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2001: The Year in Horror
Much drama was had over the past year, but
little of it on the movie screens. I really hate to be a naysayer, but it
was a pretty slow year, horror movie wise.
In
compiling a list of the best horror movies of 2001, I had to venture a bit
outside the horror genre and include a few flicks that weren’t labeled as
such--but as you’ll see, appearances can definitely be deceiving. You’ll
also see that, even if was a slow year, there were still enough good films out
there (although they weren’t always easy to find!) that the list went over my
originally projected 10 entries.
Now I, like you, have a life outside the movies, and so wasn’t able to catch every horror flick released this year. Hence, possible contenders like SLEEPLESS, SESSION 9 and JEEPERS CREEPERS remain unseen by me (for now). On the other hand, the omissions of GHOSTS OF MARS, BONES, CRIMSON RIVERS, 13 GHOSTS, THE GLASS HOUSE and THE OTHERS (sorry, but a decent Nicole Kidman performance, a stylishly rendered atmosphere and a $100 million plus box office take can’t hide the hollowness at this film’s center) are most definitely not accidental!
So here they are, my favorite horror
flicks of 2001:
1. MULHOLLAND DRIVE
Proof, as if any were needed, that when David Lynch is “on”
nobody can beat him! But who could have guessed that
MULHOLLAND DRIVE, a failed 1999 TV pilot stretched into a
two-and-a-half hour feature, would turn out to be Lynch’s finest
work since BLUE VELVET? It’s a creepy, maddening,
ferociously erotic, mind-bendingly bizarre masterpiece that contains
many of Lynch’s trademark obsessions--hot chicks caught up in a
(literal) nightmare, amnesia, a sunny exterior concealing untold
vileness and grotesquerie--but is ultimately unlike any other film
made by Lynch...or anyone else! I’m also pleased that so many
mainstream critics have embraced it so heartily (it won the National
Critics Association’s Best Picture award, and was even nominated for
several Golden Globes). Now if only those same critics would take
another look at Lynch’s vastly misunderstood
LOST HIGHWAY,
which if you ask me was nearly as fine.
2. THE PLEDGE
The “crix” may have gotten MULHOLLAND DRIVE right, but they
reeeeeally missed the boat with Sean Penn’s
THE PLEDGE!
I wasn’t terribly impressed with Penn’s previous directorial outings
THE INDIAN RUNER and THE CROSSING GUARD, but he
definitely hit his stride with this grim, grotesque, and deeply
disturbing thriller, an unflinching depiction of madness and
obsession--though apparently a bit too unflinching for most
critics. Of course, Columbia didn’t do the film any favors by
promoting it like a standard-issue cop caper (rather than the keenly
wrought psychological horror story that it is). Jack Nicholson
gives his best performance in years (thankfully bereft of the
grandstanding displayed in flicks like BATMAN and AS GOOD
AS IT GETS) as a retired cop tracking a killer, based on a
pledge he made to the grieving mother of a murdered girl. This
seemingly harmless vow takes on horrific dimensions as Nicholson
lets it consume him, and Penn inverts all the values of the
traditional policier--in this film the end does not justify
the means, and this determined cop finds his sense of reality slowly
ebbing away. A sad, riveting and--yes--scary film.
3. (Tie) CURE and AUDITION
Two amazing--and amazingly grisly--thrillers from Japan. CURE
and AUDITION have taken some time to reach these shores
(having been originally released in 1997 and 1999, respectively),
but in both cases the wait was worth it. On the surface, the two
films couldn’t be more different; CURE is a grim, brooding
look into the dark side of the human psyche, while AUDITION
is a diabolically clever, even comedic (depending on your sense of
humor) take on modern relationships with some truly nasty shocks in
the final third. What these films have in common are structures of
astonishing originality that manage to breathe new life into that
most hidebound of horror subgeneras, the serial killer movie. True,
both have their share of annoyances—AUDITION'S
agonizingly protracted 90-minute build-up and CURE'S
maddening refusal to ever explain itself—but remain the state of the
art in modern horror, and confirm their respective directors
Takashi Miike and
Kiyoshi Kurosawa as among the most vital in any genre.
4. GINGER SNAPS
Now here’s something new: a feminist werewolf movie! And it works
smashingly well, with a wonderfully perverse sense of humor and a
genuinely subversive storyline that portrays lycanthropy as an
integral part (or possibly consequence) of the natural torments of
adolescence. An ingenious script that never shies away from the red
stuff and excellent performances from a mostly pubescent cast make
for one of the finest Canadian productions I’ve seen in years. Hey,
any movie that starts out with its heroines discussing the glories
of suicide and taking snapshots of themselves covered in blood (a
gambit that pays off stunningly in the film’s latter half) is a
must-see in my book!
5. DONNIE DARKO
If John Hughes were to remake PSYCHO, the results might look
something like DONNIE DARKO. It’s a freaky, surreal,
mind-expanding independent production about a misunderstood teen and
his best friend, a six-foot talking rabbit. Debuting
writer-director Richard Kelly has created a blindingly original and
totally assured mystery about illusion and reality, one whose
ultimate “explanation” resides solely in the mind of the viewer.
The twisty, sci fi tinged climax can be read any number of ways, and
managed to pique my interest in a way the year’s similarly themed
(on the surface, at least) Kevin Spacey vehicle K-PAX
didn’t. One thing is for sure: I strongly doubt I’ll be forgetting
DONNIE DARKO any time soon (something I definitely can’t say
for K-PAX).
6. BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF
An unapologetic attempt at replicating Hollywood “event” filmmaking,
this loud, aggressive, violent French production aims to
please--and, for the majority of its running time, does. Positing
that a wolf who terrorized the French countryside back in the 18th
Century was actually a giant spiked monstrosity under control of a
freaky religious cult, it mixes MATRIX-like kung fu
ass-kicking with gory monster movie action. Sure, it’s often
long-winded and pretentious (it is a French film, after
all!), but director
Christophe Gans really knows how to do this
stuff, and pulls off some of the year’s most satisfying action
sequences.
7. THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
I didn’t much like Spanish horrormeister Guillermo Del Toro’s
previous film MIMIC (and I’m not exactly breathless with
enthusiasm for his BLADE 2), but I can’t deny the brilliance
of this Spanish Civil War-set historical fantasy. The story
concerns a ghostly presence loose in a Catholic boarding school, one
of the last standing refuges in a blitzed-out desert. Frankly, I
found the supernatural elements to be the film’s weakest; far better
is Del Toro’s flawless evocation of a war-torn Spain, as well as the
unflinching brutality perpetuated by the school’s charges. This has
to be one of the least sentimentalized (and hence, truest) portraits
of childhood ever committed to celluloid--which, of course, is where
the real horror resides.
8. JOYRIDE
For retro drive-in movie fun, you can’t go wrong with the films of
John Dahl (excepting his 1996 dud UNFORGETTABLE). Early
features like KILL ME AGAIN and RED ROCK WEST are
virtual object lessons in how to make a neo noir, and this white
knuckled thriller continues the tradition. I usually HATE
teenybopper horror movies, but Dahl’s striking visual sense and
unerring knack for suspense kept me riveted throughout this lean ‘n
mean thriller about college dweebs on a nightmarish trip through the
Nevada desert. Featuring copious gore, car crashes, cute chicks,
psychotic truckers, freaky voices on CB radios, barroom fights, a
nighttime chase through a cornfield, and at least one large scale
shoot-out--what more could one ask for?
9. FROM HELL
This Jack the Ripper saga, loosely based on the acclaimed Alan
Moore/Eddie Campbell graphic novel, is a mess--but what a striking
mess it is! The directors Allen and Albert Hughes (MENACE II
SOCIETY) aren’t exactly known for period horror movies, but
they’ve conjured up a stunningly rancid evocation of 19th Century
London. The full-bodied, Tim Burton-esque world on display--of dark
alleys, whores and pestilence--is definitely an eye-full--but that
does NOT get Johnny Depp off the hook for his sleepwalking lead
performance, or the script for its severely underdeveloped love
story.
10. UNDER THE SAND
More fun from France! In this quietly unsettling film from director
Francois Ozon, Charlotte Rampling plays a woman whose beloved
husband mysteriously vanishes one day. Rampling consoles herself by
pretending he’s still around, even going so far as to carry on
conversations with this apparition, who seems more real each day.
The story is a bit like that of the above-mentioned PLEDGE
(I’ve long believed that if Penn’s film were dubbed into French and
subtitled, its critical reception would have been far more
welcoming!), but told with an eerie matter-of-factness that makes
its heroine’s descent into madness all the more chilling. Rampling
should have won every acting award there is (of course she got
none), as hers is probably the best female performance of the year
(well, along with Naomi Watts in MULHOLLAND DRIVE). The
problem is that, like many European films, this one started
production without a finished script, meaning it has a riveting
first hour or so, but collapses in the final third and meanders
toward an unsatisfying coda.
11. TELL ME SOMETHING
This 1999 Korean slasher had a VERY limited theatrical run here in
the US. Let’s hope a DVD release is on the horizon, because this is
powerful stuff: sleek, stylish and unflinchingly gruesome. It’s a
serial killer drama that, unlike CURE and AUDITION,
does NOT manage--or even try--to transcend its subgenera. It’s
closer to BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF in the way it slavishly
adheres to tried-and-true Hollywood formulas; but, like that film,
it’s such an impressively rendered piece of work that I was more
than able to enjoy TELL ME SOMETHING on its own (admittedly
limited) terms.
12. JURASSIC PARK 3
Steven Spielberg did the world a big favor by stepping down from the
director’s chair for this, the third installment of his hugely
successful dinosaur series, and handing the reins over to Joe
Johnston (HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS). What emerges is a far
from great film, but still the best of the three, forsaking the kid
movie pretentions of the others to proudly wear its B-movie pedigree
on its sleeve. Thankfully ignoring the concept of social
responsibility, and stretching its PG-13 rating to the breaking
point, this is one film that (to borrow a phrase from Stephen King)
just wants to get’cha! Still, I can’t help but wonder why Spielberg
and co. didn’t save themselves $90 million and just re-release THE
GIANT BEHEMOTH.
13. HANNIBAL
This mega-budgeted Ridley Scott adaptation of Thomas Harris’
bestseller had some pretty imposing shoes to fill--its forerunners,
after all, were Jonathan Demme’s SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and
Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER (the best of the three, IMO), both
horror movie benchmarks. Does it live up to such auspicious fare?
Nope. At its best HANNIBAL is mildly diverting, but little
else. Still, I have to give this movie credit for its outrageous
brain-snarfing, face-ripping, bowel-spilling thrills. It’s been a
long time since a big studio production went out of its way
to terrorize audiences the way HANNIBAL does, and it inspired
a number of hysterical commentaries by weak-stomached dorks
pontificating about the downfall of Western Civilization. If
cinematic brain munching is enough to trigger the apocalypse, all I’ve got it say is: Bring It On!!!
And so ends my list of the best horror
movies of 2001. I would, however, like to give one more
recommendation, in the Honorable Mention category:
14. A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Yeah, you read that right: A.I., Steven Spielberg’s flawed
but fascinating--and vastly misunderstood--film initiated by the
late, great Stanley Kubrick. No, it’s not a horror movie, but it is
one of the year’s strangest and downright creepiest films, as well
the most interesting Spielberg-helmed project since his similarly
underrated 1987 J.G. Ballard adaptation EMPIRE OF THE SUN.
If you were put off seeing this one because of the woefully
misleading advertising campaign (which made it look like E.T. GOES
BACK TO THE FUTURE), then I urge you to check it out on
DVD. Yes, the film does have its mawkish side, but that doesn’t
obscure the very real sense of grief and longing at the story’s
center, bequeathed by Kubrick, whose spirit clearly had no small
influence on the finished product.
So there you have it. Hopefully this list will stand as an alternative to most of the others out there, which—let’s face it—tend to be pretty much the same (film critics are among the most herdlike of all mammals). I’m also hoping you’ll be inspired to check out the above-listed films you might have missed. Most are out on video and DVD by now--needless to say, you’re advised to jump on ‘em ASAP!
As for
2002, I can only hope the rest of
this year’s genre offerings are better than recent releases like
THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES or RESIDENT EVIL (two flicks that
will definitely NOT be making next year’s Best Of list!). Otherwise
I’ll have no choice than to agree with the views of the unnamed
commentator mentioned in the HANNIBAL listing, that Western
Civilization is indeed at an end, and the mothmen can have us!