2011 Horror Flash Poll rollout thread. starts and finishes today!

So yeah, thanks to everyone who voted! There's some surprises in here I think, so hopefully most of you are here to watch things go horribly right or wrong depending on how you voted. Going to roll out a top 13, not because of triskedecaspookiness, but because that way only things that got more than one vote will place. Does that mean that some peoples #1 might not show up? Yes, because in life, just as in horror movies, sometimes the ending sucks. Plus hey, heightened tension and all that.

After the rollout finishes I'll post the whole list so we can all yell at each other.

#13: Apartment 143 (orig. title Emergo) (11 points, 2 votes, no #1's)

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM0OTI4MjU3OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzQ4OTI2Nw@@._V1._SY317_.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxZ9PyeVoGg
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1757742/

Could really easily have been a cheap, lazy Poltergeist / Exorcist rip but it was really well handled. Interested to see Red Lights now.

Yup. Was rly happy with this movie.

It was a surprise for me too, hadn't really heard anything about it and stumbled across it thx to netflix instant watch. Acting is heads above most of the handheld cam/FF stuff, a (mostly) good script, a bit of a fall apart at the very end sort of thing, but well worth watching.

oh i should prob explain tiebreaker rules. in case of a points tie, the winner is the one with the most #1 votes. if that still leaves a tie, the film that gets the biggest number of votes wins. if both of those fail, life sucks, it's just a tie.

#12: Lovely Molly (12 points, 3 votes, no #1's)

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BOTgyNDU1MjU5Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzc4Mzc1Nw@@._V1._SY317_CR0,0,214,317_.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvAmfXz0PqU
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707392/

Another surprisingly effective one. Hated BWP so went in with really low expectations but it ended up being one of the most unsettling films on my list, despite some flaws.

I know that "from the maker of the Blair Witch Project" probably does more harm as a tagline these days then good, but this is def worth watching. minimal shakycam that really only intrudes a lot in the beginning, and then the movie turns into a dark, grim and moody headtrip. Not sure I am totally down with the storyline, but there's enough meat there to still make it all worthwhile. xpost

#11 Beyond the Black Rainbow (13 points, 2 votes, one #1)

http://www.magnetreleasing.com/beyondtheblackrainbow/images/photos/photo_09.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ertVYn750
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1534085/

which according to imdb came out in 2010? so uh whoops.

BTBR is a movie that i want to like more than i do. still good at what it does, but maybe the worst ending misstep i have seen in a horror movie in a long long time. fantastic soundtrack tho, and some visual tricks that are absolutely stunning. worth seeing, but make sure you aren't tired when you watch it because it is a slow grower.

xpost that's OK; I doubt anyone saw it until 2012, mostly, so it evens out.

but maybe the worst ending misstep i have seen in a horror movie in a long long time

wow that's REALLY saying something!

its really jarring, and not in a good way.

and ive seen all of the saw movies, so i know a terrible ending when i see one

going to try to speed this up so people at work can catch the rollout

#10 Martha Marcy May Marlene (17 points, 2 votes, no #1's)

http://twitchfilm.com/assets/2011/09/Martha%20Marcy%20May%20Marlene%20new%20poster.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERREgOobLOs
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441326/

Huh.

aggghhh still wanna see this so bad

I'm all for as loose a definition of horror as possible, but this is outer limits territory.

just watched this last week. good acting, john hawkes is awesome in everything, didnt like it. definitely subject to the old boring "is it a horror movie?" argument, but mostly felt very rudderless and oddly remote from its subject in a lot of ways.

i promise that its not my intention to do the crossed-arms harrumphing at other peoples choices, btw, MMMM just left me cold.

voted for this even though it wasn't nearly as exciting as i wanted it to be (it was heavy on the gauzy/dirty hot babes, not as much about the cult, made it seem like an ill-conceived tumblr fashion shoot imo)

Surely the rudderless/remote aspect was deliberate, though? Weirdly enough, I think the scene that ruined the movie for me was the one that was most explicitly out of a horror (or rather, a Haneke) film.

not as much about the cult

hmmm you just cut my interest in this movie in half.

oh yeah, i think that the feel of the movie was intentional, i just dont think it really worked for me

it's very fashiony, not heavy on the mind control (there are some good parts, and i was excited to see it based on that, but it did not give the cult details i wanted) instead there was a lot of listing around in dirty tshirts and cartoonishly square sister & her husband.

but i voted for it because for a movie about petulant rich girls in dirty clothes who get brainwashed by a guitar wielding backcountry perv, it was pretty good.

jumping back to lovely molly for a moment, the thing thats the most amazing about it not sucking is that the last film that dude made was "Seventh Moon" which was a total shitshow.

Yeah, MMMM's main function was probably as a showcase reel for its director and actors (much like lots of debut horror films), but that said, it's a darn good showcase.

i p much just want cult details. I want a cult procedural, basically. What is the garb? What are the house rules? Everyone has to ball the leader, y/n?

hahahaha me too!

garb: saggy dirty tshirt over plump young body
rules: take care of each other, never leave, get a fake name, preferably come from a family with money, be sorta fucked up, be female
ball the leader: yes

there you have it

Ya'll have seen Jim Van Bebber's indie film "The Manson Family," right? Now there's a cult-based movie that's definitely a horror film.

As good as this trailer is, the movie is even gooder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeYuYAbm-4Q

#9 The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence (18 points, 3 votes, no #1's)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AWFHXhjlL._SX500_.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okZZca4EfAQ
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1530509/

There was another cult-oriented recent horror joint i noticed on netflix insta... I'll be damned if I can find it now. The search terms 'cult' or 'cult horror' are pretty much useless, of course.

oh crap, slight error there

ok so that should actually be #8, because i flubbed one of the tiebreaker rules. lemme post the actual #9 here in a sec.

#9 The Oregonian (18 points, 2 votes, no #1's)

http://www.mposter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/the-oregonian-2.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzU-G1CpdI4
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1686327/

i highly recommend the oregonian to anyone who hasnt seen it. If you like your horror lynchian and weirdo, it's the best thing that 2011 had to offer. please note - its probably got the lowest imdb rating of all the films on this list, but iirc most people who rate things on imdb are idiots and wrong. there are several eye of the duck moments in the oregonian, and they are all tremendously effective, legitimate spine chills several times for me.

i did not like what the oregonian did to me but i have no problem calling it an excellent film.

It's very good. Not all of the Lynchian elements work but the overall effect is suitably nightmarish.

#7 The Wicker Tree (18 points, 2 votes, one #1 vote)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/52/Wicker_tree_ver2.jpg/220px-Wicker_tree_ver2.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO_ZRkDD26A
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323808/

one of only 2 on the winning list that i have not seen

yeah the oregonian def wants to get under your skin, and does a pretty good job of it i think. its a mean little movie in a lot of ways, very creepy and very claustrophobic in some way thats hard to identify. was my #2 for the year.

I only made it through the first twenty minutes of The Wicker Tree. The acting and script seemed daytime soap level but I'll give it another chance.

somebody find la lechera and alert her to this placing

so far, i've only seen centipede 2, black rainbow and MMMM. centipede's the only one that made my list, cuz, though i hated it at the time, it's effective, gnarly and has some real staying power.

just saw MMMM, and while i admired the photography and central performance, it didn't do much for me. didn't mind the dirty hot fashion shoot styling, but it was hard to get a grip on the cult's methods and appeal. without drugs, explicit "brainwashing" or religion, how is this devotion instilled? how, in just two years, was martha's whole world so profoundly reordered? the movie expects us to accept that it was and moves on from there, but i was a little disappointed. loved the "marcie's song" scene, though. good ending, too.

beyond the black rainbow has style to spare, but not much else. loved it for half an hour, forty-five minutes, but then got bored. and yeah, the ending's a major disappointment.

just started watching take shelter. dunno how it's gonna turn out, but so far, it's more satisfactory as a horrorish non-horror movie than MMMM.

i keep almost watching take shelter but i can never seem to be in the mood

yaaaaaaaaay wicker tree!!
wicker tree is not great, and i have a high tolerance for daytime soap level/shitty acting, but it gets a little better! the music isn't great but honeysuckle weeks (what a name!) was a charming willow substitute.

wicker tree had a strong voting bloc

Chicagos #1 horror movie of 2011 iirc

so far, this is the list this year deserved.

and yeah, i guess BtBR is technically a 2010 film, but it was apparently released on december 31st, which probably means it played some festival on that date, to a small handful of people. a borderline case if there ever was one.

I mean if I have to be in a quasi-religious sex cult, I would SO much rather be in the one in Wicker Tree than MMMM.

fwiw, i rejected MMMM not because i didn't like it, but because it just isn't the sort of thing i'm inclined to call a horror movie. suppose the same is true of attack the block, but i loved that one so much i was willing to grant a waiver.

hey, at least i'm getting a bunch of good suggestions for the watch list

@ jjj: take shelter is great so far, but very slow. reminds me of both weir's the last wave and antonioni's red desert. good performances all around.

Here's a 2011 movie that will not place in this poll, or any poll, and probably should not have been made in the first place, but I challenge y'all to suffer through the whole thing and commiserate with me: The Fading of the Cries. Unlike most lame/misbegotten horror flicks, it tries very hard to be someone's affecting masterpiece. As a result its WTF levels are through the roof. I was excited because it has Brad Dourif and lots of crows, but I should have stayed far away.

if ppl are so gaga for The Oregonian, what's the prevailing ILE opinion of Fever Night AKA Band of Satanic Outsiders and the actually v. good I Can See You?

#6 Paranormal Activity 3 (21 points, 3 votes, no #1's)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b7/ParanormalActivity3Poster.jpg/215px-ParanormalActivity3Poster.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twHFeqqFc30
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1778304/

ugh. figures.

Fading of the Cries was off the GFA scale. i feel your pain, Jon.

both of those are on my to watch list HJ, but i havent gotten to either of them yet

fever night has amazingly bad cover art, but hey, if i paid attention to that i wouldnt watch half the stuff i do

Human Centipede 2 had great casting, photography, and sound design. I keep repeating that on horror threads like it's a mantra that will protect me from having to deal with question of whether or not it should exist in the first place.

It might help to take Wicker Tree on its own (ie, forget that Wicker Man exists). It feels like it comes from a different, almost alien, place. Its rhythms are so unusual. Part of that may be filmmaking incompetence, but still, I like how it marches to its own beat.

and a soundtrack by Thee Oh Sees and friends. i'm still not sure what i think of it. the movie or the sndtrk. it's worth seeing. ?

Unhappy Birthday was a (slightly) better ersatz-W. Tree than Hardy's. and i liked the book.

i mean W. Man.

been putting off I Can See You forever.

liked paranormal 3 a whole lot

speaking of soundtracks and such in horror films, am i right in assuming that the horror movie about the indie singer songwriter guitarist is as horribly dreadful as i expect? cant remember the name right now

nope. worse. much, much worse. oh god.

iirc the plot is indie singer goes to the woods to bon iver out an album, bad things happen. bloody guitar cover art xpost

Don't Watch - er - Go In The Woods.

ha just noticed that movie abt 20 minutes ago while searching for something else. All my instincts say NO.

PA3 is the best of the PA bunch. A number of great set pieces. Some real scares. Fun characters. Like the video editing business stuff. Good sound design (my mantra).

i def feel like PA3 is the best of the series, but some of that might be a reaction to how unbelievably bad PA2 was. xpost

yeah the PA series bizarrely gets better with each sequel. Not sure that's happened before in the annals of genre film

In between I Can See You and The Oregonian, make sure to check out the Catechism Cataclysm. Triple feature of woodsy indie sensibilities and unexplained buzzing noises.

Jon, did you see PA4? Thought that was clearly the worst in the series, a big step down from PA3.

Triple feature of woodsy indie sensibilities and unexplained buzzing noises

Yellowbrickroad to thread

I have not seen PA4. I tend to run at least a year behind what's in the theater. Ah well, they were bound to fall down.

#5 Attack the Block (25 points, 3 votes, no #1's)

http://tinyheroes.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/attack-the-block.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0gm7dHKKc
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478964/

huh, so catechism cataclysm is good? i wasnt sure how played for laughs it was

yellowbrickroad should be watched by everyone really

helluva a sci-fi action coming-of-age comedy drama...

yes. One of my many 'pls just disregard the ending' recommendations.

xpost

too low!

i couldnt really get into attack the block, seemed like a not all there retread of District 9 and Super 8 all mashed into one.

xpost ha my warning abt yellowbrickroad is "please ignore the movie theater ticket taker dude in the beginning"

Yeah, Cataclysm is fairly good. If memory serves, maybe half of it is played for humor, but not the kind of humor that you really laugh at, if that makes any sense.

AtB is roughly 1000x better than Super 9 imo

Attack The Block should probably have been on my ballot but there were so many niggling irritations and failures to capitalise on potential that I ended up not wanting to vote for it.

er, Super 8, ha xp

Catechism Cataclysm is interesting, but i didn't care much for it.

oh btw are the images showing up? on mod mode, so i cant see anything.

#4 The Innkeepers (26 points, 4 votes, no #1's)

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m96wcmwsnE1qav174o1_500.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ2FumKy_HE
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1594562/

aka "the movie that made jjjusten stop hating ti west"

I think I could've watched those two leads barely talking in the hotel lobby for a full 90 minutes.

otm, without those two actors this thing would have sucked aloud.

Paxton lights the whole thing up. One of my favorite comedy horror performances of recent years.

Just couldn't bring myself to vote for Innkeepers, since it got pretty lame when it started going for actual scares.

didn't think the two inkeepers leads quite pulled it off, so i didn't quite like the movie. not bad, though.

definitely better than house of the devil and dude's VHS short

hard for me to come up with a movie worse than house of the devil

oh wait that one about the canadian mind control radio station

If the girl from Innkeepers made a movie with the girl from Drag Me to Hell, the amount of wispy vulnerability on display would be absolutely devastating.

loved attack the block. borderline horror at best, but so much fun. great characters, rocket ride pacing, cosmic ape dogs and themes that arise naturally from the storytelling. i don't ask for much more.

lol, jjj

you had me at cosmic ape dogs

#3 Livid (original title Livide) (27 points, 4 votes, one #1)

http://horrorhappyhour.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/livide-affiche.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbCj05goNv8
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727516/

i have not seen this and i have no idea why

oh because apparently netflix doesnt have it? wtf

It's never less than beautiful. Never genuinely thrilling either though.

But definitely worth seeing if you like Amer and similar.

#2 The Woman (37 points, 6 votes, no #1's)

http://i.imgur.com/6FzpU.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsUxrMyWXeI
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714208/

this would be a good time to start worrying that your #1 pick might get snubbed. good times!

Was very disappointed by The Woman.

the woman made my list, but fairly low, and i am a lucky mckee stan in general

It's very well acted but, like the Mother's Day remake, I'm not really sure what I am meant to be enjoying.

I didn't see it, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

i had had great mileage out of Mckee up to that point. Was heavily anticipating. I keep thinking I missed something or other about this movie.

Oh god, the Oregonian was so laughably useless and inept. Just a nothingy mess. What is it even doing here?

i don't know who you are, DavidM, but go ahead and sign me up for your newsletter.

sorry for the delay, stupid customers buying stuff. #1 up in a minute.

and it's an unbreakable tie

#1 Kill List (40 points, 5 votes, 2 #1's)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oXx9HJjsqx8/TyKLSz710kI/AAAAAAAAAlY/P72vn5AR9oA/s1600/Kill-List-Poster-610x462.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqkqF--v1tg
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1788391/

#1 Absentia (40 points, 5 votes, 2 #1's)
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjE0MDUyODg1MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTgyMzA2Nw@@._V1._SY317_.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa1UJLqYeBU
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1610996/

sorry that took a bit, i had to find a movie poster for absentia that wasnt the terrible dvd box art

well, that's half right.

Both willing to leave a fairly large chunk up to audience imagination / interpretation. I think Absentia managed it more successfully though. A worthy winner.

My vote:

1. Absentia
2. The Oregonian
3. Livid
4. Apartment 143
5. The Innkeepers
6. Kill List
7. Lovely Molly
8. Paranormal Activity 3
9. The Awakening
10. 388 Arletta Avenue

and the overall list w/points
1. Kill List 40
1. Absentia 40
2. The Woman 37
3. Livid 27
4. The Innkeepers 26
5. Attack the Block 25
6. Paranormal Activity 3 21
7. The Wicker Tree 18
8. The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence 18
9. The Oregonian 18
10. Martha Marcy May Marlene 17
11. Beyond the Black Rainbow 13
12. Lovely Molly 12
13. Apartment 143 11
14. Apollo 18 10 (1-#1)
14. Final Destination 5 10 (1-#1)
15. Fright Night 10
16. Frontline - Nuclear Aftershocks 9
16. Lobos de Arga 9
17. Inbred 8
17. Father's Day 8
17. 388 Arletta Ave. 8
18. Zombie Ass 6
19. The Awakening 2
19. Grave Encounters 2

My Ballot:

1. Kill List
2. The Oregonian
3. Absentia
4. Lovely Molly
5. The Innkeepers
6. Paranormal Activity 3
7. Apartment 143
8. The Woman
9. Grave Encounters
10. Fright Night

who voted for Inbred?!

I think I will tackle the same thing for a couple of the other recent years if other people enjoyed this/are interested. some time in january?

hell yeah

That would be great. Thanks again for doing this.

please do that thing mr j

I only voted for 5 in this poll and here they are:

The Wicker Tree
Nuclear Aftershocks
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Paranormal Activity 3
The Thing

Seriously I think watching the nuclear disaster doc through a horror prism gives it all kinds of added value. I recommend!

Also I forgot that I didn't even see PA3 (I saw 1, 2, and 4) but I guess I remember Thnig saying I missed out because it was good?! By the time I realized this I had already voted. O well!

You voted from your gut! That should supersede reality imo.

I only voted for 5 as well. Don't remember the order.

Absentia
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Kill List
Attack the Block
The Woman

Apollo 18. Overlooked genius? Discuss. But only if the answer is "yes." Don't kick a movie when it's down, yo.

Livid was my #1. I re-watched it tonight cuz, though I'm glad to have pushed it into the top 3, I hadn't seen it but once. It's great, no regrets. ShariVari says it's "never genuinely thrilling", and I might concede that point, despite some impressive peak moments. It's seductive, though, and to me, that counts for more than visceral thrills. Atmospheric, spooky, romantic, unpredictable, unsettling and quite beautiful. My kind of thing.

Livid
Attack the Block
Father's Day
The Woman
The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence

guess i need to see absentia stat

i thought absentia was disappointing. i liked the concept, but it felt amateurish in a way that wasn't charming, particularly the acting.

watched 'lovely molly', some p hackneyed ideas and ending (as so often) felt fumbled but had a genuinely unsettling atmosphere to it tho that may have been helped by having to strain to watch on a laptop screen in bed w the lights off.

didn't participate cuz I'd only seen one of the nominees, but had fun reading the results

would be interested in 2008/2009 polls

just rewatched "attack the block" and confirmed that i really dont like it at all.