Started many moons ago by Prof-Hieronymos-Grost, the Orloks were a yearly poll on the IMDb horror boards where users submitted Top 5 lists of their favorite horror movies for each year. All of the results were then tabulated to come up with a definitive list of the year's most-liked genre offerings. Alas, when the good Professor decided to depart the boards years ago, the awards went with him... that is until now. IMDb-er seth_yeah - taking on responsibilities as both host and calculator - has decided to bring back this long-standing tradition in 2015, and now the awards will have a permanent place right here on this blog. Scoring is rather simple and done on a weighted system where first choice receives 5 points, second choice 4 points, etc., with a +1 bonus then awarded to the #1 selection on each list. IMDb release years are being used, but it is left up to voters to determine what they may or may not consider horror (which may be in conflict with IMDb's genre labeling system). If you'd like to participate, head on over to the IMDb HORROR BOARDS to vote! So without any further ado, the results...
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1994
Top 5
* * * * * * * * * *
1. Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man)
France, Germany, Italy / 71 points / Michele Soavi
* * * * * * * * * *
2. In the Mouth of Madness
USA / 54 points / John Carpenter
* * * * * * * * * *
3. Nattevagten (Night Watch)
Denmark / 38 points / Ole Bornedal
* * * * * * * * * *
4. New Nightmare
USA / 32 points / Wes Craven
* * * * * * * * * *
5. Riget (The Kingdom)
Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden / 26 points / Morten Arnfred, Lars von Trier
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Making the Top 10:
6. Serial Mom / USA / 24 points / John Waters
7. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles / USA / 22 points / Neil Jordan
8. (tie) Aswang / USA / 12 points / Wrye Martin, Barry Poltermann
8. (tie) Wolf / USA / 12 points / Mike Nichols
9. Nadja / USA / 11 points / Michael Almereyda
10. (tie) Aftermath / Spain [short] / 10 points / Nacho Cerdà
10. (tie) Stand, The / USA [TV] / 10 points / Mick Garris
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Others receiving votes:
- Brainscan / Canada, UK, USA / John Flynn
- Crow, The / USA / Alex Proyas
- Dark Angel: The Ascent / Romania, USA / Linda Hassani
- Death Machine / UK / Stephen Norrington
- Enjeru dasuto (Angel Dust) / Japan / Gakuryû Ishii
- Faust (Lesson Faust) / Czech Republic, France, UK / Jan Svankmajer
- Future Shock / USA / Eric Parkinson, Matt Reeves, Oley Sassone
- Ghoulies IV / USA / Jim Wynorski
- Giorgino / France, USA / Laurent Boutonnat
- Gore Whore / USA / Hugh Gallagher
- Heavenly Creatures / Germany, New Zealand / Peter Jackson
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein / Japan, USA / Kenneth Branagh
- Night of the Demons 2 / USA / Brian Trenchard-Smith
- Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead / USA / Don Coscarelli
- Plankton (Creatures from the Abyss) / Italy / Alvaro Passeri
- Return of the Boogeyman (Boogeyman 3) / USA / Deland Nuse
- Scanner Cop / Canada, Germany, USA / Pierre David
- Shrunken Heads / USA / Richard Elfman
- When the Bough Breaks / USA / Michael Cohn
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Links here will be connected when the time comes.
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IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS
ReplyDeletePHANTASM III: LORD OF THE DEAD
DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE
SHRUNKEN HEADS
i like these films, but it's all i got -- i've seen less than ten horror movies from 1994, and probably fewer for each year after after that. if this old diary is to be believed, i'm probably the only person on the planet who has ever followed a viewing of orson welles' THE IMMORTAL STORY with GHOULIES 4.
During this poll, many of us came to the conclusion that the 90s were the worst decade ever for horror and it was hard for us to even come up with a respectable Top 5 for many of the years! Cemetery Man is VISUALLY a treat but otherwise I don't really care for it and In the Mouth of Madness is good for the first hour but falls apart in the last third (at least for me). I really need to see Riget and Nattevagten sometime.
ReplyDeleteit's the decade that made me stop paying attention. by 1995 it was clear that "something" that was missing wasn't coming back. 1996 & on is just a wasteland of sameness for me. the '90s ('94->) sucked.
ReplyDeletei'd be interested in seeing more almereyda (NADJA). his TWISTER (1989) has some good things in it, and determinedly keeps you at arm's length. the kind of film that would later be annoyingly described as a "quirky indie".
I'm not sure what happened this decade but the genre really took a nosedive early on. And then Scream drove the final nail in the coffin in '96 when everyone tried to copy it and that got REALLY annoying. Of course there are good movies made every year but there were far fewer gems in the 90s than any other decade IMO. Nadja is pretty interesting and worth checking out for sure.
ReplyDeleteafter JURASSIC PARK (i remember sitting in the theater with an enthusiastic crowd, feeling so alone and out of place...) it seemed like big expensive special effects driven "event" movies started to become more frequent. the DTV horror guys couldn't compete. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS winning a ton of oscars might also have something to do with it -- horror doesn't get you respect, slick "thrillers" can. never saw SCREAM, i'd given up all hope by then.
ReplyDeleteOK. can't include things like LURKING FEAR, CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH III, or PUPPET MASTER 5, and i've no recollection of NIGHT OF THE DEMONS II, other than thinking it better than the first one, so my horror list will have to stay incomplete for now. here's my 10 best for '94:
ReplyDeleteHIGH SCHOOL II
WHAT HAPPENED WAS...
PHANTASM III
A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION
EXOTICA
CRUMB
I'LL DO ANYTHING
TROIS COULEURS: ROUGE
A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM
THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE
carpenter's ITMOM would be on here above #3, only i've been calling it (correctly, i think) 1995 forever. plus, 1995 _needs_ it!
IMDb can't seem to make up its mind whether ITMOM was released in 1994 or 1995 and it has fluctuated on its year many times. Right now they claim it was released at some film festival in Italy in December 1994. The US theatrical release was February 1995 so I've always thought of it as a 1995 movie myself. From your list I'm a fan of What Happened Was... and the Trois Couleurs trilogy. Crumb was very good, too.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely see what you mean with Silence of the Lambs. It helped to usher in the big budget Hollywood "psycho thriller" craze of the 90s. People are reluctant to consider these horror movies because they're glossy, expensive and feature known actors but the horror elements are definitely there in movies like Silence, Se7en, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Copycat, The Good Son, Unlawful Entry, etc. etc. etc.