4. Looper
OK, I know Im playing it rather fast and loose with the term horror, but hear me out. Here we have a film with two main plots: first, to kill an older version of oneself, and second, to hunt down and kill an innocent five-year-old. Along the way we get to see plenty of blood and guts, including watching a guy vanishing piece by piece (in agony, I might add) in one place as a younger version of himself is being meticulously dismembered somewhere else. If thats not horror, then we need to contact Webster. Of course, Looper is also an action film with a brilliant science fiction set up. Time travel has been explored in myriad films, but Looper is one of the few Ive seen that present the application of it in a realistic and ultimately unappealing way. In the world of this movie, time travel is a one way ticket. It is expressly outlawed and is only used by a powerful crime organization for the purpose of making enemies disappear. This is really not a fun movie (there are no DeLoreans featured), but it is exciting and thought-provoking. The motivations for every character are brilliantly displayed making it as or more morally complex as any action/sci-fi/horror movie. There is a reason there was such a push for Rian Johnson to earn an Oscar nomination for his screenplay (he did receive a WGA nomination). Plus the performances are wonderful; it is fascinating to watch JGL become a young Bruce Willis.
Xander Kennedy
I humbly claim the title of renaissance man. I am a professional writer (published playwright), college soccer coach, world traveler, crime-fighting vigilante, part-time juggler, serious hiker, coin collector, counseling student, and doting father/husband among many other roles. (OK, one of those may not be true.)
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Xander