8. Deathgasm
Plot: Two metal heads summon a demon that’s bent on destroying the world.
What makes it one of the best horror films of 2015: It’s a rip roaring hilariously blood soaked metal horror movie! This movie feels like other 80s horror metal movies, more in particular the 80s cult classic Trick Or Treat, and it is just as much fun as some of those 80s horror metal movies. This film is like if somebody mixed Evil Dead, Trick Or Treat, and Dead Alive, and it makes for an awesome gore soaked film! Deathgasm is a total treat for horror fans and makes for the year’s most entertaining horror film.
Final Thoughts: The most entertaining horror film of the year, bar none!
7. The Voices
Plot: A worker at a bathtub factor falls in love with a girl who completely ignores him. Until one night when he accidentally murders her. This leads to a murder spree after taking the advice from his malicious cat.
What makes it one of the best horror films of 2015: It’s a bizarre horror comedy that’s more tragic than it is humorous. Actor Ryan Reynolds is fantastic in this film as he plays the lead character in a tragic and sympathetic way. The rest of the cast is pretty good as well, as it features actress Anna Kendrick and she’s great in her role. The Voices isn’t so much a horror comedy as much as it is a tragic-comedy, but it’s great nonetheless.
Final thoughts: Marjane Satrapi is fantastic and should write and direct more often.
6. Cooties
Plot: A group of teachers have to fight for their lives after a mysterious virus turns the school children into ravenous zombies.
What makes it one of the best horror films of 2015: It’s a horror comedy; but that doesn’t mean it’s all that funny. Much like any other horror comedy, some of the jokes work better than others, and then there are ones that don’t work at all. Although I really can’t think of a movie in the past decade that actually has the balls to kill kids, so you have to give this movie credit for that.
At the end of the day, Cooties isn’t that bad, but it’s definitely not great, the first act is tedious and kind of unfunny and it’s not until the last act of the movie where it actually starts to get really good, and makes a less than average movie actually pretty decent.
Final Thoughts: Elijah Woods is actually pretty good and is more or less the best actor in the movie, than maybe Rainn Wislon.
5. The Final Girls
Plot: During a movie screening of the film “Camp Bloodbath”, a group of teens, one of whom is the daughter of Camp Bloodbath’s most famous slasher victims, are transported into the film. While in this film they have to survive the killer’s onslaught while making their own rules.
What makes it one of the best horror films of 2015: It’s a unique meta-horror comedy. The Final Girls takes a page from The Last Action Hero in terms of plot structure and actually ends up being pretty unique, and it’s surprising that this concept hasn’t been done before.
The deconstruction of the horror genre is almost a dime a dozen this day and age, especially with films like Cabin in the Woods, however the way that The Final Girls structures itself is unique. The plot moves in a way that you don’t necessarily expect and those twists definitely make The Final Girls a surprisingly refreshing meta-Horror comedy, and is even unexpectedly touching at moment.
Final Thoughts: Totally worth checking out; especially if you’re a fan of Friday the 13th and other 80s slasher films.
4. The Nightmare
Plot: A documentary that presents itself as a horror film that details the all too real phenomenon known as sleep paralysis; and how this phenomenon manifests itself in rather terrifying ways.
What makes it one of the best horror films of 2015: It’s a creepy premise that for the most part works, even though it’s a bit unintentionally funny. The Nightmare takes a rather common, and to be honest horrifying, phenomenon and explores it; even though there are moments when it feels a bit silly.
The Nightmare presents itself as a docu-horror film, part documentary part horror, and for every genuinely creepy and scary moment, there’s at least one or two kind of cheesy moments that ruins any type of believability.
Final Thoughts: A very creepy film, although the unintentional humor ruins certain parts of it.
3. We Are Still Here
Plot: A new family moves into a lonely house in a small town. However, it seems like the house is hiding something, something dark and frightening; while it seems like the towns’ people know more than they’re letting on.
What makes it one of the best horror films of 2015: It’s like Lucio Fuci directed the Evil Dead, and that description alone easily makes it one of the best horror movies of 2015. We Are Still Here is a fantastic throwback horror film and I’m not kidding when I say it’s like a Lucio Fuci film, as it echoes a lot of Fuci’s trademarks and his style.
But the thing that really makes this movie stand out is the cold atmosphere and establishing shots, as the location looks cold and bleak, and almost echoes the cold location from The Thing at times. It’s clear that this film was made for fans of old school horror and because of that will surely be recognized as a new horror classic.
Final Thoughts: A gore filled ghost story. Totally worth checking out if you have the chance.
2. Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
Plot: A Zombie outbreak is plaguing the Australian outback, so it’s up to a few survivors to make it out alive in order to find one of the survivor’s sisters. Meanwhile, these survivors make a discovery that will change the game during this zombie apocalypse.
What makes it one of the best horror movies of 2015: It’s a unique twist on the zombie apocalypse. Zombie movies are so over used in horror movies that it really has to do something creative in order for it to be interesting, which is why a film like this is so good. Wyrmwood has been described as Mad Max meets Dawn of the Dead, and that’s a fairly accurate description because this movie is just as entertaining as those two movies.
Wyrmwood has high octave action and horror mixed with comedy and likable characters. In fact these characters are so likable that you actually feel sorry when something happens to them. All in all, Wyrmwood is a solid horror film, so check it out, and see how great it is.
Final Thoughts: It’s a fun movie. There are time when it drags on a bit, but that’s ok, because the actors are so much fun to watch bounce off each other.
1. It Follows
Plot: A teenager girl is followed by a supernatural force after having sex.
What makes it one of the best horror films of 2015: It’s a unique Indie-horror movie that managed to break into the mainstream. The concept is refreshing and the execution is actually pretty nerve-racking at times. One of the reasons why this movie has been praised so much mainly has to do with the characters and how they actually function as real characters, especially for horror movie character; who are often written as one dimensional.
Meanwhile, the soundtrack by Disasterpeace makes the movie feel like something out of the 80s, echoing the atmospheric synth scores that John Carpenter use to make; which is awesome. It Follows is a creative take on the horror genre and makes for a pretty good watch.
Final Thoughts: It’s a tad overrated, especially after the major buzz that this movie gained after it was released, but it is still very solid nonetheless. The Disasterpeace soundtrack is also worth checking out, as it is fantastic; can’t wait to see if Disasterpeace composes anything else in the future!
Author Bio: Antony Copsey is an up and coming writer, who is studying communications at Rowan University at Glassboro, New Jersey. He is a huge fan of watching movies and writing about them, as well as writing his own material