 2. this movie reminded me of one of those SNL movies, where they take a short skit and stretch it out for 90 minutes. the idea of a bus being attacked by the Creeper isn't too bad, but when it took up the majority of the movie, it just got boring. This is the first movie in which i seen at the theater, in that i wanted to leave half way through. but i decided to stay just in case it got better. it never did. :( if a JC3 ever gets made, i will NOT be seeing it.

Comments regarding others:

Darkness Falls: another disappointment. i was hyped about seeing this, but was severely let down. this movie used way too much "loud noise" type of scares, to the point it was annoying. the tooth fairy looked horrible (what was wrong with the original design??). the story was cliched as was the odd child character.

Final Destination 2: very fun movie. it was definately great seeing this in a theater as to hear all the reactions to the death scenes.

Wrong Turn: my second fav movie of the year. reminded me of the horror films of yesteryear.

Freddy Vs Jason: i had mixed feelings about this. i had been anticipating this for years, but after the first time i saw it (i ended up seeing it 3 times), i wasn't exactly thrilled with excitement, nor was i letdown. upon multiple viewings, the movie grew on me, but it's definately not the best of either franchise.

Willard (remake): i liked it. i haven't seen the original, so i don't know how it compares. Crispin Glover is definately great, as is R. Lee Ermey.

TCM (remake): much better than i expected. i felt it was more a sequel rather than a remake (at least that's how i viewed it since the story was different). i'm glad the movie went for a serious tone rather than parody itself.

House of 1000 Corpses: 3rd favorite of the year. sure it's a TCM ripoff, but it's still fun. can't wait for the sequel!

can't remember if i seen any other mainstream horror flicks this year at the theaters. i know there were a few more that came out. I still haven't seen Beyond Re-animator, so i'll have to wait for the dvd. Hopefully it'll be decent. i'll also be checking out House of the Dead when it arrives on dvd, but i'm not expecting anything good to come of that. :lol:

[Deaddevilman]

I still haven't seen Beyond Re-animator, so i'll have to wait for the dvd. Hopefully it'll be decent. i'll also be checking out House of the Dead when it arrives on dvd, but i'm not expecting anything good to come of that. :lol:

Beyond's opening scene is great but it's all down hill, not Dr. Hill, after that. I would suggest renting it before buying it. Same with House of the Dead minus the opening scene.

[Ash28M]

The best two horror movies i have seen this year haven't even come out in theatres yet. Saw them both at the Toronto film fest.

1. Haute tension - Kicks the hell out of any film mentioned on that list, Cabin Fever isn't even in the same league as this film.

2. Ju-On Theatrical version - Though not perfect it will creep the hell out of you.

Does 28 Days Later count? even though it was first released in 2002. Well i guess it would if Cabin fever is on the list. As that would be my pick for best horror film released to main stream audiences so far this year.

Overall i would rate them.

1. Haute Tension
2. 28 days later / Ju-On (tied)
4. House of 1000 Corpses
5. TCM
6. Identity
7. Wrong Turn
8. Final Destination 2
9. Cabin fever
10.Darkness Falls

Haven't Seen Undead, Beyond Re-Animator, Willard, Jeepers Creepers 2 or Freddy VS Jason.

[aoiookami]

Out of what I've seen, best to worst IMO;
1-Wrong Turn
2-FD2
3-TCM 2003
4-Identity
5-Ho1KC

[Latency]

I guess I would have to go:

1- Wrong Turn (best slasher film in ages. great pacing and a great unpolished look to the film)

2 - 28 Days Later (This movie is right up there with Romero's trilogy. The "infected" were gritty, fast and intimidating unlike your typical slow zombie.)

3 - HO1KC (Sure it's MTV'ish but it's got good style and atmosphere).

4 - Identity (The best "whodunnit" in years IMO. The storm and isolated hotel add some nice atmosphere too).

5 - Darkness Falls (Not a bad flick at all. A great DD 5.1 track and jump scenes kept me entertained throughout. I'm also a sucker for urban legends and this one had a nice twist on an innocent one.)

6 - FD2 (I enjoyed the first one alot more. It can be entertaining at times though, just for the creative and graphic death scenes I guess.)

EDIT:

Almost forgot about :

Freddy vs Jason - I guess this would be tied for second place. On my first viewing I wasn't that pleased with how campy it was. But after a second viewing on my own home theatre system and some beer to boot, I had a great time. I guess originally I was expecting to much for a film I waited 10 years to see. Go into it with a fun sarcastic attitude and you'll enjoy it. Oh, the 2 battles between Freddy and J absolutley rock! I hope New Line creates a DVD option called "Jump to a fight scene".

[Demon]

I liked Freddy vs Jason, Wrong Turn, Final Destination 2, and Identity.


TCM remake, Cabin Fever and House of 1000 Corpses all suck ass though.

[Cujo108]

Cabin Fever is easily the best of the year, and it is followed very closely by Identity. Two films that just blew me away, and Cabin Fever is now one of my top 20 favorite films. More of my in depth thoughts on both of these films can be found in my threads on each. Note that I count Irreversible as a 2002 film.

[rxfiend]

i forgot about 28 days later...lol. i liked it as well, though the last third of the movie with the military didn't work for me. i wish they could have gone a different route, but oh well.

[17thJuggalo]

I haven't seen alot of new horror films this year due to good old college getting in the wayt :( . However here are the top rated that I have seen this year.

1. House of 1000 Corpses: I really REALLY LOVED this movie. I mean, yeah it could easily be considered a TCM ripoff, but come on, great characters, great gore, and great cast. Plus is grossed out my roomate which is always a plus ;)

2. 28 Days Later: I was extremely surprised how well this movie worked out. I mean, I expected a Romero zombie rip off fest, but what I got was an artsy zombie film that damn well surpassed my expectations. A great film overall.

3. Wrong Turn - Ah yes, one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. I thought it would be a run of the mill, shitty acting, new age horror film, but I was incredibly wrong. Although it borrows somewhat heavily from The Hills Have Eyes, I think that the "stuck in the middle of nowhere with deranged killers" plot worked very well for this movie.

4. Final Desination 2 - Good in some spots, not so good in others. Mass killings on film always seem to make me feel uneasy (as with the highway scene) and this movie was no exception. I really enjoyed the gorey (and often funny) death scenes, but the overly generic cast and the MTV like attitude was too much for me to bear. Fast forward through the dialogue and go straight to the death scenes and we got ourselves something worth watching.


Movies that I shouldnt have watched...:

Darkness Falls: Boring. Thats all I can really say about this film. The same old weirdo kid premise and a lame villain make this movie all too predictable.

The Ring: The movie came out on dvd this year so I figured I'd throw it in the mix. Although alot of people think this movie is scary as hell, I found this movie to be boring and just plain stupid. Here's my comprehension of the story: A ghost comes to kill you after 7 days after you watch a movie but to stop that ghost you must make a dub of the movie but then that doesnt work and the ghost comes out of the tv then you have to find where the ghost lives and set it free :rolleyes: Come on man, give me a break. I bought this on DVD and I viewed it once. It now enjoys its job collecting dust on my shelf.

[rxfiend]

actually, in the Ring, if you make a dub and pass it along, you're home free. the ex-husband didn't make a dub, thus he died. the freeing of the spirit really had nothing to do with staying alive. also, the curse is more in the form of a virus (hard to explain, but if you're into the Ring mythology, it's easy to understand).

[Loomis]

Rather than start a whole new thread, here is an article from today's Sydney Morning Herald about horror films this year (and historically). It is called "Why blood is the new black", but it may have originally run in The Daily Telegraph in London.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/28/1069825983842.html

[H0MOSareGAY]

My favorites of the year have to be 28 Days Later and Freddy VS. Jason

28 Days Later was a great artsy zombie flick. Stayed fairly serious on the first viewing, but the jokes were still there of you looked for them on the second.

FvJ was just GREAT. Boobs+Blood+Jason+Crystal Lake+Freddy+Elm Street=Fun ... Understand?

Cabin Fever and HO1KC deserve a mention too.

Worst of the Worst:

Jeepers Creepers 2: Okay, so I refused to pay for this since the first JC was so crappy, and ended up seeing a bootleg copy. I had to turn it off. dumb Dumb DUMB DUMB!!!!!!!

Darkness Falls: YAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anything else I either didn't like or hate enough for a mention, didn't see, or completely forgot about.

[Alien Redrum]

Willard, because I can't bitch about a movie with that much Crispin Glover.

Well said! :banana:

Glover made Willard.

What else I enjoyed this year (in no particular order)...

House of 1000 Corpses - One long Rob Zombie video. I knew what it would be before I saw it and I wasn't disappointed. I can't wait for the next one.

Identity - Smart, fun and a damn fine change of pace for John Cusak. Finally a movie that he's not pining over someone.

Wrong Turn - 2 words. Eliza Dushku. :cool:

Final Destination 2 - the death scenes[/record] :D

[b]28 Days later - Fun. Plus it took an old idea and made it new.

Freddy vs. Jason - Another fun movie. Everybody wins. :)

Almost an honorable mention...

Darkness Falls - This flick showed a lot of potential in the first 10 - 15 minutes.
Then it flatlined. :(

What I missed, but will see....

TCM
Underworld
Cabin Fever

[X-human]

Bubba Ho-Tep has to be my favorite this year, it was fantastic. The overall serious feel of the utter nonsense was just genius. There was a lot of character development, which is very rare in today's horror.

House of 1,000 Corpses was not at all what I had expected, which makes it hard to grade because I would have used the same elements very differently than Rob. There were a lot of good ideas, and they didn't go to waste, but I'd have to say that it could have been handled much better. If Rob Zombie developes his storytelling abilities a bit more I'm sure his next features will turn quite a few more heads.

Cabin Fever was alright, my third favorite horror movie of the year. There were some good gags and good use of gore, they didn't just tossed buckets of blood at you for the hell of it, they really used it to enhance scenes. Overall it seemed too much like a gory rip off of NOTLD. The movie itself didn't really add anything new to the horror genre.

Freddy vs. Jason was decent. Most of the good ideas were pretty much used up in the first twently to thirty minutes. It was able to save face towards the end again with some good ideas, but everything in the middle is pretty much standard. At least I was laughing with the flix and not at it... For the most part at least. :D

I think that's all I saw this year... I'm going to check out Underworld, Wrong Turn, Willard and 28 Days Later. The rest of the year's crop I'm going to take a pass on.

[Loomis]

Ok, my faves this year are all obvious choices for the most part:

28 Days Later: Strangely, this was NOT a follow up to the Sandra Bullock film, '28 Days'. I thought this was one of the more interesting "zombie" films of the last few years, and the scares were genuine for me, coming at points where you didn't expect it.

Undead: Far from an original concept, this heavily Romero-inspired Australian zombie film gets my vote because it was something that many recent horror films have failed to be - FUN. Nice to hear some Aussie accents in a zombie flick too. If you get this in the US (and word has it you will see it and a DVD next year) try and check it out.

Freddy v Jason: The fanboy in me just couldn't help but like it. It was by no means a perfect film, but goddamn if it wasn't fun to see the two of them mixing it up.

Hypnotic: English film. Not sure how widely seen this was (as it only got a limited release here). It was a good serial killer thriller with a supernatural twist. (It was released last year as 'Doctor Sleep' I think, but it only came out here this year as Hypnotic so I'm counting it).

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Not even close to the original, IMO, and it really was any excuse for a wet t-shirt shot wasn't it? Not complaining too much though. Mmm...Jessica Biel. Ok, I have no credibility now. Still, I didn't hate it, and that surprised me.

Cabin Fever and House of a 1000 Corpses are yet to be released here, so I can't comment. The former comes out this week, the latter was shown as part of the Melbourne Film Festival in July, but no wide release yet :(

[Alien Redrum]

Damn, I forgot all about Bubba Ho-Tep -- which I found extremely entertaining and fun.

Also, Undead is added to my must see list above all others. :)

[Cydeous]

My favourite horror film of 2003 was A Tale of Two Sisters. A fantastic film that I cannot recommend highly enough. Other than that, House of 1000 Corpses was good but I can't say that I saw any other "good" horror film in the past year. I saw most of the films that were mentioned. Ones that I am looking forward to seeing are Ju-on and The Eye.

[H0MOSareGAY]

Beyond's opening scene is great but it's all down hill, not Dr. Hill, after that. I would suggest renting it before buying it. Same with House of the Dead minus the opening scene.
The difference here is that Beyond still provided some good stupid fun, where House of the Dead was complete and utter CRAP, I just saw it today on SVCD, C-R-A-P

[Alien Redrum]

My favourite horror film of 2003 was A Tale of Two Sisters. A fantastic film that I cannot recommend highly enough. Other than that, House of 1000 Corpses was good but I can't say that I saw any other "good" horror film in the past year. I saw most of the films that were mentioned. Ones that I am looking forward to seeing are Ju-on and The Eye.

Ju-on is great, just don't watch the trailer. The trailer shows most of the scares from the movie.

[Nemesis]

I dont know how i managed to miss Undead given that it's an australian horror movie and all.. but i did.. so thats on my must see list at the moment..

Watched a lot of horror this year, dont know what was new and what wasnt but i enjoyed Ring... um.. FD2 was ok.. the gore was a bit CGI-ish.. but good none the less..

28 days later was good, although i havent rewatched my dvd of it yet..

Freddy vs Jason was ok.. but it felt like freddy and jason werent their usual selves.. so it didnt really have any nostalgic effect for me..

i also watched all the night/dawn/day which were awesome but theyre not 2003 films so i guess they dont count :)

[rxfiend]

just seen Beyond Re-animator, and i'll have to add it to my favorites list of 2003! i hope a 4th reanimator flick gets made.

[rhett]

I don't think it has been a great year for film in general, but this year has definitely been one of the better years in a long time when it comes to mainstream horror films. Of the ones I've seen, here is how I'd rank them:

1. 28 Days Later - a gritty and realistic look at the apocalypse that is marred only by a cop-out ending.

2. Identity - even without the twist it has some great art direction and a solid noir look to it. The twist is warrented and gives the film an interesting, if a bit shallow, level of symbolism.

3. Wrong Turn - a simple throwback to the slasher films of yore, it was nice seeing a film removed of any sort of post-modern hipness. It was what it was, a simple and effective slasher film.

4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) - virtuosso camera work and Jessica Biel elevate this from being just a routine sell-out of a film. It doesn't even compare to the original, but it stands up alright on its own.

5. Freddy vs. Jason - nothing could live up to the hype, but this film came out a lot better than it had any right to. The scenes of backstory are some of the best moments in the series, and it was great seeing these two icons back to their roots.

6. Willard (2003) - Crispin Glover gives one of the most interesting performances of the year in this solid remake. The new ending is a great change to a predictable story, and the film looks very beautiful.

7. Final Destination 2 - great kills, gore and overall fun. That makes for 4 consecutive good New Line horror flicks this year. Not bad.

8. Cabin Fever - moments of brilliance are destroyed by a plodding final act. Roth just ended up biting more than he could chew with this baby. Had he stayed focused, this could have been gold.

9. House of 1000 Corpses - merely average. An indulgent collage of shock and pastiche, devoid of a unique thought of its own. Had it not already been taken, a better title would have been THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2003).


Of the 9 theatrical horror films that I saw all year, I'd recommend them all save for HO1KC, so 8 out of 9 certainly aint bad. Here's to 2004.