January 6, 2012 by Vinnie Leduc
- Final Destination 5
- Fright Night
- The Rite
- Scream 4
- The Thing
As you can probably tell from the complete absence of a list of honorable mentions, 2011 was a pretty weak year for horror. The purportedly craziest stuff out there, The Human Centipede sequel, only played in six theaters nationwide and supposedly sucked. Although it featured Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in another memorable supporting role and is “based on true events”, The Rite really only barely made the list of nods because the rest of the competition was tepid at best. Scream 4 entertainingly revived the long-dormant Ghostface, while Final Destination 5 extended its own life with the best ending of any movie mentioned here and garnered the best reviews of the series so far. Along with the surprisingly good Fright Night remake, this pair of sequels strayed into comedy territory often enough to make our final decision easier. We’re rewarding The Thing, the prequel to John Carpenter’s cult classic remake, for its valiant effort to introduce new moviegoers to and remind older ones of a visually disturbing and, more importantly, a psychologically wrenching creature feature. Bonus points for that perfect stinger. Winner: The Thing
