Editorials
Trace’s 10 Best Horror Movies of 2016!
10. Under the Shadow
It would be a disservice to call Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow an Iranian The Babadook. The two films have a lot in common, but Under the Shadow is a different beast entirely. In his feature film directorial debut, Anvari has crafted a wonderful horror story that maintains a constant sense of dread until the credits roll. The film tells the tale of a Djinn that begins terrorizing a woman (Narges Rashidi) and her child (Avin Manshadi) after an undetonated missile lands in their apartment building during the Iran-Iraq war. It can be a little slow (the film’s inciting incident doesn’t occur until about 30 minutes into its 84-minute runtime) and jump scares are employed a bit too frequently, but Under the Shadow is a timeless and heartfelt story about accepting the mistakes of our past, using the Djinn as a framework around that theme.
9. The Conjuring 2
It was going to be pretty hard for James Wan to top his 2013 masterpiece The Conjuring. While The Conjuring 2 doesn’t quite reach the heights set by that film, it is still a noble effort and one of the best horror films to come out this year. Wan has become so skilled at crafting his scares that and creating characters that you feel a personal connection to that it doesn’t matter if the story is something we’ve seen a thousand times before. At the end of the day it’s the relationship between Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga, fantastic as usual) that is the main draw of the film. Their relationship is the heart and soul of this franchise, and The Conjuring 2 delivers on that front.
8. Ouija: Origin of Evil
Mike Flanagan must have had an “I told you so” letter ready to go for when Ouija: Origin of Evil was released. Nobody expected this movie to be any good. The only thing it had going for it was Flanagan himself, and even then people (myself included) were still doubtful. I’ve never been more happy to be wrong. Ouija: Origin of Evil is a huge step up over its predecessor in that it actually features characters you care about. This is due to Flanagan’s screenplay, which he co-wrote with Jeff Howard (I hope to God their script of I Know What You Did Last Summer gets produced), and the superb performances from Elizabeth Reaser, Annalise Basso and Lulu Wilson. Flanagan’s direction is on point, even if his style may be a bit reminiscent of that of James Wan (who is the reigning champ of period horror with The Conjuring). The film has scares but the story is the focus here, and it’s a great story.
7. 10 Cloverfield Lane
What a fantastic little film. Many feared that this would be another example of a marketing gimmick being more interesting than the actual film, and luckily that was not the case. Dan Trachtenberg’s feature film directorial debut (this was a good year for first-time directors) is a claustrophobic and incredibly tense film bolstered by exceptional performances from John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who really deserves to be more famous than she is right now). This not-really-a-sequel to Cloverfield is one of the most suspenseful movies to be released in a long time. The final reel may feel a little tacked on, but it’s a good final reel, so you can’t really fault it too much for that.
6. Hush
That’s right, Mike Flanagan directed two outstanding horror films this year. In Hush, he pulls a Rob Zombie and casts his wife Kate Siegel (with whom he also co-wrote the screenplay) in the lead role. That turns out to be a wise decision since Siegel is an absolute revelation in the film. Hush is a fist-pumping female empowerment film while at the same time an incredibly suspenseful home invasion thriller. The premise is centered around a serial killer who stalks a deaf woman in her home (think the final scene in Wait Until Dark stretched out to feature length). Barring one laughable scene involving a visiting neighbor, Hush is a near-perfect film. It’s a real shame this didn’t get a theatrical release because it’s practically made for viewing with a crowd, but I digress. Hush is terrific. Watch it.
Up Next: My Top 5 Horror Films of the Year
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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