Alrighty, I've finally gotten my 2015 list together, and I'm sure no one is more excited about that than me.
Overall, I think 2015's top 8 beats out 2014's best films, and the #1
It Follows will be remembered longer than last year's
Babadook.
Like the previous year, 2015 was rich with enjoyable horror films, spanning all subgenres.
We had one incredible horror western,
Bone Tomahawk, and I've decided we need a lot more of those. This film was also the cannibal film on par with the stomach-churning classics that
Green Inferno was paying homage to.
On the monsters front, zombies seem to have plateaued, but are still easily the highest-volume monster subgenre. Vampires were represented, but not heavily like in past years. We had giant monsters and animals (
Animal,
Stung,
Monsters: Dark Continent,
Jurassic World), two natural animal films (both grizzly bears), and one or more mythological beasts (
The Hallow,
Digging Up the Marrow maybe?). Finally, it's high time in my opinion for the werewolf to make a comeback, and 2015 showed some hope that they're on the upswing (
When Animals Dream,
Wolfcop,
Howl).
Interestingly, we also saw multiple holiday and anthology films this year (
Krampus, which I haven't seen yet,
A Christmas Horror Story,
Tales of Halloween).
Is it just me, or does found footage seem to be on the decline?
Horror is becoming more more and more competitive in the mainstream, evidenced by an even greater number of TV shows on both cable and network TV. We finally got the Evil Dead sequel we've been waiting for with
Ash vs. Evil Dead. Big movies studios have finally woken up the fact that the best horror is done independently, and released some actually decent films. M. Night Shyamalan got back on track with low-budget, self-funded found footage film
The Visit.
It Follows was never supposed to see a major movie theater, but its grassroots popularity was impossible to ignore, and the indie became a mainstream sensation. And who would have ever expected to see
The Green Inferno's level of gore and depravity in a mainstream theater?
If there was any clear trend, it's that horror comedy is rising in popularity. One of the best films of the year,
What We Do in the Shadows, has gotten critical praise and is currently playing on HBO. (I actually left it off this list because I saw it late December of 2014.) Besides that film, a healthy percentage of really good films from 2015 were of the horror/comedy variety, ranging in style from the most memorable New Zealand splatter comedy we've seen in a while (
Deathgasm), to pitch-black comedy (
The Voices), to zom-com (
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,
Cooties,
Burying the Ex), and even a tougue-in-cheek werewolf B-horror comedy (
Wolfcop).
Another trend is the rise in meta-horror, which has gradually risen in popularity, but is now running rampant to the point of potential oversaturation. What was once clever satire of horror tropes a la
Cabin in the Woods and
Behind the Mask is now so prominent it deserves its own new level of sub-classifications. We still see genre self-referencing, such as in
Digging up the Marrow and
Deathgasm, but we also see trends in grindhouse homages (
Headless,
Turbo Kid,
The Editor,
The Green Inferno), self-referencing franchises (
The Human Centipede 3: The Final Sequence), and broader pop-cultural references (
Gravy). The most common trend by far, however, is the wave of slasher throwbacks that no longer attempt to satire the lovable flaws of the genre, but rather pay a straight, non-critical homage to the subgenre that dominated the 80s (
The Final Girls,
The Cabining,
Dude Bro Party Massacre III,
Lost After Dark).
So without further adieu (because that's enough adieu)...
My Ranked List of 2015 Horror Movies
Exceptional
1. It Follows (2015) [10/10]
2. Bone Tomahawk (2015) [10/10]
Nearly Exceptional
3. Ex Machina (2015) [9/10]
4. Spring (2015) [9/10]
5. Goodnight Mommy (2014) [9/10]
6. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) [9/10]
7. Alléluia (2014) [9/10]
8. Deathgasm (2015) [9/10]
Loved It
9. Pieces of Talent (2012) [8/10]
10. The Green Inferno (2013) [8/10]
11. We Are Still Here (2015) [8/10]
12. Clown (2014) [8/10]
13. Backcountry (2014) [8/10]
14. Last Shift (2015) [8/10]
15. Cub (2014) [8/10]
16. Faults (2014) [8/10]
17. The Visit (2015) [8/10]
18. Headless (2015) [8/10]
19. The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) (2015) [8/10]
20. Shrew’s Nest (2014) [8/10]
21. Felt (2014) [8/10]
22. The Nightmare (2015) [8/10]
23. The Falling (2015) [8/10]
24. Landmine Goes Click (2015) [8/10]
25. The Gift (2015) [8/10]
26. He Never Died (2015) [8/10]
27. The Voices (2015) [8/10]
28. The Final Girls (2015) [8/10]
29. Wyrmwood (2014) [8/10]
Liked It or Really Liked It
30. Knock Knock (2015) [8/10]
31. Bastard (2015) [8/10]
32. Queen of Earth (2015) [8/10]
33. Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015) [8/10]
34. The Editor (2015) [8/10]
35. Let Us Prey (2014) [8/10]
36. Creep (2014) [7/10]
37. Tales of Halloween (2015) [7/10]
38. The Atticus Institute (2015) [7/10]
39. Suburban Gothic (2014) [8/10]
40. The Houses October Built (2014) [7/10]
41. Digging Up the Marrow (2015) [7/10]
42. Bait (2015) [8/10]
43. The Harvest (2013) [7/10]
44. The Hallow (2015) [7/10]
45. Howl (2015) [7/10]
46. Cooties (2014) [7/10]
47. Turbo Kid (2015) [7/10]
48. WolfCop (2014) [6/10]
49. When Animals Dream (2014) [7/10]
50. GirlHouse (2014) [7/10]
51. Hidden (2015) [7/10]
52. Summer of Blood (2014) [7/10]
53. The Badger Game (2014) [7/10]
54. Closer to God (2014) [7/10]
55. Avenged (2013) [7/10]
56. Animal (2014) [6/10]
57. Gravy (2015) [6/10]
58. I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine (2015) [7/10]
59. Horsehead (2014) [7/10]
60. [REC]⁴ Apocalypse (2014) [6/10]
61. The Drownsman (2014) [6/10]
62. The Stranger (2015) [6/10]
63. Bloodsucking Bastards (2015) [7/10]
64. The Barber (2015) [6/10]
65. The Hive (2015) [7/10]
66. Bound to Vengeance (2015) [7/10]
Enjoyable Enough
67. The Diabolical (2015) [6/10]
68. Dark Summer (2015) [6/10]
69. Curse of the Witching Tree (2015) [6/10]
70. Into the Grizzly Maze (2015) [6/10]
71. Final Girl (2015) [6/10]
72. The Cabining (2013) [6/10]
73. Contracted: Phase II (2015) [6/10]
74. Maggie (2015) [6/10]
75. Unfriended (2014) [6/10]
76. A Christmas Horror Story (2015) [6/10]
77. Some Kind Of Hate (2015) [6/10]
78. The Samurai (2014) [6/10]
79. Stung (2015) [6/10]
80. Judas Ghost (2015) [6/10]
81. Poltergeist (2015) [6/10]
82. Dark Was the Night (2014) [6/10]
83. Burying the Ex (2014) [6/10]
84. Jurassic World (2015) [7/10]
85. Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) [6/10]
86. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015) [6/10]
87. Extinction (2015) [6/10]
88. Lost After Dark (2014) [6/10]
Watchable but Not Great
89. The Lazarus Effect (2015) [6/10]
90. Preservation (2014) [6/10]
91. I-Lived (2015) [6/10]
92. Charlie’s Farm (2014) [5/10]
93. Backmask (2015) [5/10]
94. Ghoul (2015) [5/10]
95. The Redwood Massacre (2014) [5/10]
96. Pod (2015) [5/10]
97. Monsters: Dark Continent (2014) [5/10]
98. Pernicious (2015) [5/10]
99. Anguish (2015) [5/10]
Not Too Good
100. Antisocial (2013) [4/10]
101. Demonic (2015) [5/10]
102. The Hoarder (2015) [5/10]
103. Sacrament (2014) [5/10]
104. White Settlers (2014) [4/10]
105. Area 51 (2015) [5/10]
106. Muck (2015) [5/10]
107. Nymph (2014) [4/10]
Here's a bit of info on how I constructed the list:
What constitutes "Horror?"
I tend to cast a wide net on horror, even though I know the common definition is more limited. I look at it more in the sense of "what would horror fans like?" or if I were selecting content for a service for horror fans, would they like these films?
* I'll include horror-themed comedies and dramas without question.
* I'll include exploitation, as long as it makes sense, usually due to gore.
* I'll include dark or violent thrillers and twisted dramas, but only if my gut says it belongs in the list.
* I tend to be a bit more lenient for directors who are known for horror.
What qualifies for "2015?"
I'll include any film that got its wider release in 2015. I tried to research each non-2015 release, and if it was only shown at festivals prior to 2015, or received a limited release in smaller countries, it qualifies.