Year End Best Of and DVD Buying Guide!
Yah, it's a little late but I can be kinda slow sometimes, fuck you I know what your thinking!
Yah, it's a little late but I can be kinda slow sometimes, fuck you I know what your thinking!
It was a hell of a good year for genre releases and it was tough as hell to pick only thirteen titles from all the killer films I viewed this year. After making endless lists and narrowing those lists down time and time again, I finally realized it was shit or get off the pot, I had to select thirteen to offer you as my guide. These are 13 of my favorites that I have placed in the KillingBoxx permanent library.
Because I can be a bit of a dick, I have to tell you: I don't care if you disagree, this is my fucking list not yours. If you have noticed that our tastes run similar, this guide may be of assistance. If not, go look at some other assholes list and pick your titles there. These are simply the films I liked the best!
Editors note: This guide is made up of available DVD titles, not theatrical releases, re-releases, or older titles making their first appearance on disc. (If I had to consider all of that, my little pinhead would have exploded. Again, fuck you I know what your thinking!)
| 1. |  Warning!!! Pedophile Released Shane Ryan's controversial new film is, without doubt, the strongest film I saw this year. It tackles subject matter most people would shy away from, yet Ryan looks at it from a purely objective standpoint. I myself was hesitant to screen the film, based upon its title. However, after I sat down and watched it I was absolutely amazed by the sensitive handling of material considered dangerously taboo. What you have here is a masterful piece of work that tells a real-life horror story without ever resorting to sensationalizing the subject. The characters are brought to life by a cast that are as talented as they are ballsy! This is not offensive and tasteless exploitation, but rather a hard look at the kind of life most of us are lucky enough not to have. Star Kai Lanette and Director Shane Ryan probably won't win any of the awards they should get for this amazing piece of work. Do not pass this one up. |
| 2. |  Let The Right One In Tomas Alfredson took the vampire story where it has never been taken before. His is a beautiful, quiet, masterpiece. If you are looking for a lyrical swim in blood soaked excellence this is the ticket. This film is captivating from the very first frame right through to the ending credits. Naturally, Whorywood already has the remake in the can. Don't bother with the bastardization, just suck it up and watch the original! |
| 3. |  Sick Girl This delightfully twisted gem had me giggling like a schoolgirl who'd just found out her worst enemy got knocked up and was being shipped off to Wisconsin to have the baby! Eben McGarr's film is a one-of-a-kind look at a baby faced, dysfunctional lunatic who gleefully murders and tortures anyone she feels has slighted her family. Izzy made me happy the same way Katiebird did a couple of years ago. Who doesn't love a determined, cute, psychopath who at one point urinates on a Nun? |
| 4. |  Blood Moon Rising This throwback managed to achieve what Rodriguez and Tarantino set out to do with Grindhouse, minus their multi- million dollar budget, which if you think about it, kind of defeated the whole point of recreating authentic grindhouse mayhem. Blood Moon Rising was made for virtually no money, yet Director Brian Skiba still managed to deliver a splatteriffic, spontaneous, and gloriously gratuitous experience. It's filled to the brim with everything any self respecting horror fan could want, including a leading lady who makes Salma Hayek yesterdays news and a hero sure to be an inspiration to nerds everywhere. This is one movie you definitely don't want to pass up! |
| 5. |  Timecrimes This Spanish film actually managed a release before it got remade (unlike Rec). Director Nacho Vigalondo has managed to produce the most intricate and fun time-travel film I have ever seen. The acting is superb, the story is flawless and the action will keep you glued to your seat from the start to the finish. Even better than that, is the way it will stick to your brain and keep you thinking about it for days after watching it. Stop being afraid of the big, bad subtitle boogey monster and go get this film before the watered down American version comes out! |
| 6. |  Alien Raiders From Director Ben Rock, this is the kind of paranoid nail biting suspenseful Sci-Fi that only comes along once in a while. I may have picked on the films kinda lame title, but what makes up the meat of this story is no laughing matter. The film is almost an incestuous mix of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Alien, by way of Dog Day Afternoon. If you haven't seen this one yet, you need to get your butt off the couch and go find a copy! |
| 7. |  Eden Lake This spare and nasty little UK gem doesn't pull any punches and features some of the most stomach turning violence you are likely to see. Director James Watkins wasn't afraid to tread in some pretty violent waters for his directorial debut. Sometimes it isn't the inbred rednecks you should be afraid of but rather the kid that lives up the street and doesn't take kindly to you invading his turf! |
| 8. |  Infestation Horror doesn't always have to be bleak and foreboding, sometimes all you need to get through a shitty week is something fun and filled with bugs....big bugs that want to cocoon your ass and suck you up their proboscis like a chocolate brain shake! Director Kyle Rankin knows this and that's exactly what he's serving! |
| 9. |  The Children Heading back to the UK we encounter more nasty offspring, makes me wonder if there is something going on in the UK I should know about! Director Tom Shankland's follow up to last year's The Killing Gene, is a snowbound holiday hellride with a pair of couples and their delightfully precocious children who head into the backwoods for a relaxing vacation that turns ugly quick. When the children fall ill, they strangely turn into murderously malevolent monsters intent upon matricide and more! Merry Christmas motherfucker! |
| 10. |  Mum and Dad We are already in England so we may as well stay here and have a look at Steven Sheil's first feature, the delightfully twisted tale Mum and Dad! Once again I have to say that the English really pulled out the stops this year with some fantastic fright fare that will make for lovely stocking stuffers for that special (fucked in the head) someone on your holiday shipping list. This one tells the tale of a Polish immigrant working at Heathrow airport who makes the terrible mistake of accepting overnight lodgings from a co-worker when she misses her bus. The "family" consists of an English version TCM's Sawyer clan who are more than happy to have a guest for "dinner" and maybe a little kidnap and torture! |
| 11. |  Tokyo Gore Police Yoshihiro Nishimura's tale of revenge is set in a future where a gang of mutant genetic engineers control the streets by using their abilities to transform any wound into weapons. It is up to privatized police officer Ruka to stop them by any means necessary, while at the same time seeking retribution for her fathers murder. Arterial spray, mutilation, and samurai swordplay ensue in this wet and wonderful Japanese confection of ultra-violence! |
| 12. |  Splinter This siege film with a twist from Director Toby Wilkins is like nothing else out there. His story of a parasitic splinter that turns its hosts into zombie like mutants is without a doubt one of the best of the year! It may have slipped by you but don't pass this one up or those of us already in the know will definitely make fun of you for being slow on the uptake! |
| 13. |  Dead Noon Made in 2007 but finally getting a disc release in '09, this Harryhausen inspired modern western was made for very little money, yet it is one of the best films I had the pleasure of watching this year. Director Andrew Wiest put every penny he had on the screen and in so doing, delivered a killer revenge film from beyond the grave. After winning a game of cards with the devil, gunslinger Frank returns from Hell to get revenge on the remaining relatives of the man who put him in his grave. Filled with nods to classics ranging from Jason and the Argonauts to The Good the Bad and the Ugly, this little low budget masterpiece is in a league of its own! |
So there you have it, my buying guide for the holiday season! If you have a horror fan on your Christmas list, or you are just looking for something good to watch, these are the titles I recommend.
As I said in my introduction, it was a hell of a year for genre titles and I feel I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about these titles as well. Most of this list can be found on my 13 for the 13th list which is why I did not include them above. Check out these other kick-ass films too!
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