10 Best/Worst Horror Movies of 2016

[Chuck Conry]

My site has the best/worst lists up for the year! So please feel free to give it a peek and tell me if I missed anything either way.

10 BEST HORROR FILMS
10 WORST HORROR FILMS

['Foretold' Joker]

Don't Breathe didn't get a mention? I thought it was a good horror film this year.

[Chuck Conry]

Dec 28, 2016 18:24:09 GMT -5 'Foretold' Joker said:

Don't Breathe didn't get a mention? I thought it was a good horror film this year.

I had it on the top 20 but the rest of the list would have been weak if I had done 20.

[pegasuswarrior]

Mind's Eye, I don't agree with. I thought it was terrible. I roll with the spirit of indie horror these days because it's the closest we are getting to true horror, but that was a little too much of a trainwreck for me. I like campy, and it has its place, but that was Kevin Smith lite in terms of thinking one is more clever than one actually is. Also, to be fair, I think I may have seen it before final final cut. I mean, if I recall correctly, the thing had just been edited together for a screening deadline that was then supposed to be "final cut." I know they had talked about that during the interview. So, I never went back to it. Still, I can't imagine them cutting out the stuff I found more goofy than clever campy.

Blair Witch was worse than Lights Out. Lights Out is a terrific concept. Suffered from Hollywoodization at times (too much for sure), but was one of the better Hollywood horror films this year. Not at all a Top 10 this year, but not a Bottom 10 by any means for me.

That said, I want to applaud your scope and commitment to the genre. Don't let the above tear you down or anything. I'm just adding to the discussion. Love your thread, and I like hearing from people willing to dive into film all the way to the bottom and not just skim the megaplex surface. Appreciate your work on this.

The Witch and Autopsy of Jane Doe are my #1 and #2 as well.

Holidays wasn't out of this world awesome, but I appreciated the idea, and I gave some thumbs up for offering stuff I hadn't seen before. Nightmare fuel for days in that one film. You've seen it, you know the one.

[StuntGranny®]

I think I'm the only person on the planet that absolutely hated The Witch. I didn't find anything in it scary or creepy and it bored me to tears. I did love Black Phillip, but who couldn't love him?

As far as the worst list, in my opinion, Yoga Hosers is easily the worst. Not only do I think it's the worst horror movie of the year, I think it's the worst movie of the year in general. There is nothing good about it.

Not that it matters, but my worst would be Yoga Hosers and best would be The Monster.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Glad to see Green Room in the top 10. THIS is the kind of horror movies the world needs more of. You could cut the tension with a knife, it was visceral and the characters were, you know, at least somewhat relatable. Gonna have to check out the rest of the list as they sound interesting and I want to believe there is hope for mainstream horror.

Surprised Ouija 2 isn't in the Bottom 10. Typical jump-scare garbage that studios shit out by the dozen every month because it costs f***-all to make and rakes in millions upon millions.

[Non Banjoble Tokens]

Really liked Green Room, watched it near Halloween as one of my horror movie binges.

While I didn't hate the Witch, I wasn't crazy about it to be honest. I get that they really wanted the dialogue to sound authentic, but half the time I had no idea what the hell they were talking about. I also didn't find the conclusion to be satisfactory. Probably the best way I can put it.

Saw The Forest on my Halloween movie binge also. I would agree that the idea was interesting, but they failed in the execution.

Haven't seen Yoga Hosers, but all the talk about its awfulness makes me think I should watch it just for the sake of shitty cinema.

Weird to see that they already made a remake of Cabin Fever, though not surprised to hear that its crap. I thought maybe it was a case of another country remaking an American movie for a change, but it appears to an American remake.

Was curious about the Phantasm movie, but I'd still like to watch it at some point.

[BRV]

A few takeaways from the 10 best:

- "Green Room" is a very good movie but I'm getting tired of hearing people call it a horror movie. What exactly about it makes it a horror? It's a violent thriller.

- I'm glad to see the praise for "The Invitation", which for my money was the best in the genre of 2016. What too many horror movies these days fail to do is build tension and pay it off. More often than not, they build and build and build and there's so much build that any payoff feels lackluster. That wasn't the case with "The Invitation", as the slow burn just boils over to an impossibly enthralling final 30 minutes.

And some from the 10 worst:

- My recent infatuation with anthology horror movies warmed me to "Holidays". The reason I've come around on anthology movies - whether it's "Trick 'r Treat", "V/H/S", or "Southbound" - is that it's one movie with a series of mini-movies inside of it, so while you're bound to get a stinker or two, there's also bound to be a gem hidden in there. And for me, the gem of "Holidays" was the phenomenal "Father's Day". It suffered from a lackluster ending but right up until that final reveal, it was among the best horror of the year in any format. To me, the only outright bad installment in "Holidays" was "Halloween".

- It's been mentioned before, but "Lights Out" was a fine idea that got the Hollywood treatment. The short film on which the movie is based is terrific and unwittingly creepy but it's also less than three minutes long. To spread that concept over 90 minutes, you'd need more interesting characters or a better plot. The movie is fine, by no means one of the worst of the year, but I expected much more when I entered the cinema to see it.