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00’s Retrospect: Bloody Disgusting’s Top 20 Films of the Decade…Part 2

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Best Horror Films

In this continuation of Bloody-Disgusting’s Top 20 of the 2000s countdown, the list has a decidedly international flavor due to the fact that 4 of the 5 films are of the foreign language variety. Fitting, considering that in the last decade the horror renaissance got a big helping hand from overseas, from the raft of J-Horror imports to the infusion of extreme, splatter-centric horror by way of France. Just goes to show that no matter what language you speak, fear is universal.

Also read: 00’s Retrospect: Dead on Arrival — Ten Horror Duds of the Last Decade

The last ten years have been a wild ride for horror fans. Thanks to countless innovators and a host of amazing films, it can safely be said that the 2000’s trump the 1990’s by a wide margin. Sure, that decade had groundbreakers like Scream and The Blair Witch Project, but that’s nothing compared to the number of great horror films (and, for that matter, the number of total horror films) that this decade has had to offer. To celebrate, the staff of Bloody-Disgusting decided to take a vote on the Top 20 horror films* of the 2000’s (along with one honorable mention), and the below list is the result. Looking over it, it’s actually pretty telling that nearly half the movies (9 out of 21) were produced on foreign soil, which just goes to show that this decade in horror was as much about the range of impressive imports as it was about the American product. Your favorites aren’t on there? Cry us a river. Or better yet, let us know what we missed. And make sure, at some point before the New Year, to get on your knees, clasp your hands together and pray to the horror gods to make the next decade as good as the last. – Chris Eggertsen

21-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1


15. Battle Royale (Tartan; 2000 Japan)


No wonder this is Quentin Tarantino’s favorite film of the last ten years. Like his best movies, it’s a go-for-broke extravaganza: fun, provocative, ultra-violent, and bound to arouse controversy (which it did). It’s a pretty simple idea: a class of forty-odd young Japanese teenagers are thrust into a deadly game on a deserted island in which they must fight each other to the death until only one is left standing. If they fail at this, the collars fixed to the survivors’ necks will explode. What follows is a breathless chain of events as each individual reacts in his/her own way: some instantly become ruthless killers; others commit suicide; a few strike up allegiances in hopes that they can find a way off the island. It’s this quality that makes the film more than just an empty provocation – it builds character through action, a method all good filmmakers should seek to emulate.


14. Audition (Lionsgate; 2000 Japan)


Considered by many to be Takashi Miike’s masterpiece, this cringe-inducing, seriously disturbed film boasts one of the most unbearable scenes of torture in movie history. The story introduces us to a lonely widower whose producer friend sets up a fake movie audition for several young ingénues in hopes of finding him a wife. Unfortunately for the widower, the mild-mannered young woman he chooses isn’t exactly all she appears to be. The audience soon becomes aware of her not-insignificant dysfunctional tendencies in a series of shocking scenes, one of which just might make you lose your lunch (which, come to think of it, would be actually be a pretty fitting response). It’s revolting in the best possible way; the prolific Miike goes for the jugular here, and he cuts deep. Or, as the sadistic femme fatale of the film might say, “Kiri Kiri Kiri Kiri!”


13. Drag Me To Hell (Universal Pictures; May 29, 2009)


Sam Raimi’s return to gross-out form is a fun romp that’s by turns hilarious, gag-reflex-inducing and unsettling. Alison Lohman plays a young loan officer who has a curse put on her by an old gypsy woman after turning down an extension on her mortgage. Soon enough the demons from down below slowly begin to circle, and her efforts to countermand the curse become more and more desperate as the ticking clock winds down. Raimi is a master at this sort of thing, and much like in the Evil Dead films (particularly the second movie) he manages to keep us simultaneously laughing and screaming as we are treated to a series of increasingly inventive and maniacal set pieces. This is escapist entertainment at its best, and it almost makes you want to forgive Raimi for Spiderman 3. Almost.


12. Inside (Dimension Extreme; April 15, 2008)


One of the most audacious, brutal, unrelenting horror films ever made, Inside is perhaps the crown jewel of the new wave of extreme French horror films that have gained notoriety in the latter half of the decade. The movie follows a pregnant widow through a night of almost unbelievable pain and misery, as she is stalked by a scissors-wielding crazy woman who is convinced the baby is actually hers. Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury handle the gory elements of the story with aplomb, but what really makes Inside so queasily effective is their skill at wringing the maximum amount of suspense out of the hair-raising setup. As if that weren’t enough, they even manage to work some pitch-black comedy into the mix. A shocking piece of cinema which provides further evidence that the French aren’t such pussies after all.


11. [REC] (Sony Pictures; 2007 Spain)


Out of all the “shaky-cam” films produced in the wake of The Blair Witch Project, this one is arguably the best, a seriously scary Spanish import that utilizes its P.O.V. camerawork more effectively than any of its predecessors. While the film takes awhile to get going, once the action starts it hardly ever lets up. The movie follows a TV news camera crew, police officers, firefighters and the residents of an apartment building as they fight for survival against a zombie outbreak after being sealed inside the structure in a quarantine procedure. The limited first-person viewpoint suits the enclosed setting well; it’s not necessarily what we’re seeing in front of us but what could be coming at us from just off-camera that’s most terrifying. There’s nothing all that deep here, but that’s not really the point. When it comes to visceral scares, [REC] has few peers.

Editorial written by Chris Eggertsen


21-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

*Editor’s Note: For those of you interested in knowing how the list came to be, here’s an explanation. Bloody Disgusting writers collaborated on a list of some of the best films this decade. The entire list was given to the Bloody Disgusting staff who then built their own Top 20 lists. Each film was given a point value. 20 received 1 point, 19 received 2 points, and so on all the way to number 1, which received 20 points. The numbers were tallied and the result are the top films listed. The bonus film had tied with #20 and the tie was broken by the number of actual votes.

The following participated in the project: Mr. Disgusting, Tex Massacre, BC, David Harley, Ryan Daley, Chris Eggertsen, Jeff Otto, John Marrone, Horror_Guy, Mr_Bungle, Klown, Caustic Coffee and Tool Shed

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Editorials

‘Bloodmoon’ (1990) – An Underseen Ozploitation Spin on the Classic American Slasher

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Bloodmoon 1990

As secrets come out and the body count grows, a character in Bloodmoon says to another: “This is nightmare night, the end-of-the-fuckin’-world night… all the bugs and the bats and the goblins are coming out tonight and no one can stop them.” Based on that rather dramatic statement, one delivered by actor Christine Amor without her even batting an eyelid, this underseen 1990 Australian film sounds a bit deranged. Rest assured, that assumption isn’t off the mark. Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise; audacity and nuttiness tend to go hand in hand in classic Ozploitation. Nevertheless, director Alec Mills and screenwriter Robert Brennan’s collaboration was not quite like anything to come out of Aussie Horror at the time. Even today, parts of Bloodmoon feel singular when compared to films from that first slasher cycle.

Warning: Major spoilers below.

Based on one of its several striking posters — the viewer’s eye immediately goes to the blue-toned illustration’s chiseled and butt-naked subject, who looks on at his potential female victims all while holding a circular garrote made of barbed wire — Bloodmoon looks to be a sex-themed slasher. Indeed, this film is about carnal pleasure as much as it is about carnage. Although, the proposed villain’s reason for targeting horny young folks isn’t puritanical in nature. Something else is motivating the killing spree in this psychosexual slasher.

In true fashion, a boarding school is the site of unspeakable horror for credulous young women and their equally unfortunate beaus. Bloodmoon is no retread of Picnic at Hanging Rock, though; the real danger resides on campus rather than out in nature, and there is no hint of the supernatural. All the ensuing and tangible bloodletting here is the outcome of one man’s prolonged frustration. Yet before any of that is revealed, the film begins like others before and after it: visitors to the make-out point in the nearby woods are slaughtered by an unseen assailant. The killer’s identity is, as it should be, concealed for the time being with only menacing shadows and that compulsory POV shot to establish their existence. However, the barbed garrote splashed across the film’s promotional materials is in clear view as well as in explicit use. The choice of close-range weapon gives these murders a greater sense of intimacy.

Pictured: One of the eyeless victims in Bloodmoon.

Bloodmoon sets up stray subplots that come across as superfluous, yet they eventually fall into place. For starters, an elderly nun at the all-girls’ academy Saint Elizabeth — the only nun, in fact — is spotlighted at the beginning; she remains staffed despite her advanced age and supposed uselessness. After being called a good influence on the students, Sister Mary-Ellen (Hazel Howson) takes a backseat as her co-stars launch their own underplots. Meanwhile, ostensible main character and likely final girl Mary (Helen Thomson) discerns no threat to herself or others because the police refuse to rule the missing teens so far (both Mary’s classmate and her sweetheart from the neighboring all-boys’ school) as anything but hormonal runaways. Mary is more concerned with her mother, a famous actor and inattentive parent, and the townie boy Kevin (Ian Williams) with whom she has become smitten. That innocent romance is routinely juxtaposed with the killer’s grisly crimes targeting other teenage couples. A hint of what’s in store for Mary and Kevin, really.

On top of Mary’s innocent storyline is a minor yet ultimately precarious thread featuring two other Saint Elizabeth students, Michelle and Jennifer (Suzie MacKenzie, Anya Molina). These would-be cheaters get more than they bargained for when snooping around for test answers; they uncover the killer’s presence and seal their own fates. In the same breath, the film makes the misstep of identifying the culprit much too soon. The beloved mystery ingredient of whodunit slashers sadly expires here, however, the script compensates with an unusual new direction: how will the killer get away with his many crimes? All of a sudden, this Down Under take on the popular “dead teenager” film transforms into a villain-as-the-protagonist thriller. Those potentially worried about being bait-and-switched should feel better knowing the film’s slasher aspect is not completely abandoned. And if nothing, Bloodmoon is even madder now that it has unmasked the antagonist.

There is a cruel irony here about overprotective parents sending away their children to remote places on the map, in an effort to keep them safe from the real world. As it turns out, Saint Elizabeth’s headmistress, Virginia Sheffield (Amor), and her husband Myles (Leon Lissek), also the science teacher, are not who they claim to be. Horror history would suggest Myles is the one being too hands-on with his female pupils, but it is actually his wife who can’t keep her manicured paws off the male student body. This scenario of creepy cuckolding and sexual misconduct has its inevitable consequences, though, once Myles decides he will no longer tolerate Virginia’s mockery and his own sexless existence. And all the teenagers who are now discovering love and sex are the first to feel the sting of this chronically blue-balled wimp-turned-madman.

bloodmoon 1990 horror movie

Pictured: The garrote-wielding killer spots more potential victims in Bloodmoon.

On the surface, Bloodmoon is all about sex, but in hindsight, the film also shadows characters who are figuring out their sense of worth. Be it to themselves or others. Sister Mary-Ellen is originally thought of as old and irrelevant by her coworkers and the students, only to then be the one who winds up saving the day (using a handy beaker of acid!). Mary’s neglectful mother is more bothered by an early-morning appointment than the fact that she hasn’t contacted her daughter in a month, and Kevin has predicted his unexceptional lot in life before even graduating. Most of all, Myles has been of no use to his wife for years; she obviously prefers her men underaged, fresh-faced and disposable. Add envy and resentment to Myles’ constant feeling of worthlessness, and this film has cooked up a considerable recipe for murder.

By the time Bloodmoon was first released, slashers had pretty much fallen out of favor overseas. That didn’t stop anyone from making them, although at that point, not everyone was willing to tweak the formula like Alec Mills and Robert Brennan did. Their own spin retains the essential fixings while also adding persuasive deviations to ensure a less typical product. And because Severin Films has issued a restored and high-def edition of the film — which includes that abrupt “fright break” intermission — John Stoke’s cinematography is now more appreciable.

Bloodmoon had the misfortune of following better received and, without much argument, less uneven slashers. Similar but different enough to warrant a glance, however, this Ozzie variation still offers an oddball killer, technical merit and, above all, some sleazy entertainment value.

Bloodmoon is now available on Blu-ray from Severin Films.


Horrors Elsewhere is a recurring column that spotlights a variety of movies from all around the globe, particularly those not from the United States. Fears may not be universal, but one thing is for sure — a scream is understood, always and everywhere.

bloodmoon 1990 blu-ray

Pictured: Severin Films’ Bloodmoon Blu-ray release.

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