HICKEY'S TOP 20 HORROR FILMS OF 2015 – PART 2

The first part of my look at the best genre flicks of the past 12 months included fantastic films such as Bone Tomahawk, Krampus and The Hallow. Those are some pretty damn good films, but this second crop contains a selection that I feel is even stronger.

Ready?

Well, plough on!

TOP 20 HORROR FILMS OF 2015 — PART 2

10: THE FINAL GIRLS




Worthy of mentioning in the same breath as Cabin in the Woods, Scream and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Lesley Vernon, Todd Strauss-Schulson's The Final Girls is a brilliant deconstruction of genre tropes. With plenty of laughs and a surprisingly moving amount of heart, this is a great homage to the heyday of slasher movies.
Read my review here.


9: DEATHGASM





Jason Lei Howden's splatterific love letter to metal played out like a gloriously gory hybrid of Spinal Tap and The Evil Dead, directed by a young Peter Jackson. Deathgasm makes for an absolutely awesome fun viewing-experience and is a sure-fire, stonewall cult classic.
Read my review here.


8: WE ARE STILL HERE





Any film that pays homage to Lucio Fulci's bloodily barking Gates of Hell trilogy gets a thumbs up from me. Combining a quiet and personal haunted house film with spectacularly violent kills and starring Scream Queen great Barbara Crampton, Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here was a tremendous find.
Read my review here.


7: UNFRIENDED






It had a terrible name, boasted a cast of irritating shiny teens and a concept that couldn't possibly work – the whole film unfolds in realtime on a computer desktop – yet somehow Unfriended overcame all of that to secure a place on this list. Extremely clever and surprisingly dark and creepy, this is a perfect example of stellar high concept executed flawlessly.
Read my review here.


6: CREEP





A Found Footage (sort of) movie with a cast of two, Patrick Brice's Creep foregoes blood and guts and a metronomic bodycount for deeply personal scares. When Brice's Aaron is hired to document a day in the life of Mark Duplass's Josef we are treated to one of the most unnerving and creepy genre performances in a long, long time plus a legitimately unsettling ending.
Expect a review soon...


5: MAGGIE





Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin make for another fantastic central pairing in the surprisingly moving Maggie. A bittersweet look at mortality and the relationship between father and daughter, it's deep, depressing, complex and, at times, utterly beautiful. See it.
Read my review here.


4: IT FOLLOWS





Another film with a central theme of mortality and ageing, It Follows was EASILY the most hyped genre film of the year after it blew audiences away at the Cannes Film Festival. Ok, maybe it wasn't this year's The Babadook (despite what plenty of critics wrote) but Robert David Mitchell's film was a fantastically rich and entertaining film that offers plenty to enjoy to horror fans and 'serious' film watchers alike.
Read my review here.

3: SPRING





I'll be honest, I only watched Spring this week because I'd heard such great things about it and was about to compile this list. I’m so glad I did.
A beautifully shot Euro-romance, that just so happens to be a creature feature and body-horror shocker too, Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead’s movie is unique, original and one of those films that I know I’m going to be recommending to people for years to come. Absolutely fantastic.
Expect a review very soon...

2: THESE FINAL HOURS






The best film I saw at Film4’s FrightFest this year, in my review of this Antipodean Apocalyptic movie, I called it: ‘A beautiful, heart-breaking but ultimately hopeful tour de force, it is one of the finest movies I've seen in a long, long time’ and ‘an absolute must-see’. Two months on I stand by that. A character driven work of deeply personal horror, Zak Hilditch’s film is near flawless. If there’s one thing I hope my work as a reviewer achieves, it’s bringing These Final Hours to the attention of more genre fans.
Read my review here.

1: CRIMSON PEAK





Guillermo del Toro. Jessica Chastain. Tom Hiddlestone.
Gothic Victorian ghost story.
When I first heard about Universal and Legendary’s hugely ambitious ghost story (or is it a story with a ghost?) my mouth started watering. The film did not disappoint. Forget about the lackluster box office performance, Crimson Peak is a joy to watch. It’s sumptuous, atmospheric and exquisitely crafted with a host of incredible performances and some genuinely frightening spectres on display. An utter masterpiece.
Read my review here.

But it's not been a 12 months without letdowns. Allow me to present the most heinous of those...

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: GHOST DIMENSION





I’m a big fan of the low-fi chills of the Paranormal Activity franchise. Even when audiences started to turn on the series upon the release of Paranormal Activity 4 and the criminally underrated The Marked Ones, I remained a staunch defender of the films. So I was excited to see the ‘final chapter’ of the saga. 

I wish I hadn’t bothered. 

None of the characters we’ve come to care about, godawful CG and 3D, and perhaps worst of all, NO SCARES WHATSOEVER. I’d say the series finished with a whimper rather than a bang, but the total non-ending to the film that leaves every single plot thread dangling even makes a mockery of that. 

A film so terrible I almost begrudge wasting any more time on it by writing a review. Maybe for the DVD release...

Anything you disagree with? Anything you think should be higher? What do you want to see in my top 10?
Let me know below!

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors






Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

RAW REVIEW: MAGGIE

I think it's safe to say that, despite some great acting roles, Arnold Schwarzenegger's post-Governor film output hasn't set the box office alight.
Don't get me wrong, I get as big as a kick out of The Expendables movies as the next guy, and I really enjoyed the throwback action charms of Escape Plan and The Last Stand, but somehow the Austrian Oak hasn't brought in the cinema attendances that he used to.
I was greatly impressed by his 'serious acting' turn in Sabotage and it made me want to see more of this side of him. 
Elsewhere, unless you've been living under a rock, you can't help but notice that AMC's The Walking Dead has caused a huge surge in interest in intelligent, character-driven zombie movies.
Which leads me to Maggie. Arnie takes on an emotionally charged and complex role in a zombie flick.
Early word of mouth is that THIS is the movie that will cause Schwarzenegger's star to shine once again.
So can he show the sort of depth that such a pathos filled story demands?
Read on...

MAGGIE (2015)

Dir: Henry Hobson
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson, Aiden Flowers, Carsen Flowers, Jodie Moore, Douglas M Griffin, J.D. Evermore, Bryce Romero, Raeden Greer, Rachel Whitman Groves, Laura Cayouette

SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I'll try not to spoil too much here but continue at your own risk.

The world has fallen prey to a deadly epidemic, the Necroambulist Virus. People are contracting the disease and slowly but surely turning into ravenous, rotting undead. Once the disease has taken hold, there is no cure. To make matters worse there has been a bear catastrophic crop failure — the implication being that whatever has caused flesh to go bad is so virulent that it has spoiled the earth itself. The authorities have got control of the situation but the number of infected is still causing a huge demand on resources. As such, individuals with the disease are processed into horrific quarantine pens where their last few days are certain to end in agonising misery.

Maggie (Breslin) is a teenage girl who has contracted the virus. The movie opens with her father, Wade (Schwarzenegger) walking into a quarantine unit and taking charge of her. It seems that local doctor and family friend Vern (Moore) has pulled some strings to allow Wade to take Maggie home to spend some time with her family before the end.

Upon getting back to the house we see her half-brother Bobby and half-sister Molly (the Flowers siblings) bid her a sad farewell before they head off to live with their aunt. Quite understandably, Maggie's step-mother Caroline (Richardson) is concerned for their well-being but still wants to be there for her husband and the girl she has raised as her own in the tough times ahead.

Caroline isn't the only one to have her reservations, it soon becomes obvious that decent but frightened local lawmen Ray (Griffin) and Holt (Evermore) aren't pleased at the thought of a walking biological hazard in the community either.

What follows is a slow, in depth look at Maggie's life as she draws ever closer to what scientists call The Turn, dealing with both physical and emotional trials. As time passes and she reunites with key figures from her past including best friend Allie (Greer) and former boyfriend and fellow infected Trent (Romero), it becomes all too clear that she has no future.

But what will Wade do when his little girl is lost to him for ever? Will he allow the authorities to take her away? Can he bring himself to end her suffering? Or will he endanger his life and those of the people around him through his undying father's love?

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): Perhaps the best thing I can say about Maggie is that it is nothing like I imagined it would be. When you imagine a zombie movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger you can't help but picture a campy, high-octane, blood, brains 'n' bullets action romp.

Maggie is not that film. 

This is first and foremost, a character study. It is barely a zombie film if the truth be told. A couple of heart-stopping encounters aside, there is very little on the way of cranium splattering undead hordes. Much like the Necroambulist virus itself with its six-to-eight-week incubation period, this is a film and story prepared to move at a slower pace than a lot of zombie horror movies.

It could be seen as something of a gamble casting Arnie in such a serious and demanding role, but a couple of clunky line deliveries aside, he is mostly up to the task of portraying the terrible turmoil his character is feeling. I think that casting Schwarzenegger was actually a very intelligent move. Lately his roles have openly acknowledged his age, and I can see some very good reasons behind this. Aside from the obvious (the visual signs of ageing are becoming increasingly difficult to hide), it's also worth looking at the big man's fans, among whose number I definitely consider myself. When he was at the height of his action mega star fame, we were teens and young men, drawn to his no-nonsense ass kicking. Now we've all aged ourselves, settling down, starting families and even perhaps losing some of our youthful energy. In taking roles in which Arnie reflects these changes we can still relate to him. Let today's youth have their new generation of free-running, flying roundhouse kicking action stars, us old-timers are more than happy to stick with creaky but still talented mountains of manly muscle such as Schwarzenegger and his peer Sylvester Stallone.

The rest of the cast are uniformly superb, but special praise must go to the excellent Moore as Dr Vern, the likeable and personable realist who is tasked with reminding Wade of the true ramifications of failing to act. He also serves to dish up exposition here and there, yet the film never falters as he does. The young Flowers children are surprisingly accomplished for such tender years and both Romero and Whitman Groves who each carry sizeable sub-plots on their shoulders. I also liked the dynamic that Evermore brought to the production, a fiery man of action amidst a cast of introspective and subdued characters.

However, the best performance comes from brilliant Oscar nominee Breslin. She should already be familiar to genre fans for her roles in Zombieland, Haunter and TV's Scream Queens, and for good reason — she is a revelation. Her chemistry with Schwarzenegger is astonishing and she is capable of portraying complex emotional processes with the subtlest of gestures, expressions and changes in posture or intonation. She really is the star of this film.

This is Henry Hobson's first feature directing gig and it is an impressive debut. He gives the plot plenty of time to breathe, yet tells its tragic story in a way that grips the viewer as it inexorably leads to the gut-wrenching climax.

The film is visually stunning, too. Cinematographer Lukas Ettlin gives the movie a washed out look, echoing the deathly pallor of the title character and there are some shots (such as one in which Shwarzenegger stands in silhouette against a field of flaming crops) that are framed in a way that is quite frankly beautiful.

There are interesting sub-plots along the way, especially those of Maggie's ex boyfriend and fellow infected Trent (Romero) plus Whitmore Groves' bereaved neighbour with an axe to grind, but at its heart this is a film about a father and his daughter. Yes, Maggie shares some very touching scenes with other characters (especially a scene in which she says goodbye to the excellent Greer's Abbie and so much goes unsaid) but THIS is where the weight of John Scott 3's story lies. It is on the success of this dynamic that the whole film hangs. With some superb performances to anchor this plot point, luckily this is the strongest part of the film and utterly captures the attention of the audience, getting us to invest emotionally in the characters and their fate.

Saying this is a sad film might be an understatement. A warning to parents: this hits hard and doesn't relent. I've never seen a cinema as morosely silent at the end of a film as I did when Maggie's credits started to roll. It is not a date movie, but it is incredibly powerful, thought-provoking and very, very moving.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warner): Calling Maggie slowburn is a little like calling the Sahara desert a bit warm. It moves at a VERY slow pace, taking the time to tell its story and fully flesh out its characters, their motivations and the world in which it is set. I admire this patient and thorough storytelling, but if you were after some Zombieland or Dawn of the Dead '04-style thrills, spills, blood and one-liners, this is most certainly not your film.

Equally, if you're the kind of zombie fan who thrills to buckets of gore and meaty wounds of Zombie Flesh Eaters, move along. It has a very low body count, with a couple of ouchy moments but this isn't a flick made to please the gorehounds. If you don't have the patience for a film which is a lot more about emotions than eviscerations, you may well find Maggie extremely tedious. Be warned.

Also, while I praised the fact that the characters were well-realised, not all of them get the arcs or perhaps the screen time that they deserve. Richardson is especially hard done-by, her arc ending very abruptly, and it feels a little like she may have had scenes that have been left on the editing room floor. Don't get me wrong, she does an absolutely tremendous job with what she has, making what could have been an unlikeable character sympathetic and well-nuanced, but I wish we could have seen more.

I'd also have liked to see a little more detailing the attack in which Maggie contracted the virus, although the nightmarish flash-cuts we get to that moment are truly horrifying. 

Also, I do question how rewatchable the film is. It's extremely depressing and emotionally draining, so I can't imagine it's a flick to which many people will choose to subject themselves for a second helping. The story is very linear, with little in the way of shocks, twists or surprises, so I can see little reward for giving it another spin.

THE VERDICT: Every now and then a film comes along that utterly restores your faith in the way that Hollywood views our beloved genre. Forget about contemptible derivative bollocks like the umpteenth pretty-teen Found Footage, 15 Cert crap-fest you'll find every other week at the cinema; Maggie shows that filmmakers with real vision and a daring willingness to contradict and confound expectations are on the scene. Not only are they out there, but they're packing enough clout to attract big names and production values to Horror. I can't tell you how much I want to see Maggie recognised with the year's film award nominations are released. THIS is the sort of film I've been waiting for. Maggie is released over here in the UK by Vertigo Films on 24th July, please go to see it — it will stay with you for a very long time.

I never imagined that Arnold Schwarzenegger's tears could possibly entertain as much as his muscles – Maggie proves that I was wrong.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

THE WEEK'S HORROR HEADLINES (6th–13th April)

Not got time to trawl the web for all the top horror news of the last week? Well allow me to give you a bite-size breakdown of the all biggest nightmarish news!

1. FLAT FINALLY HERE TO WATCH!

Longterm readers of Hickey's House of Horrors will remember my review for Geoff Cockwill's atmospheric short, Flat, starring the lovely Libby Gore. Well guess what? 
Now the good folks over at Silvertip Films have put the whole film online, for free, for you all to watch! AWESOME! 
Catch it at the short's official Facebook page here.

2. SINISTER II POSTER AND TRAILER

There's quite the publicity surge surrounding Ciaran Foy's upcoming second chapter in the creepy Sinister saga. First the above poster and then a pretty intriguing trailer. What do you guys think?

3. MAGGIE GETS A POSTER WHILE MTV's SCREAM AND THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3 REVEAL TRAILERS

That's the poster for Arnold Schwarzenegger's zombie flick. NICE.

So, looks like MTV's Scream TV show is a remake then! How do I know?

THIS is how!

And if that's a little tame and you prefer your horror a little more, shall we say, intensely visceral, click here for the trailer for renegade director Tom Six's Human Centipede 3: Final Sequence.

4. SUSPIRIA TV SERIES ON THE WAY

French production company Atlantique Productions and Italian firm Cattleya have secured a co-development and co-production agreement to turn Dario Argento’s Suspiria into a TV series. It will be named Suspiria De Profundis after Thomas De Quincey's book, and in an intriguing twist, will feature De Quincey as the lead character in a psychological horror set in London and Paris at the turn of the 20th Century. Argento will serve as the series' artistic supervisor.

Read Screen Daily's full story here.

5. FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S FILM

Warner Bros has acquired the rights to the HUGELY successful (and pretty damn creepy) Five Nights At Freddy's video game series. I can't wait to see some practical effect animatronic Freddy, Chica and Foxy stalking hapless teens around Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and tearing them to shreds! Perhaps the enigmatic back story will be explored a little more too? Here's hoping this one lives up to its potential.

Read The Hollywood Reporter's story here.

6. WRITER ATTACHED TO GREMLINS REMAKE

Speaking of Warner Bros, they're one step closer to ruining my youth as they've found a writer for the Gremlins remake. Carl Ellsworth (Goosebumps, Red Eye, Last House on the Left '09) will scribe for the film to be produced by Christopher Columbus and Steven Spielberg.
Read Deadline's story here.

7. SAD NEWS AS HORROR ICONS PASS AWAY

This has been an extremely rough week for genre fans as a handful of wonderfully gifted acting talents passed away.

Tim Towles, star of numerous Horror movies including Rob Zombie's Halloween and House of 1000 Corpses, passed away aged 65. R.I.P. Tim.

Geoffrey Lewis, the man who was so incredible in Salem's Lot among other roles (often opposite Clint Eastwood), also passed away. He was 79. R.I.P. Geoffrey.

Richard Dysart, so memorable in his role as Dr Copper in John Carpenter’s The Thing, passed away aged 86. R.I.P. Richard.

A terribly sad week.

8. NEW RELEASES

Two big ones this week, first the outstanding Vampire horror comedy, What We Do In The Shadows hits the shops. Buy it at Amazon here.

Also this week, The Pyramid gets a home release. Buy it on Amazon here.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

HORROR HEADLINES (23rd-30th March)

Not got time to trawl the web for all the top horror news of the last week? Well allow me to give you a bite-size breakdown of the all biggest nightmarish news!

1. SIX MORE X-FILES ON THE WAY

It's confirmed! Six more episodes of The X-Files are coming to Fox, with both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson returning in the iconic roles of Mulder and Scully. Original show runner Chris Carter will oversee the production. First Twin Peaks, now this? AMAZING!

Read The Hollywood Reporter's story here.

2. SCHWARZENEGGER'S MAGGIE GETS A TRAILER

The Austrian Oak's long-awaited zombie movie finally gets a trailer... and the Big Man is not so wooden in this. Pathos, zombies and Arnie's beard. This has it all!

3. WALKING DEAD SPIN-OFF TITLE REVEALED

The Walking Dead's LA-based spin-off will officially be called… (drumroll please) Fear The Walking Dead! A bit longwinded perhaps, but pretty cool.

Oh, and there's a trailer!

4. FRIDAY THE 13th LANDS HANNIBAL WRITER

Nick Antosca, writer for NBC's wonderful Hannibal, has signed up to write the new Friday the 13th movie for Platinum Dunes/Paramount Pictures.

Read more about this story over at Bloody Disgusting.

5. AMC's PREACHER FINDS ITS CASSIDY

Joseph Gilgun of Misfits and This Is England fame has been cast as Cassidy in AMC's Preacher. He's a wonderful actor and is PERFECT for the role, so I'm very excited by this news!

Read Deadline's story here.

6. NEW RELEASES

This week's big release is definitely the eagerly-anticipated Fear Clinic, with genre fave Robert Englund. You can buy it on Amazon right here.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

THE WEEK’S HORROR HEADLINES (23rd February – 2nd March)

Not got time to trawl the web for all the top horror news of the last week? Well allow me to give you a bite-size breakdown of the all biggest nightmarish news!

1. WEAVER IS BACK FOR BLOMKAMP’S ALIEN

Star of the Alien franchise and all around brilliant actress Sigourney Weaver WILL return for Neill Blomkamp’s Alien sequel. Hooray! And, despite the earlier reports to the contrary, Blomkamp has spoken out to state that his movie WILL NOT ignore the events of Alien 3 or Alien: Resurrection after all. So that's cleared that up then.

2. FIRST CAST MEMBERS REVEALED FOR ROB ZOMBIE’S 31

I like Rob Zombie's films. Even his Halloween remakes don’t cause me too much chagrin, so I’m pretty curious about his upcoming killer clowns in deadly game at Halloween flick 31. Especially now he's announced the first couple of stars in the movie — Torsten Voges and Elizabeth ‘E.G’ Daily.
I’ve a feeling this one will kick some ass, so stay tuned…

3. ASTRON 6’S KOSTANSKI AND GILLESPIE BRING US THE VOID

I absolutely love the twisted geniuses that are Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie, best known for their nutso work on the likes of Manborg and Father’s Day as part of Astron 6. So imagine my unmitigated glee when I heard they plan to bring us a straight up horror flick using all practical effects and decidedly Silent Hill type feel? That’s right The Void is coming… and you can help make it so by contributing to the movie’s Indiegogo campaign right here!

4. SCHWARZENEGGER’S MAGGIE GET RELEASE DATE

There is finally a date set for us to see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s zombie flick. In the film Arnie plays the father to the titular Maggie (as played by Abigail Breslin), a young woman who has been infected with the zombie virus and returned home to spend her last few hours with her family. Sound intriguing? Well, you'll be able to check it out on 8th May!

5. AMERICAN HORROR STORY’S WOOLF PASSES AWAY

Very sad news as actor Ben Woolf has passed away aged 34 following a road accident. His family have released the following statement 
"We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from all of the world for our beloved Ben. He touched so many hearts in his 34 years. His memory will live on within each of us and within his work." 
R.I.P. Ben.

6. NEW THIS WEEK

We've two pretty big name horror titles receiving their home release this week. First the final chapter in the kickass REC series, REC: Apocalypse continues the spanish undead saga at sea. It can be bought at Amazon here.
And, FINALLY, the Eli Roth produced Clown has arrived! Hooray! Get it at Amazon right here.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.