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By Dustin Hall

I’ve held onto this story for quite some time, waiting for just the right moment to share it. With The Conjuring 2 in cinemas, revealing another case from the files of the famous ghost hunting Warrens, I thought it the perfect time to share with you my own journey into their haunted home, including a face-to-face with the dreaded Annabelle.

Many years ago, I was sent an invite (I no longer remember the source) to see Ed and Lorraine Warren speak at a college somewhere in the New England area. The two of them were touring and giving lectures about some of their most famous cases, Annabelle, Amityville, etc. around Halloween time. I wasn’t able to go that year, but for a long time I planned on taking the trip out, hoping to get a glimpse into these fascinating cases, which have been the basis for many a horror film since. However, Ed Warren passed away in 2006 and I thought the opportunity would never come again.

In the following years however, The Warren home was again opened up to visitors, and I was able to secure time as part of a small group to meet Lorraine Warren, speak with her over dinner, and enter the Occult Museum that is kept under her modest home in Monroe, Connecticut. I went during a chilly spring weekend in March of 2015.

Some have asked since why I would want to go into a place even allegedly so full of haunted artifacts. I have to say I was excited by the prospect. Though I’m skeptical of haunting accounts, I still have been on many ghost hunts and have done much research into different aspects of the occult, psychic phenomena, cryptids, etc. in the hopes of finding something interesting, something fantastic in the mundane world. Even if I didn’t find proof of haunting in this home, I at least was excited to find interesting artifacts from the legendary couple who shared my own fascination with the supernatural, and who had claimed to touch it. It wasn’t quite what I expected.

The Warren home is a simple house at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. Cars were lined up in the circle drive, with a few small groups of curious fans waiting to be received as the sitting room was being prepared. After a short time, we were invited in, and found the living room supplied with a few tightly packed rows of seats, which were quickly taken. The room was humming with tense excitement as we awaited our hostess for the evening, no one knowing quite what to expect. There were lots of jumps and nervous laughs as glass suddenly shattered somewhere behind the crowd, and everyone turned to find Mrs. Warren’s cat staring us down, angrily pushing tchotchkes off of the cabinets. Other cats came out seeking attention from the room of strangers over time. Somewhere in the background, a chicken freely roamed the house.

At last we were greeted officially by Mrs. Warren, who came out and took a seat in her favorite armchair joined by Tony Spera, her son-in-law and Director of the New England Society for Paranormal Research. Standing in the back was family friend and archivist Reverend James Anzianno. Mrs. Warren shared some first hand accounts of how she claims her psychic powers manifested themselves in her early childhood, and then of a few of her cases with her late husband Ed. There were many interjections by Spera, who seemed to really like to punch up details for dramatic effect. A Q&A session followed, including the typical questions about Amityville and Annabelle and some of the more famous cases people know from media. This living room session was concluded by the showing of a video from the Warrens’s archives of what they claim to be an exorcism.

From this point, I’ll admit, the part of me that was engaged solely with the joy and chills of ghost stories went away, and my bullshit detector came out to do inspections. When you start tossing things out like ‘video evidence of demonic possession’, I can’t help but go into analytical mode. The video showed a Hispanic man presumably bound to a chair, the video framed tightly on his face, as the Warrens spoke to him and tried to drive out the supposed demon with their sermonizing. The man growled, his eyes rolled back, the rest of the audience shuddered in terror. “Now look here and you can see,” added Spero, “where the man is bleeding from his mouth, but as it hits his shirt, the blood simply vanishes.” Everyone ooh’d and ahh’d as what seemed to clearly be saliva, not blood, hit the man’s white T-shirt. As clearly as could be perceived from a 30 year-old VHS tape, anyway.

Nonplussed as I was by this video evidence, I was happy to finally move past story time, and down into the Occult Museum beneath the house. This was, after all, the real reason we were all here. Father Jim stood first and said a prayer over us and blessed the house and the spirits within, to contain any demons that might be lurking about. The lights were dimmed, and we lined up single file to descend into the cool basement to meet our destiny. Godzilla roared… GODZILLA!? Down the stairs and through the hallways lined with paintings and Halloween decorations is the museum’s entryway, complete with a Godzilla roar motion sensor on the door. It went off 30 times or so as we crowded into the museum, taking much of the ambiance with it. Nevertheless, we were finally here.

Having watched The Conjuring, I was familiar with the image of the room, laden with statues, tomes and artifacts from the various cases of The Warrens, Annabelle herself locked in a glass case in the back. However the film’s version does vary somewhat from the real thing. The actual museum was kept dimly lit with red bulbs during our visit, and while we were given free reign to explore, a creepy Halloween FX tape played in the background. The room itself was full of fake cobwebs, and had rubber bats and spooky ghosts strung from the ceiling throughout. In fact, the whole place was full of simple rubber masks, toys, and other oddities which could be gotten from pretty much any Halloween store.

Spero warned us that, despite the ordinary appearance of the items in the room, all of the things here had been used in some dark way in the past and any of them could potentially kill us if we touched them or mocked them. Father Jim’s blessing would help with that, but it would still be bad for us to get too close. As we wandered through the room and pointed at different items, Spero would give us the tales behind them. A toy T-Rex with its head removed once belonged to a boy, and if the head were attached it would speak vile things to us. Halloween masks were supposed to have been used by cultists to make their faces alter into the same monstrous form. A mirror on the wall has a demon trapped within it, and perhaps if we took a picture, we would see it in the developed photo.

Perhaps my favorite and the most puzzling selection in the room was the selection of occult books on the shelf. While I am vaguely familiar with several famous grimoires in the world, I recognized very few of the tomes presented here, with the exception of Simon’s Necronomicon (available from Amazon books), and an impressive selection of Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition handbooks. On the shelf, and indeed scattered liberally through the room, were posters and soundtracks for The Conjuring, now a major motion picture. Lorraine Warren was present during this time as well, though she was more interested in showing off the paintings that Ed left behind, as he was an avid creator of ghostly portraits and pictures of old Victorian homes.

During this time, right about when I bumped full on into a crudely crafted demon statue, which they claimed was the second most dangerous item in the room after Annabelle, did I realize how little this Occult Museum matched my particular expectations. To a degree, I can excuse the Halloween kookiness in the room, as I’ve found since then that Ed was a very avid Halloween collector in his day. But between that, the ads for The Conjuring movie, and the lines of people bumping into supposedly haunted artifacts as we crowded around for pictures with Annabelle, I was struck by the incredible lack of reverence for anything in the room. What was in the museum looked like a collection of thrift store junk, and frankly it was treated as such. In a room where anything that we touched could result in demonic possession or an untimely death, there was nothing to stop anyone from touching something, taking something, or falling accidentally into a demon statue. I couldn’t help but liken it to decorating the contents of a missile silo with Easter pastels in full disregard for the lethal payload on display, or letting a school tour group of children run unhindered through a dangerous factory. Why would you not take something like that more seriously? This was either incredibly fake, or I was being led around by the most irresponsible group of demonologists I was ever likely to meet.

When our museum tour concluded, we all went together to the nearby cemetery to say a prayer over the grave of Ed Warren, and then went to dinner further down the road at an Italian restaurant. To any who take future tours of the museum, I recommend the eggplant parmesan.

During dinner I nursed a Jack & Coke and ruminated bitterly over the Warrens’s collection. Most of the rest of the audience seemed to be distinctly pleased, discussing how they could feel energy in the room, or how they though they felt something playing with their hair. Others looked through copies of the Warren casefile book, The Demonologist, and wondered how the world remained unconvinced at the proof of hauntings, when the photos in the book so clearly showed a bottle knocked on its side “by a ghost”, or a chair hovering in the air, mysteriously half out of frame. I suppose in the end I’m not sure what I expected to find. Proof of haunting? Kindred spirits? A real sense of wonder and amazement at the idea of the supernatural? I suppose that last one was definitely present, if only in my fellow audience members.

Still, as I spoke briefly with Mrs. Warren at the end of the night and thanked her for letting us into her home, I couldn’t help but think that she was a very polite and sweet lady, one who very genuinely missed her late husband. Whenever she spoke of Ed her voice became quite soft, and there was a definite admiration in her tone, as well as a good deal of loneliness. She also seemed quite earnest in her assessments of her haunting cases, even if those around her were avid about making a profit from the experience. There’s a strange disconnect between the aspects of Lorraine Warren, a very sweet New England lady, a self-proclaimed psychic and demonologist, and one of the controversial masterminds behind dozens of money-making haunting cases that many have described as elaborate frauds.

To those still on the fence, take the trip out to explore the Warren home. Appointments can be made through the NESPR group via Warrens.net. Though if you’re looking for concrete proof of ghosts and demons, the trip might fall short; rather you may find something more akin to a walk through a Halloween fun house. Regardless, what you’ll really find on display is the way in which humans so easily see what they want to see when looking into the unknown.

By Ben Bussey

Happy new year everybody! So, 2016 is here – and with it, the seventh birthday of Brutal As Hell, which first went live all the way back on New Year’s Day 2009. As such, my customary end of year review is perhaps a little overdue, but I’ve found myself struggling with it even more than usual this year. This is at least in part down to the recurring concern that I just haven’t seen enough of the year’s most talked-about horror movies for my opinion to really matter: to name but a few, Goodnight Mommy, Deathgasm, Aaaaaaaah!, Bone Tomahawk, Maggie, The Invitation, The Visit, Victor Frankenstein, The Nightmare, Creep, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night were among the ones I didn’t see in 2015.

But another key reason I’ve been struggling to look back on 2015 is that – well – it’s been a pretty fucking shit year in many respects. For one, the horror/cult movie world lost a lot of greats, with Christopher Lee, Wes Craven, Gunnar Hansen, Richard Johnson, Betsy Palmer,  Robert Z’Dar and Roddy Piper among those who passed away. And of course, rather closer at home, Brutal As Hell suffered a personal loss with the death of our writer Stephanie Scaife – something which I will not deny hit me pretty hard.

Beyond this, though, I can honestly say there hasn’t been much new horror that’s really made an impact on me these past twelve months. Yes, I missed plenty of new movies, but a great deal of what I did see – including many movies which had garnered widespread praise – wound up leaving me cold. It Follows, Turbo Kid, Housebound, We Are Still Here, Crimson Peak, Krampus, The Witch, Tales of Halloween: I didn’t hate any of these movies by any stretch of the imagination, but none of them made half the impact I’d expected them to.

As such, taking a leaf out of Keri’s book, I’m not going to attempt a full top ten this year. Instead, here’s a few of the movies that made the most impact on me in 2015, in very specially designated categories which  I made up as I went along while writing this.

Overall favourite – He Never Died

My choice of top image might have given this one away. Sometimes you sit down to watch a new movie and just know within the first few scenes that it’s going to wind up your favourite of the year: that happened for me in 2014 with The Demon’s Rook, and it happened again this year with He Never Died. A wonderfully unexpected genre-bender, as hilariously funny as it is tense and unsettling, it really marks out Jason Krawczyk as a writer-director to look out for – and I’ll say it again, who knew Henry Rollins had such great leading man chops? (My review.)

Best horror comedy – What We Do In The Shadows

“It doesn’t work on chips.” Just one of the many, many quotable lines from this wonderfully, wonderfully funny movie. I missed this at the 2014 fests, and as a result sat down to watch it on DVD almost prepared to be disappointed – such heavy buzz often builds movies up far too much. Happily, What We Do In The Shadows was everything I’d hoped for. Just hysterical, but also a very smart and in its own way sensitive take on vampire lore. Comparisons with This Is Spinal Tap are entirely warranted. (Steph’s review.)

Best documentary – Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

My affection for the subject matter is obviously a key component in how much I enjoyed this one, but Not Quite Hollywood and Machete Maidens Unleashed director Mark Hartley has done it again, crafting a documentary that is both hugely informative and phenomenally entertaining, and leaves you with a list of must-see movies longer than your arm. (My review.)

Most underrated mainstream movie – Unfriended

I really don’t think this movie got the credit it deserved. Yes, we’re all shit sick of found footage movies, mainstream or otherwise – but I can’t help feeling Unfriended was dismissed offhand as being just another one of those, with no consideration given for what a fresh and inventive approach it took to the lamented subgenre. No, it’s no major game-changer, and it might have helped if the characters had been a little less detestable, but overall I found it a wonderfully immersive experience, and one of the few horror movies to get a wide cinema release this year which really took some chances –  well, okay, we could say that of It Follows as well, but I had more problems with that one. (Read the discussion piece between Keri and myself.)

Most inspiring indie – Applecart

Now, I was by no means 100% won over by this recent release from prolific no-budget indie writer-director Dustin Wayde Mills, but I feel it warrants mention here for the simple reason that I don’t see nearly enough no-budget filmmakers taking the kind of risks and striving toward the kind of unique vision that Mills does here. So often all we get are generic slasher/zombie/torture films from cash-strapped amateurs trying in vain to beat Hollywood at their own game, when they’d surely be better off aiming for something genuinely fresh and unique. As a silent black and white movie with a constantly mask-clad cast acting out various unsettling psychosexual scenarios, Applecart might come off at least a little pretentious, but it’s often very effective – and above all, it’s nothing if not a concerted effort toward making a truly different kind of horror movie. (My review.)

And, because these kind of things are never complete without naming and shaming the worst of the worst…

Crappiest horror film of the year: Some Kind of Hate

This is another mention I feel almost honour-bound to make, as I’ve been flabbergasted to see how well-reviewed this unspeakable piece of shit has been in some quarters. To an extent, I understand why it’s garnered some praise; it does boast an effective opening half hour, and makes an admirable effort to breathe new life into the slasher format whilst seriously tackling the problem of bullying. However – it completely, utterly fails to do this, and rapidly descends into outright idiocy by the final act. This alone would be enough to give director/co-writer Adam Egypt Mortimer a big thumbs-down – but then Mortimer earned even bigger dipshit points for his attempt to create a new label for modern horror in ‘deathwave.’ If that whole storm in a tea cup (prompted by an ill-advised article at Blumhouse.com) passed you by, don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything; happily, fans and filmmakers alike wasted no time dismissing it as hollow and stupid – much in line with my feelings about Some Kind of Hate. (My review.) 

That about wraps up 2015 for me, then. A disappointing, often truly sad year for horror in many respects – but still with more than a few real jewels in its crown. Let’s hope there’s more of what glitters in store for us in 2016.

(PS – yes, I loved Mad Max and Star Wars too. Not to mention Big Hero 6, Jurassic World, Inside Out and Ant-Man – and Avengers: Age of Ultron wasn’t that bad either. But the less said about the Minions movie the better. Gah.)

By Nia Edwards-Behi

It’s that time of year again, when I put my memory to the test and realise, once I’ve finished, that I’ve left dozens of titles out of the running for my round-up of favourites of the year. It’s always going to be a subjective list, and almost certainly arbitrary – I admit I don’t keep an on-going list throughout the year (you’d think I’d have learned to do so, by now), so I have to do a lot of picking through documents to try and remember what I’ve seen in a year. The list covers what I’d broadly term ‘genre’ films, rather than just ‘horror’, which hopefully makes the list a bit more varied and interesting. I’ve included some also-rans on this list, and I’ve tried to focus on pre-release films in the hope that they make it to cinemas or DVD in 2016. Many of the runners up could easily have been in the top ten, if I’d compiled it on a different day, or thought about it in a different mood. Like I say: there’s a certain arbitrariness to this.

The second part of this end of year round-up is a look forward to 2016: the films I’m most looking forward to. Again, knowing my luck I’ll end up forgetting to include something really obvious that I’m looking forward to. Hopefully this time next year some of the films here will be rounding off the year!

2015 FAVOURITES

Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)

After I submitted my review of Mad Max: Fury Road back in May, I had a feeling I might have been a bit overly enthused directly following an early-morning advance screening of the film. However, having since re-watched the film on several occasions (though admittedly only on a cinema screen), I can safely say that it’s glaringly, predictably my absolute favourite film of the year. There’s very little I could say that hasn’t already been said, by myself or others, but regardless it would be insincere of me to downplay just how much I adore this film.

Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler, 2015)

Sometimes you see a film a just think, ‘yes, that’s a proper film’. That was much my thinking part-way through Bone Tomahawk (released in UK cinemas Spring 2016), never mind at its end. A horror-Western hybrid of the first order, the film excels as both. Bone Tomahawk takes its time to establish an ensemble cast of distinct, well-rounded characters that drive the simple narrative. It’s ultimately a character study, but its reverent use of genre makes it hugely enjoyable and entertaining. (Tristan’s review.)

The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015)

My overwhelming memory from first seeing The Invitation is finding myself, at the film’s close, sunk into the wall I was sitting next to, having tensed up my body while watching the film. It’s a thoughtful, subtle and intense chamber film, with Logan Marshall-Green heading up a naturalistic and believable cast. Though the film has rightfully been making waves at ‘genre’ festival, it’s also accessible enough that it should have a very broad appeal.

Deadman Inferno (Hiroshi Shinagawa, 2015)

Back in April I saw Deadman Inferno at BIFFF in Brussels, and I could not have been happier, seven months later, to see it win the audience award at my own Abertoir Horror Festival. A knowing, affectionate and immensely funny film, Hinagawa’s zombie-comedy really shows other comedies how it should be done.

Robbery (Fire Lee, 2015)

I think if I had to pick the most exciting film I saw this year it would be Robbery. Arriving in my lap as a screener and with no other expectation than ‘black comedy’, this gem turned out to be so much more. It’s certainly an extremely dark comedy, balancing slapstick violence and toilet humour in equal measure, alongside some astute and cutting social commentary. And to boot: it’s got a gorgeous visual palette.

The Chronicles of Evil (Baek Woon-Hak, 2015)

Baek Woon-Hak’s The Chronicles of Evil doesn’t seem to have had much of a release outside of its native South Korea, but it’s a thrilling account of guilt and bad decisions. A newly-promoted police officer accidentally kills a taxi driver who attacks him and decides to cover up the death. The next day the same man is discovered hanging from a massive construction crane. It’s a thrill-ride, full of deceptions and betrayals and twists and turns as you might expect from a Korean crime thriller. I’m hoping it sees light of day on DVD over here soon, as I really want to see it again.

Hellions (Bruce McDonald, 2015)

I’ve already had my say about Hellions back in October as part of BaH’s Trick or Treat Halloween feature. I seem to be one of the few people to have truly enjoyed the film (I’ve already seen it appear on a couple of ‘worst of 2015’ lists!), and to what extent my enjoyment of Hellions is increased by the fact that I haven’t see McDonald’s apparently ‘superior’ Pontypool, I can’t possibly say. Even so: I adored Hellions, and it’s certainly stood out as one of the more unique and interesting films I saw in 2015.

Fatal Frame (Mari Asato, 2014)

Another film to take me by surprise in 2015 was the ostensible computer game adaptation Fatal Frame. I approached it expecting something splattery and cheap (more fool me, even though I expected to enjoy it!), and instead found an under-stated, thoughtful and beautiful film. This feminine and female-focused film features some of the most striking images I’ve seen this year, and although the narrative unravels somewhat towards the film’s close, it’s easily a film I will re-visit over and over again. (Keri’s review.)

The Dead Lands (Toa Fraser, 2014)

The Dead Lands was one of the films I was most looking forward to this year, so it was an absolute pleasure that it did not disappoint. As I wrote in April, it’s a fascinating film for its various cultural specificities, but most of all it’s a truly great action film. If you want to see burly blokes beat each other up in a way you’ve never seen before, this is very much the film for you!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams, 2015)

A late contender to this list, given as I’ve only just seen it on Christmas Eve, it would be entirely inauthentic of me not to include Star Wars: The Force Awakens in my list. A grin was plastered on my face from start to finish, and while future viewings may dampen that enthusiasm, or reveal plot or character niggles, there’s no denying that seeing this film was an absolute, magical pleasure.

2015 SPECIAL MENTIONS

The Terror Live (Kim Byung-Woo, 2013) – an exceptionally inventive thriller, set almost entirely in a television studio.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (Francis Lawrence, 2015) – a satisfying end to the franchise, including a truly horrific action sequence.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (Matthew Vaughn, 2015) – just about scraping into 2015, this was a charming and thoroughly entertaining film.

SPL2: A Time for Consequences (Cheang Pou-Soi, 2015) – bone-cracking action with Tony Jaa and a star-making turn from Max Zhang.

Tag (Sion Sono, 2015) – worth a mention just for the gloriously over-the-top opening scene, though there’s pleasure to be had in the increasingly incoherent film that follows.

The Target (Chang, 2014) – who would have thought a remake would show up in this list? Non-stop, breath-taking, twisty-turny action.

The Silenced (Lee Hae-Young, 2015) – the other great spooky all-girls school film I saw this year.

Hollow (Ham Tran, 2014) & Aaaaaaaah! (Steve Oram, 2015) & Attack on Titan Parts 1 and 2 (Shinji Higuchi, 2015) & The Ninja War of Torakage (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2015) & They Look Like People (Perry Blackshear, 2015) – look, basically anything we showed at Abertoir 2015, obviously.

2016 MOST ANTICIPATED

The Revenant (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2015) – I recently finally saw the trailer for this much-talked about film and I’m looking forward to it being one of the early films I see in 2016.

The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015) – I’m not Tarantino’s biggest fan, but I can’t deny that this film looks marvellous (and if Kurt Russell pulls off two great Westerns in quick succession that’ll be quite the achievement).

The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2015) – high-brow lady-assassin martial arts film? Yes, yes, yes please. I’m not sure how much this film will even qualify as ‘genre’, but we’ll see.

High Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015) – the recent first trailer for the film has cemented my desire to see it, a bit further than ‘Tom Hiddleston’s in it’.

Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015) – I managed to miss this one when everyone around me was raving about it (serves me right for choosing to go watch a Thai zombie film instead, I guess), so this is very high on my films to see in 2016.

Shin Gojira (Shinji Higuchi, 2016) – the team behind Attack on Titan doing the new Godzilla? Get in my eyeballs!!!

Captain America: Civil War (Joe and Anthony Russo, 2016) – given the strength of the Russo Brothers’ previous outing with Marvel, it’s safe to say this is likely going to blow my mind.

Baskin (Can Evrenol, 2015) – gore, gore and more gore.

Evolution (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015) – this sounded like one of the most interesting films I missed from its festival screenings last year, and so I really hope it receives a UK release in 2016.

The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016) – Refn takes on the evils of a beauty-obsessed society. I’m intrigued by the often macho-centric director’s take on the world of modelling.

The Piper (Kim Kwang-Tae, 2015) – the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin re-imagined in rural, post-war Korea. I’m really looking forward to this one.

By Quin

For months now, I’ve been listening to Bret Easton Ellis prattle on and on about how he (and some of his filmmaker friends) believe 2015 was the worst year of all time for movies. For the record, he wasn’t too fond of 2014 either. He’s absolutely wrong about both years. But, I must admit that 2015 was a weird one for horror and the other things that we cover at Brutal as Hell. I saw a ton of movies this year and so many of them were really good. But there were only a few where, as I was watching them, I made a mental note that it would probably make my end of the year best of list.

On a stronger year, at least half of these wouldn’t even be on my list. As always, there are the glaring titles that I missed, but will undoubtedly see in the next few weeks and that movie will forever be missing from my list – thus, rendering the list useless. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but still. I wish that these lists could be accurate. My favorite film of 2014 ended up being A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, but no one knew except me, because I didn’t see it until after my list was complete. So, now I have a new list that’s probably all wrong, but I have it nonetheless. It’s mine, until I disown it. I swear, I want to start doing my end of year lists a year late. That’s the only way they would ever have a shot at being complete. 2015 popularized a new phobia known as FOMO (the fear of missing out) well I think I suffer from the fear of missing movies. Here’s my list, let me know what I missed so I can un-miss it.

Before I get to my official top 10, I have one honorable mention that could have easily gotten on the list depending on my mood. So, if you want to call this my top 11, I wouldn’t be mad:

The Boy

This movie actually surprised me and drew me in with its downbeat and humorless tone. In fact, Rainn Wilson’s performance as a drifter, stranded because of a car accident, is so understated and mysterious. He has completely purged Dwight Schrute, although that character was also pretty creepy when you think about it. The rest of the acting in the film is great as well. The film is super slow, but it will get under your skin.

And now the real top 10:

All Hallow’s Eve 2

I bet there are very few lists out there with this title on it. But I unashamedly love this movie. It’s better than its predecessor (which I enjoyed) and I think it’s way better than the other holiday themed anthology films that came out this year. I finally saw Tales of Halloween and apart from a great performance from Barry Bostwick and some cool cameos by John Landis and comedian Dana Gould, it’s very disjointed and disappointing. All Hallow’s Eve 2, on the other hand, is cohesive and beautiful and so much fun. (Read my review.)

Maggie

Western director and legend John Ford famously said of John Wayne after seeing him in Red River, “I never knew the big son of a bitch could act.” That’s what I said when I saw Maggie. This is one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best performances and definitely his calmest and possibly most challenging screen presence. This film has an interesting take on the zombie genre too. (Read Dustin’s review.)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I couldn’t not include this film. On a more comprehensive and less specialized list this would be closer to the top. Of course it’s not a perfect film, but it did perfectly rinse the bad taste out of our mouths left from the prequel trilogy. I may still be on a Star Wars high since seeing this on opening day, but it really satisfied my Star Wars needs and got me all excited for the places Disney is going to take the franchise. It seems to me like it’s in good hands. Less than 12 months until we get to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which if the rumors are true, will take place between Episodes III and IV and will feature Darth Vader. YAY!

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter

This is a weird one that was quietly released and already seems to be forgotten. It’s about a lonely, unhappy woman in Japan who finds an unmarked VHS tape. The tape’s contents are a snowy, staticky recording of the Coen Brothers film Fargo. The woman doesn’t realize the movie is fiction (In her defense, it does have that bit at the beginning about how it’s based on true events) and she becomes convinced that there really is money buried in Fargo, North Dakota. Her adventure is filled with some honestly touching human interaction and at the same time a frustrating lack of communication. Despite the bizarre story (which is actually based on an urban legend that seems to be only partly true) this movie is also incredibly depressing.

It Follows

I saw this movie at the beginning of the year and loved it. I really thought it would be my favorite of the year, but I knew there were a lot of months left for new releases. As expected, it dropped lower on my list. It’s gotten a fair amount of negative criticism this year (including from our own Keri and Ben), but I don’t really care. In spite of its flaws in logic, it’s a visually stunning film that gets that wonderful creepy tone 100% right from beginning to end. (Also read Tristan and Nia’s reviews.)

Goodnight Mommy

This is another one where the craft of great filmmaking usurps a weak setup and flimsy plot. Normally, if a film has a big twist, I want to be left in the dark until the bomb is dropped. Like so many people are saying about this one, I had the whole movie figured out in the first scene. The great thing is that I don’t even care. This movie was mesmerizing. Sometimes if you know what is going to happen, it’s still surprising to see how it’s going to happen. Goodnight Mommy did not disappoint me. (Read Nia’s review.)

Creep

I loved everything about this movie. It’s easily the best found footage movie of the year. It’s also very funny and very scary. (Read my review.)

Bone Tomahawk

Apart from Billy the Kid vs. Dracula and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter, I can’t remember seeing any westerns with horror leanings. That said, I declare Bone Tomahawk the best of its sub-genre. Unlike the other two I mentioned, it takes itself seriously and commands a ton of respect. As a bonus, gore hounds should note that there is a crazy burst of intense violence near the end that will make you cringe or grin with delight depending on your tolerance for such visuals. (Read Tristan’s review.)

What We Do In the Shadows

As a rule, I am against horror/comedies. What We Do in the Shadows drives a stake through that rule, because this is up there with the all time classics like Young Frankenstein. It also holds up to repeated viewings – in fact, I think I like it more every time I watch it. Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi co-wrote, co-directed and both starred in the film and they are both absolutely brilliant. It’s looking like Rhys Darby and his group of werewolves (not swear wolves) are getting a sequel. Let’s hope that’s just as good, I think shifting Darby to a lead role is an excellent start. (Read Steph’s review.)

Ex Machina

I moved my top three around quite a bit before finally settling on this. In fact, I should just have three number ones. Ex Machina is another flawed but beautiful film. It’s predictable at times, but it’s so well-paced, well-acted, well-shot… the whole thing from top to bottom is just so impressive and awe-inspiring. I also love that in a year where we were blessed with a new Star Wars movie, we got this movie that is actually science-fiction. It asks all of the tough, philosophical questions and keeps you on your toes. It does this all in a world that is gorgeous, terrifying, and very Kubrickian. I would love to see Alexander Garland get a best director Oscar nomination. I also think Alicia Vikander should get a best actress nod and Oscar Isaac (what an amazing year for him) should get a best supporting actor nomination.

Well, I guess that’s that. Happy New Year, everybody!

By Dustin Hall

Welcome boils and ghouls! Tonight, ol’ Dustin is going to break formality to give you a first person account of horror. This tale takes place in Burbank, California, normally a place of sunny days and frolicking youth, turned instead, for one weekend, into a place of monsters and mayhem. In this place, the Masters of Horror come together to play, and to share their own haunted histories. I call today’s terror tale Son of Monsterpalooza.

September 20th I took a very nice girl to Disney Land. In exchange, the 19th was mine, all mine, to run and play at the Son of Monsterpalooza convention. Now, I haven’t gotten to go to more than a handful of horror cons in my years, so I don’t have a ton of examples for comparison, but personally I had a blast at the con, and hopefully a few of you dear readers might make it out yourself one of these days to take in what was a pretty damn good time. This particular convention is based around showcasing special effects and mask-creation skills from a number of very talented artists, many of whom have had their works showcased in the television series Face Off and numerous classic horror films. Of course, while the origins of the con lay with special fx and make-up, it has grown to include plenty of horror merchandise and iconic actors and directors over time.

My personal experience began with me walking in the door past the ticket-taker, and turning to realize that Sid Haig was behind me in line, waiting to have his booth space opened up by the convention attendees. Turning back around, I almost immediately run right into Tom Savini, who wasn’t even a guest at the con, but rather just walking for his own pleasure, and undoubtedly seeing what other FX geniuses had been engineering lately. This was just the beginning of many sightings of some of my heroes throughout the day.

The dealer hall isn’t huge, but has plenty of stuff to look at. Of course, given the nature of Monsterpalooza, many of the pricetags are out of the range of casual collectors. Statues, custom masks, FX and make-up equipment, props, and crafts all command a high price that people not creating their own horror film might not be able to pick up. However, even if you can’t afford the services of a world class monster sculptor, being able to see them create new fiends on the spot is still worth the time. And when you’re done reminiscing with the likes of the Chiodo Brothers, the impoverished among us can still go hunting for the usual fare of T-shirts, DVDs, posters, and action figures.

For myself, the highlight of the day was checking out the Masters of Horror reunion panel, which brought back four of the directors from the series, Mick Garris (The Stand), Tom Holland (Fright Night), Larry Cohen (The Stuff), and William Malone (The House on Haunted Hill) to reflect not just on the series, but also on their time in the world of horror cinema, and how it’s evolved over time. This was followed up with a long conversation with Tom Holland, who I found to be a very gracious speaker, open about the craft, both the art and the business behind it.

In fact, this was really the greatest asset of the convention. It wasn’t the biggest convention I’ve been to, by any means. And yeah, the guests were all typically selling something or charging for autographs and all that. But at the same time, it being a small con allowed for a lot of personal interaction that I’m not used to at most cons. The directors were happy to tell stories about creating scares for audiences, Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps) was calling out weirdly to passersby, Lance Henricksen (Alien) was sharing hard boiled stories from hard sets, and Juliet Landau (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was deep in conversation about her personal beliefs about the meaning of vampire mythology. Unlike most cons, there was time to sit and chat with your favorite creative minds. You could just run into Doug Jones (Hellboy) and Garris and Savini on the floor and say hello and strike up a conversation. It was, honestly, one of the most open and friendly convention experiences I’ve had in a while, compared to the cold and business-like demeanor that so many comic conventions have these days, and I recommend everyone to check it out before it grows into something more commercial and loses that unique charm.

For those interested, the original Monsterpalooza meets this spring in Pasadena, California April 22-24 of 2016, before the Son rises again next fall. Check out their Facebook or webpage, and watch for updates on guests and times!

By Svetlana Fedotov

She is a symbol of unyielding impulse, a gun-toting bad-ass, and one terrible pun after the other. She’s the pro-feminist to your anti-feminist and the anti-feminist to your pro-feminist. She is a sex symbol, a wild child, an icon; women want to be like her and men name their kids after her (looking at you Kevin Smith). She’s Harley Quinn and she’s here to chew gum and crack jokes.

Harley is a bit of an enigma when it comes to superstardom. Created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm as a sidekick to the Joker in Batman: the Animated Series, she was only intended for a few episodes of the show and then to gracefully disappear into the Batman vault. But something about her heavy Brooklyn accent and penchant for violence struck a chord with the audience (and probably kick-started puberty for more than a few tweens). She soon became a series regular, frequently rubbing elbows with Gotham’s criminal elite and even got her own episodes, albeit shared with Poison Ivy. During the run of the show, a graphic novel was released titled Mad Love that explored her origins as an interning psychiatrist who fell in love with the Joker during a trip to Arkham Asylum and tied back seamlessly into the cartoon.

Following the success of Batman: The Animated Series, our heroine soon broke into comics and became a staple in the DC universe. Although she had been peppered into other comics in the years prior, her first continued appearance was in Batman: Harley Quinn, a mini-series attached to the No Man’s Land arc in 1999. This led to her first solo series from 2001 to 2003 which gave Quinn her own gang and plenty of wacky adventures. After it ended, she made more sporadic appearances throughout the DC catalog such as Birds of Prey, Gotham Cities Sirens, and 52’s soon-to-be-movie, Suicide Squad. In November 2013, Harley returned in her own series once again following a psychotic breakdown with the Squad and Joker’s skinned face and, to this day, can be seen running around Gotham with a giant hammer and cheeky attitude. Also, she’s super into roller derby now.

Harley has proven to not only be a success in the comic world, but also in the toy and movie market. Her Bruce Timm-era toys have become one of hottest selling DC items and she’s pretty damn close to dominating the female cosplay market. Also, her appearance in the Suicide Squad movie will mark Ms. Quinn’s first foray into movie theaters and she has become a staple character in every Batman game (Lego and normal) that has been released since 1994. She even managed to stir ups some controversy with the DC contest titled “Break Into Comics with Harley,” where fans were encouraged to draw her attempting suicide.

But what is it about this unstable lump of humanity smooshed into a sexy, gymnast blonde that has set the world on fire? How, despite her obviously abusive relationship with the Joker, has she become the quintessential ‘Ride or Die Chick’? I like to think it’s because of what I call the Deadpool Attraction. Deadpool, at his core, is an unstable idiot who has probably blown off more toes than he has brain cells. He’s a joke character that’s only there to make the other heroes look better and smarter by comparison. He’s flawed and kind of dumb, which makes him one of the most relatable characters in the Marvel universe. You see where I’m going with this? Harley is the closest to a human being that any DC hero is ever going to be. She’s made some stupid decisions and is a slave to her emotions but she manages to survive despite it. She’s an outcast in both the hero and villain world, which, let’s be honest, a lot of us can understand. It’s because of her problems that she has become so popular and has become a complex, conflicted bag of a person that real people are. We all have a little Harley inside of us.

Anyway, if you want to read some of her adventures, her newest series is currently on its 23rd issue. She’s also in a one shot special titled Harley Quinn Road Trip Special with Catwoman and Ivy, and an upcoming team-up series called Harley’s Little Black Book. Also, Harley is currently wrapping up another team-up with Power Girl which will be ending in November. Whew! She’s a busy gal! The previous issues of her solo comic have been collected for those that want to catch up on her stories, and even her earlier 2000s series has been graphic noveled and is readily available.

Come join the fun with us. Just remember to bring the Joker Venom.

By Ben Bussey

This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to write. On behalf of all of us at Brutal As Hell, I am devastated to announce that Stephanie Scaife, one of our longest-serving writers, committed suicide last Wednesday.

Steph began writing for BAH in 2010. The first thing she wrote for us, unless I’m mistaken, was a review of Jorge Michel Grau’s We Are What We Are; the last thing she wrote for us was the conclusion of her report on FrightFest 2015, only last week. I met her in person only once, at FrightFest 2011.

Her contributions to the site throughout the past year had been sporadic; she told me in her e-mails that she’d needed to take a break due to both her busy work schedule, and personal matters which she didn’t divulge and I didn’t press her on. However, in her final e-mail to me, she said she was ready to start writing more regularly again, and feeling in a much better place personally. In her FrightFest report, she talks about plans to attend London Film Festival. She gave every indication of looking forward to the future. Less than 24 hours after I received that e-mail and published her final article, she hung herself.

I really can’t say it any better than my co-editor Keri O’Shea did on Twitter the night we heard the news: “RIP to an acquaintance who should have been a friend.” Although she had been part of our team for five years, the sad reality is that none of us really knew Steph personally at all, and I know this is something I will always have personal regrets about. What little we knew of her was gleaned from her now-deleted social media profiles, from which we knew she was a committed vegan and atheist, a firm advocate of animal rights and equality, and of course, a passionate writer and devotee of film.

Of course, all of us at BAH are well aware that whatever pain we feel right now dims in comparison to that of Steph’s mother and everyone else who was close to her. To them, we express our deepest sympathies. And to Steph herself, if there was any way I could say one more thing to her, it would just be to tell her that she was valued, she was admired, and she was respected, and she will be very sadly missed indeed.

To anyone who may be going through what Steph went through – please do not suffer in silence. Reach out to friends. Help is available.

http://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help-you/contact-us