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Halloween 2009 - the best (and worst) horror films

Written by Adam Ezagouri
Saturday, 31 October 2009 00:00

Every year, the run-up to Halloween sees the month of October bloated with unremarkable yet strangely appealing horror films. 2009, it appears, is no exception.

Halloween has of course never been a holiday to be taken too seriously, otherwise an uncut version of Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist would already be re-released with a U rating by now. Priority is indeed usually given to those films with cheap thrills, silly storylines, teenagers in tight underwear and loud, jumpy scores: films designed for the sole purpose of seeing tornadoes of popcorn twisting through the air in front of the big screens like sweet and salted geysers.

This month saw sci-fi chiller Pandorum go by almost unnoticed, its familiar Event Horizon-esque take on the horror genre not quite what people were in the mood for in early October. Perhaps a later release would have been wiser. The same could be said for Rob Zombie’s grisly Halloween II - Rob Zombie being the only man alive who thought there just weren’t enough Halloween films. And as damning as the critics may have been with his latest “opus”, this shouldn’t stop Zombie, whom, as we speak, is probably already penning the second re-sequel of his beloved franchise reboot.

Thankfully, the refreshing wacky entertainment of no doubt future cult classic Zombieland brought a lot of much needed tongue-in-cheek madness to the Halloween countdown. Its snappy writing, clever, confident style and spot-on cast making it not only a good old-fashioned buddy action comedy but also a pretty darn good zombie movie by any standards. Another fine surprise was Park Chan-wook’s stylish vampire fable Thirst which made Let The Right One In look like an episode of Pingu. Chris Smith’s far from terrifyingly titled Triangle also did well with most critics and considering his filmography includes yawns such as Creep and Severance, it must have been a hard task for critics to accept his latest, much better creepy outing.

Finally, we enter this month’s final phase, and with the ghastly 31st here at last, Hollywood only has mere hours to frighten and disgust us puny mortals before the rotting pumpkins hit the bin for good. Unfortunately, apart from the mind-numbing silliness of effects-laden, annoyingly titled Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (try asking for a cinema ticket without cringing awkwardly at its very mention) and the familiar disturbing gore of the sixth Saw film, it fails to deliver real scares or anything worthy of a truly chilling Halloween. Cirque du Freak casts John C. Reilly, of all people, as a vampire and makes sure to keep the laughs and the scares firmly under wraps from start to finish. As for the unnecessary Saw VI, which relies solely on those addicted enough to have seen the past five instalments and followed the franchise religiously since its birth only five years ago, it promises more of the same and will no doubt bring us just that.

Halloween 2009 is finally here, and although the cinematic “horror” build-up this month has been far from inspired, it did bring us a few good surprises: kids should be satisfied with unconventional animation 9, while the likes of Zombieland and Thirst bring some fresh hope to the zombie and vampire subgenres. Of course, if werewolves are more your thing, make sure you don’t miss the re-release of cult horror comedy An American Werewolf in London (re-released on the 30th of October) which, as dated as it is, is always good fun. I, for one, can’t wait for next year’s long awaited Saw MDXXII.