10 Best & 10 Worst Horror Movies Of 2014
Inevitably, a hit and miss year for the frightful genre...
Despite its death knell being sounded several times in the past 20 years or so, the horror genre endures with provocative defiance. Even when Wes Craven turned the genre in on itself, and the Paranormal Activity lot stripped all film-making out of the process, genuinely great films still hit the market, despite mainstream cinema's seemingly odd belief that "genre" is a by-word for poor.
But with The Woman In Black's sequel landing today with considerably less critical success than its predecessor, it's painfully clear that the genre that wants nothing more than the pure, delightful pay-off of screams and embarrassment has the widest spread of quality even in mainstream titles. That's why the genre is still viewed with suspicion, and why any mainstream director making a horror flick is said to be doing so as a departure instead of just a variation.
With that in mind, it's intriguing to look back at the slate of 2014 horrors, in the interest of surveying the landscape: in some ways it was a big year for critical successes (if Rotten Tomatoes ratings are anything to go by), but with the higher peaks came some disappointingly low troughs. One day maybe the former won't have to come with the latter.
First up, the best horror films of the year...
20. I Frankenstein
Rating: WORST - 3%
Horror slash action still counts as horror, unfortunately, and this possibly well-intentioned update on the Frankenstein story struggled to be any good at any of its generic intentions.
It's sloppy, silly and poorly written and proved without a question that heavy reliance on CGI can't paper over the gaps in any film lacking anything as nuanced as an actual brain.