The House's Top 10 Horror Films 2016

Happy New Year everybody!

As we greet 2017 now seems as great a time to look back at the very finest horror movies that 2016 had to offer.

Just a quick word to start, this has been a very tough list to compile, mainly due to the consistency of the output in the genre this year. I’ve seen very few poor horror movies over the past 12 months, but by the same token, I’m not sure there’s been a real, stand-out obvious modern classic along the lines of The Babadook, It Follows or Crimson Peak. At different points throughout the year each of my top five occupied the top spot (and there is some debate as to whether at least four of them are even horror movies!).

With that in mind, allow me to present my 10 personal favourite horror films of 2016.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Under The Shadow, The Eyes of My Mother, 31, Hush, The Shallows

10. BLAIR WITCH

Dir: Adam Wingard

Stars: James Allan McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Brandon Scott, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry

Honestly, if the rest of the film was as good as the last 15 minutes or so of Adam Wingard’s surprise sequel to the 1999 hit, there’s a very good chance that it would be sitting at Number One on this list. Unfortunately, this film is not as groundbreaking as its predecessor and some of the characterisation falls flat.

However, I really do think that the climactic sequence within the confines of that familiar house in the woods is arguably the most terrifying and chillingly effective horror scene of the year, one that single-handedly buys the movie a place on this list.

9. HOLLOWER

Dir: MJ Dixon

Stars: Adam Dillon, Becca Talulah, Nicholas Vince

UK-based micro-budget maestro MJ Dixon has created something astonishing with his Mycho-verse horror franchise. From Slasher House to its sequels Legacy of Thorn and Cleaver, these connected films show tremendous imagination and visual flair.

And Hollower is quite possibly his best effort yet. A taut, lean psychological chiller with a trio of great performances from Dillon, Talulah and Vince, it’s also the most mature and frightening film from Dixon yet. The bar has been raised for Slasher House II — if it lives up this one expect to see that movie on this list next year.

8. PHANTASM RAVAGER

Dir: David Hartman

Stars: Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Dawn Cody, Angus Scrimm

Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm series is one of the most creative horror series there is. There were times when I thought this final chapter would never come.

Then Ravager arrived and somehow managed to be both perfect and disappointing. It gave the fans a real sense of closure, presenting a ballsy, brave conclusion to the tale of Reggie, Mike, Jody and, of course, the sinister Tall Man. Yet as a standalone film for the uninitiated it lacked frights and a sense of cohesion.

But that’s Phantasm for you, a dream-like paradox, tonally uneven but full of heart. We may never see its likes again.

7. THE WITCH

Dir: Robert Eggers

Stars: Ralph Ineson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Kate Dickie

I’m bracing myself for flak here. The critically acclaimed genre movie of the year was visually spectacular, very deep and different to everything else and… well, a bit dry. There can be no faulting the look of The Witch, the tone, the nightmarish imagery or the stunning performances (everybody in this film is incredible, even the goat!). But I found the story a little flat and ultimately, didn’t care enough about the characters. I’m sure this will be the top horror flick for plenty of people and I can understand that decision — but it was a little too cold and detached for me.

6. TRAIN TO BUSAN

Dir: Sang-ho Yeon

Stars: Yoo Gong, Soo-an Kim, Yu-mi Jeong, Dong-seok Ma, Eui-sung Kim

28 Days Later on a train in Korea. So I wrote in my review of this absolutely brilliant zombie flick back in October and that description is still so apt.

It’s intense, frenetic and breathes fresh life into a subgenre that, like its undead monsters, has been shuffling towards obsoletion. It’s gory, pulse-poundingly action-packed and it doesn’t relent for a single moment, yet still manages to weave a sentimental story about a fraught father-daughter relationship as it does so. A genuine triumph.

5. THE CONJURING 2

Dir: James Wan

Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmigia, Frances O’Connor, Madison Wolfe

Much like its predecessor trumped big studio horror rival Insidious: Chapter 2, its sequel surpasses this year’s Ouija sequel and Lights Out. It packs more frights, more heart and some seriously impressive film-making from modern-horror master James than either of its big rivals and delivers some of the very best spooky moments of the year. I can’t be the only fan to hope that Wan’s franchise about real-life demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren runs and runs — if the next film is even half as good as this we have a real treat in store.

4. DON’T BREATHE

Dir: Fede Alvarez

Stars: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang

Sometimes the most simple premise delivers the most effective results. Fede Alvarez’s nail-biting thriller about three burglars who pick the wrong house is a perfect case in point. Built around a powerhouse performance from Avatar tough-guy Stephen Lang, this is a film that is utterly gripping and will have you on the edge of your seat throughout. It also boasts a couple of seriously out-there plot developments that do a wonderful job of establishing the robbers’ blind-victim as far less sympathetic and one of the most intimidating screen characters of the year. A must-see.

3. THE MONSTER

Dir: Bryan Bertino

Stars: Zoe Kazan, Ella Ballentine

This was a film that flew under my radar, then slapped me square in the face when it arrived. Another deceptively simple tale about an alcoholic, The Monster is about a neglectful mother, the tumultuous relationship she has with her damaged young daughter, and a fateful night in which their car strikes, well, a monster. A moving and layered character piece is told in flashback throughout the ongoing game of cat and mouse, the film is both heart-breaking and heart-stoppingly tense. What’s more the central pair of Kazan and Ballentine are amazing. Powerful and brilliant.

2. GREEN ROOM

Dir: Jeremy Saulnier

Stars: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Joe Cole, Alia Shawcat, Callum Turner, Patrick Stewart

Assault on Precinct 13 with a punk rock band. A good siege movie is tough to pull off. This is an excellent one. 
Notable for being one of the brilliant Anton Yelchin’s last roles before his tragic death, this is a tight and surprisingly bloody thriller which ratchets up the tension to nearly unbearable levels and refuses to let up. The cast is fantastic, the direction assured and the plot utterly riveting. 
For a long, long time, this was my favourite film of the year and remains one that I whole-heartedly recommend.

1. I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER

Dir: Billy O’Brien

Stars: Christopher Lloyd, Max Records, Laura Fraser, Karl Geary

This is not a perfect film, and I’m not sure if it’s even a horror movie, but of all the flicks I’ve watched this year, few have had such a strong effect on me. You’re better off going in not knowing anything, but this darkly comic tale about a borderline psychopathic teen who comes to believe a murderous monster may be operating in his town is hilarious, frightening, disturbing, achingly hip and utterly unlike anything else you’ll see this year. Both Lloyd and Records are awesome and so is this film. These reasons, and so many more, are why I crown it the best of 2016.

And finally, because not every film can be a hit...

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR

SADAKO V KAYAKO

Dir: Kôji Shiraishi

Stars: Mizuki Yamamoto, Aimi Satsukawa, Masahiro Komoto, Masaki Saisho, Elly Nanami

In truth, Sadako v Kayako really isn’t that bad a film. The problem is that, considering the source material, it should have been brilliant. I absolutely love the Ring series and I’m a huge fan of the Ju-On franchise, and this just doesn’t get close to the heights of either of them. It doesn’t help that the titular battle gets just a couple of minutes of screentime, and ultimately this just feels like a terrible missed opportunity.

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: PHANTASM RAVAGER

It's been a long time coming.
Don Coscarelli's Phantasm was released when I was just a year old, so needless to say, I was pretty late to the party. But when my good friend Mike introduced me to the film nearly 20 years ago, I was hooked.
From the slick Hollywoodised fun of the first sequel (released in 1988), to the wacky campiness of 1994's Lord of the Dead, to the low-fi mindgames of 1998's OblIVion, I am a huge Phan of the surreal horror phranchise. There really are no other genre flicks quite like them and, in the long wait since the release of Oblivion, I have lamented the non-appearance of Phantasm's End A.K.A. Phantasm 1999 A.K.A. Phantasm 2013, the epic finale penned by Oscar-winning writer Roger Avary.
It seemed the series was doomed... until Coscarelli stunned the world in 2014 with the news that not only was a new, concluding chapter to the saga on the way, the cast and crew had already finished filming it!
Now, two years later and soon after the sad passing of the iconic Angus Scrimm, Ravager is here.
THIS will be emotional.

PHANTASM RAVAGER (2016)

Dir: David Hartman
Starring: Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Angus Scrimm, Kathy Lester, Dawn Cody, Stephen Jutras, Daniel Roebuck, Gloria Lynne Henry, Daniel Schweiger

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

Following on from the conclusion of Phantasm IV, Ravager opens with ice-cream-man turned monster-hunter, Reggie (Bannister) roaming the desert in search of his nemesis, The Tall Man (Scrimm), and missing friend Mike (Baldwin). Along the way he crosses paths with the cute Dawn (Cody), not to mention the infamous silver spheres that serve the Tall Man and his siren-like alter-ego, The Lady in Lavender (Lester, reprising her role from the original movie).
But in another world, another reality, Reggie awakens in a care home, confused and scared, only to be greeted by Mike who informs him that he is there receiving treatment for early onset dementia.
Yet there is a third story at play, one set in a distant future in which Reggie is freed from the nefarious clutches of the dimension-jumping Tall Man by tough-as-nails freedom fighters Jane (Cody again) and Chunk (Jutras). He discovers that he has been frozen in one of the alien mortician's sphere creating machines and, while he has laid dormant, the world has fallen to the Tall Man's forces. Now gas-mask wearing zombies, robed dwarf slaves and city-levelling giant spheres rule the ruins.
As the stories weave together, Reggie is offered a tempting bargain by the Tall Man... and we are finally given an ending to one of Horror cinema's most unique cult favourites.

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): Oh man, I might as well just say it. I loved Phantasm Ravager. 
The first film in the series not to be filmed by Don Coscarelli, phans who harboured any fears that helmer David Hartman might not GET it can rest at ease. In Phantasm Ravager we have been given the greatest fan-film in history. It has all the trappings of one of Coscarelli's movies (outside the assembling of a number of the series' familiar faces), with a suitably enigmatic storyline and a pay-off to all that has come before.
It's always great to see Bannister doing his thing, from the very first movie he has always been the beating heart of the series, and in this story Reggie is absolutely the star. He's in practically every scene and he's really given a lot to do. He shows some real nuance in his performance during the nursing home scenes, while his trademark cheesy, laidback flirtation during his scenes with the ladies is as on point as ever. He's a lover, a fighter, a loser, a tragic hero and fantasist all at once. He is brilliant.
Of course a lot of the brilliance of the role comes from the great plot line that Coscarelli and Hartman have penned. This film was originally planned as a series of webisodes, until the pair realised that they'd actually assembled enough footage to finally create a concluding chapter to the story. That the pair were able to then devise a cohesive plot to join these webisodes together is an achievement in itself — that the finished product should be so utterly compelling is nigh on miraculous.
THIS is a Phantasm movie, and each aspect of the disparate stories at play within it makes for a perfect complement to the vastly differing films that came before it.
You want slick, cool badass action a la Phantasm II? You got it.
You want the wit and humour of Lord of the Dead? Check.
You want the emotional mindgames of Oblivion? Right here.
And if you're a fan of the surreal, dreamlike horror of the 1979 original, you're in the right place.
I don't want to spoil the plot — some of you guys have waited long enough for this moment, you deserve to see it with your own eyes — but I will say it totally did what I wanted it to do. It gave me answers, it raised even more questions, it showed the, ahem, balls to take the story bigger and more out there than any of the others, but more than anything, it took me back to Coscarelli's mesmerising  world one last-time. Thank you, gentlemen.
The cast are as great as ever. Baldwin gets a lot to do and he plays a number of characters himself, the Mike of two vastly differing realities. It's a role that he has just grown into more and more, and here it's truly captivating to see him take it up one last time. There's one scene late on in the movie where Baldwin, through just the expression on his face, nearly moved me to tears. He's excellent.
Of course, no review of this movie would be complete without mentioning the late, great Angus Scrimm. Even in his senior years Scrimm effortlessly evokes the menace of his otherworldly character. His gravelly voice, the trademark sneer — it's all here, and so is much more. We hear more about him, what he is, what he wants, and for every second Scrimm is onscreen he commands the viewer's full attention. He was a tremendous talent, a true gift to the genre, and this last performance shows us exactly why. RIP, sir.
The new faces impress — both Jutra and Cody are great and could make for a fun inclusion in any continuation or spin-off of the story — where as stalwarts Lester, Thornbury and Henry, while a little under-used, are great as well.
The film looks great considering its decidedly modest means, but true phans have come to accept these films being a little rough around the edges provided it provides as much heart as it can. We get some great visuals (the post-apocalyptic future may have been a little beyond the filmmakers' reach but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled every time we ventured into its murky depths), plus some truly iconic moments in the series (The Tall Man's proposition to Reggie in the inter-dimensional white room, the return of the Lady in Lavender at the mausoleum, that lightning-illuminated showdown on the floating rock, a final desperate mission to the Red Planet...) and even some scares.
Even though this is the end of the line for some of the characters (and possibly some of the cast and crew), I recommend sticking around throughout the end credits of the film. Maybe we have finally seen Phantasm's end... or maybe this is just the beginning.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): As I said before, Phantasm Ravager is a philm for the phans. If you're new to the series, this is NOT the place to start. Hell, if it's a been a while since you last sat down with Coscarelli's series this will almost certainly come across as a confusing mess. You have been warned.

I have seen a number of complaints about the film in other reviews, and I'm going to address them here.

I've read critiques which say the fact that the story was originally planned as a series of webisodes leaves the film tonally and aesthetically inconsistent. I think that argument misses the point. The film is meant to be seen as three separate, but interwoven tales and this just heightens that experience.

I've also read a number of complaints about the way the film 'looks cheap'. Sure, the visuals are very DTV, but I would sooner watch a good film made for a modest budget than a slick but heartless and soulless blockbuster. The CG may leave a little to be desired at times, but I think Hartman deserves to be praised for his ambition.

Now, it's difficult to discuss the last issue that some critics have raised, one about the nature of the ending, without running the risk of spoiling it, so I'll do my very best to remain vague but I'm going to stick a warning here just in case.

********** SPOILERS FOLLOW ********** Some people have reacted with real anger towards the most obvious interpretation of the end of the film. I shan't say what it is, but I really do feel that it fits perfectly with the themes of death, mortality and the fear of dying that have been a huge part of the Phantasm series since the very first movie. If this were to have been depicted as the definitive explanation and conclusion for the saga, I would have felt sad but not robbed. It's a bittersweet finish to one of the few horror franchises that actually deserves such a conclusion.

But of course, that's overlooking one major factor — we are given an alternative. With the concept of multiverses and different dimensions already established in this very movie, who is to say that the alternative scenes playing out during the film's closing credits are not also a legitimate ending? One that hints at even more ass-kicking and further adventures for our beloved trio?

Of course, another complaint is aimed directly at the fact that these scenes undo the scenes before it and ruin any true sense of closure. This is absolute nonsense. Hartman and Coscarelli are kind enough to give us two endings in one — we get to pick whichever one best suits our own preferred climax and go from there.

********** SPOILERS END **********

Finally, the only real qualm I have is that I wish some of the cast had more to do. It's a short film, so I would happily have taken an extra half hour or so of Scrimm, Thornbury and the criminally underused Henry. Henry's reprisal of the role of Rocky is basically an extended cameo. If the filmmakers hadn't announced her involvement and her appearance in the film had remained a pleasant surprise, I would probably feel a lot more favourable towards it.

THE VERDICT: This is a tough thing to write, because Phantasm is a series that has polarised viewers for years. The very epitome of indie, cult filmmaking, it ends as it started — on the terms of those who made the film, nobody else.

Ravager is an ambitious, thought-provoking, sometimes confusing but always heartfelt final chapter to a series that has been all of those things and more. It's everything I could have a hoped for — a phantastic phinale.

Thanks guys, it's been quite the ride.

Phantasm Ravager is available OnDemand and appearing at select cinemas in the States now. An official UK release has yet to be announced. Keep an eye on Ravager's official Facebook page here for more details.

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.