Germ T. Ripper’s Top 10 Movies for 2015
#10 HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3: THE FINAL SEQUENCE
I’m pretty sure that I may be the only one who loves this movie! Director Tom Six never fails to deliver with the HUMAN CENTIPEDE movies. Each one is more deplorable than the last. The FINAL SEQUENCE was probably one of my favorite horror comedies of 2015. Seeing the most meta of ideas, enacting the plots of the first two films inside a prison in the good ol’ U.S. of A, really had me laughing. Bill Boss (Dieter Laser) as the wicked warden and his sniveling sidekick accountant Dwight Butler (Laurence Harvey) kept the fun going throughout the film’s outrageous BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS style humor. HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3: THE FINAL SEQUENCE is for those who see movie torture and potty humor and laugh.
#9 ZOMBEAVERS
We’ve seen zombie rats in MULBERRY ST, zombie sheep in BLACK SHEEP, and now zombie beavers! ZOMBEAVERS offers a fun-filled flashback to the splatter fests of the 1980s! With a classic set-up of young people partying it up in the woods, to the bumbling idiots that lose a canister of toxic waste, everything screams fun and Troma! The characters are clichéd, but only in the best way possible. I’m pretty sure this is director Jordan Rubin’s feature=length film debut, and I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for us! Gone are the days of practical effects, puppets, gore galore… I beg to differ, and so does ZOMBEAVERS!
As much as I love the Halloween favorite TRICK ‘R TREAT, I had never given much thought to the idea of using the same idea — an anthology horror movie with intertwined stories — for any other holiday. That was until I saw A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY. Great to see William Shatner as the small town conservative radio host, and I loved character actor George Buza as Santa. Also, nice to see a Christmas-themed horror movie that doesn’t have a slasher in in it. A lot of cool unique ideas, like zombie elves, changeling trolls, and even an epic battle between Krampus and Santa Claus, made A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY a new holiday classic!
There have been very few movies that have made me feel as anxious and overwhelmed with emotion as THE BABADOOK did. Once I realized that I was not watching a haunted house/possession/exorcist movie, and realized that THE BABADOOK was much deeper, I nearly had a mental breakdown. My heart really went out to the grieving mother Amelia (Essie Davis) coping with the loss of her husband and her battle with substance abuse. Noah Wiseman played her son Samuel, who seemed to have ADHD, and more probably than not was supposed to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, masterfully. I appreciated that THE BABADOOK treated its audience with intelligence, similar to the 2006 movie BUG. The subtext was there, just not laid out for you. It hit me like a ton of bricks.
#6 WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD
From all the hoopla made over MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, I expected more. It was fun, but I expected more. Glad to see the low-budget Ozploitation zombie-apocalypse thrill-ride WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD delivered what I needed! Very EVIL DEAD 2, with the Sam Raimi style shaky-cam film-making, which made the zombie battles are pretty intense! I love how the father Barry (Jay Gallagher) doesn’t waste any time, he just grabs his nail gun and tool belt and starts kicking ass, and flammable zombie blood being pumped out as fuel is awesome! The zombie mind control is like DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS. DEAD. I love a good road movie with cool chase scenes!
#5 WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
New Zealand is known for its lush scenery, its wildlife, and its top-notch horror comedy. Here we have four vampires, of different ages, that have decided to get a a flat and become roommates. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS is funny, original, smart, and has some great gore. There are a lot of inside jokes that only fans of vampire movies would get, and I always dig that sort of thing. The whole concept reminded me of the classic BBC series THE YOUNG ONES, having different personalities living together as roommates. This is a comic device that never gets old with me. I’ll always find THE ODD COUPLE hilarious! The cast were all amazing: They knew who their characters are and they played them to a tee! Seeing as how WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS is partly written and directed by Jemaine Clement, one of the creators of FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS, I knew this was going to be something special, and it definitely didn’t disappoint.
#4 DER SAMURAI
DER SAMURAI is weird, erotic, and mesmerizing. If Buffalo Bill from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was a cool retro slasher who was in love with a closeted cop, Jakob, (Michel Diercks), then he’d be this film’s titular character, Der Samurai (Pit Bukowski)! The scene with the closeted cop and the manic tranny dancing is mesmerizing and magical! The ending is simply amazing! Best genre film I’ve seen since A GIRL WALKS ALONE AT NIGHT. There are wolves terrorizing a town and a Samurai-sword wielding transsexual mental case… what’s not to like?
#3 A GIRL WALKS ALONE AT NIGHT
Holy shit, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is so great! The only other film I can think of that has a female vampire lead that kicks this much ass is maybe VAMP, or LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. I mean, a skateboarding female Iranian vampire… I love her! The Girl (Sheila Vand) doesn’t take any shit from any man. If someone fucks with her, they get killed. I know that A GIRL WALKS ALONE AT NIGHT wasn’t actually filmed in Iran, because if it had been, everybody that had anything to do with such an empowering film would be put to death — this movie is revolutionary! Also, being filmed in black and white gave it a nice noir feel.
#2 HEADLESS
I genuinely thought I was bored with the faux-grindhouse gimmick, and you know what? I was — that is, until I watched HEADLESS. This video nasty is sick, extreme, and hard to watch, but I really dug it! From the day that The Killer – that is the only name he is known by in the film and he’s played bravely by young Kaden Miller – is born, he knows nothing but neglect, abuse, and torture.The scenes of decapitation, torture, and cannibalism are graphic, and they assault your senses right from the first sequence. There is a sense of dread and sympathy similar to what you’d have towards Frankie Dunlan in COMBAT SHOCK. Besides all the ultra-violence and splatter, HEADLESS also had a cool arthouse feel to it at some points. In almost every scene where the killer is disemboweling his victims, the audience is treated to a psychedelic, frenzied, nightmare of trees with eyeballs hanging from them, a woman panted all in white with no face, and some really amazing shots of the skullboy and the killer together! It was all very Italian, very ’70s, and very chilling.
Just when you thought that the sub-genre of torture porn was dead, CIRCUS OF THE DEAD, makes you think again. I have a soft spot in my heart for killer clown movies. I don’t care if they are intergalactic, slashers, demonic, serious, or funny… I love them all! Yes, CIRCUS OF THE DEAD is very low budget, but how many of the greatest horror films have started out as low budget films and then turn into the greatest franchises of all time? Also, I have so much respect for truly independent films and filmmakers, and this is a major accomplishment for the full length debut of director Billy Pon, who started this project out as a faux-grindhouse trailer. A lot of Hollywood blockbusters like to pass themselves off as independent, but that’s just another gimmick to sell tickets. CIRCUS OF THE DEAD is the real deal. With a gang of serial killer clowns hellbent on a rampage lead by a rapist/serial killer Popa Corn (Bill Oberst Jr.), CIRCUS OF THE DEADis a nonstop thrill ride! This film is a great throwback to gritty grindhouse films of the 1970s and the 1980s, like THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Humor, gore, splatter, and killer clowns — I couldn’t ask for much more!
Jeremy Lowe (a.k.a, Germ T. Ripper) is a Chicago punk rock mainstay who has been the front man for bands The Rotten Fruits, Modern Day Rippers, Brickwall Vultures, and The Short-Timers. He is also a co-founder of Sexy Baby Records. Before writing for Daily Grindhouse, he wrote for the Splatterhouse 7 blog. You can contact him on Twitter as @rottengerm77
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Jeremy, Great job. Nice list. I seen about half and will look up the ones I have not seen. I always know the movie will deliver if you recommend it. Thanks and I look forward to your next movie selections.
“Circus of the Dead” is the BEST! When this movie is released, it will take the horror world by storm. It has it all! Chills, thrills, humor, gore, and heart. In a jar. Best indie horror movie EVER!!!!!!