In a perfect world we’d have an annual holiday that lent itself somehow to the appreciation of horror films — just one day out of the year where people were encouraged to share their love for cinema of the scary, creepy, and gory kinds. A pipe dream, I know, so until that day comes we’ll have to settle for end of the year lists like this one to point people towards the best the genre has to offer.
Great horror films that only played festivals and have secured release dates for 2016 — The Invitation, Black Mountain Side, The Witch, Nina Forever — are ineligible for this list, but I am including fest titles that have yet to be so lucky (in the hopes that some smart distributor picks them up soon for release).
15. Goodnight Mommy
Twin boys suspect their mother, bandaged after a trip to the hospital, might not actually be their mother after all. This Austrian thriller is a three-person show (aside from a pair of pesky Red Cross volunteers), and it does a brilliant job of ratcheting up the suspense and toying with our allegiances as things turn deadly serious. [Available on Blu-ray/DVD] [My review]
14. The Interior
A man lost in life heads to the forest to find himself, but his journey brings unexpectedly nightmarish results. Writer/director Trevor Juras moves from an oddly comic first act into isolated days and nights of steadily increasing terror — including some of the creepiest tent-set scenes since The Blair Witch Project — that leaves viewers on edge and unsure if the threats are real or imagined. [Currently unavailable]
13. Deathgasm
A picked-upon headbanger accidentally summons a demon from hell in his search for acceptance, and soon he and his friends are fighting for the lives and souls of the entire town. Jason Lei Howden‘s heavy metal horror/comedy delivers laughs and bloodletting in equal measure alongside some of the best dildo action this side of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. [Available on Blu-ray/DVD] [My review]
12. Cub
An unstable preteen heads into the woods with his cub scout troop and discovers too late that the only badges available are for woodcarving and murder. Belgium isn’t the first place you think of for horror cinema, but this beautifully shot and scored thriller goes a long way towards changing that with dark themes, intense brutality, and a nightmare-fueled adrenaline. [Available on Blu-ray/DVD] [My review]
11. The Editor
Cast and crew working on a cheap but artistic slasher film begin dying for real at the gloved hands of a vicious murderer. Good horror/comedies are hard to get right, and great ones are even tougher, but this smart, wickedly creative, and loving homage from Astron-6 to Italian horror films of decades past succeeds in capturing its target’s spirit while telling an extremely funny and bloody tale of its own. [Available on Blu-ray/DVD] [My review]
10. We Are Still Here
A couple move into a rural home in the dead of winter and quickly discover ghostly squatters in the basement. Writer/director Ted Geoghegan‘s feature debut takes a familiar concept and an affection for certain genre classics and mixes them with an energetic narrative spin, a game cast, and the gory goods. [Available on Blu-ray/DVD] [My review]
9. Backcountry
A couple goes into the woods in the hopes of coming closer together, but what they find might just tear them apart. Animal attack films are commonplace, but the truly terrifying ones can be counted on one three-fingered hand — and Adam MacDonald‘s bear-centric nature thriller is that harrowing, intense middle finger. [Available on Blu-ray/DVD] [My review]
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