TGT12: The Scary Movies

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I always cut this list off at six because that's the devil's number and all, so my apologies to a couple of other horror flicks that worked on me this year - V/H/S (review) and The Revenant (review) and The Tall Man (review) are all more or less worth your time too. But there can only be six (six six)! Here we go...
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The Woman In Black (dir. Watkins) Doesn't have any moment as crawl-over-the-back-of-your-seat spooky as the original TV movie does, and the ends a bit wonkish, but for an hour and a half it oozes eerie atmosphere with single-minded old-fashioned glee. It's just a nice chilly ghost story that forgoes too much too much overblown CG in favor of slow spooky mood. (original review)
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Sleep Tight (dir. Balagueró) Even though I realized really early on (thanks to the striking similarities it has with that godawful Hilary Swank movie The Resident) where it was going it maintains boundless tension all the same with its horrific cat and mouse, where in the mouse remains horrifyingly unawares. It's paralyzing.
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Snowtown (dir.Kurztel) Sick making film that churns your guts up with horror - I think perhaps that's what a film about serial killers ought to do? It's pretty much a relentlessly bleak experience, with a killer who's anti-charismatic - the film is smart enough to show how he's able to manipulate the world around him without fetishising his brutal awful power in the slightest. (original review)
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[REC]³ Génesis (dir. Plaza) - While his co-director on the first two [REC] movies went off and made the just rhapsodized Sleep Tight, Paco Plaza went and spun the [REC] universe off into a whole new direction with this third entry that goes for Evil Dead comic horror territory and does so with endless glee and endless gore. Tons of fun - splatter-sational! (original review)
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The Bay (dir. Levinson) I walked out of this movie so entirely freaked out I was side-eyeing mud puddles. I got home and couldn't even look at my shower, lest it explode with squirming vermin. It got, excuse the phrasing, right the fuck up under my skin. That it does so while working simultaneously as an eco-message only makes it more impressive a little side-step into genre frivolity for a "slumming" Barry Levinson.
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The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Goddard) Well I already waxed on this one some in my top twenty since it's the only once that made my top 20 (although the past couple here were awfully close), so go read that there. It's just so playful with the things I like to play with, and so smart about how it does that at every turn - remember that little jolt of electricity that makes Dana drop the knife? It's blink and you miss it, and every corner is stuffed with such little joys - I'm gonna be watching this movie on my death bed. (original review)

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