Top 10

Overall, this was a solid year with a handful of stand-out films, and then a long list of enjoyable movies. I didn't see a lot of movies that I’d consider “bad” and my only real disappointment was that I didn't get to catch any really noteworthy foreign horror outside of English-language stuff from England and Canada.

10. V/H/S 2
I wished the final two features would have been full-length films instead of shorts.

9. The Lords of Salem
I dug this movie, but Rob Zombie sabotages the scares and tension with his tasteless sense of humor. As much as people hate on Sherri Moon Zombie, I thought she gave a perfectly good performance in this one.

8. The World's End
Tonally this was an odd way to finish up “The Cornetto Trilogy,” but on the upside I’d never heard the term: “Wide-on” before… Here’s hoping Nick Frost and Simon Pegg keep on making movies together.

7. The Conjuring
My second favorite James Wan movie of the year. I have to admit I’m pretty excited that this movie is getting three spin-offs simultaneously. Why wait for sequels?

6. Sightseers
I don’t think Ben Wheatley could have made a better follow-up to “Kill List.”

5. Insidious: Chapter 2
This movie has a list of problems as long as my arm, but I don’t think anyone mixes scares and fun the way James Wan does. Being a huge fan of the first “Insidious” I loved revisiting those characters and exploring the world the first movie created. I could have done without all the comic relief and awful dubbing.

4. The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh
This was without a doubt the most shit-your-pants scary movie I saw all year. Even beyond tension and scares, “Last Will” is impressive for it’s uniqueness in style and story. If they’d had just a little bit more money I think this could have been a real classic.

3. Evil Dead
This seems to be seems to be the most divisive film of the year, and I guess it’s somewhat understandable, since there is probably no way to intentionally make a movie with the type of charm that the original “Evil Dead.” I personally have a lot more nostalgia for movies like “Tokyo Gore Police” and “Dead Alive” than the original film so this was a really fun splatter-fest for me.

2. Maniac
Of all the movies I saw in 2013 this one definitely made me the most uncomfortable. Elijah Wood was a great villain, even though he isn't on screen a lot, and this film was as beautifully shot as anything I've seen in recent memory. The special effects, for the most part, are incredible, and my only serious gripe with the movie is that they didn't commit 100 % to practical effects.

1. Pacific Rim
When I first saw the trailers for this one, part of me was actually pretty bitter that the much younger me that was obsessed with Godzilla movies couldn't have seen this, but “Pacific Rim” was so much fun it made me feel like I was 12-years-old again. It was impressive to see such an incredibly well-rendered, big-budget movie that mixes Kaiju films and the elements of things as esoteric as Neon Genesis: Evangelion. Guillermo Del Toro is basically my hero.

Bottom 3

These three are actually the only horror movies that I really disliked this year. Possible that it was a product of dumb luck more than any greater amount of discernment on my part.

3. Last Kind Words
A “Twilight” knock-off about a kid that falls in love with his dad’s dead ex-girlfriend (and nobody seems to notice how gross that is). At least Twilight movies are the type of bad that you can laugh at; this movie was basically unwatchable.

2. The Frankenstein Theory
A really dreadful found-footage movie about the Frankenstein monster.

1. Hellgate
I was going to review this movie for BGH, but I hated it so much I didn't want to think about it for another second.