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2019’s Best Horror Film and TV

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It’s that time of the year again!  The time when we google which films are the best that 2019 has brought us.

First off, I hate to be “that guy,” but I might be one of the only people that didn’t like Midsommar.  Maybe I was having an off day with my horror gene.  Maybe Jupiter was in retrograde.  Whatever the reason, it just wasn’t jelling with me.

If we all can’t agree about what is the best, at least we can agree about the disappointment in the reboots; namely Jacob’s Ladder & Grudge.

While this year has been full of great mainstream horror, and I am a sucker for the underdog horror, the horror that only us horror enthusiast know about.  These rare jems tend to be at the top of my “best” list.

There have also been some great horror series this past year.  They still appear to be dropping every month or so on streaming networks.  While I haven’t had the chance to view all of them yet, the ones I saw do feel to be on the “best of horror” list.

I don’t know if it’s because I am a comic book collector since the tender and impressionable age of 13, but I love me some Superhero cinema.  Imagine my excitement for 2019 beginning the new age of Superhero horror with films like; Brightburn, Doctor Sleep and of course Glass.

These Superhero horrors finally coming to light makes sense with this day and age of super hero blockbusters reigning at the movie theaters.  I for one am not complaining, long live Stan Lee!  I don’t want any part of a “best of” list that doesn’t mention these diamonds!

Well horror friends, here is MY top 19 best scary of 2019. Did you get to see all these on the list?  As the man himself said it best, Excelsior!

Happy Horror- Glenn Packard

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19. Haunted

 IMDb rating: 4.6

Movie Synopsis:

This reality series, which comes from the producers of “The Purge” and “Lore,” provides viewers with a chilling glimpse into first-person accounts of supernatural events. People who have witnessed horrifying, peculiar or extraordinary events tell their tales, which include how the unexplained phenomena continue to haunt them. Stories include a boy who is haunted by visions of a woman hanging in his closet and sisters who grew up in a real-life house of horrors with a sadistic father who did unspeakable things.

 

18. Annabelle Comes Home

IMDb rating: 5.9

Movie Synopsis:

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren lock the possessed doll in the artifacts room in their house. But when the doll awakens the room’s evil spirits, it soon becomes an unholy night of terror for the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, her friends and their young baby sitter.

17. Crawl

IMDb rating: 6.2

Movie Synopsis:

When a massive hurricane hits her Florida town, young Haley ignores the evacuation orders to search for her missing father, Dave. After finding him gravely injured in their family home, the two of them become trapped by the rapidly encroaching floodwaters. With the storm strengthening, Haley and Dave discover an even greater threat than the rising water level — a relentless attack from a pack of gigantic alligators.

  16. Glass

IMDb rating: 6.7

Movie Synopsis:

David Dunn tries to stay one step ahead of the law while delivering vigilante justice on the streets of Philadelphia. His special talents soon put him on a collision course with the Beast — the psychotic madman who has superhuman strength and 23 distinct personalities. Their epic showdown leads them to an encounter with the mysterious Elijah Price, the criminal mastermind who holds critical secrets for both men.

15. YOU

IMDb rating: 8.3

Movie Synopsis:

What would you do for love? For a brilliant male bookstore manager who crosses paths with an aspiring female writer, this question is put to the test. A charming yet awkward crush becomes something even more sinister when the writer becomes the manager’s obsession. Using social media and the internet, he uses every tool at his disposal to become close to her, even going so far as to remove any obstacle –including people — that stands in his way of getting to her.

14. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

IMDb rating: 6.2 

Movie Synopsis:

The shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large in the small town of Mill Valley for generations. It’s in a mansion that young Sarah Bellows turns her tortured life and horrible secrets into a series of scary stories. These terrifying tales soon have a way of becoming all too real for a group of unsuspecting teens who stumble upon Sarah’s spooky home.

13. One Cut Of The Dead

IMDb rating: 7.7

Movie Synopsis:

Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie film in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility when they are attacked by real zombies.

 

12. Godzilla: King of Monsters

IMDb rating: 6.1 

Movie Synopsis:

Members of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species-thought to be mere myths-rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.

11. Marianne

IMDb rating: 7.5

Movie Synopsis:

A famous horror writer who is lured back to her hometown discovers that the evil spirit who plagues her dreams is now wreaking havoc in the real world.

 

10. Escape Room

 

IMDb rating: 4.2

Movie Synopsis:

Six adventurous strangers travel to a mysterious building to experience the escape room — a game where players compete to solve a series of puzzles to win $10,000. What starts out as seemingly innocent fun soon turns into a living nightmare as the four men and two women discover each room is an elaborate trap that’s part of a sadistic game of life or death.

9. US

IMDb rating: 6.9

Movie Synopsis:

Accompanied by her husband, son and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.

8. The Perfection

IMDb rating: 6.1

Movie Synopsis:

A troubled musical prodigy and a new star pupil embark down a sinister path.

7. Haunt

IMDb rating: 6.3

Movie Synopsis:

On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an extreme haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realization that some nightmares are real.

 

6. Ready or Not

IMDb rating: 6.9

Movie Synopsis:

Grace couldn’t be happier after she marries the man of her dreams at his family’s luxurious estate. There’s just one catch — she must now hide from midnight until dawn while her new in-laws hunt her down with guns, crossbows and other weapons. As Grace desperately tries to survive the night, she soon finds a way to turn the tables on her not-so-lovable relatives.

5. Black Summer

IMDb rating: 6.3

Movie Synopsis:

Set in the “Z Nation” universe, this series follows a crack team of special forces as it fights for hope in the darkest hours of the zombie apocalypse.

4. Brightburn

 

IMDb rating: 6.2

Movie Synopsis:

After a difficult struggle with fertility, Tori Breyer’s dreams of motherhood come true with the arrival of a mysterious baby boy. Brandon appears to be everything Tori and her husband, Kyle, ever wanted — bright, talented and curious about the world. But as Brandon nears puberty, powerful darkness manifests within him, and Tori becomes consumed by terrible doubts about her son. Once Brandon begins to act on his twisted urges, those closest to him find themselves in grave danger.

3. IT: Chapter 2

IMDb rating: 6.7

Movie Synopsis:

Defeated by members of the Losers’ Club, the evil clown Pennywise returns 27 years later to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine, once again. Now adults, the childhood friends have long since gone their separate ways. But when people start disappearing, Mike Hanlon calls the others home for one final stand. Damaged by scars from the past, the united Losers must conquer their deepest fears to destroy the shape-shifting Pennywise — now more powerful than ever.

2. Belzebuth

 

IMDb rating: 6

Movie Synopsis:

After losing his family in an extremely tragic way, Detective Ritter must investigate a massacre at a school perpetrated by a student

1. Doctor Sleep

IMDb rating: 7.5

Movie Synopsis:

Struggling with alcoholism, Dan Torrance remains traumatized by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was a child. His hope for a peaceful existence soon becomes shattered when he meets Abra, a teen who shares his extrasensory gift of the “shine.” Together, they form an unlikely alliance to battle the True Knot, a cult whose members try to feed off the shine of innocents to become immortal.

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Honorable mention:

In Search of Darkness: A Journey into Iconic ’80s Horror

I highly recommend anybody that grew up in the 80’s or loves 80’s horror to watch this, so inspiring.

 

Read what my friend Brianna Spieldenner thinks are the best horror poster’s of 2019 here!

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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “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.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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