Editorials
[BEST & WORST ’12] Evan Dickson’s List Of The Best Horror Films Of 2012!
This was a weird year. There weren’t that many great “straight up” horror movies out there, at least not in my eyes. I feel like the genre is at a turning point where it’s about to be reinvigorated, I’ve already seen a few of the films coming out next year (ones that simultaneously fit the definitions of the genre while taking it to new places) and I think 2013 will represent a turning point. 2012 saw the genre tentatively figuring out how to spread its wings in the age of huge budget divides (just like the American middle class, medium sized films are on the wane), VOD and a shifting landscape in general.
So don’t be surprised if some of these movies don’t 100% fall under the “horror” category. It’s not like I tossed Cloud Atlas on here or anything, I operated from the films that we cover on the site, but you’ll see what I’m talking about inside. On occasion we cover some great stuff that doesn’t rigidly fit the definitions of the genre, but it’s material that we feel appeals to horror fans’ sensibilities. That being said, I also kept this year’s “best of” list to films that were released in 2012. I still saw plenty of movies that I fell in love with, and here are 10 that you might dig as well.
Posters (Best/Worst) | Trailers (Best/Worst)
10. The Road (May 11; Freestyle Releasing)
The first act of Yam Laranas’ The Road features some of the scariest imagery I’ve seen in a ghost story in quite some time. The rest of the film turns out to be a surprisingly effective, and expansive, yarn. A movie where some of the quietest moments are the most frightening.
9. Detention (April 6; Samuel Goldwyn)
I totally get it if you hate Joseph Kahn’s Detention. I myself was prepared to hate it based on its trailer, but the movie quickly won me over. It depicts the millennial generation in a way that I haven’t seen on film before and it’s full of fun carnage courtesy of its slasher villain Cinderhella. Imagine Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World meets Scream and you’re getting warm. Oh sh*t, add time travel in too. Yeah, there’s not much else like it.
8. Chronicle (February 3; Fox)
Another film that we took some flack for, but seeing as this is the closest we’ll get to a live action Akira in the next few years, it’s totally fair game. Director Josh Trank also succeeded in crafting a tale of telekinesis rivaled only by Carrie in its depiction of supernatural power gone wrong. Oh, and he succeeded in reinvigorating the found footage format to boot.
7. John Dies At The End (December 27th [On-Demand]; Magnet)
A fun, trippy blast that ladles on the gore while not being afraid to ask the bigger questions. A lot of people might find this movie confusing, but as long as you engage with it and pay attention, you should be fine. Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes turn in great performances as the film’s two heroes and director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep) is in fine form. This movie really tickles the parts of my brain I abused in college.
6. Kill List (January 4; IFC Midnight)
Ben Wheatley’s masterpiece hit the festival circuit last year, but I only saw it upon its release in 2012. While I have a huge fondness for the film, it’s not something I’m eager to revisit. It’s one of those instances where I have to commend its artistry enough to place it in my top 10, but its such a foreboding watch that I’m not sure how many times I’ll reach for it on the shelf.
5. Frankenweenie (October 5; Disney)
I can’t believe all the love that went to ParaNorman in 2012 while this far superior stop-animation gem went more or less unnoticed. This touching tale that riffs on classic horror history is easily Tim Burton’s best film in over a decade, and Martin Landau’s science monologues as Mr. Rzykruski made me want to stand up and cheer.
4. The Sound Of My Voice (April 27; Fox Searchlight)
A beautiful and suspenseful look inside the world of what appears to be a modern-day cult. Brit Marling is magnetic as Maggie, a person whose very existence is dependent on her charisma. It’s also a film about the existential horror of not actually knowing the answers to some seemingly basic questions about life.
3. Seven Psychopaths (October 12; CBS Films)
A hilariously sharp bloodbath that not many people bothered to check out in theaters. Colin Farrell is great, but it’s really Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken who run the show here. Not to mention Tom Waits as a long-term serial killer with an affinity for rabbits. Remember folks, these movies you keep discovering in their ancillary stages of release will cease to exist once those ancillary stages dry up.
2. The Grey (January 27; Lionsgate)
Such a visceral, powerful movie. Liam Neeson gives the performance of his career in what is easily Joe Carnahan’s best film. Sure it works as survival horror, but it’s also a great allegory for the daily battles we find ourselves embroiled in. Neeson is joined by an ensemble that perfectly represents the battle, and balance, between the masculine id and superego.
1. The Cabin In The Woods (April 13; Lionsgate)
Without question the most fun I had in a horror movie this year. The Cabin In The Woods manages to meet almost every slasher demand you can think of before going on to become so much more. It’s a hilarious film with a lot to say about the way our culture consumes violence, both on film and in regard to real-life tragedies.
Bonus: V/H/S (October 5; Magnolia Pictures)
No, I wasn’t asked to write about this one. But – if I didn’t happen to write for Bloody-Disgusting – it would easily be somewhere in the middle of my Top 10. I truly dig most of the segments and it’s got more effective scares than most of the films I saw this year.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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