Top 13 Horror Films of 2015: Part 2
#8: Unfriended
Next up is another new twist on the famed slasher genre which sees a group of teens take to the screens of their computers awaiting their inevitable deaths after the returning spirit of a dead friend resurfaces. Using its “screen grab” formula to capture the action, the screen flitters between Skype and Facebook to tell the story and unravel the gruesome series of unfortunate events to horrific results. Who would have thought Skype would be that scary, well apart from that one time when I thought I’d called my girlfriend and it was her mother…
#7: The Stranger
Produced by long term collaborator Eli Roth, Guillermo Amoedo’s vampire road movie is something of an unseen classic. There’s little seen of this gem that should be on every horror fans watch list. Ariel Levy plays a wandering man who hides out in a home at the wrong time. As a vampire epidemic takes over the town, the root cause becomes a mystery to those who’ve gotten close to the stranger. Extremely brutal and brooding, there’s a consistence sense of dread throughout that only manifests in the closing chapter.
#6: Crimson Peak
Crimson Peak sees a welcome return to the horror genre for Guillermo Del Toro in the form of a haunted house story that does justice to the new Godfather of Horror. A gothic beauty that shares much in tone with his earlier films yet cranks up the beauty in a huge cascade of set designs and characters. While it’s story is familiar to anyone who’s seen a del Toro film, the journey the tale takes us on in nevertheless any less beautiful.
Jessica Chastain is superb as the mysterious housekeeper who tries her best to upset the marriage between newlyweds Mia Wasikowski and Tom Hiddleston.
#5: Spring
The travel brochure of Italy sees a sting in the tail as European globetrotter Lou Taylor Pucci is side-tracked from his adventures by a beautiful Italian girl. Their whirlwind romance is a love story of blood and kisses as the secrets begin to unravel the deeper he falls for her.
Part horror, part romance, this tragic story may not be your typical horror film but is one of the most gripping genre films for some time, the mesmerising Nadia Hilker plays the mystery extremely well and her abruptness to be open makes the film ever more intriguing. Add into the mix some of the most scenic cinematography and ‘Spring’ delivers on being one of 2015’s biggest surprises.
#4: The Gift
Hollywood superstar, Joel Edgerton not only stars but wrote and direct this thriller that had more than star talent to propel it into one of 2015’s best movies. When an old school friend arrives on the scene, the cogs begin to unwind on the perfect life of Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall in an unnerving series of events. The shocks and desperate measures the two friends go to are tense but the increasing tension only makes the climax ever more shocking.
With no blood, no masked killer and a mainstream release, it will be difficult for anyone who has yet to see the film to truly comprehend this as the most fucked up film of the year!