BEST HORROR FILMS OF THE DECADE
In the past ten years, we have seen many things happen in the horror genre. We were introduced to J-Horror phenomenon that took the world by storm after The Ring. We were introduced to the dreaded “torture porn” phrase that got a negative connotation after the Hostel and Saw franchises, and we became cultured in foreign horror films. This past decade has offered many hits and misses in the genre and although picking the best horror films in the past ten years sounds as hard as picking the best booty call since the year 2000, I was still able to list what I thought should be considered as the crème of the crème in horror this decade. Read on to find out more and make sure to comment below with your picks.
Best Canadian Feature: GINGER SNAPS
Back in 2001, Ginger Snaps made a surprising impact and revived Canada’s love of horror with its tongue in cheek werewolf tale that mixed in the perfect amount of humor and scares and introduced fans to up and coming actress, Katherine Isabelle. PMS has never been so scary. Runners up: My Little Eye, Pontypool
Best French Horror Feature: HIGH TENSION
Many of you may be ready to debate me on this decision to name Alexandre Aja’s now cult film as the top French Horror film, but no one can deny that Aja’s home invasion horror film opened the doors for future French filmmakers to terrify us with ripped out baby foetuses and killer children. Although, the film has an imperfect twist at the end, it still is worthy to be recognized in this category. Runners up: Inside, Ils, Martyrs
Best Remake: DAWN OF THE DEAD
After Michael Bay opened Pandora’s Box with his Platinum Dune financed remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003, the world has been subjected to abysmal and pointless horror remakes ever since. However in 2004, newcomer Zack Snyder brought to the horror universe a remake of a beloved George Romero classic that had won over most horror aficionados after the film’s first crazy and apocalyptic nine minutes. I don’t care what you say; fast zombies are far scarier than slow zombies. Runners Up: The Hills Have Eyes, Funny Games
Best Sequel: THE DEVIL’S REJECTS
Many people will argue that this film is a stand alone film and that shouldn’t be considered a sequel to Rob Zombie’s directorial debut, The House of 1000 Corpses, however I think that’s a load of crap. Personally, if I hadn’t watched House of 1000 Corpses, I would have been slightly lost after the police raid at the beginning. The Devil’s Rejects took the Firefly family out of its surreal environment and put them in the real world where they appeared to be toned down yet no less terrifying than they were in the previous instalment. Now if only Halloween 2 was this good. Runners Up: Rec 2, 28 Weeks Later
Best Film Adaptation: THE MIST and THE RUINS (tie)
Frank Darabont (a.k.a “the Anti-Mick Garris) adapted yet another stellar film from the creepy mind of Stephen King in 2007 with The Mist. Unlike the hopeful ending in the original novella, Darabont chose to shoot a far more shocking and grim ending that not even the most devout horror fan could have seen coming. It was a bold yet appreciated decision.
Although not as good as The Mist, the survival horror film The Ruins definitely deserves recognition not only simply because it didn’t get it in its opening weekend when the dreaded Prom Night remake took the number one spot at the box office, (How did we let that happen?) but because Scott Smith (author of the novel and screenplay) made a creative move and fooled fans of the book by switching the character’s deaths and personalities in the script. Runner Up: Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door
Best J-Horror Feature: BATTLE ROYALE
Japanese horror films seemed to explode onto the scene in 2000 when the remake for 1999’s Ringu came out and wowed American audiences. However, the most explosive J-horror film has to be 2000’s Battle Royale which involved a huge class of young students fighting each other to death in brutal and horrific ways. Lord of the Flies seems tame compared to this beast. No wonder it’s Quentin Tarantino’s favourite film this decade. Runners Up: The Eye, Ichi the Killer
Best Creature Feature: THE DESCENT
Neil Marshall may have won over horror fans with his 2002 werewolf film, Dog Soldiers. However, it was not until 2005 when he unleashed his creature feature from beyond the caves with The Descent. I have to give props to a director for filming a horror film with an all female cast! I had never been so terrified in a theatre before and can honestly say it was the scariest film experience this decade…however, it still wasn’t my favorite. Stay tuned… Runners Up: Creep, Feast
Best PG-13 Horror Film: DRAG ME TO HELL
I know picking the best Pg-13 rated horror film of the decade seems almost as fun as picking your best STD you’ve contracted in the last ten years, but I have to admit some original PG-13 horror films this past decade have surprised me; most notably Sam Raimi’s recent horror film, Drag me to Hell. Despite his dearly missed departure from the horror genre in the past decade, Raimi made sure to please fans in this last year with his welcome return to horror and proved that large amounts saliva and nose blood can replace R-rated gore seamlessly. Runners Up: Disturbia, The Others, The Ring
Best Anthology: TRICK R TREAT
For a while there I was afraid we would not see this make it on the list as it seemed extremely doubtful that Michael Dougherty’s much buzzed about film was ever going to see the light of the day. Thankfully, the film came out just in time for this year’s Halloween season and has pleased fans and critics alike. Instead of taking the four separate stories and splicing them together with only a ghastly narrator’s introduction as the sole connection to the stories, Trick ‘R Treat took a unique turn with a broken-narrative tale following five different stories that all take place on Halloween night. The premise alone is why the film deserves the spot in this category. Runner Up: Grindhouse
Best Horror Film Directed by an Actor: FRAILTY
Years after he was turned into a pile of crap onscreen and years before he would be known for the most famous polygamist on HBO, Bill Paxton made and starred in one of the most influential horror films this decade. Frailty was a sleeper hit in 2002 and its killer twist does not disappoint. Catch this subtext-heavy thriller if you haven’t already done so. Runners Up: The Tripper , Roman
Best Hand Held Horror Film: REC
In 1999, the world was taken aback by horror’s most famous venture into cinema verite with The Blair Witch Project. Ironically enough, it took nearly ten years for filmmakers to capitalize on the trendy sub-genre and Rec is definitely the most beloved from the past ten years. The surprisingly decent remake Quarantine hardly made a splash into the hearts of most horror fans as they were still shell-shocked from their Rec experience to bother with it. Runners Up: Paranormal Activity, S&Man
Best Horror Comedy: BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON
It has been three years since Behind the Mask wowed me over in the film festival circuit, and I am still impressed by its fresh and beyond creative concept that deconstructs the slasher genre in the most intelligent manner I’ve ever seen. This low-budget mockumentary is something I will continue to show to friends for years to come. Runners Up: Shaun of the Dead, Severance, Hatchet
Best Vampire Film: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Thanks to Stephenie Meyer, vampires have made a huge comeback over the past couple of years for a PG-13 audience, however some vampire films have fortunately have had far more bite than the dreaded Twilight films. Last year, Let The Right One In won over critics with its beautifully shot tale of adolescent angst in the film festival circuit. Despite the fact fans were robbed with a poorly subtitled DVD release, it is still able to win top spot for best vampire film in my opinion. Runners up: Blade 2, 30 Days of Night
Favorite Horror Film of the Decade: IDENTITY
In 2003, I fell in love with James Mangold’s underrated psychological thriller and found it amazing how the clever twists at the end of the movie were made so obvious in the title, poster and spoiler-heavy trailer, yet were still surprising to see when revealed. I saw this film multiples times in theatres and on DVD and it still holds up to this very day.
Nice, good idea to put them into categories, you can mention more titles that way. Props for putting High Tension over Inside, I feel the same way. It’s good to see Battle Royale made an impression on you
Identity, good movie, bold choice.
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Nice job with the love for IDENTITY. I saw it on HBO and fell in love with it. John Cusack is the man. You put together a great list, but I would change a few things around. HAUTE TENSION, as great as the movie, the end was just as bad. That killed it for me. ILS is one fucked up movie, but in a great way, and that would be my choice. I would add 1408 to the adaptation list. I loved that movie so much. And once again, Cusack pulled it out.
I know it’s personal opinion, but for favorite horror film, I’m going with little talked about, but awesomely amazing, SESSION 9. I took me at least 3 times to watch it before I was able to watch it with the lights off. Wonderfully written and acted, this might be the most underrated film of the past 10 years.
Great list none the less!
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Nice list, love that Battle Royale is on there and that somebody else remembered Frality.
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@whitechapel Yeah..there was no way I’m listing in order of preference! WAY TOO HARD!
Glad to see you liked the list. 
@Brad- Identity is the sh*t! I think it’s pretty much forgotten by now..which is why it deserves some love! I’m actually not a big fan of 1408 to be quite honest and although I totally agree with you with High Tension’s f*cked up twist ending, it still was the catalyst for the other french horror films that scared the crap out of us. That’s why it noted it as number one!
Session 9 is great fave choice!
@Melissa Frailty is amazing!! Happy Birthday by the way
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Great list Serena!!
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Interesting list, Miss Whitney. I loved “Inside” and “Audition” (wasn’t that like 2001?). Best remake for me was “Willard”.
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Brad Reiter Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
I love me some Crispin Glover.
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High Tension is awesome but Inside smoked it in every department.
Willard always gets left out, such a great remake by Glen Morgan, as was Black Christmas.
I’d also give some love to Freddy Vs. Jason, a film that delivered the goods in all departments.
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Brad Reiter Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
FvJ could have either been great or horrible. No one knew what to expect after all the years it took to get made. I would say it certainly delivered. I loved it in every way.
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Jason Bene Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Ronny Yu delivered a gory, stylish, sexy romp that meshed the two franchises extremely well. It’s just an awesome film!
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For the most part, I think this is a terrific list. However, as far as the remake thing goes, I would have dumped Hills Have Eyes in favor for My Bloody Valentine 3D.
Vampire films: I put 30 Days Of Night in front of Let The Right One In…but after Blade II, I’d try to squeeze in Shadow Of The Vampire (2000).
I liked Ginger Snaps II better than the first.
Creature Feature: Descent without question. However, I would have given a runner up to Rogue. Yeah. The one with the crocodile. Munches on a pre-Avatar Sam Worthington no less.
As far as the best horror of the past decade IDENTITY: it is.
And that was before James Marigold’s recent successes outside of horror/suspense. It is almost tough now to even remember he directed IDENTITY, given Walk The Line and 3:10 To Yuma.
I wasn’t a fan of Alexandre Aja’s High Tension. Or Hills Have Eyes. Oddly, I actually liked the K-horror remake of Mirrors…and I am sort of looking forward to Piranha 3-D, so maybe I am coming around…
Adaptation runner up: Midnight Meat Train
Come on. You had to have been tempted…
-DjS
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