Ironic that Sony just got behind the long-delayed Zombieland (review) sequel as today marks the 5th anniversary of Ruben Fleischer’s hilarious horror comedy that starred Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray (who had the most epic cameo of the decade). The film was a monster success taking in $100M worldwide, which is why a sequel was quickly put into development, even if it never came into fruition. One of the best little gimmicks in the film are the “rules”. Which rule would be your flaw? Too bad the Amazon television pilot was so awful because we could have had a world of Zombieland…

Also released in 2009 was Filmax and Magnet’s incredible found-footage sequel [REC]2 (review), which originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. This was in the early days of VOD platform pushes, and was considered an exciting moment for horror fans to be able to rent it the same day as it was in theaters. The coolest aspect of the sequel was how Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza evolved the story so that these zombies were actually possessed by demons.

What really makes October 2 so special is it’s the day DreamWorks took a big chance on The Ring, one of the first remakes that started the reboot fad and also the J-horror trend. Nothing ever came close to the success The Ring had both financially and in terms of quality horror. Gore Verbinski’s visual style is what set the tone for this terrifying reboot of the Japanese franchise, Ringu, which racked in $250M worldwide. It’s also one of the rare horror films to break $100M in the states, actually pulling in a shocking $129M. I remember DreamWorks setting up early screenings across the country, which is what started the hype train a rollin’. It’s too bad the sequel was so awful, even though the home video release came with a kickass short film , directed by TMNT and Texas Chainsaw: The Beginning‘s Jonathan Liebesman. If you have no teen this, seek it out immediately. Even though the franchise has gone quiet, a 3-D sequel is in the works (completely bypassing a found-footage one).

October 2 was even better, though, sharing the day with Dee Snider’s criminally underrated, way ahead of its time 1998 Strangeland, about teenage girls who are victimized by a psycho (named Captain Howdy) who lures them using the Internet. The film was a box office disaster, but has found life among us horror fans on home video.

In 1987 Kathryn Bigelow’s revolutionary vamp flick, Near Dark, blasted into theaters. Starring Lance Henriksen, Adrian Pasdar, Bill Paxton, Jenny Wright and Tim Thomerson, “Country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) whittles away the quiet rural nights hunting local girls – but when he falls prey to the mysterious and beautiful Mae (Jenny Wright), Caleb unknowingly becomes the hunted. Mae is no ordinary girl, Caleb soon learns; she is part of an outlaw band of vampires, and their love is about to lure him into a terrifying world of bloodlust, mayhem and absolute horror. Will Caleb pay the ultimate price for love and eternal life – or will he find a way to defeat the evil growing inside him each night NEAR DARK?” The film is insanely bloody and features some wicked special effects work.

Of these aforementioned films, which is your favorite, and which are you going to revisit this coming weekend? I feel like re-watching them all is in order…