Best of 2013 - Casey's Take

Top 10

10. John Dies at the End
Again, being caught up simply in the story, “John Dies at the End” stands out for simply going against the grain. The story is nonsensical times, but it has a definite destination and it gets us there. It just has a lot of fun on the ride there. Formulas are easy, so it’s nice to see a film that throws said formula to the way side.

9. Sightseers
It’s easy to think of maniacs in the light of someone like Mickey and Mallory in the older days of Hollywood. It’s nice to see that craziness and plain bad humanity can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

8. We Are What We Are
For the subject matter at hand, “We Are What We Are” managed to take the gore out of a cannibal flick and let the nature of the meat eaters being the true horrifying element. The movie was sad and sorrowful and told a good solid story of a family stuck in their own alien existence.

7. Antiviral
A second gen Cronenberg flick that felt like a well done homage to the original. The movie was weird and disturbing, the settings stark and grimy all at the same time. Though listening to Caleb Landry Jones breathe heavy for an hour and a half took some work, he helped sell the weird dystopian future that “Antiviral” lived in.

6. Byzantium
Once again, I’m drawn in by story and atmosphere, and “Byzantium” has both in spades. Gemma Arterton gave us a troubled character that is both disturbed and sad, Saoirse Ronan gave us our opening to feel sympathetic and attached to the story.

5. Warm Bodies
When this was advertised, I expected “Twilight” in zombie form. What I got was a touching story about love and humanity. It’s was nice to get a change up on the standard and boring zombie tropes too. Let’s face it; Z’s are getting tired, changes like this are needed.

4. The is the End
As an “internet critic”, it’s easy to forget why we started going to the movies in the first place; to have fun. “This is the End” is a good reminder that it’s all right to watch a flick with a completely ludicrous story and just have fun. The laughs were high and Danny McBride stole the show! One caveat; if you’re not a Franco-file, you’re probably not going to like this much.

3. Evil Dead
It’s hard to believe that somebody re-doing the great Raimi-Campbell bible, but somebody did and it was a gory good time. They didn’t pull any punches, which is common in today’s safer, less-offensive Hollywood and the cast and crew were all solid. The switch up on key characters was a good time and the effects were fantastic.

2. American Mary
The Soska Sisters have proven themselves a force to be reckoned with by giving us a good story that makes your skin crawl. Katherine Isabelle gives us a troubled character we can sympathize with and it all oozes a great and disturbing atmosphere.

1. The World's End
It’s easy to get drawn in by the power trio of Wright, Pegg and Frost. We’ve seen and loved “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”, so it’s also easy to assume we know what to expect from “The World’s End” as well. It’s changing things up by giving us what we expect and adding some heart and some actual character drama that elevates “The World’s End” to the top of the crop.

Bottom 3

3. Texas Chainsaw 3D
They’ve remade this god damn origin story so many times, I’m not sure I even like the original anymore just by association. Give it up. Stop tarnishing this flick’s legacy.

2. Last Exorcism Part Two
Hey, I got a great idea! Remember that first movie we made, where we met this interesting guy who did exorcisms, but didn’t really believe it. He had this struggle with faith and the reality of what he does, and then leave the whole story on this crazy cliffhanger? Yeah, let’s throw all that good stuff out, concentrate on another character from that flick and throw away all the interesting faith stuff. Yeah, we can do some cheap ghost hunter type scares, it’ll be great!

1. Hatchet III
The first flick garnered a few chuckles but let’s face it; it still wasn’t good. The throwbacks were fun, but the story was bland. The second one felt like more of the same, which we were already bored with. The third left me wondering why we’re still seeing more of these. It feels like nothing more than “Look how clever we are referencing these 80’s horror flicks!”

Casey

Writer/Podcast Host/Cheerleader

Falling in love with the sounds of his own voice, Casey can be found co-hosting the Bloody Good Horror Podcast, the spinoff Instomatic Podcast as well as the 1951 Down Place Podcast dedicated to Hammer Horror. Casey loves horror films of every budget and lives by his battle cry of 'I watch crap, so you don't have to.'