6) Stake Land
What?! Vampires can be scary!? Stake Land was handily built with every intention to bring some type of horror back into the now puffy and dreamy Vampire genre, and hot damn did Stake Land pull it off. Director Jim Mickle makes sure his vampires are grotesque and monster like, differentiating from the glowing pretty-boys adored by tweens nationwide. Nick Damici, who stars as mentor character Mister, also helped write the script, proving to be a bona fide double threat for this horror film. Essentially the Zombieland movie of the vampiric genre, minus the comedy, a lot of comparisons can be drawn between both scripts, but only at face value. Same “old vet trains young kid in killing ways”, same “find the not infected zone being rumored about”, but thank god the details are different. Stake Land brings in religious cults, interactions with safe zones, and some horrific gooey gore, giving an emphatic middle finger to the Twilight series for destroying all credibility bloodsuckers once had.
-Nato
5) Troll Hunter
Norwegians make amazing movies. I am sorry if that seems like a very general statement, but if you don’t believe me, go watch some Norwegian horror. It never fails to blow our minds. And never have our minds been blown like they were blown when watching Troll Hunter last year. Everything about this film is done pitch-perfect. It’s a movie about a man who hunts trolls (duh), but the best part is, this is an actual Norwegian myth. There are certain rock formations in Norway that GREATLY resemble massive trolls turned to stone, so this film uses that urban legends, and ups it using found footage and honestly spectacular special effects. The scale of those trolls is remarkable to watch, and the entire ride of this film, from the very first frame to the last, is pure, unadulterated delight. Might not be “horror” in the truest sense of the word, because it leans more toward fantasy, but once you see what they do when the trolls catch you, you will see why it is on the list.
-Remy
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