The Top 10 Festival and Unreleased Films of 2012

The most difficult part in coming up with a year end list is figuring out what to do with the limited or yet to be released films that we come across each year. With the abundance of genre-friendly festivals along with smaller independent productions understanding the value in an online community eager to spread the word about the films we fall in love with each year, it seems silly to ignore these releases when it could be a year or more before the larger public gets to see them. I'm a bit more sensitive to this idea since we've made it point to champion the independent circuit whether it be through our monthly screening night (three years strong next month) or by putting a focus on seeking out and reviewing these titles since the early days of the site. At the same time it's always smacked as a sort of"cool kids club" to namedrop a list full of titles most readers haven't had a chance to see for no other reasons aside from geography or availability. For the second year I'll have two lists, with this being a "best-of" for screeners and festival films of the year. I'll note which films have been picked up for distribution where applicable. Our ten best wide releases of the year will be up Friday.

That said, this was a difficult year to do the list. If we hadn't been fortunate enough to cover some outstanding festivals (the Boston Underground Film Fest, Fantastic Fest and Fantasia among them) this would have ended up a much shorter list. While the films presented below could go toe to toe with any of the ones listed in years past, I'm usually trying to cull a list of a few dozen films down to ten. This year wasn't a boon year with regards to screeners. Part of that was my fault as I spent less time seeking out films that had caught my either either through a trailer or bit of news from one of my book marked sites. The films we did receive were often a slog to get through as more often than not they duplicated the efforts of bigger budgeted films, except with a fraction of the resources available to them. 2012 was the tipping point for found footage films, at least for me, as the phrase became synonymous with laziness.

Complaints aside, there were a handful of gems to be found amongst the soot. The titles below prove that fresh ideas and ingenuity will never go completely out of style.

10. MY AMITYVILLE HORROR Perhaps the most famous and debated haunted house of all time, the Amityville mythos has been debunked many times over as the dreamt up schemings of George Lutz, an opportunistic fraud that got in financial straits and found a way to not only extract himself, but profit from a falsehood. This documentary looks at the collateral damage Lutz' callow desire for the spotlight and riches. Daniel Lutz' (George's stepson by marriage) remains damaged goods scarred by the psychological torment inflicted on him by George. Eric Walter's documentary has to tread lightly at times lest it veers into mocking the man or awakening the rage monster that simmers just beneath Daniel's skin. The film rehashes some well travelled territory for those for those familiar with the case, but does so through the eyes of someone that lived through it and still claims to see the ghosts decades later. It's a fascinating and often heart breaking look at the effects of childhood abuse, and Daniel remains a more captivating subject than a fictional character a 100 screenwriters could dream up. (Mike's Original Review)

9. INBRED This inventive British gore fest is takes the standard hillbilly horror tale and amplifies the mayhem up to a Three Stooges level of comical violence. A group of juvenile delinquents meet their match when they come upon a one-pub village of inbred maniacs. Yes it's something you've heard and seen a million times before, but the kicker here is the way the kids are put down. Instead of the standard "hunt and kill" formula, the cretins of INBRED make a circus of the proceedings in a bizarre mashup of Barnum and Ted Bundy. The result is some wildly amusing (if overly reliant on CGI) kill scenes and  the most entertaining family of whackadoos since the Sawyer clan. (Mike's Original Review)

8. MURDER UNIVERSITY Richard Griffn's tongue in cheek ode to the golden age of the slasher film manages to pack in some nasty practical kills and a terrific performance from newcomer Jamie Dufault (who could pass as a double for longtime Griffin staple Michael Reed). Murder U boasts not one but three killers working in tandem, and the score's motif announcing their on screen arrival ramps up the proceedings with a nice bit of white knuckle tension. The film also contains Scorpio Film Releasings trademark non-PC humor, including a feminist wet tee shirt contest and Michael Thruber's grizzled detective waxing poetic about the salad days if doling out beatings to beatniks. Murder University has been picked up for DVD distribution and should see release by spring of next year. (Mike's Original Review)

7. BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO Not so much a horror film as it is a fascinating character study on the effects of horror on someone ill equipped to deal with them. Toby Jones is perfect as a nebbish sound engineer called in to work on the sound track of a bloody Italian slasher film. Visibly shaken by the combination of the film's grisly material, culture shock and the deplorable working conditions provided by the seedy production company, Jones' slowly breaks down until his life becomes a waking nightmare. Writer/director Peter Strickland packs the film with nods to the giallo and the voice over  used to set up each of the film-within-a-film's scenes provide hilarious commentary for a film I'd love to see. If only the film didn't fail to stick the landing so miserably, it would have ended up much higher on the list. (Mike's Original Review)

6. I AM A GHOST We talk about 'slow burn' films often in the supernatural genre, yet often the phrase is a more polite way to call a film boring. That's not the case with HP Mendoza's gorgeous and haunting film. I AM A GHOST borrows a page from the end of The Others and the clinical camera's eye of Kubrick. It's often a beauty to behold it the quieter moments, like a well worn and loved Kodak photo. There's a lot of repetition in the first half but it builds towards larger reveals and downright chilling sequences. With it's single set piece and a powerful one woman performance from Anna Ishida Ghost, is a lean, tension wrought film with more ideas contained in its skeletal frame than others with forty times the bloat and budget. (Chris' Original Review)

5. ANTIVIRAL With his debut feature, Brandon Cronenberg tackles the familiar themes of obsession and body mutilation that his father's best work traverses in. Yes ANTIVIRAL can be a bit on the nose as it imagines a not-so-distant future where people literally inject themselves with disease and eat meat cultivated from the tissue cells of celebrities in order to feel one with them. Still, Caleb Landry Jones is mesmerizing as the sulking, pouting engineer whose body is ravaged by illness in this noir steeped thriller. The younger Cronenberg shares his father's ability to shock and disgust audiences with extreme gross out visuals, including an in depth look at one of the most stomach turning devices seen on screen in the waning moments. (Mike's Original Review)

4.  HERE COMES THE DEVIL 2012 was the year I became acquainted with prolific Spanish director Adrian Garcia Bogliano. His unique take on demonic possession swept the awards at Fantastic Fest with good reason this past fall. A long married couple's momentary lapse in judgement leads them to lose track of their young children, leaving them panic and grief stricken. When the brother and sister return the next morning, the mother's temporary relief is soon replaced by suspicion then fear as it becomes obvious that whatever walked back down the accursed mountain is not her beloved children. Bogliano depicts the desperate lengths a parent will go to in order to avenge their offspring in one harrowing, blackly comic sequence, then doles out revelations in small parcels in one of the tensest, bleakest films of the year. Knowing a good thing when they see it, Magnet has picked up the distribution rights to the film for a 2013 release. (Mike's Original Review)

3. AMERICAN MARY The sophomore feature from twin sisters Jen & Sylvia Soska marks a great leap forward from their debut Dead Hooker in a Trunk. The duo has still yet to make a straight forward horror film, yet the plethora of  grisly material and psychological torment woven into this wicked and dark comedy that earns the film its spot so high on this list. Katherine Isabelle is wonderful as the titular med student that gets sucked into a world of fast cash and easy revenge on the men who wronged her. The Soska's hold the freaks near and dear to their hearts, leading to warm performances from characters that would be the shunned outcasts in another flick. While the film is never "scary", the Soska's take enough thematic and visual cues from Cronenberg and Argento in order to present one of the best looking films of the year. AMERICAN MARY is out in the UK January 11th, and has been picked up in the US with a release date TBD.   (Mike's Original Review)

2. JOHN DIES AT THE END Imagine that instead of Everlasting Gobstoppers and Fizzy Lifting Drinks, Willy Wonka possessed a factory that unleashed monsters comprised of slabs of beef and sausage or designer drugs that open up portals to otherworldly dimensions inhabited by godlike beings that would give Lovecraft pause. Don Coscarelli took the best bits of what should have been an unfilmable novel and crafted one of the smartest, hippest and funniest movies of the year. Only someone who demonstrated a keen awareness of the transitory nature of nightmares could have brought this book to life. If JDATE had nothing else going for it aside from the eye popping visuals it would have found its way on tho this list. What elevates it so high are the string of fantastic performances from a stellar supporting cast that includes a rumpled Paul Giamatti and fantastic chemistry from its two leads that gives the feel of a slacker X-Files team up. Magnet picked up the rights for a 2013 release, and you should be marking down the days before you're allowed to pummel your eyeballs with this one. (Mike's Original Review)

1. THANATOMORPHOSE In a year filled where a number of women turned in stand out performances in independent horror, none may have been better or braver than Kayden Rose's turn as a melancholy woman who rots to death. The task called for Rose to be naked for most of the film, in both the physical and spiritual sense, and she was more than up for the task in a performance that was raw and captivating even in the darkest moments. Most horror fans pride themselves in being fairly inured from gore flicks. If we've seen one head lopped off with a machete or coed disemboweled like a common trout then we've seen a thousand. Eric Falardeau takes a sharper tact by putting our worst fear in front of us, and over the course of ninety minutes we watch Rose's character bruise then rot, leaving parts of herself to slough off as she gives way to the inevitable. In its own odd way, the film celebrates life by presenting a visual metaphor as to what happens to our soul when we choose to waste it.  THANATOMORPHOSE is a tough watch, but it's that toughness and daring that encapsulates what we love best about independent cinema. (Mike's Original Review)