Week 22: “The Best Horror of 2014!”
I know its 2015 and we’re seeing some great horror films
coming out this year – i.e. It Follows, Insidious: Chapter 3 and What We Do in
the Shadows – and there are plenty more on the way but I was reading a recent
issue of the magazine Fangoria (one of my favorites by the way) and in issue
#339 (the one with the amazing article on the music of John Carpenter) they had
the ballot for the 2015 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards which they do every year
honoring the best of the best in terms of horror films from the previous year
as chosen by their readers (and not a bunch of people in suits).
Reading this article got me thinking about
what some of my favorite horror films of last year were as well as made me
realize how many more I missed out on and still need to see.
So, I’ve dedicated this week’s article on
going through this ballot and seeing what I come up with.
So if you want to vote for this year’s event
go to their website (at
www.fangoria.com)
and see if you can still vote.
BEST WIDE-RELEASE
FILM
(As Above, So
Below/Dracula Untold/Godzilla/Oculus/The Quiet Ones)
Hands down, my favorite offered in this category is Oculus.
This was an amazing film superior to all the other films in this category. I got to view them all on the big screen and
this film played extremely well with its clever and smart script and amazing
art direction and cinematography. My
second choice would have been Dracula
Untold which was better than I expected.
I not being a fan of the vampire film this brought something new and
interesting to the over-told tell of Vlad the Impeller. Godzilla
was a great movie that suffered from having too many amazing actors having
nothing to do other than stand around with their jaw dropped and the fact that
whenever Godzilla wasn’t on the screen I wanted to fall asleep. As
Above, So Below gets points for being one of the more original ideas for a
found footage horror style film but it also loses points for being a found
footage horror film. I don’t know why The Quiet Ones even made the list as
this was a film with a great set up that falls apart half way through due to
bad choices by the characters and a third act too dependent of mediocre CGI.
BEST
LIMITED-RELEASE/DIRECT-TO-VIDEO FILM
(The Babadook/The
Battery/Housebound/The Sacrament/Under the Skin)
Hands down the best film of this category and of all horror
films released last year in general is The
Babadook. This was a refreshing
original horror film that hand something to say and didn’t pander to
audiences. It’s smart, well executed and
has two amazing performances – one by a child actor. There was no film that could compare. I loved the subtle slow burn of both The Battery and The Sacrament which are both amazing films about two completely
different things done in two completely different styles. The
Battery breathed new life into the zombie genre while The Sacrament proved that a found footage style film can work if in
the right hands. Unfortunately, at this
time I’ve yet to see Housebound or Under the Skin although both are at the
top of my list.
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE
FILM
(Big Bad Wolves/A Girl
Walks Home Alone at Night/The House at the End of Time/The strange Color of
Your Body’s Tears/Witching & Bitching)
I regret that for the first time ever since I’ve been
following the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards I’ve not seen a single film that was
nominated. Every one of these films are
on my must-see list but I’ve yet to sit down and view any of them and I must
apologize to my readers for this.
BEST ACTOR
(Liar Ashkenazi/Nick
Damici/Jake Gyllenhaal/Jared Harris/Daniel Radcliffe)
I’ll have to abstain from this one since I’ve not seen
Ashkenazi’s performance in Big Bad Wolves,
nor Nick Damici in Late Phases nor
Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy. Enemy is the one film I hadn’t heard about
until now and Damici was phenomenal in Stake
Land (2010) and Mulberry St
(2006) and he even has a role in The
Sacrament, so, I’m sure his performance in Late Phases is just as good if not better. Jared Harris steals The Quiet Ones for the most part but I’ve seen him in better and
Daniel Radcliffe gives another great performance in Horns (as is par for the course with him since leaving the Harry Potter franchise).
BEST ACTRESS
(Essie Davis/Alexandra
Essoe/Scarlett Johansson/Marta Milans/Tilda Swinton)
This is a tough one even though I’ve yet to see Johansson’s
performance in Under the Skin not
Alexandra Essoe in Starry Eyes nor
Marta Milans in Devoured. Tilda Swinton’s performance in Only Lovers Left Alive sees her at top
form (as usual) because this woman never does wrong. She usually steals every film she’s in but
this film she is the star and she gives a performance that shouldn’t have been
overlooked even by The Academy. This
being said, Essie Davis came out of nowhere with her performance in The Babadook as a broken mother taking
care of a “special” child that drives her over the edge. Davis’ performance sends chills down my spine
every time which is why she springs to the top.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
(David Asavanond/Tzahi
Grad/Gene Jones/Michael Parks/Noah Wiseman)
Again I’ve missed three of these actors’ performances
including Asavanond in Countdown,
Grad in Big Bad Wolves, and Parks in Tusk.
Jones does give a great turn in The
Sacrament but he is easily overshadowed by Noah Wiseman’s stellar
performance in The Babadook
especially coming from a child actor.
BEST SUPPORTING
ACTRESS
(Olvia Cooke/Anne
Ramsay/Katee Sackhoff/Rima Te Wiata/Mia Wasikowska)
I missed Ramsay in The
Taking of Deborah Logan and Wiata in Housebound. Cooke was good in The Quiet Ones which was, unfortunately, such a mediocre film and
Wasikowska (whom I usually love in everything) is over shadowed by all the
other great performances in Only Lovers
Left Alive, so Katee Sackhoff in
Oculus goes home with this one this year.
Her performance in this film is a far cry from her other performances
and worth taking a look at.
BEST SCREENPLAY
(The
Babadook/Housebound/Life After Beth/Oculus/Proxy)
I should abstain from this one as I’ve only seen two of the
three films. As I’ve said before Housebound is on my must-see list as is Life After Beth and I’ve since added Proxy to that list. Unfortunately, for me, my favorite two horror
films of last year are up against each other but I have to go with Oculus because the film hinges on the
suspense of all the time jumping and visual jumps that pull you into the film
and never lets you go. The Babadook also has a great script but
it is the performances by the actors that keep your eyes glued to the
screen.
BEST SCORE
(Big Bad
Wolves/Oculus/Only Lovers Left Alive/Starry Eyes/Under the Skin)
I’ve not heard the score for Big Bad Wolves (Frank Ilfman), Starry
Eyes (Jonathan Snipes) or Under the
Skin (Mica Levi) but Oculus has
an amazing score by The Newton Brothers as does Only Lovers Left Alive, with music by Jozef van Wissem and SQURL.
It is only with Only Lovers Left Alive
in which the music itself is a character in the film and the score creates a
very lush atmosphere and mood.
BEST MAKEUP/CREATURE
FX
(Afflicted/Dead Snow
2/Horns/Late Phases/Starry Eyes)
I’ve not seen Starry
Eyes (Hugo Villasenor & SOTA FX), Late
Phases (Robert Kurtzman & Brian Spears) or Afflicted (Tamar Ouziel) but it doesn’t matter because I love the
zombie and bloodshed and chaos of Dead
Snow 2 (Steinaar Karstein & Mike Elizalde)! Gregory Nicotero and Howard
Berger’s work in Horns was amazing
but Dead Snow 2 was one of the most
entertaining zombie-war films ever made with excellent makeup FX and visual FX
and mayhem that once started never stopped.
This was an amazing display of independent film making where quality was
never sacrificed.
BEST TV SERIES
(American Horror
Story: Freak Show/Hannibal/Penny Dreadful/True Detective/The Walking Dead)
Right now, of this list Hannibal is my favorite show but
I’ve not watched the current season on any of them. Unfortunately, I’m a Netflix and bindge
watcher so I watch the entire season once it has aired. I’ve yet to see True Detective or Penny
Dreadful but I’ve only heard great things about them. In my opinion, The Walking Dead is a pale comparison to the comic book series and
you never know what to expect from American
Horror Story from season to season (which hasn’t stopped me from being
addicted).
BEST TV ACTOR
(Hugh Dancy/Josh
Hartnett/Andrew Lincoln/Matthew McConaughey/Mads Mikkelsen)
Hartnett (from Penny
Dreadful) and McConaughey (from True
Detective) are out of the running since I’ve yet to watch their shows (but
I will). The best thing about The Walking Dead is the acting so you
might think that Lincoln would be in the running but the show (for me) is
inconsistent and not always strong, whereas both Dancy and Mikkelsen are
amazing in Hannibal. It’s hard to determine who is better as Dancy
is the unhinged police detective whereas Mikkelsen is the more subtle and
refined Hannibal. It I had to make a
choice it would be Dancy as he is given so much more range and levels to play
off of than Mikkelsen. Dancy also easily
replaces William Peterson and Edward Norton in the role whereas Mikkelsen is
good but he’s no Anthony Hopkins (yet).
BEST TV ACTRESS
(Nicole Beharie/Eva
Green/Janet Montgomery/Anna Paquin/Sarah Paulson)
I should abstain from this one as I’ve never seen Sleepy Hollow (Beharie), Penny Dreadful (Green), Salem (Janet Montgomery) or True Blood (Paquin) and I’ve not seen
Paulson in the latest American Horror
Story: Freak Show. Unfortunately
(for everyone else in this group) I’m voting for Eva Green! She is currently one of my favorite actress’
and I’m sure she outshines everyone else by a mile like she does in everything
she does. I look forward to the day
(soon) when I can binge watch all of Penny
Dreadful.
BEST TV SUPPORTING ACTOR
(David Bradley/Zane Holtz/Rory Kinnear/Norman Reedus/Finn
Wittrock)
Just like the
previous category, I’ve not seen Bradley in The
Strain, Kinnear in Penny Dreadful,
or Wittrock in American Horror Story:
Freak Show but Holtz is fantastic as Richie Gecko in From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series and Reedus…well, is Reedus in The Walking Dead. The
Walking Dead has yet to erase my opinions based on the comic book series
but From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
easily is superior to the original film and this is partial because of the
stellar cast.
BEST TV SUPPORTING
ACTRESS
(Gillian
Anderson/Madeleine Martin/Melissa McBride/Billie Piper/Deborah Ann Woll)
I’m very familiar with Anderson in Hannibal and McBride in The
Walking Dead but I know nothing about Martin (in Hemlock Grove), Piper (in Penny
Dreadful), and Woll (in True Blood)
but because I love Anderson more in her other show The Fall, I have to give this one up to McBride who since the start
of the show has elevated her character further than anyone else has. She’s one of the reasons I continue to watch
the show (when I bother to).
BEST TV MAKEUP/CREATURE FX
(Hannibal/Penny
Dreadful/The Strain/True Blood/The Walking Dead)
One last time, I get to say I’ve yet to view Penny Dreadful (Nick Dudman), The Strain (Steve Newburn & Sean
Sansom) or True Blood (Todd Masters
& Dan Rebert). The Walking Dead (Gregory Nicotero & Howard Berger) has some of
the most amazing makeup FX on television but doesn’t hold a candle to what
crazy monstrosity will show up next in Hannibal
(Franchois Dagenais) which never ceases to amaze me by being clever and
original and contributing to the story at the same time.
WORST FILM
This category they let you put down your own film.
The worst film of 2014 was The Pyramid! This is a monstrosity of a found footage film
that breaks all the rules for no reason and has extremely subpar special visual
FX not to mention a cast of characters that do the most dumb things from moment
to moment to moment. It was the first
film in decades that I almost walked out of at the theatre it was so bad. Avoid like the plague.
***
Well, there you have it.
A look into the great horror films of 2014 (as given to me by the 2015
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards! I hope you
enjoyed this list and feel free to drop me a line and tell me what you chose.
2015 was a big year for me as I viewed a whopping 274 films
for the first time; this number does not reflect any films that I may have a
repeat viewing nor any television series.
Over the course of my own personal evaluation I’ve realized that I
watched a lot of horror films (as to be expected) but I also watched a lot of
documentary films. Another surprise for
me was that I watched so few animation films.
I’ll try to keep this short by hitting upon the highlights and looking
at 2015 “by the numbers.” 
First off I watched twenty-seven films theatrically with
five of those films in 3D. This may
surprise many people that may only go to the theater 3-5 a year much less see
five films in 3D. I actually enjoy
watching films in 3D so I try to see some of the bigger films in this format
(i.e. Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic
World, Mad Max: Fury Road, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, and Terminator: Genysis). My theatrical highlights are as follows 1)Mad Max: Fury Road, 2)Spotlight, 3)Ex Machina, 4)Creed, 5)Crimson Peak, 6)The Gift, 7)The Visit, 8)A Walk in the Woods, 9)Insidious: Chapter 3, and 10)Unfriended. My favorite film in 3D was Mad Max: Fury Road with Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
being a close second (although the film itself was just “okay” viewing it in 3D
was worth it).
A lot of what I watched was via DVD/BD but Netflix is my
second go-to way to view films. There
are many other outlets to view films such as Vimeo, Hulu, and Amazon, to name a
few, but these are not outlets I chose to use last year. I guess I’ll have to change that for this
year.
I ended up viewing twenty-eight films released in 2015 most
of which I watched theatrically. I spent
more time catching up with films released in 2014 with forty-nine. Netflix has made it easier to catch up with films
I’ve missed especially in older decades.
My favorite films to catch up with from 2014 were 1)The Babadook, 2)Cake, 3)Invaluable: The True Story of an Epic Artist,
4)Maps to the Stars, 5)Cold in July, 6)The Judge, 7)Dead Snow 2: Red
Vs Dead, 8)Divergent, 9)Blood Glacier, and 10)3 Days to Kill. I watched eighty-two films from the ‘10s and
forty-five from the ‘00s but what’s more important are the films from the
former decades as I tried to continuously catch up on films that I had missed
or were suggested to me by friends. 
The ‘90s were a great year for me growing up but there were
so few films that I needed to catch up with (only eighteen) and the same goes
for the ‘80s (eleven). In the decade of
my birth the ‘70s I caught up with seventeen films that I happened to have
missed. In the decades preceding the ‘70s
I viewed twenty-one films. The major highlights
of these decades are Hiroshima Mon Amour
(1959), The Seventh Seal (1957), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), I Married a Witch (1942), Harvey (1950), The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Strike
(1925), Breathless (1960), The Epic of Everest (1924), and Stormy Weather (1943).
In terms of genre, horror is the one that exceeded all
others with having watched one hundred and fourteen of which fifteen were released
in 2015. I won’t go into detail about my
favorite horror films of 2015 (as that will be saved for another article) but I
do want to mention some of the highlights from the years previous to 2015 – The Babdook (2014), Here Comes the Devil (2012), Don’t
Look Now (1973), Thale (2012), Byzantium (2013), The Last Circus (2010), Under
the Skin (2013), The Sentinel
(1977), Horns (2013), Dead Snow 2: Red Vs Dead (2014), The Tall Man (2012), Rosewood Lane (2011), Maniac (2012), Blood Glacier (2014) and Black
Rock (2013). 
Documentaries made up thirty-four of the films viewed but
surprisingly none of them were released in 2015. Some of these highlights included – Blackfish (2013), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011), Invaluable:
The True Story of an Epic Artist (2014), Carl Th. Dreyer: My Metier (1995), Birth of the Living Dead (2013), Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001), The Central Park Five (2012), Crips
& Bloods: Made in America (2008), Living
on One Dollar (2013), and The Epic of
Everest (1924). 
