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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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‘Sting’ – Bloody Disgusting Presents Sneak Screenings of Spine-Tingling Spider Horror

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Well Go USA will unleash arachnophobia-inducing terror this spring with Sting, which crawls into theaters April 12, 2024.

But Bloody Disgusting wants YOU to see the movie a bit earlier than that. We’re presenting sneak preview screenings of Sting in select theaters on Wednesday, April 10th!

There are eight special sneak screenings across the US, each of them presented by Bloody Disgusting. All screenings start at 7 PM local. However, it should be noted the Los Angeles screening takes place on Tuesday, April 9th and will feature a live recording with our very own The Boo Crew and star Jermaine Fowler in attendance.

Locations include…

  • Atlanta – AMC Barrett Commons
  • Boston – AMC Boston Common
  • Chicago – AMC River East
  • Dallas – Cinemark West Plano 20 XD
  • Houston – Cinemark 290 XD
  • Los Angeles – Landmark Westwood Theater
  • Philadelphia – AMC Fashion District
  • San Diego – AMC Mission Valley

RSVP NOW! Entry is based on first come, first served. Each attendee must RSVP separately.

Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner ensures that your fear of spiders is about to grow to monstrous levels with practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award® Winner Weta Workshop, led by Creative Director Richard Taylor (Blade Runner 2049, King Kong, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy).

The film stars Ryan Corr (House of the Dragon, The Water Diviner), Alyla Browne (Three Thousand Years of Longing, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Penelope Mitchell (Hellboy), Robyn Nevin (Relic, “Wolf Like Me), Noni Hazlehurst (The End) and Jermaine Fowler (The Blackening).

In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider…

“The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Despite her stepfather Ethan’s best efforts to connect with her through their comic book co-creationFang Girl, Charlotte feels isolated. Her mother and Ethan are distracted by their new baby and are struggling to cope, leaving Charlotte to bond with the spider. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.

“As Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable. Neighbours’ pets start to go missing, and then the neighbours themselves. Soon Charlotte’s family and the eccentric characters of the building realize that they areall trapped, hunted by a ravenous supersized arachnid with a taste for human flesh… and Charlotte is the only one who knows how to stop it.”

The film stemmed from Kiah Roache-Turner’s own extreme fear of spiders; his previous films include post-apocalyptic zombie thriller Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (which premiered at Fantastic Fest), comedy sci-fi/horror Nekrotronic, starring Monica Bellucci (which premiered at the TIFF in 2018), and action/horror sequel Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (winner of the Audience Award at the 2021 Sydney Film Festival) starring Luke McKenzie.

Sting poster

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