22. The Forest
The Forest is set in the real-life Aokigahara -- 12 square miles of woodlands in the shadow of Japan's Mount Fuji nicknamed "the Suicide Forest" due to the high number of people who've taken their own lives at the site. The movie centers on an American woman who travels to Japan in search of her twin sister who was last seen heading toward the infamous locale.
21. The Black Phone
20. Saw
19. Nope
A horse trainer conspires with his sister and a couple of tech wizards to capture definitive proof of a mysterious presence that's been terrorizing his ranch.
18. Bodies Bodies Bodies
After asking whodunnit, this murder-mystery asks, "Whose hands are actually clean?"
16. Hostel
In this squid game without a potential big money payday, students check into a minimal housing facility during a trip to Europe and they find themselves on the wrong side of depraved billionaires wielding scalpels, meat cleavers and whatever other instruments of death that they can get their hands on.
15. #Alive
A zombie apocalypse would naturally consist of hotspots throughout the globe. We've already gotten great movies about walking corpses (or in some cases, humans suffering from weaponized rabies) in locations as diverse as Manhattan (I Am Legend), Los Angeles (Quarantine), London, Manchester (28 Days Later), Philadelphia, Jerusalem and Wales (World War Z). Now we have an idea of what an undead outbreak would look like in South Korea.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, movie lovers have compared it to zombie apocalypse fiction, what with the global spread of a lethal virus and mass quarantining. Well, #Alive makes that argument better than any film that's come before. Many zombie films feature worldwide infections and some even focus on the isolation of the survivors but #Alive is the first to so acutely examine the struggles of protagonists voluntarily confined to their respective homes.
During a live stream, other players alert student and avid gamer Oh Joon-woo to troubling news reports of people behaving strangely in Seoul, South Korea. After hearing a commotion, he takes a look outside of his apartment window only to witness what initially appears to be rioting on the street down below. When Joon-woo notices a young girl savagely attack and subsequently eat her own mother, he locks his front door. However, a neighbor tricks him into taking a peek outside, at which time the stranger forces his way in and begs for sanctuary. Realizing that the guy's been bitten by one of the infected and informed of the danger this poses by news reports, Joon-woo wants him out immediately. But before he can carry out the eviction, he witnesses the stranger transform from a rational person to a mindless killing machine right before his eyes.
SPOILER ALERT
After forcing his former neighbor into the hallway, Joon-woo is faced with another challenge: worrying about his family, who'd all left for the day prior to the outbreak. Realizing that he has little-to-no cellphone reception, he inventories what little food is in the apartment (Joon-woo failed to heed his mother's advice to go grocery shopping earlier in the day) and resigns himself to life inside his bubble.
Eventually, and through much effort, Joon-woo learns that his family has been attacked -- and likely killed -- at his father's office. Out of food and mourning his family, a despondent Joon-woo attempts to hang himself. But with his head in the noose he learns that another neighbor has survived. Joon-woo and a young woman directly across from his building, Kim Yoo-bin, instantly bond and share resources. And while Kim calls Joon-woo an idiot for attempting suicide, she fails to disclose that she'd tried to hang herself as well, only surviving because the rope snapped.
Don't worry. It's not all sharing food and walkie-talkie conversations. The action kicks in before you know it when Kim is forced to abandon her apartment and Joon-woo has to charge into the middle of Zombievania in order to save her from certain death.
Though you might expect Joon-woo's considerable experience playing first-person-shooters to be adequate preparation for peeling actual caps when necessary, he balks, then outright refuses to squeeze the trigger when he gets his hands on a revolver. But he's highly resourceful, employing his drone as a delivery system and turning his cell into a radio.
As in most great zombie thrillers, the marauding "creatures", as they're called by Kim Yoo-bin, are never actually referred to as "zombies" during the movie. These particularly dangerous biters are capable of quick movement and also retain minimal rational thought, which allows them to accomplish impressive feats like turning door knobs.
Though 2020 has seen murder hornets, global unrest, the return of the bubonic plague and a viral pandemic, nothing resembling a zombie has been spotted -- yet. And it still may be a good idea to follow Joon-woo's lead: keep an eye on the news and stay home as much as possible.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, movie lovers have compared it to zombie apocalypse fiction, what with the global spread of a lethal virus and mass quarantining. Well, #Alive makes that argument better than any film that's come before. Many zombie films feature worldwide infections and some even focus on the isolation of the survivors but #Alive is the first to so acutely examine the struggles of protagonists voluntarily confined to their respective homes.
During a live stream, other players alert student and avid gamer Oh Joon-woo to troubling news reports of people behaving strangely in Seoul, South Korea. After hearing a commotion, he takes a look outside of his apartment window only to witness what initially appears to be rioting on the street down below. When Joon-woo notices a young girl savagely attack and subsequently eat her own mother, he locks his front door. However, a neighbor tricks him into taking a peek outside, at which time the stranger forces his way in and begs for sanctuary. Realizing that the guy's been bitten by one of the infected and informed of the danger this poses by news reports, Joon-woo wants him out immediately. But before he can carry out the eviction, he witnesses the stranger transform from a rational person to a mindless killing machine right before his eyes.
SPOILER ALERT
After forcing his former neighbor into the hallway, Joon-woo is faced with another challenge: worrying about his family, who'd all left for the day prior to the outbreak. Realizing that he has little-to-no cellphone reception, he inventories what little food is in the apartment (Joon-woo failed to heed his mother's advice to go grocery shopping earlier in the day) and resigns himself to life inside his bubble.
Eventually, and through much effort, Joon-woo learns that his family has been attacked -- and likely killed -- at his father's office. Out of food and mourning his family, a despondent Joon-woo attempts to hang himself. But with his head in the noose he learns that another neighbor has survived. Joon-woo and a young woman directly across from his building, Kim Yoo-bin, instantly bond and share resources. And while Kim calls Joon-woo an idiot for attempting suicide, she fails to disclose that she'd tried to hang herself as well, only surviving because the rope snapped.
Don't worry. It's not all sharing food and walkie-talkie conversations. The action kicks in before you know it when Kim is forced to abandon her apartment and Joon-woo has to charge into the middle of Zombievania in order to save her from certain death.
Though you might expect Joon-woo's considerable experience playing first-person-shooters to be adequate preparation for peeling actual caps when necessary, he balks, then outright refuses to squeeze the trigger when he gets his hands on a revolver. But he's highly resourceful, employing his drone as a delivery system and turning his cell into a radio.
As in most great zombie thrillers, the marauding "creatures", as they're called by Kim Yoo-bin, are never actually referred to as "zombies" during the movie. These particularly dangerous biters are capable of quick movement and also retain minimal rational thought, which allows them to accomplish impressive feats like turning door knobs.
Though 2020 has seen murder hornets, global unrest, the return of the bubonic plague and a viral pandemic, nothing resembling a zombie has been spotted -- yet. And it still may be a good idea to follow Joon-woo's lead: keep an eye on the news and stay home as much as possible.
If you wanna see a South Korean thriller that's even better than last year's Best Picture Oscar-winner Parasite then #Alive is for you. And no fan of zombie flicks should miss it.
14. The Cabin in the Woods
America is rapidly decriminalizing the use of marijuana. In the not-too-distant future, the country takes the same approach with violent crime -- for one night a year.
12. The Collector
A safe-cracker is in the for the worst night of his life when he breaks into a house in which a sadistic serial killer has targeted the inhabitants.
11. The Terminator
With every passing year and every advancement in A.I. The Terminator gets scarier and scarier.
If not for the comedy, Drag would be a serious contender for the scariest movie of all time. That goat -- Smh.
9. The Babadook
The Babadook is the most sinister kids' book you could ever imagine.
8. Pitch Black
Debuting in 2000, Pitch Black proved that this millenium would be just as horrifying as the previous one. Not only do the passengers and crew aboard the Hunter-Gratzner find themselves saddled with a convicted murderer for the duration of the trip, they collide with a comet and crash land on a deserted planet with way to get home. And then the trouble starts.
7. Devil
There’s
no denying that M. Night Shyamalan has added some shaky material to his
catalogue lately. Some have even gone so far as to claim that he's
washed up. That opinion couldn’t be further from the truth as the man
who wrote and directed the bona fide classic The Sixth Sense has delivered another great story sure to send a chill through even the most hardened cynics out there.
The obligatory setting is of course Philly,
but this time the bulk of the action takes place inside a downtown
skyscraper. On the surface the basic premise - five strangers find
themselves trapped in an elevator with very annoying Muzak – hardly
seems worthy of a feature length thrill ride. You either turn the power
back on or crack open the doors – right? Of course, it’s not quite that
simple as the run-of-the-mill rescue attempt goes wrong at every turn.
Naturally, we slowly come to know the various members of the quintet
amidst a variety of creepy revelations as everything seems to go wrong.
As savvy as you may be, Devil is
not your typical, predictable horror flick. In fact the events are
initially presented as a mystery to solve for the two police detectives
who we meet in the beginning of the film. More importantly, this
thriller has a brain – and a philosophical one at that. Devil asks the question, “Who’s responsible for the bad things that happen in the world? People or the devil?” To this day The Exorcist is the only movie that has ever scared me. Devil didn’t actually shake me but you’d better believe I was on my best behavior for a few days after I watched it – just in case…
6. The Exorcist
The Exorcist used to be the scariest movie of all time. But unfortunately, the special effects haven't aged very well. Otherwise, it would be in the #1 spot. However, I dare you to listen to The Exorcist...without looking at the screen... alone...late at night...with the lights out.
5. Predator
You can't tell me that the idea of a hostile alien -- that you can't even see -- that can take out heavily armed, seasoned black ops killers with ease isn't scary. The marines actually managed to shoot down quite a few xenomorphs in Aliens. Not so much in Predator.
4. Let the Right One In
If you saw the 2010 movie Let Me In and thought it was original and inventive -- you were dead wrong. That movie is an unnecessary American remake of a truly innovative 2008 Swedish film. Let the Right One In, in turn, is an adaptation of the 2004 novel of the same name.
The focus of the story is Oskar, a 12-year-old loner and misfit who's largely ignored at home and bullied at school.
This eerie horror masterpiece, with its early 1980s, snow-filled setting, steady pace and theme of isolation renders The Shining completely obsolete.
3. 30 Days of Night
It's a good bet that 30 Days of Night is the scariest vampire movie there is. There's nothing romantic about these vampires and no teenage girl on the planet would fall in love with them. They don't turn into bats, run from crucifixes or sleep in coffins. All they do is kill. This movie, more than any other, shows why they're in the monster category. Imagine being stuck in a small Alaskan town full of vampires where the sun doesn't shine for a whole month. It's like a local version of The Walking Dead - including the fact that a sheriff is the hero.
2. The Others
If you haven't seen The Others it's best to go in knowing as little as possible.
1. Alien
Alien is a phenomenal achievement on more than one front. It's a horror film that actually manages to scare people, and considering the true agenda of the corporation that employs the crew of the Nostromo -- the alien isn't the only monster.
Updated 10/19/22
Originally Posted 10/13/18
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