Editorials
[BEST & WORST ’11] Ryan Daley’s List of the Best Horror Films of 2011!
This was a great year for horror movies. But really, how is this different from any other year? Other than a brief period in the early 90s, every year has been a great year for horror cinema. Journalists have been predicting the “death of horror” since I was an 11-year-old reading Charles L. Grant anthologies, and the cynicism continues to this day. According to writers and bloggers, any year now, at any moment, horror is going to suddenly disappear in a huff of black smoke, the end of the genre, gone forever.
Except the readers of this Bloody-Disgusting know that will never happen. Horror is perpetual, it always has an audience, and unlike Meg Ryan or TGIF sitcoms or leg warmers, horror will never, ever go away. Of my five years writing for Bloody-disgusting, this the easiest Top 10 list I’ve ever compiled. There were just so many good movies to choose from. Whether or not you agree with the following list, let’s raise our glasses to one agreed upon fact: 2011 was a great year for horror.
Best Horror of 2011: Ryan Daley
Micah (Best/Worst) | Lonmonster (Best/Worst) | Evan Dickson (Best/Worst) | Lauren Taylor (Best/Worst)
Posters (Best/Worst) | Trailers (Best/Worst) | Performances (Best)
Before spinning out of control in the last 10 minutes, The Last Exorcism established itself as a clever, chilling, and winkingly self-aware mockumentary that managed to push the buttons of both believers and skeptics. Yeah, and then that fire monster. But why hate an awesome movie cause of its ending? That’s like hating a delicious meal because the dessert tastes sorta shitty.
Bizarre, scary, and downright confusing, Heartless is by no means a prefect film, but it has a way of working itself into your head in a way that only the best original films can manage. The combination of lizard creatures, Satan, and a heavily blemished Jim Sturgess makes for a riveting piece of cinema from artist (and occasional filmmaker) Philip Ridley.
Although much of [REC] 2 seems regurgitated from the original, directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza have perfected their first person shaky-cam technique, resulting in an experience that’s both pleasantly jarring and hugely visceral. A portable multimedia device, headphones, and complete blackness come highly recommended.
Yes, this almost certainly ranks as one of the dumbest films of 2011, but it’s also one of the bloodiest things I‘ve ever seen in my life…and that’s saying something. Give director Alexandre Aja credit for cranking open the floodgates of grue and letting the red stuff flow. If it had been released before 9/11, the orgiastic mid-film piranha attack would have easily pushed the film into NC-17 territory. Impressive.
Where did this come from? Whipping in and out of theaters like a hot July breeze, Attack the Block was seen by just enough approving critics to pique the curiosity of genre fans. I caught the movie when it hit DVD a few months later and instantly fell in love with this slice of highly appealing indie sci-fi. From the clever premise to the flippant dialogue to the totally cool creatures, it’s a movie that screams its fun factor from the city rooftops.
Influenced by Mr. D’s dismissive review (as well as being personally sick of the whole vampire thing), I ignored Stake Land on its initial release. But over the next few months, the overwhelmingly positive reader reviews here at B-D convinced me to give it a look, and yep, you guys totally got it right. This is one helluva indie flick. But hey, you can say it better than I can. According to you, Stake Land is “not your usual vampire schlock” that “drove a stake through my senses” resulting in “one of the best under the radar horror flicks of the year”*. And I most certainly concur.
*Quotes from frighten stein, legolasgarett, and Sir Serling, respectively.
Not exactly a horror film, but like I Saw the Devil, it’s a revenge thriller that flaunts enough blood and bad-assery to secure a rightful place in the annals of B-D. Lee Jeong-beom’s uber-basic story comes with plenty of built-in pleasures, but the brutal smack-down in the final reel ranks as one of the most satisfying fight scenes in movie history.
You had me at Creep, Christopher Smith. And then you enraptured me with the time-loopy Triangle, your directorial prowess repeatedly ravaging my dreams. I assume Black Death is the reward for my abiding love and eternal loyalty, and for that, I thank you. But don’t you ever forget, Mr. Smith: You had me at Creep.
I realize you’ve been subjected to Mr. D’s wanton praise for over a year, but come on, we’re all in agreement on this one, right? When I wrote about I Saw the Devil in January, I dared to postulate that it might be superior to Oldboy. Not only is it better than Oldboy, it’s one of the best slow-burn revenge films of all time.
As a fan of both John Lindqvist’s original novel and Tomas Alfredson’s Norwegian film adaptation, I was initially skeptical about Matt Reeves’ Americanized remake. And while I lament the exclusion of the cheesy CGI cat attack, I prefer Reeves’ version for one primary reason: child actors Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz act the living shit out of the material. I still can’t believe they weren’t nominated for any major awards. An instant horror classic.
Honorable Mention: Wake Wood, Insidious, Atrocious
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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