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The 10 Best Horror Movie Toys Released in 2018!

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*Keep up with our ongoing end of the year coverage here*

Thanks primarily to NECA, we horror fans are the luckiest we’ve ever been on the collectibles front, as kickass new horror toys are almost literally released every single week these days. So when we look back on an entire year, needless to say, picking a “Top 10” is no easy task.

But now that the year is coming to a close, we combed through this year’s archives to dig up the 10 best horror toys that were released between January 1 and December 31, and we’re pretty happy with the list we came up with. Again, it’s almost entirely a “Top 10 NECA Horror Toys” list, but Funko also made the cut this year for a couple of really cool offerings.

So let’s get on with it, shall we?!

In no particular order…


A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors Accessory Pack – NECA

We’re kicking off the list with one of this year’s most recent releases, an accessory pack from NECA that pays tribute to the most beloved sequel in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, director Chuck Russell’s Dream Warriors. The pack, which is in scale with NECA’s 7″ figures, includes two “Elm Street” signs (Regular and “Nightmare” versions), as well as “Freddy TV” and “Freddy Worm” display pieces that allow you to recreate two of the most iconic nightmares from the third installment. Now we just need the Dream Warriors to go along with it!


Michael Myers, Halloween (2018) – NECA

Slasher icon Michael Myers got a pitch perfect 40-years-later makeover for David Gordon Green’s Halloween, and NECA absolutely nailed the look with their action figure. Equipped with “heart eyes” jack-o’lantern, severed head and Judith Myers tombstone props, NECA’s Myers 2018 figure includes two heads and the Shape’s trusty knife, and it’s part of their “Ultimate” line of deluxe edition action figures. The head sculpts perfectly capture the movie’s redesigned mask, and the figure is all around one of the best Michael Myers toys ever made.


Chucky POP! Vinyl Toy, Child’s Play 2 – Funko (Hot Topic Exclusive)

The folks over at Funko are obviously massive horror fans, and their POP! vinyl toys of our favorite icons often take deep cut inspiration from the franchises they call home. Take, for example, this year’s Hot Topic Exclusive POP! toy of battle-damaged Chucky from Child’s Play 2, based on the sequel’s kickass finale. “Chucky on Cart” depicts a bruised and bloody Chucky, with his legs missing and his right hand replaced by a knife. Now that’s one sequence from the franchise I never would’ve expected to see in the form of a POP! vinyl toy!


Ricky Chapman, Silent Night Deadly Night 2 – NECA/Scream Factory

Last year, Scream Factory and NECA joined forces to release a figure of Billy from Silent Night, Deadly Night that was initially exclusive to a deluxe Blu-ray set from Scream Factory, and that figure made last year’s list of our favorite horror toys. This year, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2‘s “Ricky Claus” makes the cut for obvious reasons, similarly released as part of a Blu-ray package from Scream Factory. Yes, we’re living in a world where an official Eric Freeman action figure actually exists, and you’ve just gotta love that perfectly goofy head sculpt.

Another winning NECA/Scream Factory collaboration this year saw the release of the first ever figure of Angela from Night of the Demons, which probably belongs on the list too!


Nubbins Sawyer 2-pack, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1 & 2) – NECA

Portrayed by Edwin Neal in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the Hitchhiker got his first action figure several years back courtesy of Mezco’s Cinema of Fear line. It’s a great figure, but it was totally one-upped by NECA with their “Hitchhiker/Nubbin’s Collector’s Set,” a two-pack that includes the first film’s Hitchhiker and his corpse from the 1986 sequel. The head sculpt on the original classic’s figure, in particular, is absolutely perfect, and the set is another wonderful example of NECA’s outside the box thinking. More fan service from true fans.


Captain William Blake, The Fog – NECA

If any figure on this list earns the title of being the biggest surprise of the year it’s no doubt this retro-style, clothed action figure of Captain William Blake from John Carpenter’s The Fog, an offering from NECA that it’s safe to say nobody saw coming. The figure was initially shown off ahead of Toy Fair and then was subsequently upgraded with glowing red LED eyes before its release later in the year, ensuring its inclusion on this list. Granted, it would’ve been on here no matter what, but the sinister glowing eyes really put this one over the top.


Savage World: Horror – Funko

I realize they’re not for everyone, but as someone who grew up playing with the classic Masters of the Universe toys, I absolutely love Funko’s “Savage World” line, shown off at Toy Fair back in February and then released over the summer. The line of 5.5″ figures reimagines the most iconic slasher villains as jacked up Masters of the Universe characters, and the translation results in an incredibly fun line of toys that are quite unlike any we’ve seen before. Funko combined two of my favorite things for this line, and for that I’ll forever love them.


Pennywise, IT (1990) – NECA

NECA released a handful of different Pennywise toys based on the 2017 film this year, including a deluxe edition figure and a GameStop Exclusive variant (more are on the way in 2019), so it was no easy task to pick a favorite from the bunch. But I was most impressed this year by NECA’s figure of the *original* iteration of Pennywise, of course played by Tim Curry in the 1990 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s terrifying novel. Classic Pennywise hasn’t gotten much love on the collectibles front over the years, so this one was great to see. As always, NECA nailed the look, paying “Ultimate” tribute to Curry’s nightmare clown.


Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning – NECA

NECA was the very first toy company to release a figure of Roy Burns from Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, and this year they returned to the polarizing fifth installment with an “Ultimate Part 5 Dream Sequence” figure of the film’s Jason Voorhees, highlighted by multiple different heads. One of those heads featured worms crawling out of the eye holes of Jason’s iconic hockey mask, while another was based on the film’s classic VHS art. Another “outside the box” figure from NECA that proves just how dedicated they are to making horror fans happy.


“Atomic Breath” Godzilla, Shin Godzilla – NECA

The nighttime-set “Atomic Breath” sequence from Shin Godzilla was legitimately one of the coolest things I’ve seen at the movies in recent years; the Big G unleashed the full fury of his might in the epic scene, opening his mouth wide and spitting straight fire into the city below. It was totally glorious, and NECA released this equally glorious figure based on that scene earlier this year. Equipped with “Atomic Blast” effects for both his mouth and tail, the new figure took their existing Shin Godzilla toy to a whole new level of jaw dropping awesomeness.


Honorable mentions include NECA’s Herbert West, Funko’s Part 2 Jason POP! vinyl toy, Mezco’s One:12 Michael Myers, and McFarlane’s “Stranger Things” x Ghostbusters set.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Editorials

Finding Faith and Violence in ‘The Book of Eli’ 14 Years Later

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Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.

To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.

Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.

After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.


SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?

Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.

For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.

Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.

Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?


AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.

From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.

The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.

Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.

With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega


There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.

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