The Best Horror Movies of 2011

This years Best of list is going to generate some controversy. A few of the movies that we've included are ones that you won't find near anyone elses' "Best of" lists, and we didn't do that just to be different. Every movie on this list deserves to be seen because they genuinely affected us in one way or another, and more so than any others films that may have missed the cut. They also entertained the hell out of us.

You, our dear Horror friends, should do what you can to see these movies. Maybe they won't be something you'd put on your own Top 10 list, but we'd be surprised if most of them weren't.

If you see only one genre movie from 2011, it really should be this one. It's impossible to explain why this movie is so fantastic, especially in a short recap paragraph, but good lord we promise you that it is. When Asian filmmakers get their Horror right, they tend to nail it, and South Korea seems to be especially good at making, gritty, visceral Thrillers that stop you dead in your tracks and make you catch your breath. This is our pick for best flick of the year, and you need it in your Horror life! You could at least rent it to celebrate the fact that Kim IL Dong is dead. South Korea is best Korea! (Political commentary, we're edgy.)

This is Founf Footage done perfectly. You will gape at this movie, you will smile at this movie, and you will curse its ending! It made me actually wonder if maybe trolls were real, and if they did in fact roam the Norwegian countryside. This movie is pure enjoyment, mixing crazy lore, fun characters, and some fairly creepy/tense moments together to give us a movie that really is about as unique as it gets. Run, don't walk, and get a copy for you and your loved ones. Maybe even the neighbors.

No movie this year has been as talked about on this site as this one. 100k people have read our reviews, and hundreds have commented about it; we're talking comments of people who were genuinely disturbed and affected by this movie, and that says something. It may not be a better film than some of the movies that were left off of this list, but it certainly is a more important one, and should be seen by everyone. We will go on record as saying that the last 22 minutes or so of this movie were some of the most genuinely disturbing and terrifying that we've ever seen, and they will fuck you up. We just threw the gauntlet, didn't we? Watch this with your teenagers. Thank you Michael Goi, for making a movie that had a point and still managed to make us wet our pantaloons. *On a side note, MIM Director Michael Goi is not only the standing ASC President for 3 terms, but he's the guy responsible for the visuals of American Horror Story. Those facts alone should give him credibility with anyone, and they are reason enough to check out this labor of love project.

This is Horror comedy perfection. Well, maybe not perfection, but damn it all if it didn't feel like it. This movie should have sucked, because it's so simplistic and cheesy, but I will be forever damned if it it's anything but. The actors are what make this so good and funny. The script really makes no sense and goes nowhere, but what a great, amusing ride that trip to nowhere is. Can we call this the American equivalent of Shaun of the Dead? I think we can, kinda sorta. It was definitely on par with Shaun, albeit in a different way. Less "British-y." If you like your Horror funny, then you need to see this movie.

And here's where the true controversy begins... "What in the fuck is The Devil's Rock? And why does that poster look cheesy as hell?" Go on, you can say it. We can not judge you for doubting this movie. For some reason though, this movie hit the mark perfectly for us, and it's a shame that a lot of people probably think it's some shitty B-grade suck fest, because it's anything but. It's got a small cast, it takes place in a bunker during WWII, it involves the Nazi obsession with Demons and Black Magick, and it works extremely well for what it is. Top 10 of the year, though? It immediately stuck out in our mind when the time came to compile lists, so, yeah. Don't sleep on this one. Nazi's + Horror usually equals awesome, and in this case, it definitely does.

And the second WTF movie of our list is The Shrine. This was the biggest surprise of the year for us. It worked on so many levels that we sat through it a few times, and liked it more with each viewing. It's a slow burn for the first half, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but once it really kicks into gear, this movie is a creep-fest of the finest order. Not many movies truly give us a good scare these days, but this is one of the precious few that managed to. It's a neat, twisty little flick that ends up taking you to a place that you don't think it's going to... and that place is a creepy Polish farmhouse. Trust us, it's good stuff. Netflix this one if you can, and enjoy.

The last movie of 2011 that we had the pleasure of catching was also one of the best; to say this movie is intense is an understatement. Pants were shat. It seems to us that most movies that involve the dangers of mountain climbing tend to make us pucker-up (you know, down there), and this one was definitely effective in that department. What makes this movie interesting is that it changes gears towards the end, and almost becomes an entirely different movie. No matter, because from start to finish this was one hell of a fun movie. Also, Mmmelissa George is in it, and why would that not instantly make a movie more awesome? Good stuff.

Home, not House; the one with Daniel Craig was kinda meh. This movie came out of nowhere and kicked our asses. Josie Ho is a natural at playing a psychopathic, well, ho, and the things she does in this movie... let's just say that sht gets really nasty. You kind of sympathize with her character for a minute here and there throughout the movie, but it's impossible to like her. She kills everybody,and she's really messy and nasty about it too. This is a solid flick that will make Gorehounds happy, especially those that love that Hong Kong nastiness.

Maybe the best American Horror movie made in 2011, Stake Land is a flick that does Vampires right, and on the cheap. In this day and age, a movie like this deserves all kinds of love; no glitter; no fruity, awfully crafted love story; no vampire proms... this is a Vampire Apocalypse movie that paints a bleak and bloody picture of a PA world that sucks you in and doesn't let go until the end. This is truly one of the best Vampire movies we've seen in a long time, and it will be in our pantheon of bloodsucking greats for all of eternity.


Check the post below for the movies that didn't make the top 10, but that absoloutly deserve some Honorable Mention...

The Best of 2011: The Honorable Mentions

It's funny to imagine some of these movies being on a list of runner's up, because so many of them are great movies that could easily be amongst the best of the year. OMG, Attack the Block and Paranormal Activity 3 weren't on our top 10 list!?! What is the world coming to? Listen, they were great movies, and could be on any number of top 10 list across the Interwebs, just not ours. There were only 10 movies that moved us, thrilled us, creeped us the hell out, and made us happy more than these Honorable Mentions did.

That's really not a bad thing for thse movies at all.

The Worst Horror Movies of 2011

2011 certainly gave Horror fans everywhere more than a few clunkers. There are always good and bad movies that come into our lives, but sinking below all of the rest of them, are the worst of the worst. The movies that piss you off because you wasted time watching them, or were fooled into believing that they might be good. The ones that defile your sense of taste and make you question your own humanity. The ones that hurt.

Is this list in order, from the worst to the 10th worst Horror flick of 2011? Not really, because each in their own way was the worst genre movie of the year. Make a game out of it and make up your own order if you like. We just want to talk about them one last time, and then put them out of our minds as quickly as we possibly can.

More like "The Aching of our Balls." Yes, this movie was painfully tough to endure. Like a bad episode of Goosebumps with 1000 hollow CGI shots, some awful CGI blood, and an aimless and plodding story, Fading of the Cries manages to make a movie that makes even SyFy  Channel garbage seem like Schindler's List. Actually, Schindler's Fist would be appropriate, because sitting through this hack-job has to be similar to being fisted by a creepy Nazi. Seriously, it hurt so bad that we wished with all of our hearts for it to suddenly transform into Twilight.

The movie that we hated the most in 2011 was Rubber.This unfunny, self-important piece of shit actually made us physically angry while enduring it. We remember seeing the trailer last year and thinking how amazing Rubber looked; a killer tire with some sort of psychokinetic powers... that'll be fun! Nope, no fun to be had here. This is a perfect example of a movie and director thinking themselves too clever for their audience, when they're actually the retarded kids in the room. We'd rather throw puppies against a wall for 90 minutes than have to endure this fuck-hole of a movie again, and we love puppies. We genuinely love puppies.

Clive Barker, the creator of the Hellraiser mythos himself, said it best in regards to Revelations: "It's not even from my butthole." That just about says it all, doesn't it? Honestly, a 90 minute movie about Clive Barker's butthole would be more enjoyable than this celluloid taint of a movie. How in the world do you shit on one of the most iconic characters in Horror movie history so badly? Pinhead was a joke in this movie. Laughable. Pathetic. The overall story could have been alright, but the movie was so poorly made, that not even the best story in the world could have saved it from ruin. So maybe everyone involved needs to go study a certain gay Horror writer's butthole for inspiration, because everyone involved in this train wreck seriously needs some.

Originally, we "reviewed" this movie while watching it, via comments on our GetGlue account. Here's what we had to say:

"This movie is going to blow more than George Michael in a dirty rest stop. *For the record, we love Wham.
Is somebody kidding?.
Jesus fuck, even the music is painful. I'm pretty sure this singer is having a seizure. 
Yes! Please kill yourself so that you can heal immediately and... the movie can continue. Fuck.
Whoever wrote this shit ought to be beaten with a book. A big book.
Q: Which is worse, the writing or the acting? A: Yes.
Still haven't seen a werewolf...
What a surprise, a gaggle of shirtless guys.
This movie makes me long for Twilight... and that's the same thing as longing for death."
That should just about cover it.

As far as production quality goes, this may be one of the worst movies ever committed to film. Hidden 3D is a confused and as forgettable as they come. The script is shamefully bad, the acting isn't much better, and aside from running for 80 minutes or so, the movie does nothing at all. Whomever dropped the ball on this one should feel shame for tinkering around with movie that may have worked otherwise. Maybe. Evil bees. It's all about the evil bees.

So much hype preceded the release of this movie that we were crazy anxious to be able to see it. Once released, it seemed to be lavished with all sorts of love from the Horror community by and large, with some even calling it brilliant or visionary, or some such other nonsense. It's an amazing concept left to wander aimlessly through a slow, plodding storyline, that really ends up nowhere that isn't underwhelming. Walk, talk, sleep, act odd, repeat. That's what this movie is. Much of what we see on screen is pretty jarring and frustrating too, technically speaking. It was just a mess of a movie that we wish had been far, far better.

Another movie that made us wonder what in the hell horror directors are thinking these days was this mess of Darren Lynn Bousman's. I don't know that we saw a more dull or uneventful movie this year. Did he make 11-11-11 just to capitalize on the date? We hope so, because if he actually though he had a good script on his hands, were scared to trust his judgement anymore, going forward. Unremarkable, that's maybe the best way to describe this effort  It's one of those movies that you forget while still watching it.

How do you make a Horror movie aimed at tweens and not include any sex or blood in it? We can forgive a shitty story if there's a visual payoff, hell, that's what most of the slasher flicks in the 80's were; poorly made movies with tons of awesome sex and kill scenes. These days when filmmakers recycle cliche' old stories to cash in and make a few bucks off of dumb, unsuspecting kids, there's no effort involved, and usually very little payoff. In a Thriller like this, you kind of expect some thrills, don't you? Do assholes just phone it in and cash a check, thus spitting in our collective faces? Yes, yes they do. It's awful movies like this that make the "PG-13" moniker so dreaded.

We loved the whores in this movie, we cant lie about that. Everything else contained herein is definite face-palm material though. How did this cheap, poorly conceived and made movie end up getting a fairly healthy theatrical run? There's barely even any good blood or kills scenes in it, at least on screen. The multiple endings left us laughing and wondering if maybe the director and his crew were high on crack one weekend and decided to "Just shoot i man, it'll all make sense later!" It's not the worst of the year as many sites are claiming it to be, but it definitely is up there on the "WTF were they thinking" scale.

If you like the idea of a groovy gang of ghostly hepcats talking all "daddy-o" while lamely torturing a group of skanky bikers, then you should own this movie. The movie wasn't only poorly acted and poorly scripted, but we think it involved aliens of some sort, but we aren't really sure. It made that little sense... or maybe it just sucked so bad that we actively blocked out any sense it did make, you know, as a survival mechanism. this movie had no clue what it wanted to be, or maybe it did and it just couldn't make us give a shit.

Check below for the rest of the naughty list of 2011 movies...