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Best & Worst of 2009: Ryan Daley Picks His Bottom 5!

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As I’m primarily a DVD critic for Bloody-Disgusting, my year-end Top 10 list traditionally cites only DVD horror releases for a given year, which automatically excludes some of the movies I’ve seen at festivals or through pre-release screeners. Whereas I’m generally jealous of my fellow B-D critics for their all-encompassing year-end lists, I have to admit that 2009 was a fantastic year for horror DVDs, and this list was a pure pleasure to put together. Once again, just so I don’t catch any flak down in the comments, this is a list of the WORST HORROR DVDS OF 2009.

Mr. Disgusting (Best/Worst) | Tim Anderson (Best/Worst) | BC (Best/Worst)
David Harley (Best/Worst) | Ryan Daley (Best/Worst)

RYAN DALEY’S BOTTOM 5 OF 2009

5. The Grudge 3 (Sony; May 12, 2009)


This is the first year I’ve had the same director appear on both my “best” and “worst” lists, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. I loved director Toby Wilkins’ Splinter as much as I hated The Grudge 3, a sequel that stomped the previously respectable franchise into the Japanese dirt. Sloppy and awkward, it’s a pasty-faced effort that should be forgotten as quickly as it was conceived.

4. Train (Lionsgate; November 17, 2009)


Train tried its best to swing a big gory dick in the face of horror fans, but the flat characters couldn’t carry the show. Brutal and highly effective makeup effects can’t save a movie with a plot that’s this damn derivative. Hostel on a Train (as it’s been occasionally dubbed) is too kind. Retard Hostel on Car Number Six would be more accurate. Bad plotting, bad characters, bad movie.

3. Gnaw (Dark Sky; October 13, 2009)


Remember in The Fly, after Jeff Goldblum put that steak through his transport pods and then fried it up, how it didn’t quite taste right? If you put a quality torture-porn movie through Brundle’s pods, it would emerge tasting a lot like Gnaw.

2. Paranormal Activity (Paramount; December 29, 2009)


Horror fans have been jizzing all over this movie since September, but here’s my take. Out of all of the people who wanted to see Paranormal Activity, I’d guess about 25% got a chance to catch it in a movie theater. The remaining 75% will have to wait for the DVD release. And I’m predicting the worst DVD backlash this side of The Blair Witch Project. Paranormal Activity has been insanely over-hyped, and soon everyone will see that there’s nothing behind the curtain but a little, musty old man. This movie has been loitering around the festival circuit for the past few years, and it suddenly finds success after Spielberg helps tack on a new ending? Whatever. After mentally preparing themselves for the most frightening movie of the past 10 years, DVD audiences will be faced with a poorly-acted, piece-of-shit home movie with exactly three scares. It’s not going to be pretty. Hope you saw it in the theater when you had the chance.

1. The Canyon (Magnolia; November 17, 2009)


Survivalist drama disguised as suspense film, The Canyon is easily the worst film I’ve seen this year. With picturesque Grand Canyon cinematography and an interesting character performance by Will Patton, it’s a movie that starts with a fair amount of potential before regressing into a slow-witted impression of a Reader’s Digest reenactment. Avoid with extreme prejudice.

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8 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including Spider Nightmare ‘Infested’

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Infested spider movie
Pictured: 'Infested'

What’s that? Another EIGHT new horror movies are releasing this week?! The fresh horrors on tap include a prequel to a box office hit, a violent thriller produced by Sam Raimi, the feature debut of a horror master’s daughter, and a skin-crawling nightmare filled with spiders.

Here’s all the new horror releasing April 22, 2024 – April 28, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.


Them The Scare

First up we have a TV series rather than a movie, but we wanted to remind you that Prime Video’s “Them: The Scare,” the second season of the anthology series, premieres on April 25.

The first season of “Them” (now retroactively dubbed “Covenant”) debuted back in 2021, and this second installment of the anthology series will consist of eight episodes.

“Them: The Scare” will once again be set in Los Angeles…

The story centers on LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve, who is assigned to a new case: the gruesome murder of a foster home mother that has left even the most hardened detectives shaken. Navigating a tumultuous time in Los Angeles, with a city on the razor’s edge of chaos, Dawn is determined to stop the killer.

But as she draws closer to the truth, something malevolent grips her and her family.

The series cast includes Deborah Ayorinde as “Detective Dawn Reeve,” Pam Grier as “Athena,” and Grammy-nominated musician and actor Luke James as “Edmund Gaines.”


The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with Humane, only in theaters on Friday, April 26.

The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to take extreme measures to reduce the earth’s population.”

“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”

Jay Baruchel (This Is The End), Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek), Peter Gallagher (Grace and Frankie), Sebastian Chacon (Emergency), Alanna Bale (Sort Of, Cardinal) and Sirena Gulamgaus (Transplant) star in Caitlin Cronenberg’s Humane.


Infested Shudder

Sébastien Vaniček has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, but first we need to experience the film that landed him the hot directing gig in the first place. It’s a spider horror movie titled Infested (Vermines), and it hits Shudder on April 26.

Watch the creepy, crawly trailer for Infested below, which looks a bit like Evil Dead Rise… with spiders. It’s already easy to see why Vaniček was chosen to direct an Evil Dead movie!

In the horror film, “Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

Théo Christine (“Suprêmes”), Finnegan Oldfield (“Final Cut”), Jérôme Niel (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), Sofia Lesaffre (“Les Misérables”) and Lisa Nyarko star.


Described as a heart pounding thriller set in the future, Jennifer Hudson and Milla Jovovich lead the cast of Breathe, coming to theaters and Digital on Friday, April 26.

In the film, “After Earth is left uninhabitable due to lack of oxygen, a mother Maya (Hudson) and her daughter Zora (Wallis) are forced to live underground, with short trips to the surface only made possible by a coveted state of the art oxygen suit made by Maya’s husband, Darius, whom she presumes to be dead. When a mysterious couple arrives claiming to know Darius and his fate, Maya tentatively agrees to let them into their bunker but these visitors are not who they claim to be ensuing in mother and daughter fighting for survival.”

Stefon Bristol directed Breathe, written by Doug Simon. The impressive cast also includes Quvenzhané Wallis and Raúl Castillo with Common and Sam Worthington.


Boy Kills World Character posters

Bill Skarsgård takes on the role of a deaf-mute action hero in Boy Kills World, a one-of-a-kind action spectacle set in a dystopian fever dream reality. The film comes from producers Sam Raimi and Roy Lee, and while not a horror movie, it’s a violent thriller all the same. Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release Boy Kills World into theaters this Friday.

Moritz Mohr directed Boy Kills World, which was written by Arend Remmers (Sløborn) and Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury: The Movie).

In Boy Kills World, “Boy (Bill Skarsgård) is a deaf-mute with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, Boy escapes to the jungle and is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.”

The cast also includes Happy Death Day star Jessica RotheYayan Ruhian (John Wick 3, The Raid: Redemption), Andrew Koji (Warrior, Snake Eyes), Isaiah Mustafa (It: Chapter Two), Famke Janssen (The Postcard Killings), Sharlto Copley (District 9), Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Quinn Copeland (Peacock’s Punky Brewster), and twins Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Little Lies).


Indonesian horror Dancing Village Trailer

Indonesian filmmaker Kimo Stamboel (MacabreHeadshot, The Queen of Black Magic) is back with MD Pictures’ Badarawuhi Di Desa Penari (aka Dancing Village: The Curse Begins), a prequel to the Indonesian hit movie KKN Curse Of The Dancing Village.

Lionsgate releases Dancing Village: The Curse Begins in select theaters on April 26.

In the horror prequel, “a shaman instructs Mila to return a mystical bracelet, the Kawaturih, to the ‘Dancing Village,’ a remote site on the easternmost tip of Java Island. Joined by her cousin, Yuda, and his friends Jito and Arya, Mila arrives on the island only to discover that the village elder has passed away, and that the new guardian, Mbah Buyut, isn’t present. Various strange and eerie events occur while awaiting Mbah Buyut’s return, including Mila being visited by Badarawuhi, a mysterious, mythical being who rules the village.

“When she decides to return the Kawaturih without the help of Mgah Buyut, Mila threatens the village’s safety, and she must join a ritual to select the new ‘Dawuh,’ a cursed soul forced to dance for the rest of her life.”

Aulia Sarah, Maudy Effrosina, Jourdy Pranata, Moh. Iqbal Sulaiman, Ardit Erwandha, Claresta Taufan, Diding Boneng, Aming Sugandhi, Dinda Kanyadewi, Pipien Putri, Maryam Supraba, Bimasena, Putri Permata, Baiq Vania Estiningtyas Sagita, and Baiq Nathania Elvaretta star.

KKN Curse Of The Dancing Village was the highest grossing film in Indonesian box office history when initially released in 2022. Its prequel is the first film made for IMAX movie ever produced in Southeast Asia and in 2024, it will be one of only five films made for IMAX productions worldwide.


While you wait for Cinderella’s Curse, another Cinderella-based horror movie is beating that movie to the punch. It’s titled Cinderella’s Revenge, coming to theaters April 26.

The Wrap recently reported, “The film stars Lauren Staerck as the famed young lady who finds freedom from her wicked stepmother with the help of her fairy godmother. Only this time, instead of sending her to a ball to find her prince, the godmother (Natasha Henstridge) helps Cinderella unleash a plan of bloody vengeance.”

Stephanie Lodge, Beatrice Fletcher, Megan Purvis and Darrell Griggs also star.

“I’m so excited for audiences to see this newly imagined horror version of Cinderella in theaters. The picture is scary and fun at the same time,” said producer Mark L. Lester.


In the wake of her return in last year’s box office hit Saw X, horror icon Shawnee Smith is back in Vertical’s horror movie Bloodline Killer, hitting select theaters & VOD on April 26.

Directed by Ante NovakovicBloodline Killer is being described by Vertical as “a terrifying horror-thriller that follows Moira Cole who endeavors to rebuild her shattered life after the murder of her family at the hands of her deranged and obsessed cousin.”

The cast also includes Taryn Manning, Drew Moerlein, James Gaudioso, Montanna Gillis, Kresh Novakovic, Adam Shippey, Anthony Gaudioso with Bruce Dern and Tyrese Gibson.


Tubi has been ramping up their Tubi Original horror movies in the last several months, and the latest one is headed to the streaming service on Friday. It’s titled This Never Happened.

In the film from director Ted Campbell, “While staying at her boyfriend’s childhood home with him and his friends, a young woman experiences terrifying visions of a violent spirit.”

María José De La Cruz, Javier Dulzaides, Conny Cambambia, Juana Serrano, and Gonzalo Zulueta star in the Tubi Original movie. You can watch the trailer down below.

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