I am teaching a horror film course in the Fall. Ye gods and little fishes. Here’s some research.

101. [REC] 2(Italian)
Sequel to [REC] where mock-doc is applied to being quarantined in a building with victims of a flesh-eating disease. This one is about demonic possession being quarantined in a building and creatures still need to eat flesh. Lots of thrills, special effects, nifty hand held and video cam ideas. Ultimately stupefying, unless you really love a good “gotcha” horror flick.

92. Dead Snow(Tommy Wirkola 2009)
Ye olde cliche-written (and ridden) “teenagers in jeopardy from Nazi zombies” movie. I think the reviewers have as much fun writing about it as they have watching it, because it is SO ridiculous. What separates it from other severed limbs, guts spewed-&-chewed type fare is that it’s really nasty and takes itself wonderfully seriously. So it’s better than just a good-bad movie. It’s along the lines of Evil Dead movies except blood and guts look really cool on frozen white landscapes nestled in the mountains of wherever.
The opening of the film, set to Grieg’s Peer Gynt, sets the tone. It’s full of enough clever Grand-Guignol to warm the palpitating hearts of those who need more Raimi type smirking splatter in their lives. Don’t rent the dubbed version. Director Tommy Wirkola is directing Hansel and Gretel for Will Farrell. Perfect!

93. Orphan(Jaume Collet-Serra 2009)
This is like if Disney decided to make horror films to give kids nightmares. There’s all this typical family behavior that morphs into really sick situations; the ‘orphan’ holding a gun to her little sister’s head, creepy repetitive singing, squashing a bird’s head, and of course lots of cold hearted very bloody murder. I think that’s why kids are reenacting scenes on youtube. The very good Isabelle Fuhrman in the title role with killer gonzo deadpan stare, says her character Esther just wants love – a smart choice for any actress and how else can a child of 12 so effectively play a complete psychotic? . The adorable and (actually) deaf little sister played by Aryana Engineer is only 8 and she goes through horrific scenes. Not all parents let their kids do this kind of role, but she claims it was ‘fun, and not hard at all’. I’m a huge Vera Farmiga fan who has this way of acting that always feels part of an ongoing life of a character. Peter Sarsgaard is always good as the honorable, but necessary flawed male manqué. So too late at night I got caught by this likely-to-be cult film which runs 2 hours! I couldn’t turn it off and had nightmares, so I’d say it does the job!