Fright Fest (2016): Best to worst

If the thought of reading 5 long articles on this year’s Fright Fest (found here, here, here, here, here) fills you with a sense of dread, and you just want the bottom-line, then this is the article for you. Here’s every movie I saw at Fright Fest 2016 ranked in order of best to worst. Please note I have included Crow, though I watched that on my TV at home rather than having the pleasure of seeing it on the silver screen.

1. The Master Cleanse (funny, moving and engaging – future classic)
2. Train to Busan (incredible: the best zombie film I have ever seen)
3. Beyond The Walls (very probably the scariest TV show I have ever seen)
4. White Coffin (incredible presentation, decent plot and disturbing finale)
5. Pet (a thrilling game of cat and mouse, with some great twists and turns)
6. Abattoir (nightmarish – possibly the ultimate haunted house movie)
7. Found Footage 3D (works equally well as a comedy and a horror)
8. Director’s Cut (hilarious and original meta-comedy horror)
9. Hostage to the Devil (engaging documentary on a creepy subject)
10. Monolith (best film ever made about someone breaking into their own car)
11. 31 (the most Rob Zombie film ever – fans will love it, but haters will really hate it)
12. Realive (sci-fi romance that made the guy in front, with a Cannibal Holocaust hoody, cry)
13. Mercy (brilliantly intense home invasion movie let down by a stupid ending)
14. Crow (highly atmospheric horror-fantasy tale of man vs nature)
15. Let’s Be Evil (a very good concept with some key elements missing)
16. Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (decent ghost thriller with a dull villain)
17. The Unraveling (a fairly involving horror-drama lacking in any real payoff)
18. My Father Die (visually stunning, but has very little depth – wasted premise)
19. The Windmill Massacre (unoriginal supernatural slasher – with great scenery)
20. From A House on Willow Street (South African horror is a lot like Blumhouse)
21. Sadako vs Kayako (The Grudge vs The Ring: surprisingly funny, but very boring)
22. The Rezort (an anti-zombie film that gradually turns into a  rather generic one)
23. Cell (a poor and vague adaptation of a not very good Stephen King novel )
24. Broken (maybe the most boring horror I’ve seen all year)

I will add this list doesn’t necessarily correspond to their individual reviews – festival glasses are a very real thing, and sometimes the more you think about something the better it becomes. Hence why I gave We Are Still Here 5 stars last year, and Worry Dolls 4 (which, in hindsight, neither deserved).