Why was 2010 such a crappy year for horror films? A year of too many remakes and bad sequels? I want to blame horror fans for not taking chances on original movies, but the ticket sales don’t support my theory — remakes, sequels and new movies all won and lost at the box office this year.

The few decent horror films of 2010 all seemed to struggle at the box office. The critically acclaimed Piranha 3D raked in a disappointing $10 million its opening weekend, while the Sci-Fi flick Splice was one of the year’s worst flops. The words “Inside… you…” should’ve went down in movie history as one of the best horror film quotes ever, but unfortunately there was no one around to hear them.

The highly anticipated but disappointing vampire flick Daybreakers made an estimated $51.4 million, Eli Roth’s The Last Exorcism earned a number one spot at the box office, and remakes like A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Wolfman saw huge worldwide sales. Meanwhile better films like Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale and Frozen were plagued by limited releases.

October got off to a slow start with Wes Craven’s My Soul To Take, and the American remake Let Me In both performing under expectations. While the sequels Saw 3D and Paranormal Activity 2 owned Halloween once again. Hatchet II was pulled from theaters because it sucked, the M. Night Shyamalan produced Devil was beaten by Ben Affleck’s The Town, and Milla Jovovich kicked ass with Resident Evil: Afterlife, which made something-like $3 billion dollars…

Other forgettable films include: The Crazies remake, Legion, Repo Men, After.Life, and Case 39.

You can blame remakes, the economy or even Adrien Brody, but it doesn’t change the fact that 2010 sucked balls, and that 2011 doesn’t look like it’s going to be any better… And that is why we decided to forgo our Top Ten Horror Movie list this year. While I personally enjoyed Splice and had a blast watching Piranha 3D, nothing stood out as a definitive top film like The Descent, or the Orphan did a few years ago. Even the direct-to-DVD market wasn’t safe from remakes this year, (I Spit on Your Grave and Night of the Demons) leaving no room for films like House of the Devil, or Dead Snow. Hopefully 2011 will have a little more to offer, but don’t hold your breath… When Justin Bieber: Never Say Never looks like the scariest movie of the year, you know we’re all in trouble. — Wil Keiper

Instead of a Top Ten Best (not enough films) or Top Ten Worst (too many to list), here are a few highlights and lowlights from 2010 written by the Horror Yearbook staff.

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Documentaries aren’t my favorite, but the long-awaited documentary on my favorite film of all time was a must see. I had heard only incredible things about it and I was not disappointed when I saw it. For a 4 hour documentary Never Sleep Again is completely riveting all the way through. Honestly, this film blew my mind, it reminded me of everything I love about the Elm Street movies so much and made me fall in love with them all over again. It talks about each film, one at a time, really diving in to everything surrounding each of these films; the people that were involved, fans reactions, the background and what made them what they became.

There is just such profound and engaging insight on each one of the films, characters, and everyone responsible for creating the Nightmare series. What’s even more impressive is as someone who has watched, analyzed, and talked about these movies time and time again it still brought new insight, dark metaphors and themes, and importance of the films forth. It’s a pretty impressive film that can bring so much new to the table that I was as glued to the screen as the first time I discovered the immortal Nightmare. — Kelsey Zukowski

Piranha 3D Old School American Horror

Alexandre Aja managed to succeed where Adam Green failed, by delivering a fun gory and enjoyable horror film that didn’t beat you over the head with wink at the camera moments. Merging horror and comedy is a hard task, and Green’s Hatchet 2 suffers from all of the miserable trappings of a bad horror comedy. Instead of mixing the two elements together, Hatchet 2 pauses for its punchlines and bad jokes that rarely land.

Piranha 3D blends all the aspects of an 80s horror film beautifully. From its gratuitous nudity to legendary beach slaughter scene, it forces you to cringe, cheer and laugh, while never missing a beat. I applaud Green’s effort by trying to get an unrated horror film back on the radar and into theaters, but Hatchet 2 was just another low point in a low year for horror films.– Kevin Touch

Adam Green Finally Gets it Right With Frozen

I have always respected Adam Green for his passion for horror, especially his love for the early slasher films that many horror fans grew up on. Still, his attempt to pay homage to these films in Hatchet was very flawed, entertaining to an extent, but still flawed. His follow up film, Spiral, showed improvement and was an enthralling character-based thriller (featuring Amber Tablyn as one of my favorite women in horror modern portrayals). Frozen really shows how far he has come as a filmmaker though. Colorful characters, sharp comedy, great suspense, and raw terror. Not only is it his best film, but it’s my favorite film of the year. I was completely captivated by it when I saw it back in January; no other film could really compare all year.

There are no traditional villains in Frozen; no crazed psychopath, leaving there no chance of escape or outwitting. There is not even a hope of a hidden human side to appeal to, even Jason and Michael Myers’ victims have had a shot in escape for once having something human in them. The only villain in Frozen is nature, making it seem all the more inevitable, perhaps this is just a cruel fate that these group of kids are doomed to. They are alone, stranded on a ski lift for days before there is even a chance of anyone finding out they are they. Their only choices are jumping to their deaths or sit there, freezing to death.

When our protagonists are just sitting on that ski lift, it is honestly far more uncomfortable and unimaginable to endure than most torture scenes. It is torture after all; long lasting, bitterly painful torture. It shows a seemingly peaceful environment and how easily it could go horribly wrong. There is a little bloodshed with the wolves, who are not menacing as much as just apart of inevitable nature. It’s really the stillness that is so hard to endure that makes the film have an impact. It implants a horrible fear in the audience in a situation that seems far more real than serial killers, zombies, or monstrous beings, showing nature as the most brutal and unrelenting monster of them all. — Kelsey Zukowski

A Nightmare on Remake Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street remake finally, for better or worse, hit the big screens earlier this year after multiple setbacks due to rewrites and the inevitable fan disapproval when seeing the first trailer. The rehashed burnt child killer proved to be not a total bust as it did almost gross double it’s budget with a healthy $63 million two months after its release. In one corner, the disappointment of many heartbroken fans and in the other corner, an appeal that just can’t be denied.

What worked: The dirty Fedora still rocks. Krueger’s red striped sweater look is timelessly stylish and people really took notice, striking a nostalgia familiarity with both older genre fans and introducing the hideous holiday sweater wearing homicidal to the youngsters who’ve never even seen a Robert Englund Elm Street movie in their short pubescent life (lets the real here, aka the virgins). The deaths are also updated; the Elm Street remake kept key death scenes, but had them updated with triple the blood and triple the effects. New death scenes are always welcomed even in a beloved remake of an inventive original (oxymoron?). Lastly, and lets face it, Freddy Krueger brings in the bucks (and the chicks). He’s no Katy Perry and he may be horrifyingly disfigured but that can’t stop the money train from pulling into the big screen station. The iconic character will never be an outcast due to a lack of money even if the latest entry leaves a bad sour taste in our mouths.

What went horribly wrong: The cast of victims were a bunch of unlikeable and modernly conventional misfits; there was not one Heather Langenkamp character in the mix. Mid-way through the remake, the overcoming want of everyone to just die a quick death in a nuclear explosion was sorely and desperately urged. On the other hand, seasoned Jackie Earle Haley performed amazingly, tirelessly configuring Freddy to please fans with homage and genious believability of an actual burned victim but with Haley’s height and Freddy makeup, Freddy was an overall laughable waste of space. Some described him best in looking much like an aged turtle (I agree by not thinking of any better description) and sounding like a supercentenarian with throat cancer (also true). The biggest beef with 2010 Elm Street comes with Freddy’s baggage. In not wanting to spoil it for you, I will not mention why this happened but the mythology of Freddy has changed in a big way and for the worse. An idiotically overused notion to why Freddy does what he does now replaces his original child killing extracurricular activities (which was far more scarier). — Steven Lewis

Saw: The Game is Over

In 2003, Leigh Whannell and James Wan shot a 10 minute short that would change the face of horror as we know it. That short was called Saw. Whannell played David, a man who was speaking to the police about being abducted and forced to play a deadly game of survival. The short film would be used as a tool to further develop a feature for Lions Gate Entertainment; it was also the basis for several scenes in the feature length film, also titled Saw.

The movie, which was originally slated to go straight-to-video, was given the okay to become a feature film after positive screenings. With a 1.2 million dollar budget, it would go on to make over $103 million worldwide. Combined with the success of Eli Roth’s Hostel, the genre now referred to as “torture porn” began to breathe new life into the once feared dead horror genre. With it’s incredibly grisly scenes and it’s still classic twist ending, the original Saw blazed a trail that is, if I may be cliche, often imitated but never duplicated… continue reading The Game is Over

HYB Loves The Taint

In a year full of remakes, 3D crap, and shitty sequels in awful film series that need to be destroyed, many horror addicts may have turned towards independent horror even more than any other year in the past for comfort and entertainment.

Despite not having quite the publicity of other Indy schlock fests like the tame Human Centipede and the gruelingly brilliant A Serbian Film, one film definitely became the biggest sleeper hit of the year and is also possibly the best horror film I’ve seen all year. I’m of course talking about The Taint.

In my website’s review for The Taint, I called it the best horror-comedy I’ve seen all year, and I feel it’s rightfully deserved. The film’s dark humor, practical effects, brilliant acting, and dialog shine through the surface and give me reason to re-watch this over and over. A film about Misogyny has truly never been this sweet to view as this is the little film that could and did steal the hearts of many individuals in the horror community. — Birdman of Horror Movie Central

Best Nude Scene of 2010

Editor’s Pick: Dren aka Delphine Chanéac – Splice (NSFW pics)

Reader’s Pick: Christy Carlson Romano – Mirrors 2 (SFW pics)