Top 10 Horror Films - Of the last 10 years

28 Days Later (2002)

When environmental terrorists attack a lab that contains diseased chimps who are infected with a "Rage" virus, they unwittingly let loose a plague that lays waste to England and(perhaps)the rest of society. The 28 Days later of the title cuts to a mostly abandoned London where a coma-tized bicycle courier named Jim(Cillian Murphy,effective) wakes from his stasis to find himself alone in a hospital. As he searches London for signs of life,he is rescued from raging zombies by a couple of survivalists(one of them,the lovely Naomie Harris)who he follows from place to place to keep alive. From there,he also meets a man and his daughter(Brendan Gleeson,terrific,and Megan Burns,good)and they try to find a refuge out of London-town. A recorded message of a "paradise" where "salvation" can be found is tracked by Frank(the man) on his shortwave radio.

28 Days Later, like the Romero zombie flicks of yore, is ultimately an allegory of the days we are living in, an age in which we are constantly confronted with violence by the media (much like the ape right at the start of the film), where violence begets violence, and humanity faces an uncertain future. The virus we talk about is simply used as a metaphor. 'Rage' is shown as a social disease. Rage is a human made disease.

30 Days of Night (2007)

At last, vampire fans have a movie worthy to the genre. We've had so many mediocre twists on the vamp tale since the last good one - Interview With The Vampire - and this one was a long time coming. OK, so the acting wont get any Oscars but its still good, what you'd expect from the likes of Hartnett, George, etc... Surprisingly the thing that took this to the next level compared with the rest was the sheer brutality of it. These creatures bear the remains of human personalities, but are purely evil; cunning and vicious and blood-stained, like vampires were before Bram Stoker introduced the "new improved" (i.e. sanitized) Victorian model and Anne Rice gussied it up even more.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

This remake of George A. Romero's 1978 cult classic proves that its all about re-invention and being innovative, taking the necessary risks, which Snyder has done here and created something right on the target for the needs and criteria of the hardcore jaded horror fanatic. Zack Snyder has managed to combine action with horror, dark humour, along with well-developed characters, which is definitely a flaw for most horror flicks, but he's pulled it off here.

Young Nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) is living the suburban dream: perfect house, loving husband, well-manicured cul-de-sac. All that is about to change. As she drives home after a long shift dozens of clues surrounding the brewing trouble literally fall on deaf ears as Ana is too tired to notice. Overnight, her life is changed forever when a lethal virus, that causes the dead to come back to life, spreads with alarming speed all over the world. Utterly, completely, hopelessly outnumbered, Ana flees her perfect life and hooks up with a bunch of other survivors who take refuge in a huge shopping mall.

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

A brother and sister on spring break from college decide to take the scenic route home--an endless, desolate stretch of road through central Florida. Along the way they are run off the road by a strange truck, and later they see its driver disposing of what looks like a human body down a drainpipe near an old church. Derry (Justin Long) convinces his older sister, Trish (Gina Phillips), that they have to investigate, and despite all better judgement, they do. That's just the beginning of this wild horror film, directed by Victor Salva (POWDER). Salva keeps the audience guessing by never settling into any particular style or formula. The film veers gleefully in all directions, referencing such classics as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and even THE TERMINATOR, along the body-strewn way. There is no shortage of clever humor amid the shocks, gross-outs, and nail-biting suspense, and Phillips and Long exhibit a refreshingly believable brother-sister rapport. The supporting cast includes Patricia Belcher as a psychic and Eileen Brennan as an eccentric cat owner.

The Grudge (2004)

In Sam Raimi and Columbia Pictures' powerful thriller The Grudge, based on the Japanese blockbuster JU-ON: THE GRUDGE, the normal façade of a modest house in Tokyo belies the hidden terror within. It is possessed by a violent plague that destroys the lives of everyone who enters. Known as "The Grudge," this curse causes its victims to die in the grip of a powerful rage. Those who are fatally afflicted by the curse die and a new curse is born - passed like a virus to all those who enter the house in an endless, growing chain of horror.

The Ring (2002)

The Ring centers around the discovery of a videotape that has become the stuff of urban legend. If you watch the tape, you have seven days to make funeral arrangements, before your heart stops cold. Rachel (Watts) is a reporter whose niece has recently died in just such a manner, and, for her the girl's mother, she decides to investigate this rumour. Rachel finds the tape and watches it, and at it's conclusion recieves a phone call where a creepy child's voice states "seven days". Shaken, Rachel brings the tape to Noah (Martin Henderson), the estranged father of her son, Aidan (creepy man-boy David Dorfman). Noah is a bit of a video geek, who appreciates the film's indie vibes, but insists it's nothing more than a videotape, but with Rachel's urging he begins dissecting the footage, searching for clues to it's origins. Meanwhile, Rachel does her own investigative reporter thing, and comes up with several leads that all point to strange goings-on at a horse ranch off the coast of Washington state. Rachel and Noah both begin having hallucinatory experiences that seem to bring them closer to solving the mystery, but when their eerily precogniscent son watches the tape, the stakes are raised, and the estranged couple must work against the clock to uncover the mystery behind the ring.

The Descent (2005)

After a tragic accident, six friends reunite for a caving expedition. Their adventure soon goes horribly wrong when a collapse traps them deep underground and they find themselves pursued by bloodthirsty creatures. As their friendships deteriorate, they find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive the creatures and each other.

Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

By JoBlo: A movie that knows what it wants to be, delivers on its popcorn, cheesy intentions for the most part and invites everyone along for the ride as giant spiders invade a small town with plenty of action, humor and fun along the way. Not an Oscar wannabe, not a film which expects you to sit down and debate its deeper meaning afterwards, but certainly one from which you can anticipate goofy enjoyment, awesome spiders and a number of amusing characters. In fact, I pretty much liked all of this flick's stars, especially the lead in the film (don't let the ads or title sequence fool ya, David Arquette is not the lead here), Kari Wuhrer, who strips herself away from her sexy straight-to-video roles of the past and jumps right into this kickass sheriff's body with mucho presence, attitude and boobage. Oh yeah, and thanks for that tight, white shirt, Kari...me likey very much! Arquette also handles himself pretty well as the "straight man" for once, and the usually irritating kid is engaging and quite non-annoying at his post. I also like how they made him look and act like Harry Potter...nice! Doug E. Doug was also ideal as the comic relief, playing the perfect conspiracy theorist about town, and the deputy dude played the "dumb cop" with just the right amount of humor. Oh yeah, Tom Noonan was also delectably creepy in his small role. Scarlett Johansson's character is actually one of the few that was shoulder-shruggable in this film. But let's talk about the real stars of this movie: those damn crazy spiders! I loved them all, appreciated their creepiness throughout, dug their little mutterings as well as the goofy sounds that they made whenever they got squished. The special effects were also especially well done and the green slime oozing out of them was coolio as well. The action scenes in the film were also well established, especially one of the first ones, which slapped the spiders against a bunch of teen motor-bikers, which was a rockin' good time!

Slither (2006)

A meteorite crashes into the woods near the small town of Wheelsy, South Carolina. Grant Grant finds it but is infected by a worm-like parasite which enters his body through his stomach and takes over his brain. It slowly turns him into a slimy monster that impregnates a local woman so that she can spawn a whole batch of the worms to take over more bodies for him to feed on. It is down to his long-suffering wife and the local sheriff to hatch a plan to kill him before the infection spreads across America.

Films like this are "for the fans, by the fans" which means a lot of people won't get it if they haven't seen any of the films it's supposed to be paying tribute to. It's not meant to be serious or groundbreaking, it's meant to be a homage to the films that the director and many other people grew up on and that just aren't made anymore by the big studios. It's silly but that's not because it's any lack of ability on the cast or crew's behalf - it's meant to be that way. After all, the guys who made this would rather have you laughing with the film, than at it. However at the end of the day, the film can't hide what it is and that's simply a rehash of ideas collated from numerous sources. Despite it's trimmings and glossiness, it's still a place we've all been before and does get a little predictable at times. But that's being a little too harsh on a film which promises a lot and delivers even more.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

So what makes it work? First, the characters. Every one of them is superbly written, flawlessly cast, and utterly believable. Though most are not well known here this is a seasoned cast of dead solid comedy performers. Beyond the Spaced carryovers britcom fans will recognize key faces from Black Books and The Office with cameos from members of The League of Gentlemen and Little Britain. Second, the film's unique fusion of comedy and horror elements. Where most horror comedies rely on pervasive irony - the constant nodding and winking at horror genre rules - Shaun plays it remarkably straight. The horror elements are genuinely shocking - you correctly get the sense very early on that absolutely nobody is safe - with the comedy coming from the characters' confused and generally inept responses. Shaun and Ed's first interaction with a zombie - a young woman they mistakenly, but understandably, believe is simply very, very drunk - is a classic piece of film.

By keeping the film so strongly character based director / co-writer Edgar Wright is able to take his audience on a fantastic ride. We buy the situation effortlessly and he's able to swing from the truly horrific to the hilarious and we're quite happy to tag along no matter what. Simon Pegg (Shaun) and Nick Frost (Ed) actually lived as room mates for a stretch when Pegg was just starting out in comedy and prior to Frost's even considering a move that way - Frost's part in Spaced was his first piece of show biz work, written for him by Pegg purely because Simon thought (correctly) that he was naturally hilarious - and their shared history transfers into an effortlessly natural relationship between Shaun and Ed that underscores and anchors the entire film.