As 2017 draws to a close it is time to celebrate those genre films that stand out above all others as the best of the best, the Top 10 of 2017.
10. Tragedy Girls
Tragedy Girls centers on “two death-obsessed teenage girls who use their online show about real-life tragedies to send their small Midwest town into a frenzy, cementing their legacy as modern horror legends.”
Executive producer Kerry Rhodes (interview) stars opposite Deadpool’s Brianna Hildebrand, X Men: Apocolypse’s Alexandra Ship, and Hall Pass’s NicWhelan. The cast also features Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Craig Robinson (Hot Tub Time Machine), Kevin Durand (The Strain), and Jack Quaid (The Hunger Games, Vinyl).
9. The Vault
The Vault, the first of its kind combines the robbery genre and the horror genre and the result is fantastic. In order to save their brother Michael’s life, the Dillon sisters, Leah and Vee have organized a bank robbery, but when the upstairs vault doesn’t have enough money to cover Michael’s debt, on the advice of Assistant Bank Manager Ed Maas, they drill into the downstairs vault. But the bank’s basement hides a terrible secret and before long, the Dillons have to choose whether to face the police outside or the terrible supernatural forces in the vault below.
Starring James Franco, Scott Haze (interview), Francesca Eastwood, and Taryn Manning, writer-director Dan Bush’s (interview) film is one you don’t want to miss (review).
8. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
The Autopsy of Jane Doe opens with a father-son ending the autopsy of a burn victim which actually turned out to be an accidental death. Just as the son, Austin (Emile Hirsch), is leaving with his girlfriend the sheriff turns up with a body found mysteriously buried in the basement of two murder victims. Feeling obligated to help his father, Tommy (Brian Cox), Austin delays his date to help with the body. The father and son have no idea of the evil they are about to face. (review)
7. Annabelle: Creation
Annabelle: Creation takes us back to the beginning, before the events of the first film that led to Ed and Lorraine Warren taking possession of the doll. The film is set several years after the tragic death of a dollmaker’s little girl. He and his wife “welcome into their home a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage. Soon they become the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.
Stephanie Sigman (Spectre) co-stars in this prequel alongside Talitha Bateman (The 5th Wave), Lulu Wilson (Deliver Us from Evil), Philippa Anne Coulthard (After the Dark), Grace Fulton (Badland), Lou Lou Safran (The Choice), Samara Lee (The Last Witch Hunter), Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace), Miranda Otto (Homeland) and newcomer Tayler Bucks. (review)
6. Jigsaw
In Jigsaw, bodies are turning up around the city, each having met a uniquely gruesome demise. As the investigation proceeds, evidence points to one man, John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the man known as Jigsaw. The problem is, Jigsaw has been dead for over a decade.
Mandela Van Peebles, Hannah Anderson, Laura Vandervoort, Callum Keith Rennie, Brittany Allen, Hannah Anderson, Matt Passmore, Josiah Black, Michael Boisvert, Shaquan Lewis, and James Gomez will co-star in the film guaranteed to be as gruesome as its predecessors.
5. Life
When a crew aboard an international space station discovers a new life form things quickly go from bad to worst. Daniel Espinosa’s Life stars Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dihovichnaya, Naoko Mori, Ariyon Bakare, and Alexandre Nguyen.
4. The Belko Experiment
Directed by Greg McLean and written by James Gunn, The Belko Experiment follows an office building full of employees as they are pit against each in a battle for survival. The movie is filled with blood, gore, and desperation, all the things you need to make a good action-horror film.
The all-star cast includes Josh Brener, Tony Goldwyn, John Gallagher Jr., Sean Gunn, John C. McGinley, Adria Arjona, Brent Sexton, Melonie Diaz, Abraham Benrubi, David Dastmalchain, Owain Yeoman, Rusty Schwimmer, and Michael Rooker.
3. Split
M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, a surprise sequel to his 2000 film Unbreakable, was fantastic. James McAvoy’s portrayal of a man suffering from 23 personalities was simply brilliant. When McAvoy’s character kidnaps three girls they a must escape before the 24th and most deadly personality shows itself. Luckily, the sequel, titled Glass, is already in production.
2. Get Out
Writer-director Jordan Peele made his genre directorial debut with Get Out and hit a home run. Not only is the film filled with tension, and horror, it makes a social statement.
For those of you who are not familiar with Get Out, the story centers around Chris, a young African American man, and his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) as they leave the city to travel to her parents’ house where Chris will meet the family for the first time. Soon after they arrive, Chris begins to notice that things don’t seem quite right. What began as a pleasant weekend quickly turns into a total nightmare.
Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, and John Wilmot star.
1. Stephen King’s IT
Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It was the clear winner this year at the box office bringing in over $700 million. While we will always have a special place in our hearts for the miniseries, the new version is darker, scarier, and the SFX are amazing.
Bill Skarsgard stars as the terrifying creature known as Pennywise. With Jaedon Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, and Chosen Jacobs as “The Losers’ Club”.
Bring home your copy of It on January 9, 2018.
To the directors, writers, producers, cast, and crew, we salute you and congratulate you on making a fantastic film.
