Connect with us

Movies

Year in Review: Ryan Daley’s Best & Worst Movies of 2008!

Published

on

Leading up until the New Year we’ll be unloading the best and worst lists of 2008 from all of Bloody-Disgusting’s official reviewers. Beyond the break you can check out Ryan Daley’s Best & Worst Horror Films of 2008, with lists from David Harley and myself still coming soon. Click here to keep up with the full year in review and also feel free to post your thoughts below, or at our forum’s Top 10 of 2008 forum thread.

Other Best & Worst Lists:
Mr. Disgusting’s Best & Worst / Ryan Daley / BC’s Best & Worst / David Harley’s Best & Worst / Tim Anderson
Also check out this year’s Best & Worst Posters

Ryan Daley’s Best DVDs of 2008

10. KILLER PAD (Lionsgate) February 5, 2008


I’m not a huge fan of horror-comedies but this goofy, direct-to-DVD effort somehow won me over. A trio of roommates moves into an apartment that squats over the mouth of hell. A whole bunch of low-budget wackiness ensues. A guilty pleasure, to say the least.

9. FRONTIERE(S) (After Dark) May 9, 2008


We may be through with torture-porn, but torture-porn sure ain’t through with us. This bleak but compelling French film reminds us why backwoods neo-Nazis are worth avoiding. Energetic and raw.

8. RESTRAINT (Lionsgate) August 18, 2008


Starring the uber-foxy Teresa Palmer. That’s really all you need to know.

7. THE LAST HOUSE IN THE WOODS (Lionsgate/Ghost House) October 14, 2008


An homage to Italian exploitation films of the 1970s, this grainy, overwrought crowd-pleaser wins the award for Best Special Effect Involving a Neck Goiter.

6. THE BACKWOODS (Lionsgate) April 15, 2008


Gary Oldman saves a little girl with deformed flipper hands from a bunch of raving hillbillies. Kind of like STRAW DOGS but with deformed flipper hands standing in for retardation.

5. DOOMSDAY (Rogue Pictures) March 14, 2008


Neil Marshall’s follow up to THE DESCENT is just craaaaazy. A smashed-together amalgam of MAD MAX, RESIDENT EVIL, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK that manages to be constantly entertaining even when it’s making absolutely no sense.

4. BAGHEAD (Sony Classics) December 30, 2008


This polarizing horror-comedy isn’t for everyone. A mismatched group of friends retreat to a forest cabin to get drunk, flirt with each other, and write a horror screenplay, even as a creepy Baghead killer watches them from the woods. The (mostly) improvised conversations are hilarious, and a few eerie scenes help bolster the horror aspects of the production. A low-budget experiment that actually works.

3. A CHRISTMAS TALE (Lionsgate) August 19, 2008


Available on Lionsgate’s 6 FILMS TO KEEP YOU AWAKE 3-disc set, this Spanish flick begins as a kid-friendly romp before making a staggeringly dark right turn into horror terrain. A genre gem waiting to be discovered.

2. DEXTER: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON (Paramount Home) August 19, 2008


The best show on television (now that THE SHIELD, THE WIRE, and DEADWOOD are finished) truly hits its stride in its sophomore season. Charismatic serial killer Dexter comes perilously close to getting nabbed by the po-po, while immature sister Deb continues to annoy the shit out of everyone with a complete lack of professionalism that makes Ally McBeal look like a progressive feminist in comparison. Yeah, Deb bugs. Still a great show, though.

1. INSIDE (LA’ INTERIEUR) (Dimension Extreme) April 15, 2008


A French film that shatters one of the oldest horror movie taboos into a million pieces. Not for the squeamish, INSIDE is a slick, mean-spirited shocker that goes where you don’t think it dares. Easily the best horror film I have seen this year.

Ryan Daley’s Worst DVDs of 2008

5. CATACOMBS (Lionsgate) February 19, 2008


Shannyn Sossamon spends what seems like years running around wet Parisian tunnels in an attempt to escape a developmentally disabled goat-head killer. Like watching a cruddy Travel channel documentary about dark, wet tunnels.

4. DARK FLOORS (Ghost House) October 14, 2008


Nobody really expected thrash metal band Lordi’s first movie to be any GOOD, but this…well, this is abysmal. A man and his daughter get trapped in a hospital elevator by a fully-costumed Lordi, who try to act scary through about 25 pounds of bulky foam and fail miserably. Ugh.

3. ILS (THEM) (Dark Sky Films) March 25, 2008


Sure there were some eerie moments but come on, that had to have been the worst ending this side of HIGH TENSION. I, for one, thought THE STRANGERS was much better. Scott Speedman notwithstanding.

2. HELL’S GROUND (TLA Releasing) June 24, 2008


Lame Pakistani horror film crippled by stilted dialogue and the worst movie soundtrack EVER. I’d rather suicide bomb an Arby’s than have to sit through this one again.

1. DARK CHAMBER (Shock-O-Rama) February 26, 2008


A supremely boring crime drama posing as a horror film. This DIY effort centers around a few friends who stage a laboriously paced stake-out in a parked van. If you’re into bad direction and plodding dialogue, pop a bowl of popcorn, grab some smelling salts, and check this one out. It’s best watched in five or six sittings spread out over the course of several weeks.

Advertisement
Click to comment

Movies

‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

Published

on

Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

Continue Reading