We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2009…

Taking a break from remaking every movie they can get their hands on, Platinum Dunes took a stab at creating something original with The Unborn. Released on January 9, David S. Goyer’s supernatural horror saw Cloverfield’s Odette Yustman plagued by the usual clichés. The same day saw Lions Gate release The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations, the second and irrelevant sequel to the 2004 Ashton Kutcher thriller. 3-D proved that it had advanced leaps and bounds since its revival in the ’80s with the slasher remake My Bloody Valentine. Directed by Wes Craven’s regular editor Patrick Lussier and written by Jason X’s Todd Farmer, the movie was notable for appearances from Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and genre veteran Tom Atkins (Maniac Cop). The film proved to be a major success, although many merely credited this to the 3-D.

The Sundance Film Festival screened several horror films in January, including The Killing Room (from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning’s Jonathan Liebesman) and Grace, the critically acclaimed feature debut from Paul Solet and based on an earlier short. The prequel Vacancy 2: The First Cut was released straight onto DVD on January 20 and saw how the snuff trade was created at the ominous motel that would later terrorize Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale. With the latter taking a leave from the vampire franchise that made her a Hollywood star, Rhona Mitra became the new heroine for yet another prequel, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which was released by Screen Gems on January 23. Although the Asian remake cycle had finally lost its commercial appeal, A Tale of Two Sisters was given the American makeover with The Uninvited, whilst Deadline saw American Beauty’s Thora Birch and 8 Mile’s Brittany Murphy, another film that suffers from the usual clichés.

Following on from The Unborn, Platinum Dunes were back to their old tricks with their highly anticipated ‘reboot’ of the slasher classic Friday the 13th. Former music video director Marcus Nispel, who had also been responsible for the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was given the responsibility of bringing Jason Voorhees back to the screen in style but, despite breaking box office records, once the hype had died down many fans admitted it failed to live up to its promise. Ackles’ Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki took the main role, whilst The Unborn’s Yustman was rumoured to be playing the ‘final girl’ before The Return to House on Haunted Hill’s Amanda Righetti was given the role. Val Kilmer and Eric Roberts (the straight-to-video brother of Hollywood star Julia) co-starred in the little-seen The Chaos Experiment, which premiered at the Gasparilla International Film Festival before later being screened at Fangoria’s Weekend of Horror.

With producer Sean S. Cunningham already reaping the rewards of having Friday the 13th remade, fans and critics were surprised when his earlier, more notorious, thriller was also given an update. The Last House on the Left, which starred Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives‘ Tony Goldwyn, lacked its predecessors mean streak and documentary feel and was considered more by-the-numbers and ’safe.’ Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s Walled In was an adaptation of Serge Brussolo’s cult French novel Les Emmurés, whilst Laid to Rest proved to gain minor recognition for recycling the slasher formula successfully. Having previously appeared in the British sitcom Gavin & Stacey, James Corden and Mathew Horne battled bloodsuckers in the exploitation comedy horror Lesbian Vampire Killers, which succeeded in causing a stir due to its promiscuous title.

Peter Cornwell’s The Haunting in Connecticut (which starred Candyman’s Virginia Madsen and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Elias Koteas) and the family animated flick Monsters vs. Aliens were both released in March, whilst April saw the live action adapation of Blood: The Last Vampire and the direct-to-DVD sequel The Grudge 3, whose only redeeming feature was an appearance from Saw’s Shawnee Smith. Director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks reunited once again for Angels & Demons, the sequel to Dan Brown’s best seller The Da Vinci Code (although Brown’s novel was actually released beforehand). May 29 saw The Evil Dead’s Sam Raimi finally return to the horror genre after a long absence with Drag Me to Hell, although Universal Pictures decided to market the movie to the wrong crowd by advertising ‘From the director of Spider-Man.’ The film received strong support from horror fans, despite gaining mixed reviews. Italian filmmaker Dario Argento once again tried to capture his former glory with Giallo, a highly anticipated thriller that was a homage to his earlier work.

Other efforts to follow would include Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan, The Collector (from Saw veterans Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton) and the sleeper hit District 9, which was produced by The Lord of the Rings‘ Peter Jackson. Both The Final Destination (the third sequel to New Line’s franchise, with an added 3-D gimmick) and Halloween II went head-to-head on August 28, with the former seeming to come out on top. The Box sported an interesting premise in which a woman is given the chance to win $1m by simply pressing a button, although the catch is someone she has never met will die. Jennifer’s Body came from Juno scribe and former stripper Diablo Cody, and Joe Anderson and Sean McEwen’s low budget monster movie Albino Farm finally gained a release. A small screen remake of Children of the Corn was aired by the Sci-Fi Channel on September 26, whilst Dave Parker’s The Hills Run Red was released three days later. The year was finally rounded off with Saw VI, Splice, the long delayed Trick ‘r Treat, The Stepfather, The Decent Part 2, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Paranormal Entity, which will be released on December 22.

The End.

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001
A Decade of Horror – 2002
A Decade of Horror – 2003
A Decade of Horror – 2004
A Decade of Horror – 2005
A Decade of Horror – 2006
A Decade of Horror – 2007
A Decade of Horror – 2008

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• NEWS – Stop the Press… the Radio Operator Has Been Cast in The Thing!
• CULT – Crimewave
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• GALLERY – The Dead Next Door

We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2008…

Once again the year begins with another remake of an Asian hit, with Eric Valette adapting One Missed Call for western audiences. Matt Reeves, previously known for writing the action flick Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, took the helm for the disaster flick Cloverfield, in which a creature of unknown origin lays waste to Manhattan. Shown from the point-of-view of a camera as the protagonists attempt to escape Ground Zero, the movie became a huge success thanks to its viral marketing campaign. On January 18, Fangoria premiered Ryan Nicholson’s low budget splatter Gutterballs at the Weekend of Horrors, before later releasing it uncut on DVD. Taking its cue from both Savage Streets and I Spit on Your Grave (as well as references to The Accused), this extremely nasty rape/revenge exploitation thriller has since gained a cult following.

Låt den rätte komma in, more commonly known as Let the Right One In, is a critically acclaimed vampire drama from director Tomas Alfredson and based on the best seller by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The tale of a young boy who is constantly bullied and finds refuge from a vampire has since been rushed into development by Hollywood for the remake treatment. Following One Missed Call, the next Asian remake was The Eye, starring Sin City’s Jessica Alba as a young woman who undergoes cornea surgery and soon suffers from nightmarish visions. Basket Case director Frank Henenlotter finally returned to the genre with Bad Biology, whilst The League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith and The Lord of the Rings‘ Andy Serkis joined together as hapless kidnappers in Paul Andrew Williams’ horror comedy The Cottage.

Yet another Asian remake followed with Shutter, whilst Hollywood continued to update their own back catalogue with April Fool’s Day, based on Fred Walton’s 1986 cult classic about a group of teenagers on an island who are picked off one-by-one, Agatha Christie-style. The Ruins failed to impress audiences, as did Steve Miner’s adaptation of George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead, this time scripted by Final Destination’s Jeffrey Reddick and starring Ving Rhames (who had also appeared in the remake of Dawn of the Dead, albeit as a different character). Both Killer Movie and the remake of Prom Night showed that the slasher cycle had once again ran out of steam, whilst director Jay Lee joined forces with horror legend Robert Englund and adult star Jenna Jameson for the outrageous comedy Zombie Strippers.

The Strangers saw Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a respectable young couple whose isolated house becomes the target of three masked killers, whose only motive for terrorising them is ‘You were home.’ Otis was a spin on the serial killer story Bostin Christopher’s title character being an overweight, disturbed loner who kidnaps young girls and tries to fool himself into believing that he is a popular high school jock. Elsewhere, M. Night Shyamalan’s lucky streak came to an end with The Happening, whilst the likes of Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust and Lost Boys: The Tribe were largely ignored by critics (although the few reviews the latter received were negative). Other forgettable efforts included Hell Ride, Asylum and Autopsy. The British thriller Eden Lake received minor acclaim, as did Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel’s zombie drama Dead Girl, about two teenage boys who find a reanimated corpse and decide to keep her for their own enjoyment.

Pulse 2: Afterlife, soon followed by its own sequel Pulse 3: Invasion, was dismissed as pointless, while John Gulager’s direct-to-DVD b-movie Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds was suitably tongue-in-cheek. Quarantine was unable to live up to its hype and Dance of the Dead showed the zombie cycle was also becoming stale once again. Gideon Raff’s Train, which was unleashed at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival, was originally to have been a remake of the slasher classic Terror Train but eventually took more inspiration from Eli Roth’s Hostel movies. Trailer Park of Terror managed to gain minor attention from horror sites, but October was once again based around the Saw franchise, with David Hackl taking over as director, having previously worked as a production designer on the earlier films. The Haunting of Molly Hartley, released on Halloween, made little impact on the genre.

Despite being shot in 2003, Robert Hiltzik’s sequel Return to Sleepaway Camp was finally released on DVD on November 4. Ignoring the events of the previous sequels, the story picked up two decades after the events of the original movie and once again saw franchise killer Angela (Felissa Rose) slaughtering the guests of a summer camp. Darren Lynn Bousman’s splatter musical Repo! The Genetic Opera arrived three days later. Set in a future in which a corporation, Bio-Tech Company GeneCo, has made organ transplants affordable to the general public, repo men are hired to reclaim the organs when patients are unable to pay their fees on time. Tom Shankland brought the year to an end with The Children, which was released on December 5.

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001
A Decade of Horror – 2002
A Decade of Horror – 2003
A Decade of Horror – 2004
A Decade of Horror – 2005
A Decade of Horror – 2006
A Decade of Horror – 2007

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• REVIEW – Unhinged
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We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2007…

The year opened with such sequels as Patrick Lussier’s White Noise: The Light and Jeff Betancourt’s Boogeyman 2, whilst Mitchell Lichtenstein’s so-called feminist drama Teeth attempted to explore the myth of Vagina dentate. First screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 1, one year before its official release, the movie told of virginal teen Dawn O’Keefe (Jess Weixler), who suddenly develops teeth in her vagina when she become aroused. Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes once again took it upon themselves to remake another genre classic with The Hitcher, in which Sean Bean took the role that Rutger Hauer had previously portrayed as deranged serial killer John Ryder. The rise of French horror continued with Xavier Gens’ Frontière(s), telling of a group of crooks who hide out at an old hostel, only to fall victim of a group of crazed Nazis.

Although he was enjoying success directing the Spider-Man series, Sam Raimi continued to produce various horror movies including The Messengers and 30 Days of Night, the latter of which was based on the cult graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. Author Thomas Harris adapted his own story into the screenplay for Hannibal Rising, in which the origins of Dr. Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter are revealed, with Gaspard Ulliel (A Very Long Engagment) replacing Anthony Hopkins as the demented antagonist. Renowned special effects artist and former co-founded of K.N.B. Robert Kurtzman directed not one but two low budget gore flicks with Buried Alive and The Rage, the latter co-starring Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) and softcore actress Misty Mundae.

Vacancy saw Hollywood stars Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a bickering couple who spend the night at an out-of-the-way motel run by a suitably creepy Frank Whaley, whose secret video surveillance serves to create a string of snuff movies for his perverse clientele. Mark Steven Johnson’s adaptation of the Marvel series Ghost Rider failed to impress due to abysmal CGI and a poor central performance from Nicolas Cage. Jim Carrey tries his hand at darker material with The Number 23, with the star reuniting with filmmaker Joel Schumacher to portray a man obsessed with discovering how the number plays a significant part in every aspect of the world. Having left the cast of 24, Elisha Cuthbert starred in Roland Joffé’s Captivity, which continued the trend of torture porn flicks.

Kane Hodder returned to the genre after 2006’s Hatchet with Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield, in which he portrayed the legendary killer. Dead Silence saw director and writer Wan and Leigh Whannell reunite after their 2004 success Saw, with Ryan Kwanten as a young man investigating the murder of his wife and its link to the legend of Mary Shaw. Wes Craven and his son, Jonathan, teamed up to write The Hills Have Eyes Part 2, a sequel a remake of his cult classic. Countless forgettable efforts would include The Reaping, Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane and Fracture, whilst The Evil Dead’s Bruce Campbell hammed up his b-movie status once again with the spoof His Name is Bruce. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino collaborated on the 1970s-style double-bill Grindhouse with Planet Terror and Death Proof, both of which failed to gain the recognition its distributor expected.

The sequels continued with Lake Placid 2 (which boasted some of the worst and unnecessary CGI ever), 28 Weeks Later, Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming and Eli Roth’s Hostel: Part II, whilst Juan Antonio Bayona’s critically acclaimed The Orphanage premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Although he had found success as the latest incarnation of James Bond, Daniel Craig co-starred alongside Nicole Kidman in The Invasion (based on Invasion of the Body Snatchers), whilst Rob Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s Halloween replaced suspense and style with graphic nudity and an unpleasant tone. Father and daughter Dario and Asian Argento teamed up again for Mother of Tears, which finally brought the trilogy he had begun thirty years earlier with Suspiria and Inferno to a conclusion.

Resident Evil: Extinction, Return to House on Haunted Hill and Saw IV saw more sequels failing to match the acclaim of their predecessors (although Wrong Turn 2: Dead End would be well received, despite going straight-to-DVD), whilst Catacombs, Left for Dead, Rogue, P2, Awake and Shrooms proved to be disappointments. The Spanish zombie flick REC told of a news reporter trapped in an apartment block during an outbreak of the undead whilst her cameraman documented the action. I Am Legend was the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic novel (following on from 1964’s The Last Man on Earth and 1971’s The Omega Man), whilst Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem succeeded in being even more disappointing than the first franchise crossover.

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001
A Decade of Horror – 2002
A Decade of Horror – 2003
A Decade of Horror – 2004
A Decade of Horror – 2005
A Decade of Horror – 2006

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• NEWS – Corey Haim Dead at 38
• BIOGRAPHY – Drew Barrymore
• BIOGRAPHY – Dario Argento
• INTERVIEW – ELSKE MCCAIN reveals Her Rabid Side

We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2006…

Taking the first twenty minutes of Fred Walton’s 1979 classic and stretching it out to feature length, When a Stranger Calls was a predictable and tedious affair, whose main flaw was that its supposedly twist finale was already well known and thus irrelevant. Newcomer Camilla Belle steps into Carol Kane’s shoes as the attractive teen who is forced to babysit in order to pay off her ridiculous cell phone bills, only to receive abusive and threatening phone calls from a crazed killer. Having taken the backseat for the first sequel, James Wong returned to the Final Destination series for the third movie, which saw a rollercoaster accident result in death itself stalking the handful of survivors. The success of his home grown slasher Haute Tension (Switchblade Romance) in 2003 had served as a Hollywood calling card for French filmmaker Alexandre Aja and his first American production was a remake of the Wes Craven classic The Hills Have Eyes, which saw city slicker Aaron Stanford face off against a family of mutants.

March saw various b-movies released, including William Brent Bell’s Stay Alive and James Gunn’s Slither, whilst David Slade’s disturbing drama Hard Candy appeared the following month. Ellen Page (later seen in Juno) starred as a young girl who holds charming-yet-creepy photographer Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson) against his will after she becomes convinced that he is responsible for the disappearance of one of her classmates. The same day also saw Scary Movie 4 unleashed upon cinemagoers, with the tired franchise now turning its attention to spoofing the likes of Saw, The Grudge and Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. Whilst the earlier movies had boasted several memorable moments, The Naked Gun’s David Zucker had managed to run the series into the ground, with its tired use of toilet humour and cheap gags.

Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary penned the script for Christophe Gans’ adaptation of Silent Hill, which saw couple Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean heading to a quiet town to uncover the truth behind their daughter’s strange behaviour. Debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27 was Hatchet, the genre debut for filmmaker Adam Green. Boasting a selection of cult stars including Kane Hodder, Robert Englund and Tony Todd (who, coincidentally, had all appeared in the 1997 flick Wishmaster), Hatchet was a throwback to 1980s slasher movies and featured impressive special effects from John Carl Buechler (who had also directed Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood). Thora Birch made a return to the genre five years after The Hole with Dark Corners, about a young woman plagued by nightmares.

Having already directed The Stand, Sleepwalkers and The Shining mini series, Mick Garris’ next Stephen King adaptation was the TV movie Desperation. Christian Slater replaced Murder in the First co-star Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man 2, in which he portrayed a former special forces soldier who was the subject of a scientific experiment to turn him invisible, causing him to go insane and embark on a killing spree. John Moore’s remake of The Omen was marketed around its release date, June 6 2006 (6.6.6), and starred Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles as the foster parents of the antichrist. The film’s only saving grace was a cameo from Italian genre veteran Giovanni Lombardo Radice as the priest responsible for Schreiber adopting the evil child. Robert Englund returned to the screen soon after shooting Hatchet with Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, which attempted to spoof the slasher genre.

Following in the footsteps of Aja, French filmmakers David Moreau and Xavier Palud gained acclaim for their psychological thriller Ils, more commonly known as Them, which saw a respectable couple terrorised by a gang of hooded youths. Bong Joon-ho’s Godzilla-like monster movie The Host proved to be a major triumph for the South Korean film industry when it was released on July 27 and has already been considered by Hollywood studios for the remake treatment, despite not being released in America until March 9 2007. With the appeal of Asian horror slowly dwindling, Jim Sonzero’s Pulse (a remake of 2001’s Kairo) failed to make much of an impact, despite being co-written by cult filmmaker Wes Craven. I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer was released straight to DVD on August 15 and featured none of the original cast, prompting most slasher fans to simply dismiss it.

Despite New Line Cinema’s advertising campaign, the Samuel L. Jackson action flick Snakes on a Plane was critically panned upon release, although its $62m box office taking was enough to satisfy the studio. The remainder of the year consisted of movies that (with the exception of Severance) were either overrated (Turistas) or irrelevant (The Covenant, Simon Says, Altered, Dark Ride), whilst remakes (Night of the Living Dead 3D, Black Christmas) and sequels/prequels such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and The Grudge 2 continued to flood the market. But soon the remake frenzy would begin to dominate not only the horror genre but the film industry in general, with the likes of Platinum Dunes purchasing the rights for as many cult horrors as they could get their hands on.

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001
A Decade of Horror – 2002
A Decade of Horror – 2003
A Decade of Horror – 2004
A Decade of Horror – 2005

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• INTERVIEW – JASON COPE talks District 9
• INTERVIEW – DOUGLAS MCKEOWN talks The Deadly Spawn
• BIOGRAPHY – Winona Ryder
• INTERVIEW – CAROLINE DU POTET talks In Their Sleep

We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2005…

The first week saw the release of White Noise, a supernatural thriller directed by Geoffrey Sax and starring Batman’s Michael Keaton about a widower who receives messages from beyond the grave. Following his remake of The Toolbox Murders, Hooper attempted once again to kick-start his flagging career with Mortuary, whilst Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning co-starred in the disappointing Hide and Seek. The undead continued to produce features of varied quality, including the low budget comedy Die You Zombie Bastards!. Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures (who had enjoyed success the previous year with The Grudge) offered the teen audience a PG-13 horror with Stephen T. Kay’s Boogeyman, in which Barry Teaching Mrs. Tingle Watson is plagued by memories of a monster abducting his father when he was a child.

Despite showing a decline in popularity, Asian horror continued to churn out a few lesser efforts including One Missed Call 2, which was first released in Japan on February 5. Following in the footsteps of the disappointing Ginger Snaps sequels, Scream writer and director Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven joined forces once again for their werewolf flick Cursed, which starred Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson and future Jason Voorhees Derek Mears as the wolf. With Gore Verbinski preoccupied with his Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Hideo Nakata was brought in to direct The Ring Two, having been responsible for the series that the American movies were based on. Argento’s attempts to return to his glory days failed once again with the TV movie Do You Like Hitchcock?, whilst Platinum Dunes enjoyed another successful remake with The Amityville Horror.

Courtney Solomon’s supernatural horror An American Haunting would become a huge success at the box office on the strength of its extensive marketing campaign. Co-starring veterans Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek, the movie failed to impress critics and the film, with The New York Times declaring that ‘An American Haunting is scary all right, but not for anyone in the audience… the terror here is suffered exclusively by Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek; their participation can be explained only by some unfathomable deal with Satan.’ Other disappointing efforts included The Dark and Dark Castle’s House of Wax (which would mark another genre appearance for Paris Hilton). Various franchises continued to produce inferior installments, with Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, Hellraiser: Deader, Hellraiser: Hellworld, The Prophecy: Uprising and Urban Legends: Bloody Mary proving that it was time to call it a day.

Having ended his ‘Dead’ trilogy twenty years earlier, Romero was finally convinced to return to the genre with Land of the Dead, a big budget action flick that boasted a cast that included Italian beauty Asia Argento, Ice Age’s John Leguizamo and screen legend Dennis Hopper. The Asian remake cycle continued with Dark Water and the British horror revival produced The Descent. Having failed to land a theatrical deal with House of 1000 Corpses, the movie became a cult favourite on home video and eventually director Rob Zombie decided to direct a follow-up, the extremely sleazy and violent road movie The Devil’s Rejects. Meanwhile, further low budget disappointments were released including Death Tunnel and The Cave, whilst Scott Derrickson’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose blended the supernatural with a courtroom drama.

Having won the jackpot at the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival, first-time filmmaker Jeff Wadlow directed the mediocre slasher Cry Wolf, which co-starred Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki and ’80s rock star Jon Bon Jovi. The Quentin Tarantino-produced ‘torture porn’ thriller Hostel divided audiences, with some praising its intense atmosphere, whilst others claimed that it failed to live up to its promise of being the sickest movie ever made. Another competition winner was John Gulager who, after graduating from the series Project Greenlight, was given support from producers Craven, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to develop Feast, a low budget horror comedy that resembled the b-movie classic Tremors. Further sequels continued to disappoint both horror fans and critics, including House of the Dead 2, the double-bill of Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis and Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave, and the unofficial sequel Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (which, much like Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2, had tried to pass itself off as a follow-up to a Romero classic).

Although 2005 saw an increased interest in the genre, there were plenty of abysmal features produced during this time, including the video game adaptation Doom, a low budget remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the Japanese horror Reincarnation and Silent Scream. Darren Lynn Bousman directed the first of three sequels of the Saw franchise, which would move the Jigsaw Killer centre stage and help resurrect the career of former New Kids on the Block singer Donnie Wahlberg. Australia showed the terror of the outback with the gripping thriller Wolf Creek (which featured an intense performance from Picnic at Hanging Rock’s John Jarratt), whilst former Empire owner Charles Band produced his latest tongue-in-cheek effort Gingerdead Man.

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001
A Decade of Horror – 2002
A Decade of Horror – 2003
A Decade of Horror – 2004

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• VIDEO NASTIES – Absurd
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• REVIEW – Shutter Island

We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2004…

The year began with Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, a prequel of sorts to the original b-movie classic, in which the ancestor of series regular Michael Gross is forced to defend the town’s mine from an onslaught of Graboids. British director Christopher Smith gave commuters a new reason to feat the London Underground with Creep, which saw The Bourne Identity’s Franka Potente trapped in a station late at night as a strange creature feeds off the homeless and workers. The film first found acclaim after being screened at various festivals, including FrightFest in London. Brett Sullivan directed Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, a sequel to the Canadian werewolf flick that was shot-back-to-back with a prequel, Ginger Snaps Back, which would be released several months later, both on home video and co-starred Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle, the latter in the cursed title role.

Decoys, released on February 27, failed to make much of an impact, as did Dead & Breakfast which came soon afterwards. Angelina Jolie, Kiefer Sutherland and Ethan Hawke co-starred together in Warner Bros’ Taking Lives, DJ Caruso’s tale of a serial killer who adopts the identity of his victims and has aroused the interest of a naïve FBI agent. Pang Brothers followed their international success The Eye 2 on March 18, whilst Universal’s remake of George A. Romero’s zombie epic Dawn of the Dead was released the following day. Despite the critics having their knives out for the movie, Zack Snyder’s violent update was praised for its style and performances and, along with the previous year’s remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, would be responsible for the countless ‘re-imaginings’ that followed.

A completely different take on the zombie genre came the following month with Shaun of the Dead, the feature debut of director Edgar Wright and actor Simon Pegg, both of whom had worked together on the cult show Spaced and had taken inspiration for the movie from one of the episodes. Showing a zombie outbreak as the backdrop as a loser attempts to win back his girlfriend, the film references not only Romero’s movies but also Lucio Fulci and The Evil Dead. Sheldon Wilson’s Shallow Ground had first been screened at the Dead by Dawn in Edinburgh and had been well received, with its creepy atmosphere and bizarre story of a young man covered in blood suddenly appearing in a small-town police station. Raised by the performances of Rocky Marquette and Timothy V. Murphy, Shallow Ground was a welcome relief from the usual low budget atrocities of the year.

The following month saw various forgettable efforts such as Godsend and Van Helsing, in which Hugh Jackman (still riding on the success of The X-Men) took the title role of the vampire killer. Calvaire (The Ordeal) was an unusual European film that failed to live up to its intriguing premise, whilst Salem’s Lot was a TV mini series remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1979 adaptation of the Stephen King classic. Dracula III: Legacy saw Patrick Lussier’s disappointing trilogy finally come to an end, whilst Paul Etheredge-Ouzts’ Hellbent attempted to add a homosexual spin to the slasher formula. Having produced the original movie back in 1989, Charles Band finally stepped up to the director’s chair with Puppet Master: The Legacy, which was co-written by David Schmoeller, who had been responsible for the first movie.

Following the success of Freddy vs. Jason in 2003, Alien vs. Predator was released the following year and, despite doing impressive business at the box office, was critically mauled for its ridiculous plot and irrelevant characters. The first of two Exorcist prequels arrived on August 20, with its counterpart released the following year. Exorcist: The Beginning was directed by Renny Harlin, previously responsible for such mindless efforts as A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master and Die Hard II, and would divide the opinions of fans along with Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, (from Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader) released in 2005. Resident Evil: Apocalypse continued the video game adaptation franchise but failed to make the same impression as its predecessor, although star Milla Jovovich once again returned to the lead role of the deadly Alice.

More forgettable efforts followed, including Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Tales from the Crapper, Frankenfish and Cube Zero (yet another prequel, this one to Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 cult classic), whilst the next Asian horror to receive the remake treatment was The Grudge, which was directed once again directed by Takashi Shimizu. October 29 saw the release of James Wan’s sleeper hit Saw, starring Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) and co-writer Leigh Whannell in a tale of a deranged killer who forces his victims to choose between death and suffering. Seed of Chucky saw the Child’s Play franchise grind to a halt as resident writer Don Mancini took to the director’s chair, whilst Blade: Trinity was greeted with equal hostility.

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001
A Decade of Horror – 2002
A Decade of Horror – 2003

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• REVIEW – Psycho II
• REVIEW – Assault on Precinct 13
• SLASHERS – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
• A Decade of Horror – 2000

We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2003…

Columbia Pictures began the year with the surprise success of Darkness Falls which, on a budget of approximately $11m, would earn over $47m at the box office. With other horrors boasting such killers as Santa Claus, the premise for Darkness Falls saw the Tooth Fairy taking revenge against a quiet town for sins committed years earlier. Takashi Shimizu finally brought the Ju-on series to the big screen after two straight-to-video entries with Ju-on: The Grudge, which was released in Japan on January 25. The following week, Final Destination 2 enjoyed success in America, with Ali Larter returning from the original movie to help A. J. Cook and her friends escape the clutches of death itself. The film was directed by David R. Ellis, who would later return to the franchise to make a 3D sequel several years later.

Proving that Resident Evil was a fluke and that most game adaptations are abysmal, schlock filmmaker Uwe Boll unleashed House of the Dead on an unsuspecting public. Boasting such recognisable faces as Jurgen Prochnow and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers‘ Ellie Cornell, the movie was universally slated by critics. An equally disappointing effort was Dreamcatcher, Lawrence Kasdan’s adaptation of Stephen King story. Even the presence of the likes of Jason Lee, Morgan Freeman and Timothy Olyphant did little to rise the story above mediocre. ’80s oddball Crispin Glover finally made a return to the screen in an update of the classic Willard, which saw him as a loner who develops a friendship with a house full of rats, whilst his aggressive employer R. Lee Ermey is determined to fire him from his company.

B-movie director Jim Wynorski continued his run of low budget slashers with Cheerleader Massacre, which shared connections with the Slumber Party Massacre series of the 1980s. After thirteen years, Brian Yuzna returned to his most popular franchise with Beyond Re-Animator, in which the deranged Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) conducts scientific experiments on the dead whilst in a maximum-security prison. Having spent several years in post-development Hell, Rob Zombie’s feature debut House of 1000 Corpses was finally released on April 11 by Lionsgate, after original distributor Universal Pictures backed out of the project. Featuring cult actors Sid Haig and Bill Moseley, as well as the director’s own wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, the movie became a surprise success on home video and helped pave the way for his more acclaimed follow-up The Devil’s Rejects in 2005.

The classic Deliverance was given a modern makeover by legendary special effects artist Stan Winston in Rob Schmidt’s backwards slasher flick Wrong Turn, in which city slickers Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku are chased through the woods by a family of inbred, redneck mutants after becoming lost in the wilderness. The film was a modest success and would later spawn two straight-to-video sequels. Patrick Lussier’s sequel Dracula II: Ascension was released on June 7 and would fail to attract much attention. Kim Ji-woon’s South Korean flick A Tale of Two Sisters, meanwhile, would become a critical success and would later be remade by Hollywood in 2009 as The Uninvited. French horror finally made a comeback with Alexandre Aja’s old school slasher Haute Tension (released in Britain as Switchblade Romance) that, despite an ill-advised twist ending, would once again take the genre in a more brutal direction.

Various other Asian horrors would enjoy international success, including Takashi Miike’s Gozu, Kim Sung-ho’s Into the Mirror (later remade by Aja) and Ju-on: The Grudge 2. After fifteen years of debating between New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures, as well as countless directors and writers attempting to bring the project to life, Freddy vs. Jason was finally released on August 15. Directed by Ronny Yu, who had previously given the Child’s Play franchise a makeover with 1998’s Bride of Chucky, the film was a phenomenal success, despite being criticized for is camp humour and weak story. Former brat pack star Lou Diamond Phillips and rapper Coolio teamed up for the made-for-television horror Red Water, which performed well on the small screen before being released on video. Jeepers Creepers 2 failed to perform as well as its predecessor and the Australian effort Undead did little business upon release.

The vampire-werewolf crossover Underworld would help transform Kate Beckinsale into a Hollywood star and would launch a new franchise, whilst J.T. Petty’s Mimic 3: Sentinel brought another to a close. Having recently formed Platinum Dunes, action filmmaker Michael Bay produced a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that would become a box office success and be largely responsible for the flood of remakes that would follow in its wake. Ironically, the director of the original, Tobe Hooper, would direct a remake of the ‘video nasty’ classic The Toolbox Murders soon afterwards, which would bear little resemblance to its predecessor. Dark Castle churned out another forgettable William Castle re-hash with Gothika, whilst Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa directed the surprisingly effective Dead End. Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood would finally bring another long-running franchise to an end after six increasingly worse instalments.

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001
A Decade of Horror – 2002

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We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2002…

Lucky McKee’s bizarre low budget fantasy May made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival on January 13. Starring Angela Bettis as the insecure title character who, after being rejected one to many times, decides to build a doll from the parts of those who have spurned her, the movie also co-starred Scary Movie’s Anna Faris. After his phenomenal success with Ringu, Hideo Nakata returned to the supernatural genre with Dark Water, in which Hitomi Kuroki is terrorised by unusual events in her new apartment. The movie would later be remade starring Jennifer Connelly. Almost a decade after the release of Interview With the Vampire, once again the works of Anne Rice were adapted to the big screen with the late R&B star Aaliyah in Queen of the Damned. Dismissed for resembling a feature length music video, the film also featured Stuart Townsend in the role of Lestat, previously portrayed by Tom Cruise.

Having already dabbled in horror with his science fiction flick Event Horizon, director Paul W. S. Anderson (later responsible for the atrocity that was Alien vs. Predator) turned his hand to video game adaptations with Resident Evil. Taking elements from the first two games, the movie starred The Fifth Element’s Milla Jovovich as an amnesiac who is forced to battle a horde of zombies after an outbreak is caused by the mysterious Umbrella Corporation. Its surprise success has led to the release of two sequels, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction, with a third one currently in development. The movie would also be cited as the catalyst for the subsequent zombie boom that would result in the likes of Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead and the much-anticipated Land of the Dead.

British horror finally made a comeback with Neil Marshall’s werewolf flick Dog Soldiers and Marc Evans’ My Little Eye, the latter playing on the public’s newfound obsession with reality TV. Despite being shot in 2000, New Line Cinema eventually released Jason X on April 26. The tenth entry in the long-running Friday the 13th franchise, the film marked the last appearance of stuntman Kane Hodder in the role of series antagonist Jason Voorhees. Perhaps due to the negative publicity that had surrounded the delay of the movie, Jason X barely made a profit after recouping its $14m budget. Another film released on the same day was Nine Lives, which was designed as a vehicle for socialite-turned actress Paris Hilton. The Asian cycle continued with The Eye, a critically acclaimed thriller from the Pang Brothers a young blind girl who undergoes a cornea transplant, only to become plagued by horrific visions.

Following the surprise success of Mary Harron’s controversial adaptation of American Psycho, a sequel was released in June and co-starred former Star Trek legend William Shatner. Adapting a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, Phantasm director made the offbeat cult classic Bubba Ho-tep, which told of an elderly Elvis Presley (The Evil Dead’s Bruce Campbell) who lives in a nursing home with an old black man (Ossie Davis) who claims to be President Kennedy, and is forced to battle an ancient Egyptian mummy. Although Michael Myers had been decapitated at the end of the previous film, Dimension released Halloween: Resurrection on July 12, which saw the original ’scream queen’ Jamie Lee Curtis finally dispatched by her psychotic brother, before turning his attention to a web series being shot in his old home.

July saw various other genre films released, from the cheesy monster flick Eight Legged Freaks and disappointing psychological thriller FeardotCom to the highly acclaimed South Korean ghost story Phone. On September 12, Lionsgate released a low budget splatter movie called Cabin Fever, which marked the feature debut of director Eli Roth, who also took a role in the film. Full of gruesome special effects, crude humour and T&A, Cabin Fever soon became a popular rental. Hollywood’s obsession with remaking popular Asian horrors began with the release of Gore Verbinski’s The Ring, an American adaptation of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu. Naomi Watts starred as a young woman investigating a series of deaths linked to a strange curse and would later be heavily spoofed in David Zucker’s Scary Movie 3. Hellraiser: Hellseeker was another tiresome addition to Dimension’s increasingly uninspired franchise, notably only for the return of Ashley Lawrence after her appearance in the first two films.

One series that would finally be laid to rest came with Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy, shot back-to-back with its predecessor, Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell, and once again failing to impress both fans and critics. Dark Castle Entertainment (owned by Robert Zemeckis, Gilbert Adler and Joel Silver) continued to remake old William Castle flicks with Ghost Ship, following the success of The House on Haunted Hill and Thir13en Ghosts, although this demonstrated how each of their films would be less successful than the last. After his disappointing adaptation of The Beach, filmmaker Danny Boyle and author Alex Garland teamed up for 28 Days Later, which reinvented the zombie formula for modern audiences. The year came to a conclusion with several disappointing efforts, such as a TV remake of Carrie, a fictional biopic of Ted Bundy, the Wes Craven-produced They and Michael J. Bassett’s war horror Deathwatch.

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000
A Decade of Horror – 2001

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We continue our look back on a decade of horror with 2001…

Having directed an abysmal adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera three years earlier, Italian filmmaker Dario Argento once again returned to the giallo genre with Non ho Sonno (Sleepless), which was released in its native country on January 5. Starring screen legend Max Von Sydow as a former detective forced out of retirement to capture a killer he had hunted years earlier, the movie was the first of Argento’s since the 1980s to receive substantial praise from both critics and fans, and opened with a shocking murder that rivalled anything he had unleashed before. Several weeks later, French director Christophe Gans released Le Pacte des loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf), an eighteenth-century werewolf flick based around the Beast of Gévaudan legend. The film would prove to be France’s most successful genre export in years and foreign audiences began to take note.

Having previously directed Urban Legend in 1998, Jamie Blanks’ sophomore effort was Valentine, another slasher flick whose marketing was based around the appearance of Angel’s David Boreanaz in the role of the antagonist. Released by Warner Bros. on February 2, the film failed to achieve the success of his previous effort and was mostly slated by critics for being unoriginal and lacking excitement or scares. Proving that other countries were playing Hollywood at their own game, Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa found international acclaim with Kairo, which first made a name at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. The film, which focused on mankind’s reliance on technology, was later remade in America as Pulse. Splatter director Brian Yuzna, meanwhile, embarked on the American-Spanish co-production Faust: Love of the Damned, an adaptation of a comic by Tim Vigil and David Quinn.

Karen L. Wolf’s extremely low budget zombie flick Children of the Living Dead was notable for an appearance by makeup wizard Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow) and for its zero production value. The summer saw Cassandra Peterson once again take on the role that made her a cult vixen with Elvira’s Haunted Hills, in which she co-starred alongside Rocky Horror Picture Show creator Richard O’Brien. Once again relying on sexual innuendo, cleavage and an array of references to classic schlock, the movie performed poorly and failed to gain much exposure. Nicole Kidman had more luck with the supernatural drama The Others, in which she portrayed a mother who believes her house is haunted by ghosts. Avoiding explicit violence and instead creating a brooding atmosphere (in much the same way as The Sixth Sense had two years earlier), Alejandro Amenábar’s movie was critically praised for its performances and style.

Following on from the modest success of Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic in 1997, Jean de Segonzac directed the first sequel four years later in which a detective (Bruno Campos) rushes to the rescue of a scientist (Alix Koromzay) when she becomes the latest victim of the bizarre life form. Updating his urban western Assault on Precinct 13 as a science fiction action flick, John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars saw Species star Natasha Henstridge and rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube fighting off an invasion of Martian spirits. The film was a box office flop and Carpenter has yet to release another movie, although there he finally has a new one in the works. Having been convicted for child molestation in the late 1980s, filmmaker Victor Salva enjoyed his commercial breakthrough in 2001 with Jeepers Creepers, produced by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola.

Previously known for the ‘video nasty’ The Dorm That Dripped Blood (Pranks), Stephen Carpenter directed Casey Affleck and Eliza Dushku in the psychological thriller Soul Survivors, which was released on September 7. Notorious Japanese director Takashi Miike took his levels of violence even further with his adaptation of Hideo Yamamoto’s manga series Ichi the Killer, which first premiered on September 14. Brent Maddock directed the straight-to-video creature feature Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, which saw franchise regular Michael Gross once again fighting the mysterious Graboids. Another franchise that continued to churn out unnecessary instalments was Children of the Corn, with the seventh entry, Revelation, released straight to DVD on October 9. The following week, Re-animator director Stuart Gordon once again returned to the bizarre world of H. P. Lovecraf with Dagon.

Rapper Snoop Dogg took the title role in Bones, in which horror and blaxploitation were combined with various degrees of success. Co-starring Pam Grier, the film was distributed by New Line Cinema, who were about to strike gold with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Following on from The House on Haunted Hill, the next William Castle classic to get the remake treatment was Thir13en Ghosts, in which Tony Shalhoub and Scream’s Matthew Lillard battle a mansion full of deadly spirits. Yet another ill-advised sequel arrived on October 23, courtesy of Lionsgate, with Wishmaster 3: Beyond The Gates Of Hell marking the first of the series to not feature Andrew Divoff as the charming Djinn. The year ended with Oxide Pang and Pisut Praesangeam’s Thai anthology Bangkok Haunted which, despite being released in its native country on December 21, would not be available in Britain until 2003 (and America two years later).

To be continued…

Further reading:
A Decade of Horror – 2000

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Join us on a ten-part retrospective as we explore a decade of horror…

2000 began with the release of Ring 0: Birthday, which made its debut in its native Japan on January 22. Created as a prequel to Hideo Nakata’s 1998 cult flick Ringu (which was based on the novel by Koji Suzuki and remade four years later as The Ring by Gore Verbinski), in which a variety of people die mysteriously after viewing a cursed video tape, Norio Tsuruta’s movie explores the fate of Sadako Yamamura and how she became evil. Two weeks later, Dimension released what was to have been the final part of Wes Craven’s successful slasher trilogy with Scream 3. Without the input of original writer Kevin Williamson and a plot that seems desperate and full of pointless cameos (including none other than Jay and Silent Bob from Kevin Smith’s movies), the third installment failed to live up to the promise of its predecessors.

On March 17, New Line Cinema launched yet another popular franchise with Final Destination, that saw Idle Hands star Devon Sawa receiving a premonition that his plane is about to explode, causing him and several classmates to be ordered back into the airport. But, as the plane takes off it explodes and everyone onboard is killed. Although he is treated as a possible suspect, Sawa is convinced that he is seeing signs on which of his friends will die next and becomes determined to break the chain. Adding a fresh spin on the slasher formula, Final Destination was a huge success and has so far spawned three successful sequels (including a recent 3D outing). Later that month, Warwick Davis returned to his direct-to-video series with Leprechaun: In the Hood, in which he co-starred alongside such rappers as Ice-T and Coolio and took his brand of terror to the ghetto.

With Ringu arousing interest in Asian horror, Takashi Shimizu managed to find success with his own series of supernatural chillers, commencing with Ju-on (Ju-on: The Curse). Two years later he would direct another movie called Ju-on, which he would then remake for Hollywood as The Grudge. Shadow of the Vampire, which premiered at Cannes on May 15, saw Academy Award-nominated Willem Dafoe as screen legend Max Schreck, with the cast and crew of the classic Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens suspecing that their star may actually be a real-life vampire. Paying homage to F. W. Murnau’s seminal masterpiece, the movie co-starred John Malkovich and genre veteran Udo Kier.

As the slasher cycle began to show signs of slowing once again, Cherry Falls was released on July 29. Starring Brittany Murphy (previously known for a variety of oddball roles) as the daughter of town sheriff Michael Biehn, the movie was based around the premise of a serial killer who only targets virgins, prompting the teenagers to try and lose it before they are next. The same day as Cherry Falls, the anime horror Blood: The Last Vampire was also released. Although only being half the running time of an average feature, the film was a success and would eventually be remade as a live action movie. The following week, notorious exploitation filmmaker Paul Verhoeven offered his take on The Invisible Man with Hollow Man, in which brilliant scientist Kevin Bacon experiments on himself and slowly turns insane when he becomes invisible. Despite the groundbreaking special effects and support from Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin, the film received mixed reviews from critics.

Although he had enjoyed success within the horror genre earlier in his career (most notably with A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors), Chuck Russell’s return with Bless This Child failed to generate much interest, despite a cast that included Kim Basinger and Christina Ricci. The werewolf genre was finally given a post-modern makeover with John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, which used the curse as a metaphor for puberty and the passage into womanhood, as Katharine Isabelle begins to menstruate on the same night as she is attacked by a wolf, causing her body to undergo bizarre changes. Meanwhile, the slasher run continued with Urban Legends: Final Cut, a name-only sequel to the 1998 hit, that lacked the style of its predecessor and was a critical and commercial failure.

Hellraiser: Inferno was the fourth sequel to Clive Barker’s surreal horror and showed that the franchise had long since run out of steam, with resident boogeyman Pinhead (Doug Bradley) taking the form of psychiatrist James Remar and playing games with washed up detective Craig Sheffer. Another disappointing sequel, which was also released in October, was Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, which saw fanatics of the movie The Blair Witch Project visiting the site where the supposedly real footage was shot. On December 22, Wes Craven’s editor Patrick Lussier saw his vampire flick Dracula 2000 released to a lukewarm reception, although it would eventually gain a cult following on home video. Tobe Hooper, previously renowned for his drive-in classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, showed that his glory days were long behind him with Crocodile, a low budget monster movie that lacked the bite of his earlier work.

To be continued…

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