The 1. 3 Best Horror Movies of 2. Photo- Illustration: Vulture. Here’s a bright spot for 2. This was a fantastic year for horror films. At home and abroad, on the festival circuit and in multiplexes, audiences had a bounty of high- quality horror films available to them. These weren’t just decent entries in an oft- underestimated genre — they were flat- out good, and they brought us unique takes on some of the most staid tropes in horror cinema, like witches, home invasions, and even zombies. Perhaps most exciting, the women reigned supreme onscreen, with complex heroines and even more complex villains that continued to define female characters past the rote archetypes of victims, objects, and damsels in distress. Here’s our painstakingly curated list of the year’s 1. May 2. 01. 7 raise the bar even higher. The Love Witch. The Love Witch is in a tough position, because it defies easy categorization. Shaun has seen hundreds of horror movies, these are his 13 favorite horror films from 2013. A horror film is a movie that seeks to elicit a physiological reaction, such as an elevated heartbeat, through the use of fear and shocking one’s audiences. At home and abroad, on the festival circuit and in multiplexes, audiences had. But as a movie about a lovesick witch trying to find her dream lover and who ends up killing a handful of suitors along the way — while battling her patriarchal oppressors — we’re making the case for it as the best horror- comedy of the year. Anna Biller’s sophomore feature is one of the most lush and meticulously art- directed movies of any genre this year, providing a fantastically kitschy stage on which to play out this ultrafeminist love story/revenge drama. ![]() Watch free Horror movies online at Popcornflix. Popcornflix has hundreds of Horror movies to watch for free online.Biller’s heroine is Elaine, who has survived physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of the men closest to her, leaving her desperate to be loved and trying to fill the void of her self- worth with external validation. She’s also handy with witchcraft, which gives her the tools to ruin plenty of lives in pursuit of her ultimate goals. The high pulp of Biller’s out- of- time period piece helps the pill go down smooth, but be clear: The Love Witch is about a woman versus the world, and the men who stand in the way of her fulfillment. Watch now on: Vimeo. Cloverfield Lane. The follow- up/spinoff to J. J. Abrams’s 2. 00. Cloverfield, has the lowest barrier of entry on this list, and we mean that in the best way. This is populist horror, a scary movie for people who might typically shy away from scary movies. It’s a combination creature feature and isolation story that features excellent performances by a trio of actors hiding out from doomsday in a prepper shelter. John Goodman fills the frame with an ominous paternalism while Mary Elizabeth Winstead works her best- in- the- biz distressed face to maximum effect as his favorite captive. This is exactly the kind of horror movie we need more of here in the United States, a middle- class entry that outdoes its budget by delivering excellent, efficient character development, and favors tension- based fear over special effects and cheap scares (well, to a point). For all those virtues we will even forgive 1. Cloverfield for getting a little too wonky in the final frames. Watch it now on: i. Tunes. 11. Hush. One of the great challenges of horror films is taking well- worn genre tropes and spinning them into something fresh. ![]() Director Mike Flanagan managed to make surprise sequel gold out of Ouija: Origin of Evil this year, but his real home run was Hush. Co- written with star Kate Siegel, Hush is your standard house- in- the- woods home- invasion movie, but with one big twist: The woman who lives in the house is deaf. Take all the stress you experience watching a typical home- invasion story, then multiply it by ten as you imagine yourself being stalked by a masked killer you can’t hear coming, even if he’s just inches away. Horror is often at its best when done simply, and Hush excels at maximum impact while paring the story down to its essentials. Watch now on: Netflix. The Wailing. This is one of two Korean films to make the best- of list, and each brings an entirely different emotional energy. Director Na Hong- jin’s The Wailing incorporates elements of contagion horror, demonic possession, and even the zombie genre over the course of two and a half hours to explore the deterioration of a rural village beset by a rash of heinous murders. Why are seemingly normal people killing their entire families? Who is the Japanese man living deep in the woods? Can the wave of death be stopped? The Wailing gives you plenty of time to connect with the family at the center of the story, which puts you in a great position to share in their anguish when tragedy strikes. This one is a marathon, not a sprint, but it will keep you rapt the entire time. ![]() Watch now on: Netflix, i. Tunes, Amazon. 9. Evolution. This eerie, sci- fi- tinged slice of life pulls off a difficult two- pronged assault: French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic expertly deploys just enough twisted visuals in sparse, cold environments to keep you constantly on edge, but also leaves enough off the screen to kick your imagination into high gear. The setting is a remote island inhabited only by preteen boys and their presumptive mothers, all of whom bear a strange resemblance to one another with their wan complexions, red hair, and dark, nearly dead eyes. The boys are subject to strange medical treatments, and when one develops a dangerous desire to learn about the true nature of his guardian, he must also decide if he’s willing to do what’s necessary to survive. Evolution gets major points for an uncompromising commitment to its concise vision, opting for uniqueness of execution over more conventionally satisfying narrative development. Watch now on: Amazon. The Neon Demon. The latest effort from auteur Nicolas Winding Refn is the most polarizing entry on this list. As a movie it can be slow, pretentious, and confusing. But as a horror experience it is ambitious, disturbing, and — no matter what — truly stunning. Demon follows a teenage girl named Jesse who has just shown up in Los Angeles hoping to make it big as a model. More than twenty films from the recent Festival hit theaters over the last few months Horror, science fiction, thrillers.The films screened in Sitges have been. Watch horror movies free. Watch classic horror thriller films and TV shows online. Free legal streams of scary old slasher movies, zombie movies, creature features. Movies Now Showing at HOYTS Cinemas. Buy tickets, view movie information and watch trailers for all movies now showing at HOYTS Cinemas. Welcome to Sinister Cinema. We have the best selection of obscure B movies on home video/DVD in the world! It’s annual Frankenstein Month here at CINEMA INSOMNIA headquarters! This month we are honoring the National Donate Life Month with our celebration of all things. Almost as long as there has been cinema there have been horror movies. While the genre is often branded with the stigma of being low-brow, cheap, and only for. ![]() She’s a perfect, pure specimen bringing light to those who meet her in a jaded, savage industry. This helps Jesse book jobs right out of the gate, but it also sets her at odds with her industry competitors. As one of Refn’s characters says, “Beauty isn’t everything. It’s the only thing,” and the director commits his film to exploring how we as humans commoditize and consume beauty, how that commoditization reflects our values, and what the consequences of those values are. Refn isn’t here to tell you what to think. He’s here to present you with a question that you must then attempt to answer on your own terms. It’s more of a painting than a narrative feature at times, but even if you hate it, The Neon Demon sure is pretty. Some would say that’s the only thing that matters. Watch now on: Amazon. The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Despite how naturally morgues fit within the horror genre, shockingly few scary movies make sufficient use of the setting. That, of course, makes them a kind of special occasion, and Autopsy is a special movie. It’s the third feature from Norwegian director Andr. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch play father and son co- workers tasked with performing an ASAP autopsy on a mysterious body exhumed at a bloody crime scene, but the further they get in the procedure, the more things start falling apart around them in very disturbing ways. Cox and Hirsch have great familial chemistry, but it’s the surprisingly effective stone- still performance from Olwen Catherine Kelly as the lifeless Jane Doe that manages to steal the show. You’ll never feel the same way about jingling bells ever again. Don’t Breathe. Director Fede . For his sophomore feature, the Uruguayan filmmaker turned out an equally strong effort with this inverted home- invasion picture that sees the intruders being terrorized by a monstrous homeowner who’s not about to let his assets be snatched by petty thieves. Jane Levy shines once again as . Don’t Breathe also serves up one of the best marquee shock scenes in a long time, and whether or not it agrees with your personal constitution, you certainly won’t forget it. Watch now on: Amazon, i. Tunes. 5. The Invitation. The last time we got a feature- length effort from Karyn Kusama, it was 2. Diablo Cody’s quirky succubus horror- comedy Jennifer’s Body to life. Now we’re all seven years older, and she’s returned with one of 2. The trick Kusama pulls of with The Invitation is that she doesn’t go full dark until a considerable distance into the narrative, giving the audience time to marinate in their own doubts and suspicions before getting smacked in the face by the film’s primary conflict. The central tension is housed within the movie’s protagonist, a man with some serious PTSD revisiting the site of his trauma, and you have to sort out what’s real versus what’s happening in his broken mind. This is the worst dinner with your ex ever. Watch now on: Netflix, Amazon. Under the Shadow. Shadow is one of the richest horror films of the year, thanks in large part to director Babak Anvari convincing his U. K. The story follows an Iranian family living in Tehran (filming took place in Jordan) in 1. Iran–Iraq War. The father, a doctor, is called to treat patients on the front lines, leaving his wife alone to care for their daughter. As the threat of being annihilated by bombs increases, the apartment building empties and Shideh must care for young Dorsa alone. On top of the wartime stress, Dorsa’s health is declining fast, and it may or may not be the result of a malevolent spirit known as a djinn. Anvari’s drive to make Under the Shadow stems from his own fear of djinn legends growing up, and he masterfully communicates his intimate, personal terror into a universally relatable paranoia- fueled nightmare. Watch now on: Amazon. The Eyes of My Mother. This half- Portuguese/half- English chiller is presented in muted black- and- white, and at under 9. The directorial debut from Nicolas Pesce is both brutal and reserved: It trafficks in pure, eerie tension, and never really affords you the mercy of hitting the release valve. Horror film - Wikipedia. A famous scene from the 1. German horror film Nosferatu. A horror film is a movie that seeks to elicit a physiological reaction, such as an elevated heartbeat, through the use of fear and shocking one’s audiences. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, horror films have existed for more than a century. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller genres. Horror films often deal with viewers' nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, extraterrestrials, vampires, werewolves, demons, satanism, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, psychopaths, natural or man- made disasters, and serial killers. The Cave of the Demons, literally . In 1. 90. 8, Selig Polyscope Company produced Dr. Paul Wegener's The Student of Prague (1. The Golem trilogy (1. Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1. 92. 0), Arthur Robison's Warning Shadows (1. Paul Leni's Waxworks (1. The first vampire- themed movie, Nosferatu (1. Bram Stoker's Dracula. Other European countries also, contributed to the genre during this period. Some notable examples include The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1. The Phantom of the Opera (1. The Cat and the Canary (1. The Unknown (1. 92. The Man Who Laughs (1. Many of these early films were considered dark melodramas because of their stock characters and emotion- heavy plots that focused on romance, violence, suspense, and sentimentality. Directors known for relying on macabre in their films during the 1. Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram, and Tod Browning. Ingram's The Magician (1. Tod Browning's Dracula (1. James Whale's Frankenstein (1. The Old Dark House (1. Some of these films blended science fiction with Gothic horror, such as Whale's The Invisible Man (1. German films. Frankenstein was the first in a series of remakes which lasted for years. The Mummy (1. 93. Egyptology as a theme; Make- up artist. Jack Pierce was responsible for the iconic image of the monster, and others in the series. Universal's horror cycle continued into the 1. B- movies including The Wolf Man (1. The once controversial Freaks (1. Hyde (Paramount, 1. Jekyll's transformation before the camera. Both appeared in three of Val Lewton's atmospheric B- movies for RKO in the mid- 1. The Body Snatcher (1. Two subgenres began to emerge: the Doomsday film and the Demonic film. Japan's experience with Hiroshima and Nagasaki bore the well- known Godzilla (1. Hollywood directors and producers found ample opportunity for audience exploitation through gimmicks. House of Wax (1. 95. D film to draw audiences, while The Tingler used electric seat buzzers in 1. Filmmakers continued to merge elements of science fiction and horror over the following decades. The film conveyed the fears of living in the Atomic Age and the terror of social alienation. During the later 1. Great Britain emerged, as a major producer of . The Hammer company focused on the genre for the first time, enjoying huge international success from films involving classic horror characters which were shown in color for the first time. Drawing on Universal's precedent, many films produced were Frankenstein and Dracula remakes, both followed by many sequels. Other British companies contributed to a boom in horror film production in the UK during the 1. Peeping Tom (1. 96. France continued the mad scientist theme, while Italian horror films became internationally notable. American International Pictures (AIP) made a series of Edgar Allan Poe–themed films. Films in the era used the supernatural premise to express the horror of the demonic. The Innocents (1. Henry James novel The Turn of the Screw. Meanwhile, ghosts were a dominant theme in Japanese horror, in such films as Kwaidan, Onibaba (both 1. Kuroneko (1. 96. 8). An influential American horror film of this period was George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1. Produced and directed by Romero on a budget of $1. An Armageddon film about zombies, it began to combine psychological insights with gore. Distancing the era from earlier gothic trends, late 6. Low- budget splatter films from the likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis also gained prominence. The Exorcist (1. 97. Robert Wise's film Audrey Rose (1. Alice, Sweet Alice (1. Catholic- themed horror slasher about a little girl's murder and her sister being the prime suspect. Another popular occult horror movie was The Omen (1. Antichrist. Invincible to human intervention, Demons became villains in many horror films with a postmodern style and a dystopian worldview. Another example is The Sentinel (1. Hell. The film includes seasoned actors such as Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, and Eli Wallach and such future stars as Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum. During the 1. 97. Italian filmmakers Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Antonio Margheriti, and Dario Argento developed giallo horror films that became classics and influenced the genre in other countries. Representative films include: Black Sunday, Blood and Black Lace, Castle of Blood, Twitch of the Death Nerve, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, and Suspiria. The ideas of the 1. Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1. Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1. Romero satirized the consumer society in his zombie sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1. Canadian director David Cronenberg featured the . Next, was his third published novel, The Shining (1. Stanley Kubrick, which was a sleeper at the box office. This psychological horror film has a variety of themes; . This film is an example of how Hollywood's idea of horror started to evolve. Murder and violence were no longer the main themes of horror films. During the 7. 0s and 8. Another classic Hollywood horror film is Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist. Poltergeist is ranked the 2. Chicago Film Critics Association. Both films, The Shining and Poltergeist, involve horror being based on real- estate values. The evil and horror throughout the films come from where the movies are taking place. In The Shining, Danny Torrance (the child in the film) can sense supernatural forces. This is because the hotel where the film takes place was once a burial ground for a Native American Indian tribe. This is very similar to the film, Poltergeist. Carol Anne, who is the five- year- old child, can sense the supernatural spirits that have taken over her house. These bizarre spirits come from the graveyard, which the house is built on. Both films are an example of the evolution of Hollywood horror films. However, the film is now known as one of Hollywood's most classic horror films. Carrie became the 9th highest- grossing film of 1. King himself did not like The Shining, because it wasn't very faithful to the 1. A cycle of slasher films was made during the 1. John Carpenter created Halloween (1. Sean Cunningham made Friday the 1. Wes Craven directed A Nightmare on Elm Street (1. Clive Barker made Hellraiser (1. This subgenre would be mined by dozens of increasingly violent movies throughout the subsequent decades, and Halloween became a successful independent film. Another notable '7. Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1. The boom in slasher films provided enough material for numerous comedic spoofs of the genre including Saturday the 1. Student Bodies (1. National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1. Hysterical (1. 98. Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1. Orca (1. 97. 7) and Up from the Depths (1. Jaws is often credited as being one of the first films to use traditionally B movie elements such as horror and mild gore in a big- budget Hollywood film. John Carpenter's 1. The Thing was also a mix of horror and sci- fi, but it was neither a box- office nor critical hit, but soon became a cult classic. However, nearly 2. The 1. 98. 0s saw a wave of gory . A significant example is Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies, which were low- budget gorefests but had a very original plotline which was later praised by critics. Other horror film examples include cult vampire classics such as Fright Night (1. The Lost Boys (1. Near Dark (also 1. In 1. 98. 4, Joe Dante's seminal monster comedy Gremlins became a box office hit with critics and audiences, and inspired a trend of . The slasher films A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 1. Halloween and Child's Play all saw sequels in the 1. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1. Silence of the Lambs (1. New Nightmare, with In the Mouth of Madness (1. The Dark Half (1. Candyman (1. 99. 2), were part of a mini- movement of self- reflexive or metafictional horror films. Each film touched upon the relationship between fictional horror and real- world horror. Candyman, for example, examined the link between an invented urban legend and the realistic horror of the racism that produced its villain. In the Mouth of Madness took a more literal approach, as its protagonist actually hopped from the real world into a novel created by the madman he was hired to track down. This reflective style became more overt and ironic with the arrival of Scream (1. In Interview with the Vampire (1. The horror movie soon continued its search for new and effective frights. In 1. 98. 5's novel The Vampire Lestat by author Anne Rice (who penned Interview..'s screenplay and the 1. Lestat inspired and nurtured the Grand Guignol style and theatre. Two main problems pushed horror backward during this period: firstly, the horror genre wore itself out with the proliferation of nonstop slasher and gore films in the eighties. Secondly, the adolescent audience which feasted on the blood and morbidity of the previous decade grew up, and the replacement audience for films of an imaginative nature were being captured instead by the explosion of science- fiction and fantasy films, courtesy of the special effects possibilities with advances made in computer- generated imagery. Peter Jackson's Braindead (1. Dead Alive in the U.
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