Nick Batley gives his expert opinion on the horror films you absolutely must see and the ones you should avoid this Halloween…
HOT – You’re Next (2013) In an area of cinema rapidly running out of ideas, this off-key, blackly comic slasher was a breath of fresh air. Well-shot, well paced, genuinely scary (SUCH a rarity these days) and with an innovative use for a blender, this home invasion movie is by far the most enjoyable horror of the year so far. Fab female lead, too!
HOT – American Mary (2013) Student life can be hard, especially when you’re a poor medical student. So what better way to supplement your income than as an illegal backstreet surgeon? Funny, gory, scary and subversive – this was a surprisingly entertaining gore-flick that went down very well at last year’s Frightfest.
HOT – Evil Dead (2013) I recognise I may be in a minority here, but while I do not feel that the remake of Sam Raimi’s iconic Cabin in the Woods film is anywhere near the original, I still found that, despite it lacking the humour of the original, it had a certain level of visceral intensity that is often lacking from modern horror. Plus it has one of the best final lines of the last few years, which I cannot repeat, even in a student newspaper.
NOT – Insidious Chapter 2 (2013) Quiet-quiet-bang-quiet-quiet-bang-quiet-quiet-bang-this-is-so-boring-sleep-snore-zzzzzzzz-wakeup-quiet-quiet-bang-seriously-is-this-what-horror-has-become-these-days?-oh-god-kill-me-now
NOT – The Conjuring (2013) See above, but with an added particularly rubbish ending. This actually had me sitting on the fence for a while, but towards the final act it just descends into completely hyperbolic chaos, and shows that the once interesting James Wan (who directed the not-completely-terrible opener to the Saw series) has completely run out of ideas.
NOT- Dark Skies (2013) Aliens. Seriously. Just aliens. A word of advice: don’t pretend you’re going to have a big reveal of the nature of the threat two-thirds of the way into the film, if you are going to destroy the suspense in the first twenty seconds.
