A scene from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ horror thriller “Trick ‘r Treat,” distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE USED SOLELY FOR ADVERTISING, PROMOTION, PUBLICITY OR REVIEWS OF THIS SPECIFIC MOTION PICTURE AND TO REMAIN THE PROPERTY OF THE STUDIO. NOT FOR SALE OR REDISTRIBUTION. /
US actor Will Smith (C) poses with director Francis Lawrence (L) and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman on the red carpet prior to the German premiere of his movie “I Am Legend” 07 January 2008 in Berlin. The film will be seen on German screens on 10 January 2008. AFP PHOTO DDP/ MARCUS BRANDT GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read AXEL SCHMIDT/DDP/AFP via Getty Images) /
The Girl Next Door – Another uncomfortably hard-to-watch film, The Girl Next Door was based on the Jack Ketchum novel of the same name. That novel was inspired by a true horror story, that of Sylvia Likens, who was tortured and killed by her caretaker and a group of neighborhood kids. The real story is even more horrific than this brutal, heart-wrenching film. Well-told and well-acted (particularly by Blanche Baker as the heartless caregiver), it’s definitely not a movie for everyone.
I am Legend – This sci-fi/thriller/post-apocalyptic/vampire mashup was based on a novel by the great Richard Matheson, and was the #1 horror film of 2007. Will Smith starred as Robert Neville, the only survivor in New York after a virus created to cure cancer instead rendered most of the world’s population vampiric creatures. Neville spends his time working on an antidote and evading the nightly attacks from the mutants with his dog Sam.
Inside – Welcome back to French extreme horror, with this tale of a pregnant woman mourning her dead husband. Home alone on Christmas Eve, Sarah turns away a woman who knocks on her door, but soon enough, the woman returns, and her true intentions become known. She wants Sarah’s baby, and is armed with a pair of scissors to help her achieve her goal. So much blood, so much death…another hard watch.
The Mist – Stephen King fans thought they knew where this adaptation of his story would go, but Frank Darabont threw one heck of an unexpected twist into the ending. When a strange mist descends over Bridgeton, Maine, it brings monstrous creatures with it. A group of survivors trapped in a grocery store struggle to survive, eventually venturing out in an attempt to escape. Seriously, the ending traumatized me.
The Orphanage
– A beautifully filmed gothic ghost story,
The Orphanage
tells the tragic tale of Laura, whose son Simon has mysteriously disappeared somewhere within the old orphanage Laura is re-opening. There are so many spooky elements in this film: a seance, sounds coming from within the walls, a small figure wearing a sack mask…it’s a gorgeous, sad and genuinely scary tale.
