Ray Wise (Swamp Thing, Robocop) stars as a man driving his family (including genre favorite Lin Shaye as his wife) to a Christmas dinner at their in-laws' house. He takes a short cut down a side road that seems to go on forever, and from which there appears to be no escape. Plus they are being haunted by the mysterious Woman in White (former Supermodel Amber Smith, still smoking-hot even in ghost form). One by one the family members start to descend into madness, while daughter Alexandra Holden (Sugar and Spice) tries to hold them together. The film's big twist is obvious pretty early on, but it's still a lot of fun to watch the family slowly fall apart. There's an incredibly stupid coda which adds nothing to the previous story, and is best ignored.
19. The Burrowers (2008)
A family in the Civil War-era Midwest goes missing, presumably victims of the local Indians. A small group of men goes looking for them, led by the always-awesome Clancy Brown. They soon discover the family was taken by something much worst than Indians. Unlike most horror films, this one doesn't completely disintegrate in the third act. But it also takes a little while to get going, which knocks it down a few notches.
18. The Woods (2006)
Writer/Director Lucky McKee's follow-up to his cult hit May is set in a 1960's girl's reform school, where Agnus Bruckner (Blood and Chocolate) has been sent by her estranged father Bruce Campbell (don't act like you don't know who he is). The school is overseen by a very ominous Patricia Clarkson, and Bruckner makes a fast enemy in fellow student Rachel Nichols (GI Joe's Scarlett). As can be expected, there are strange occurrences at the school and people seem to be keeping some kind of secret which may or may not be supernatural in nature. The movie keeps the secret well hidden until its somewhat lackluster reveal and most of the school girls are interchangable, but Clarkson can always be counted on for a good performance. While Bruckner makes a decent enough lead, it's Nichols that gives the film's other standout performance as the school's bully who acts tough out of fear and a survival instinct in a place where the weak are preyed upon.
17. The Objective (2008)
I've written about this one before. It maintains a great sense of dread throughout its entire runtime, even if the ending leaves way too many questions unanswered.
16. Splinter (2008)
Shea Wingham (HBO's Boardwalk Empire) carjacks young couple Paulo Costanzo (Road Trip) and Jill Wagner (host of TV's Wipeout), and soon the three of them end up trapped inside a remote gas station by what can best be described as a walking disease. The acting is solid, the creature effects are good, the suspense is tight, and the characters act thoughtfully and logically. There's the expected last-minute effort to make Wingham's character more sympathetic, but otherwise the movie doesn't misstep. It's not original, but it's very well executed.
2 comments:
Thanks for the list. It's great. Rory put me on to your blog. Already watched the Objective, The Horde, and something I forgot... I hadn't seen most of the films, so it's been fun watching them. Anyhow, again great list, but was hoping to see Dead Girl on it. I assume you've seen it. I am not a fan of Australian/NZ zombie films so would have put this on the list but that's me.
If the "Dead Girl" you're referring to is the one involving a feral, undying woman in the basement of an abandoned hospital who gets used for all manner of terrible things, then yes, I have seen it. I thought it was daring and ambitious (though I didn't care about a single character in the whole movie), and completely forgot about it when I was making this list. It likely would have fallen somewhere in the 17-23 range.
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