The Following: Season 3 Teaser

Check out this teaser for season 3 of “The Following!” It includes lots of good interviews with the cast…

Exciting News About "HUSH"

I received some awesome news that I want to share with everyone. First, "HUSH," an award winning film I recently reviewed, is an Official Selection at the...

Second, writer/director Michael G. Kehoe informed me that my review is not only on the poster for the movie, but The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival chose my review to use for the description of the film in their program. I'm truly honored to have HorrO's Gory Reviews associated with the screening of this terrific short film at this festival. Check out the screenshot with the movie, and my review as the description...

"HUSH" will be shown on Saturday, Feb 14th at 3:00pm! Click here for details! If you can be there, trust me you don't want to miss this film! This will be their 20th film festival and they have won 15 awards! You can learn more about the film in this recent promotion I did at PromoteHorror.com!

BEST AND WORST HORROR MOVIES OF 2014

As I considered the best and worst horror movies of 2014, I realized there wasn't any stand out movies. There was no movie that made me say, "Damn that was a good movie." Yes, I can already here arguments for certain movies at the top of other people's "Best Horror Movies of 2014." While I do agree in some cases, there just wasn't a movie that blew me out of the water.

On the other hand, there seemed to be plenty of movies that made me say, "Damn that was a bad movie." You're probably not surprised by that are you? I really didn't realize how disappointed I was with the 2014 movies until I sat down to do this post. As you will see as you read on, I actually give some credit to two movies that weren't necessarily horror movies, but had some great horror elements in them. Again, it was that kind of year. So no more stalling let me start with the best...

#5 Witching and Bitching: I usually like to include a horror comedy in my top 5, so this is my horror comedy pick. Honestly, I didn't know much about this movie, or really want to see it. Mrs. HorrO actually suggested we see it, and you know what... I really liked it! The opening scene of the movie is absolutely hilarious. After that it becomes a strange movie, but still maintains its humor. (Yes, this movie opened overseas in 2013, but most of us in the U.S. didn't get a chance to see it until 2014 so I included it here)

#4 Dracula Untold: This was close, as I almost gave this spot to "The Purge: Anarchy" if you can believe that. However, I felt like I had to give this movie some love. I didn't expect to like it, but was pleasantly surprised. I liked the story, and it had some good action scenes. The acting was pretty solid as well. I'm still not sure about how it ended with a possible sequel in a different time period, but that's a discussion for another day.

#3 Annabelle: I know a lot of people didn't like it, or just wanted more out of it. I couldn't help but include it in my list because I was dying to see this movie after our brief introduction to Annabelle in "The Conjuring." No, the movie isn't perfect, but I enjoyed seeing Annabelle and they did a descent job with the demon. 

#2 The Babadook: I almost gave in to the pressure and made it number 1 just like a lot of people, but I couldn't do it. Yes, it was a great movie. It had the best acting I saw in a 2014 horror movie by far. The story was pretty original, and had an interesting ending. I liked it, but the number movie on my list just made me a little happier probably because there was more blood shed in it than in this one. 

#1 Wolf Creek 2: Yes, I just did that. I just put Wolf Creek over The Babadook! It really just comes down to my taste in horror movies. I like slashers with blood shed over other types of horror, and that was really the deciding factor here. I love Mick as the crazy killer in this movie. He's just a regular guy who loves to kill. Oh and I can't forget the great sense of humor he has while killing. He really made this the #1 movie for me more than anything. 

All right, now that you think I'm crazy time to bring out the worst horror movies of 2014...

#5 Wrong Turn 6 Last Resort: It really really really pains me to include this in the list. I'm a fan of the franchise, but this movie didn't cut it for me. After the usual great opening death scene, none of the other kills really came close to matching that scene. They usually produce more decent kills, but failed to this time. The movie seemed to stick too much to the character's story, and on sex scenes as opposed to the death scenes. I told you I'm out for blood shed in these movies.

#4 Devil's Due: Man do some of these horror movies that release at the beginning of the year suck. I don't know if they just try to get the bad ones out of the way first, or they are trying to set the bar really low. I haven't seen it yet, but hopefully "The Woman in Black 2" is good. As far as this movie is concerned, lets give the found footage thing a rest. Some movies just shouldn't be shot that way, and this was one of them. They really did try to scare audiences, but it falls short. And the ending wasn't that great either.

#3 Ouija: Here's another thing they need to stop doing... making horror movies for teens. Maybe I just need to stop watching horror movies for teens. Seriously, an ouija board can present so many great opportunities to scare the audience, and this was the best they could come up with! 

#2 Don't Blink/Apocalyptic: Yes, a tie. Above I gave the nod to Dracula Untold over The Purge Anarchy, but this time I couldn't pick one over the other. So what do these movies have in common besides that they fall in at # 2. Well after the ending I basically said, "Why did I just watch that?" I hate when I think that at the end of movies. Of course that happens a lot, but these two really stood out to me because I hated the endings. They really made me fell like I wasted my time. Don't Blink was trying to send a message or something, the ending was predicable, and just was a bad concept overall. Apocalyptic falls into that why did they do another found footage movie. Again, the ending just drove me mad. Most of the movie leading up to the ending was too much like a documentary, which is what they were actually doing, but they forgot that it they were shooting a horror movie as well!

#1 Leprechaun Origins: This might have been the easiest pick of them all. Talk about a remake/reboot that totally screws up everything the franchise is about. Where was the humor? Where was the top hat? Hell, where was his outfit? I guess I shouldn't complain because the audience was luck to even get a few decent looks at the leprechaun in this movie. They just kept hiding it from the audience and when we finally got to see him, he looked more like a chupacabra or some mutant beast. They also hid the kills, and offered nothing new about the leprechaun. Just terrible!

So there are my two lists? Disagree right? I figured! Well here are just a few more thoughts to give you idea of what I thought about some other 2014 movies.

Truly the best movie I saw in 2014 that was close to horror was "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes." However, since it's more sci-fi than horror I didn't consider it for my list. Talk about remaking a franchise, and doing it right!

The two movies that had horror elements but aren't horror movies that I mentioned at the beginning are "Gone Girl," and "Nightcrawler." If these were horror movies, I might have strongly considered making them 1 and 2 on the best of list. "Gone Girl" had a terrific story, one of the characters was simply nuts, and the ending was crazy. "Nightcrawler" was very similar. It also had a great story, nutty character, crazy ending, and the acting was great.  

Movies that surprised me: All Cheerleaders Must Die, Jessabelle, Bunnyman Massacre, and Sledge

Movies I had hope for, but ended up disappointments: Oculus, The Quiet Ones, See No Evil 2, and Deliver Us From Evil

Movies I haven't seen yet: Dead Snow 2, V/H/S: Viral, The Sacrament, [Rec] 4, and ABC's of Death 2

  HorrO

"Strange Magic" - Creatures & Cast Featurette Now Available!

“Strange Magic,” a new animated film from Lucasfilm Ltd., is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by “A Midsummer Night's Dream.” Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion. Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and Industrial Light & Magic bring to life the fanciful forest turned upside down with world-class animation and visual effects. Directed by Gary Rydstrom (“Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation,” “Lifted”) from a story by George Lucas, “Strange Magic” will be released by Touchstone Pictures on Jan. 23, 2015. 

Cast: Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph, Sam Palladio, Meredith Anne Bull, Alfred Molina, Elijah Kelley, Bob Einstein, Peter Stormare

Director: Gary Rydstrom

Producer: Mark S. Miller

Executive producer: George Lucas

Screenplay by: David Berenbaum, Irene Mecchi, Gary Rydstrom

Story by: George Lucas

Musical director & composer: Marius de Vries

Like STRANGE MAGIC on Facebook: http://facebook.com/StrangeMagicMovie

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http://twitter.com/StrangeMagic

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Follow STRANGE MAGIC on Vine: @StrangeMagic

TOP/BOTTOM HORROR MOVIES OF 2014 COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Over the course of about two weeks I've posted horror movie posters from 2014 on the PromoteHorror.com Instagram account. Along with the poster, I asked if the movie was "a top horror movie of 2014 or a bottom movie of 2014." I would say the results surprised me. Some movies I liked they didn't, while others they liked that I didn't. I didn’t include my vote in the results. So here we go...

Top Movie of 2014: 7500, Sharknado 2, Honeymoon, See No Evil 2, Leprechaun Origins, Stage Fright, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Oculus, The Sacrament, Dracula Untold, Jessabelle, Tusk, Deliver Us From Evil, As Above So Below, The Purge: Anarchy, The Babadook, Horns, and Witching and Bitching

Bottom Movie of 2014: Alien Abduction, I Frankenstein, Devil’s Due, The Quiet Ones, [Rec] 4, and Wolf Creek 2

Split Decision: Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, V/H/S: Viral, Dead Snow 2, and Annabelle

No Decision: Zombeavers, At the Devil’s Door, Starry Eyes, A Haunted House 2, ABC’s of Death 2, and The Pyramid.

So what do you think? Agree or disagree with where these movies fell? Well if you are wondering what I thought of the 2014 horror movies, you will have to wait a few days for my best and worst horror movies of 2014 list!

HorrO