Board 8 > Board 8 Ranks 2010s Horror Movies - *THE RANKINGS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

The only thing I know about V/H/S is that Roger Ebert gave it like 1 star. I can think of at least one movie Ebert gave such a rating to that I like, but that's beyond the scope of this.

I saw Cloverfield for the first time in late 2015 and found it decent. I remember wondering if I'd see any familiar names in the credits and sure enough J. J. Abrams came up immediately! Also I regret ever referring to him as Jar Jar Abrams. I suppose I also know TJ Miller a bit better after watching Deadpool but by this point I don't know if anyone wants anything to do with TJ Miller.

I was also half-wondering why Alien: Covenant isn't here, but then I figured we could possibly do a 2010s legacy sci-fi franchises ranking with the Star Wars, Terminator, Predator, and Alien films released that decade plus maybe some others like Fury Road and Blade Runner 2049. Then if you want to stretch it maybe you could include the RoboCop remake and the live-action Ghost in the Shell.

This movie was absolutely dreadful and I cannot believe that anybody ranked it highly here. Film like all artistic mediums is subjective, but this I have to question the value anybody could find in it. Especially since theres a film on this list that does very similar things that is actually good. Also, even if you are able to look past the sheer misogyny and excessive violence for no reason, the acting, writing, and directing are mostly terrible so there isnt even that. I feel that the first act looked like it was veering into camp classic territory but then it just wound up as torture porn but what if it hated women and was boring after that. I was watching some of these with my partner and I am incredibly glad I decided to watch this one alone.

fortybelowsummer: 30
jcgamer107: 30
Lightning Strikes: 30
PrinceKaro: 30
rockus: 30
Suprak: 30

MY PEOPLE

It is rare for me to HATE a movie like I hated Terrifier. I'm not going to rehash everything I complained about in my long unhinged rant, but I was actively hoping this would be 30 and Bird Box, VHS, and Curse of Chucky all deserved better. I also did not like 29 or 28 on my list, but they were both leagues better than this.

FFDragon posted...

I get why people might not like this one. For me it's so bad it's great again. If it never turns that corner for you, you're going to hate it.

But man, what a ride. Glad it got out of the immediate basement at least.

What's impressive is that Terrifier received six 30's and two 29's, and it STILL outlasted three movies on the list.

Snake5555555555 posted...

me too, and I'm definitely glad I wasn't the only one who loved it either.

Check out a Richard Laymon novel sometime. He was big in the 80s and 90s and has a devout following to this day.

The Woods Are Dark and In the Dark are my favorites of his. The former is a slasher-type story about a family trying to escape a band of cannibals (the content so brutally over the top that it makes Jack Ketchum's Off-Season look tame); the latter is about a librarian who gets wrapped up in a series of twisted games--kinda like Squid Game, but with only one desperate participant.

Yeah they do sound good, I'll give them a go sometime, thanks!

plasmabeam posted...

What's impressive is that Terrifier received six 30's and two 29's, and it STILL outlasted three movies on the list.

That... is rather impressive actually. Those two top tens carried weight.

Suprak the Stud posted...

fortybelowsummer: 30
jcgamer107: 30
Lightning Strikes: 30
PrinceKaro: 30
rockus: 30
Suprak: 30

MY PEOPLE

It is rare for me to HATE a movie like I hated Terrifier. I'm not going to rehash everything I complained about in my long unhinged rant, but I was actively hoping this would be 30 and Bird Box, VHS, and Curse of Chucky all deserved better. I also did not like 29 or 28 on my list, but they were both leagues better than this.

V/H/S is one of the ones I haven't seen, but isn't it a remake of [REC] for America? And that movie is pretty renowned. It had to retain something.

No VHS was a purely original film. There was a remake for REC called Quarantine though.

Don't watch Quarantine though.

Snake5555555555 posted...

No VHS was a purely original film. There was a remake for REC called Quarantine though.

Oh. Well, maybe it didn't deserve my benefit of the doubt then in my ranking lol

Shouldn't Mimic have been on here before Terrifier?

Like Guillermo del Toro Mimic or the South Korean Mimic?

Lightning Strikes posted...

This movie was absolutely dreadful and I cannot believe that anybody ranked it highly here. Film like all artistic mediums is subjective, but this I have to question the value anybody could find in it. Especially since theres a film on this list that does very similar things that is actually good. Also, even if you are able to look past the sheer misogyny and excessive violence for no reason, the acting, writing, and directing are mostly terrible so there isnt even that. I feel that the first act looked like it was veering into camp classic territory but then it just wound up as torture porn but what if it hated women and was boring after that. I was watching some of these with my partner and I am incredibly glad I decided to watch this one alone.

I never saw Terrifier as misogynistic. Depicting excessive violence against women in a movie =/= promoting hatred toward women. The movie clearly establishes Tara (and later Vicky) as the protagonist, and both prove resourceful enough while fighting Art. Sure, neither woman is Ellen Ripley, but they put up decent fight. Hell, Art even has to brandish a gun--in a slasher flick--to finish off Tara. As for Vicky, she herself commits murder in the prologue, and the ending suggests she'll be a force of evil in the sequel. So in other words, the movie ends by essentially saying, "Hey, guess what--women can be gorefest villains, too."

The overall theme of this movie seemed to be something like "evil either destroys its victims or lives on through them." Does Art the Clown do some horrible things to female characters? Absolutely. But true evil is twisted. And now that evil has seemingly spread to Vicky like a virus.

Also, how many men were killed in the movie? Five, I believe (two pizza shop guys, two exterminators, and the doctor performing the autopsy).

You're obviously entitled to your own interpretation, but when you brought up the word "misogynistic," I was reminded of the early reactions to American Psycho (the book). It was dropped by its initial publisher because of backlash that suggested the book was misogynistic due to its graphic depictions of violence against women. However, once people actually read the book, they saw that wasn't the case, and as we all know, the movie version was later directed by a feminist woman who loved the book.

Corrik7 posted...

Shouldn't Mimic have been on here before Terrifier?

Snake5555555555 posted...

Like Guillermo del Toro Mimic or the South Korean Mimic?

Please let me know. I already added Laid to Rest to my list after reading through the Terrifier write-ups. Definitely interested in checking out similar movies.

I will say that, in retrospect, the female characters seem to get more brutal deaths than the males. Sawed in half; left dying with a gunshot to the face, only to get gunshot overkilled; skinned alive (I think she was still breathing when the sister found her); face cannibalized alive; eyes gouged out. Compared to stabbed a bunch; decapitated; decapitated and displayed as a jack o'lantern; bludgeoned.

plasmabeam posted...

Please let me know. I already added Laid to Rest to my list after reading through the Terrifier write-ups. Definitely interested in checking out similar movies.

South Korean.

I mean, it's not great, but it seems better than a movie that most people seemed to hate so much that it actively went into so bad its good territory.

Also, Im not going to say that the director of this movie hated women but there is a scene here where the clown saws one in half vagina first and let you draw your own conclusions. Even if you did like this, I dont know how you recommend it to friends. I feel like if one of my friends told me this was their favorite horror movie, and I got to the part where a fully nude woman had a saw taken to her vagina and then they continued sawing until they quite literally split her in half, I would take that as some sort of confession. Like Id be like oh Nathan must have a collection of womans fingers somewhere under his floorboard and he was too embarrassed to tell me directly, thats why he wanted me to watch this.

I definitely got the same vibes Lightning did. It isn't so much that I'm accusing them of having weak female characters. I mean, I am, but the male characters here are also awful too. The female characters are weak not because of misogyny but because the person writing this might've been two eight year olds sitting on each others shoulders inside a trench coat.

But the violence is highly sexualized. The male body count might be higher but at no point does the clown cut off one's dick and walk around as a penis unicorn. You're free to have your own interpretations, of course, but like Lightning I'm glad I watched this one alone.

I haven't seen The Mimic personally - it was popular enough but I would definitely consider films like The Wailing and I Saw the Devil before it. I don't see The Mimic as having much influence or lasting word-of-mouth currently.

Im not going to bash anybodys opinions or interpretations because its all entirely subjective so I dont think anybodys bad for liking it or thinking that it isnt misogynistic, but just to clear some things up:

I dont think the film is promoting violence against women, I just think its asking the audience to luxuriate in it unironically, which is a contrast with American Psycho which is extremely self-critical.

Also I was going to mention the body count of men as a defence. The difference is the violence against them isnt gendered in the way it is against the female characters. If he were ripping their penises off Lily style that would be very different. Now, you obviously got more out of it than just liking the violence and saw it differently so I wont say youre wrong, that is the beauty of film. Im just explaining why I (and others going off of the writeups) saw it that way. What I will say however, is that there is another film on this list that does what you describe much better. We will get to that!

After finishing up this project, I decided to do something I've been wanting to for a while: watch all the Argentos from debut (1970) through the 90s (his 00s work on is both hard to find and infamously bad). Through Deep Red so far, been watching the recent Arrow 4ks for a lot of these (and Synapses' Suspiria 4k for the next one)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/1/7/AAMnSOAADPOx.jpg

thesmark posted...

After finishing up this project, I decided to do something I've been wanting to for a while: watch all the Argentos from debut (1970) through the 90s (his 00s work on is both hard to find and infamously bad). Through Deep Red so far, been watching the recent Arrow 4ks for a lot of these (and Synapses' Suspiria 4k for the next one)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/1/7/AAMnSOAADPOx.jpg

Keep me updated!

Yeah I didn't mention it in my write-up but I got that same sort of feeling in it. Like the bisection gets compared to Bone Tomahawk a lot (for good reason) but whereas in BT it felt gruesome and visceral, it still felt like it made sense in the context of the movie

this felt like it was in bad taste. The whole movie being inherently nonsensical lets it get away with a lot, which makes this particular sexually-motivated murder (and it's hard to call it anything else, given he strips her naked to her underwear, then makes a whole show of stripping off her underwear while keeping Dawn as an audience, and then goes directly for her genitals) feel unwarranted and gross in the worst kind of way

Speaking of Argento I both want to see Vortex and dont as it sounds like an enormous bummer.

I don't see the film as misogynistic myself, but I definitely understand the viewpoint here. I think a film can have sexually-charged murders without necessarily hating a specific gender. You know, to me it speaks more to Art's character - he very clearly has maternal issues and so he takes out his extreme violence moreso on females cause that's who he feels has wronged him in the past. It just gives the audience more of a reason to hate and fear Art and root for Tara to come out on top.

Inviso posted...

I will say that, in retrospect, the female characters seem to get more brutal deaths than the males. Sawed in half; left dying with a gunshot to the face, only to get gunshot overkilled; skinned alive (I think she was still breathing when the sister found her); face cannibalized alive; eyes gouged out. Compared to stabbed a bunch; decapitated; decapitated and displayed as a jack o'lantern; bludgeoned.

Totally agree the women suffer more brutality, but they're also in the ones in the movie's spotlight. The most impactful deaths are often reserved for major characters and those they care about.

Suprak the Stud posted...

I definitely got the same vibes Lightning did. It isn't so much that I'm accusing them of having weak female characters. I mean, I am, but the male characters here are also awful too. The female characters are weak not because of misogyny but because the person writing this might've been two eight year olds sitting on each others shoulders inside a trench coat.

But the violence is highly sexualized. The male body count might be higher but at no point does the clown cut off one's dick and walk around as a penis unicorn. You're free to have your own interpretations, of course, but like Lightning I'm glad I watched this one alone.

Fair enough. It's worth noting however that the first on-screen kill involves Vicky gouging out the eyes of a talk show host who insults Vicky's physical appearance. So while there may not be sexualized violence against men, the movie does punish a character who judges a woman based on her looks.

Lightning Strikes posted...

Im not going to bash anybodys opinions or interpretations because its all entirely subjective so I dont think anybodys bad for liking it or thinking that it isnt misogynistic, but just to clear some things up:

I dont think the film is promoting violence against women, I just think its asking the audience to luxuriate in it unironically, which is a contrast with American Psycho which is extremely self-critical.

Also I was going to mention the body count of men as a defence. The difference is the violence against them isnt gendered in the way it is against the female characters. If he were ripping their penises off Lily style that would be very different. Now, you obviously got more out of it than just liking the violence and saw it differently so I wont say youre wrong, that is the beauty of film. Im just explaining why I (and others going off of the writeups) saw it that way. What I will say however, is that there is another film on this list that does what you describe much better. We will get to that!

No worries, Lightning. When you said you couldn't understand why anyone would rank it highly, I felt that I had to defend it. Enjoyed the movie way too much not to.

And I think I know the movie you're referring to, but we'll keep things spoiler-free for now.

Snake5555555555 posted...

I don't see the film as misogynistic myself, but I definitely understand the viewpoint here. I think a film can have sexually-charged murders without necessarily hating a specific gender. You know, to me it speaks more to Art's character - he very clearly has maternal issues and so he takes out his extreme violence moreso on females cause that's who he feels has wronged him in the past. It just gives the audience more of a reason to hate and fear Art and root for Tara to come out on top.

Agreed.

I am 100% positive I know the movie Lightning is talking about because I had the exact same thought during my (re)watch of it. I had an entire paragraph dedicated to the comparison before I edited it out because my write up was too long already.

And yeah I want to be clear I'm not actually judging anyone for liking Terrifier because again, to each their own and there are multiple ways to interpret stuff. It is something that jumped out to me immediately though and I just hated basically everything after the diner scene. The very first diner scene, not the poo poo diner scene. I hated that part too.

But judging on the other movies plasma was musing could be next, I think he and I just might have very different tastes in movies haha. At least one of those was in my top ten!

Also, I'm almost positive I know what is coming next based on the large gap between it and the next film. Now that Terrifier and Bird Box are out, there really is only one left that jumps out to me as deserving that kind of gap at the bottom.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Suprak -
Wow what a horrendousthing this was. Like, borderline not a movie. I feel like this movie has a plot begrudgingly. Like they showed the distributor a handful of people getting murdered and only added dialogue after the studio threatened to call the cops.

I feel like if one of my friends told me this was their favorite horror movie, and I got to the part where a fully nude woman had a saw taken to her vagina and then they continued sawing until they quite literally split her in half, I would take that as some sort of confession. Like Id be like oh Nathan must have a collection of womans fingers somewhere under his floorboard and he was too embarrassed to tell me directly, thats why he wanted me to watch this.

Lol this write-up made it worth it for Terrifier to be on the list

Snake5555555555 posted...

I haven't seen The Mimic personally - it was popular enough but I would definitely consider films like The Wailing and I Saw the Devil before it. I don't see The Mimic as having much influence or lasting word-of-mouth currently.

I actually have the wailing queued up to watch soon.

Snake what was the reason for dropping down from 40 to 30? Was it just to make things a bit more accessible? I'm guessing that's what it was because I feel like there are another 10 that could've pretty easily been added without diluting the quality of the list.

Also, to echo what plasma said, when you're compiling your lists for the other decades I would be more than ok with films that have already been ranked in other projects still making the list. Totally your choice obviously as it is your project, but it would be a real shame to not have Alien on the list. I'm sure there are a lot of people that would participate in a horror list that maybe wouldn't do sci-fi and vice versa. If you guys just never do repeats that's totally fine, but maybe Alien gets a one time exception haha.

How much time did you give people to watch the films? I would have had to watch 8 of them. That's not something you can do in a day.

Suprak the Stud posted...

Snake what was the reason for dropping down from 40 to 30? Was it just to make things a bit more accessible?

I know you didn't ask me but that's basically what it was, yeah. The film rankings have been suffering from low participation the last few years, partially due to the "gauntlet crew" kinda splitting apart and partially due to how huge the ranking projects were. I don't know who actually decided it but it was kinda agreed upon to limit the lists down to ~30 to try and make them more accessible (same reason the western ranking was only 30).

For what it's worth, it seems to have worked, because aside from the MCU ranking this is the most popular movie ranking project in years

Corrik7 posted...

How much time did you give people to watch the films? I would have had to watch 8 of them. That's not something you can do in a day.

A little over 3 months

30 was a good number IMO, I would have a hard time cramming in 10 more movies.

Gotcha. That makes sense, too! I noticed the 2000s list (or 90s list?) had like 6 people so it probably did help a lot. 30 movies over 3 months is pretty easy to accomplish without it being a huge burden.

I feel like it probably makes cuts a lot harder, but if it helps get more people in then its probably for the best. It was my first time doing one of these, at least. I tried the animation one but so many of those movies were just horrendous that I quit after a handful.

I mean if people want Alien, I don't see why we shouldn't have it then!

I would only say that I didn't put Alien in my hypothetical list because Alien qualifies equally as a Sci-Fi movie and a Horror movie, and I like a pure horror list where you wouldn't find them in another ranking.

Good point, but theres at least five on this list that definitely arent pure horror either! Its at least horror informed enough to fit nicely imo

Might do the next ranking a little earlier tonight

Inviso posted...

One thing I thought I put in my write-up, but I guess I forgot to do it. I hated the setting of Terrifier. The geography of the warehouse made no sense, so there was never a point where I really understood why the characters were in danger. Sometimes they'd wind up outside, and I'd think "Why are you not just running down the street? Why are you breaking back into another enclosed building where this maniac could be?"

I think it's supposed to be the basement of an apartment building or something but they might have just tried to cheat a warehouse for it because that was the location they haf access to. It's probably like that because they probably just shot there on nights they had access to it and didn't storyboard or block it properly. The whole thing has a "and then this happened" feel to it so there was probably just little planning put into the production side of it. It certainly looks incoherent and poorly staged.

Suprak the Stud posted...

I definitely got the same vibes Lightning did. It isn't so much that I'm accusing them of having weak female characters. I mean, I am, but the male characters here are also awful too. The female characters are weak not because of misogyny but because the person writing this might've been two eight year olds sitting on each others shoulders inside a trench coat.

But the violence is highly sexualized. The male body count might be higher but at no point does the clown cut off one's dick and walk around as a penis unicorn. You're free to have your own interpretations, of course, but like Lightning I'm glad I watched this one alone.

What also sticks out about the one kill is that it's clearly the centerpiece of the movie and has to be the most expensive shot and effect in it. While all the other kills aren't shot that wide or they have much cheaper looking effects (like his gunfire or when he hits that guy with a hammer or whatever).

Yeah, I think 30 movies is the sweet spot (much as I wish Doctor Sleep and Upgrade were included in this one--both easily slide into my Top 10).

Rule of threes make sense here, especially when you have a Bottom 10, Middle 10, and Top 10.

26. The Purge: Anarchy (339 points)

Why I Chose It: The Purge is easily one of the biggest horror franchises of the 2010s. Obviously, everyone knows Anarchy was the sequel to the original, and normally I wouldn't put a sequel above an original, but The Purge: Anarchy was the bigger success story, shaping The Purge into what it is most recognized as now. Higher-grossing, better-reviewed, and giving us a franchise lead in Frank Grillo's Sergeant, The Purge: Anarchy got the audience out of the house and onto the city streets experiencing the true first-hand horror of the scenario rather than a glorified home invasion, with crazier individuals and an increased focus on political and violence commentary.

red13n: 9
Tom Nook: 11
Inviso: 13
Snake: 14
Plasmabeam: 23
Lightning Strikes: 25
jcgamer107: 26
Johnbobb: 26
rockus: 26
thesmark: 26
FFDragon: 27
BetrayedTangy: 28
Suprak: 28
fortybelowsummer: 29
PrinceKaro: 29

Red13n - Society gets a day to do whatever the hell they want. But apparently all they want is murder because that is really all that happens. When you are introduced to a character out for vengeance and they meet up with a bucnh of hardluck people stuck out in the purge, you can guess exactly where this story is going to go. And it goes exactly that way. There is some deeper conspiracy stuff going on here, and a resistance or whatever hinted at in the background that will pop up to very conveniently save the day. But all of this is going to be dropped when the purge ends because that is plot convenient and they reached their alotted runtime so we don't need to deal with the source of the purge grief at all.

Tom Nook - So the first Purge movie hypes up this huge scale event and gets you excited, and then ends up being a run of the mill home invasion film, and was just such an immense disappointment--it did nothing with the concept. Because of that, I put the series on hold, so this was one of the few movies I hadn't seen prior to this topic. This ended up being what the first movie should have been. This had the sense of scale that we were told about, and we got to roam the city with the characters as everything unfolds. I like what this movie delivered. A bunch of chaos and violence. The movie probably thinks it's a little smarter than what it is, but since it kept delivering the goods, I don't care. I'd even say they tried to play off a lot of this straight and it ended up "bad", but in the kind of way I like at times. Main dude was cool.

Inviso - Given what I know about the first Purge movie, and then having watched this oneI can understand why the first film wasnt on the list. The Purge concept does not work when its just a dumb conceit to create a standard home invasion horror movie. But if you consider this the start of what the franchise would become known for, then yes, Purge: Anarchy does a really good job. Its just a really interesting concept for a film: what would happen if there was just a day where everyone was allowed to kill whoever they wanted, and naturally, rich people stay safe and hunt the poor for sport. Its just a really enjoyable plot, watching this ragtag group of survivors, just trying to last the night together, through a series of obstacles. Plus, the happy ending is much appreciated, given how many of the serious films on this list have bleak endings.

My one problem is that there are all these little plot points that arent really given time to breathe. The government kill trucks show up every so often, but theyre not a consistent enough
antagonist, given their prominence. I mean, you have the masked gang that hunts Liz & Shane for a long time, but then they catch them, and thats it. Their sole purpose was to catch the survivors and sell them to rich people for hunting purposes. Also, the trip to Tanyas apartment lasts for one scene before Tanyas sister goes kill-crazy. Oh, and Carmelo is this revolutionary figure, but he only shows up for one scene as a deus ex machina. Its a lot of complaints, I know, but individually, these all work. I just wish they were woven together better than they were.

Snake - The Purge is inherently a dumb concept - and I think the films play into and acknowledge that a lot. Theres no way a whole society would ever allow this or play by any of the rules set-up in play - just the logistics of everything playing out all prim and proper is a pipe dream, nevermind a scenario like this ever-existing in the first place. Well, thats kind of the fun of it though - a true what if? scenario, and we get to see that from a second-hand perspective through the eyes of Frank Grillos Sergeant and his rag-tag band of survivors. The Sergeant is a bit of an expy of the Punisher - a cool, armored car, arsenal of weapons, and willing to go after an individual who inadvertently ran down and killed his son. Im a big Grillo fan, and he plays quite the convincing action hero. And theres ACTION galore here. See, I sort of consider The Purge: Anarchy an unsung gem of action-horror. Theres a ton of carnage here, with the chaos of the Purge giving way to some truly weird individuals to go out and exercise their right to purge. Its very battle-royale-esque, but political overtones and personal revenge plots keep the plot somewhat focused and grounded at the same time. The film escalates much like a video game, always giving Leo and his group a new challenge or new upgrade to plow through the next wave of enemies. That might be a bit of a cold, unsettling way of looking at something like this, but its as I said earlier - The Purge isnt really all that serious of a concept. They can act like it is all they want, but its just not. And Im fine with that. I watch this series for great action & a rogues gallery of weirdos and Anarchy delivers on both fronts for me.

Plasmabeam - Cool premise (I didnt watch the first one, so it was completely new to me) but nothing about The Purge 2 wowed me. The ending with Leo choosing to purge himself of his anger through forgiveness rather than violence was predictable but nonetheless cathartic. And I respect that the movie tried to get clever with the hunting scenario toward the end, but ultimately that part ended up feeling shoehorned and somewhat ham-fisted.

Damn.

I guess we're out of the section of the list where we eliminate the stupid stupid movies, and start eliminating the enjoyable stupid movies.

Outlier
Tom Nook: 67
red13n: 58
Snake: 40
Plasmabeam: 34
PrinceKaro: 33
FFDragon: 28
Inviso: 25
Suprak: 25
jcgamer107: 23
fortybelowsummer: 21
Johnbobb: 12
rockus: 11
BetrayedTangy: 11
Lightning_Strikes: 7
thesmark: 4

Coincidentally, I wore my Purge t-shirt today.

Next film up tomorrow afternoon (or maybe a surprise third ranking!)

I feel like all the purge sequels are exactly the same: Amazing concept, miserable execution, and somewhere between vaguely and overtly racist.

Frankly, I would've been fine if the series ended with The Forever Purge like it was supposed to. That was definitely a miserable time and it feels like the series is spinning its wheels now. At this point, it's only a matter of time before we start to get The Purge: Purgatory (takes place in heaven and hell) and The Space Purge.

Hey

I defend Jason X so... Let's goooooo