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.

FILM4 FRIGHTFEST SPECIAL — REVIEW: THESE FINAL HOURS

There's been quite the horror resurgence in Australia of late. Jump started by Wolf Creek, the Oz Horror scene has also given us the likes of Charlie's Farm, Storm Warning, Wyrmwood and arguably the biggest genre flick of last year, The Babadook.

The recent Film4 FrightFest introduced another Down Under flick that has been making waves, Zak Hilditch's end of the world thriller, These Final Hours.

Would this be time well spent? Or would I be counting down the seconds until the end credits?

Read on...

THESE FINAL HOURS (2013)

Dir: Zak Hilditch

Starring: Nathan Phillips, Jessica De Gouw, Kathryn Beck, Angourie Rice, Daniel Henshall, Lynette Curran

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

The world is going to be destroyed. An unspecified but massive object has collided with the Earth, instantly obliterating the entire Northern hemisphere and sending a catastrophic destructive wave of fire out from the point of impact that will utterly annihilate anything and everything in its path. The people of Australia are told they have just eight short hours until it reaches them.

The film opens with irresponsible screw-up James (Phillips) in bed with Zoe (De Goew) pondering the unspeakable fate they face. Making an already unbearably poignant moment all-the-more heartbreaking, Zoe then reveals that she is expecting his baby.

James, never one to accept responsibility or man-up, promptly chooses to abandon her, instead opting to meet his long-term girlfriend Vicky (Beck) at the party to end all parties, thrown by Vicky's brother Freddy (Henshall). Here James intends to do drugs, drink, smoke and screw himself into oblivion.

However, on route James witnesses two deranged kidnappers dragging a young girl, Rose (Rice) into a house to suffer an unspeakable fate.

Unable to stand idly by, James intervenes and finds himself the custodian of the girl. He then agrees to help reunite Rose with her family in a world in which laws and society have crumbled in the face of the apocalypse. 

Can this flawed and broken man do the right thing for once? Can he save an innocent... and himself?

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): Wow, These Final Hours blew me away. It works on every single level. The story, the filmmaking, the cast, the themes — it's utterly fantastic. 

Let's start with the story, taken from a fascinating premise that one can't help but hypothesise over — 'what would I do with just eight hours between me and certain doom?' — a story that boasts fantastic, well-rounded leads and plenty of great twists, turns and cul-de-sacs along the way.

It's compelling and provokes some genuine emotion (I felt quite choked up during some of the later scenes), not least because of some fantastic characterisation.

As flawed leads go, Phillip's James ticks all the boxes — selfish, weak, irresponsible, always making excuses — yet somehow we still root for him to eventually do the right thing, just once, and help the adorable Rose. This is thanks in no small part to the superb Phillips. His is a brave, honest performance, and makes for one of the most believable and tragic protagonists I've seen in some time. He is an excellent actor, a true star, and I sincerely hope to see more of him in the future.

Likewise Rice is a revelation — that rare thing, a child actor who is talented but doesn't come across as precocious or bratty. She is more than up to the considerable demands of the role, a role which is much more than just a plot device through which James is offered one last shot at redemption. Rice is a legitimate co-lead and she is just as good as her older partner. My sincerest congratulations on a wonderful job, young lady.

It is the interaction between the two of them that is the heart of the film. It encapsulates some of the strongest themes in the film — it's no small irony that after running from his unborn child James still finds himself in the role of guardian to a minor. There's no running from your parental responsibilities, a message echoed during an emotional visit to James' mother's (the excellent Curran) house. His mother has grown used to being let-down by her loser of a son, but when he comes calling there's still room for him. In fact, after witnessing the way in which James disappoints Vicky, Zoe and his Mum, we can't help but hope that Rose is the one lady he'll do right by.

The dialogue between him and his young charge sparkles, the delivery flawless. The story (written by director Hildritch) is surprisingly simple, but the richness of the characters ensures it remains totally captivating. Focusing on personal dilemmas and character arcs, the mysterious cataclysmic event that will end all life on earth is barely explained, but nor does it need to be — it's the MacGuffin used to spark the personal storylines that grip us.

Now all this talk of character-development and relationships may lead you to believe that this is a film that goes easy on the horror. This is not the case. We get some sudden and unexpected violence as James and Rose come across some individuals who have snapped in the face of inevitable doom and the bloody course they cut through the Australian landscape is horrifying. What's more there are some wonderful visual effects courtesy of Nathan Stone's talented team.

Yet despite the grimness of the story and the decidedly nasty events that occur on screen, the film is still gorgeously shot. Cinematographer Bonnie Elliot foregoes the usual dark and gloomy look of end of the world flicks, instead embracing the bright, blazing sun of the Australian setting, giving the film a dazzling, saturated look. It feels and looks very different to most genre efforts and ensures that Hildritch's eye for framing hits with optimum effect. Just one more hit in a film with very few misses.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): Expect this section of the review to be very short.

One area in which it might suffer is the linear, uncomplicated nature of its storyline. As I said earlier, the plot is surprisingly simple and the biggest plot device, the world-ending catalyst is never truly explained. What's more, the very narrow focus on one or two major characters robs the film of scale. Some may be bothered by this, I however enjoyed it. Not giving us an explanation for the wave of destruction is a sound strategy, it stops all the DIY scientists from picking holes in the story, and ultimately, whatever it is that has caused the events of the film is largely irrelevant.

The narrow focus works because this is a film about one man learning to actually be a man before it's too late. It focuses on James' journey because THAT is what the film is really about.

However, there is a small setback here — the other characters do receive quite short shrift as they tend to be defined by their relationships with or actions towards James and Rose. The supporting cast of De Goew, Beck, Henshall and Curran are all excellent, but I do wish they'd all been given a bit more to do. Nevertheless they make the most of their screentime and there's only so long a film can be.

Finally, while there are some horrific scenes it's worth pointing out that this is more of a very dark apocalyptic thriller than a true horror movie. If you want chainsaws, a bodycount in double figures, scenes of prolonged torture and keyboard-slam jumpscares, look elsewhere. If, however, you want a more thought-provoking look at the far more scary prospect of inevitable destruction, These Final Hours is everything you could possibly ask for.

THE VERDICT: I'll cut straight to it — These Final Hours was the best film I saw at this year's FrightFest. 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. From the cast, to the direction to the story, I cannot praise These Final Hours highly enough. It is an absolute must-see. 

Luckily, UK readers will be given the chance to see it very soon — hot on the heels of its FrightFest screening the movie will also be showing at Sheffield's Celluloid Screams Festival. If you're nearby and able to attend, you simply have to see it.
Furthermore, the film has already won plenty of support in the States and is now set to be adapted as a TV series by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp! Marvellous news!

Read my previous Film4 Frightfest special reviews for Suspension here, The Nightmare here, Wind Walkers here, Stung here, Night of the Slasher here, Invaders here, Crow Hand!!! here, We Are Still Here here, Demonic here, The Lazarus Effect here, Turbo Kid here and Another Me 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.