Top 20 Horror Films of 2013

by Seth Metoyer, MoreHorror.com

It's that time of year where horror sites and fans present their Best Horror Films of 2013 lists. For some reason I've typically steered clear of top lists in the past. I think it's mostly because of the constant whining and bellyaching that occurs once lists are released. Plus there will inevitably be good films that didn't make the list. However, mostly it's the constant cries of "That wasn't a horror movie that was a thriller stupid!" or "That movie released last year dummy!" or "There are too many mainstream releases here losers!" or my personal favorite "That film totally sucked so you guys suck!", that really get to me.

This year I decided to go ahead and make a MoreHorror Top 20 Horror Films of 2013 list because a lot of people seem interested in our take. Yes there are some mainstream Hollywood films on the list, but there's also some great indie flicks that you probably have never heard of. There are also films that technically screened in 2012 but released in the US in 2013. There's also films that were screened in 2013 that won't hit DVD until 2014. Is that bellyaching I hear in the distance? Good. Because that's not my problem. Grab some tums and your blanky and go find a place to lie in the fetal position. Everything is going to be OK. Trust me!

I want to take a moment to thank all of our hard working writers who continually write for this site. More Horror wouldn't exist if it weren't for the dedication of our horror writers and fans of horror. It's their commitment to the genre that always blows me away, and I am insanely grateful for them.

So, without further ado, please find our Top 20 Horror Films of 2013 below.

20. Truth or Dare

From the review by Jonathan Weichsel, MoreHorror.com: "Actress Jessica Cameron is quickly becoming the IT girl of horror, with her small town good looks and charm. Her background as an actor is probably what allows her get such great performances out of her cast. In fact, the best thing about Truth or Dare is the performances, especially Ryan Kiser, the obsessive fan and villain of the film, who gets so excited by his sick game that he comes across as giddy.

“Truth or Dare” is a first film, and is rough around the edges in parts. But while it is not a technically solid film, it is a solid piece of entertainment, and one of the most entertaining horror films I have seen all year.  Truth or Dare has energy to it and a sense of fun that has become all too rare. Jessica Cameron is really taking off as an actress but, because of the strong directorial instincts displayed here, I hope she finds the time to continue directing as well. Hers is a directing career I would be eager to follow." Read the full Truth or Dare review.

19. The Black Dahlia Haunting

From the review by Jason Lees, MoreHorror.com : "Plotwise, the less you know the better.  The title speaks volumes, almost too much, and serves to mislead the audience.  A great trick to get you right where Slagle wants you.  You can go in assuming that there's going to be a hint of the Black Dahlia case you know about, but any other direction is purely at the storyteller's disgression. 

More often than not, when you combine historical facts with a a bit of supernatural fiction you get a mish mash that comes off disrespectful, but here, Slagle and Co. don't piss on any graves, they simply use this reality as a jumping off point.  It's done confidently and with such precision that I'm hoping the balls employed here inspires others to be as brave.  Why play it safe when you can really run with it?

The Black Dahlia Haunting is worth seeking out.  Its camouflage title hides just how good it is.  Don't let it get lost among similarly titled films.  This one deserves to stand out.  It's the epitome of what indie films should be:  smart, driven, and crafted by individuals with something to say, and not by committee." Read the full The Black Dahlia Haunting review.

18. Coyote

From the review by Colleen Wanglund, MoreHorror.com: "Coyote is one of the strangest films I’ve ever seen. Bill’s psyche begins to suffer rather quickly when he begins experiencing disturbing hallucinations due to the fact that he hasn’t slept in days.

The line between reality and fantasy is ultimately obliterated and Bill just about loses his mind. Bill Oberst Jr. is fantastic in this film. He beautifully and convincingly captures a man’s descent into abject madness. He scared me.

Visually, the film is brilliant. It begins with some very straightforward, lucid shots, but as Bill’s mind deteriorates the scenes become grainy, dark, and fuzzy. The film is shot from Bill’s point of view so now the viewer gets the visual equivalent of a nervous breakdown.

Coyote is an art house film that successfully combines horror and black comedy, though the comedy is in small doses, maintaining the grim tone of the film. I also enjoyed the ending, as it leaves the film open to interpretation and heightens the surreal ambiguity." Read the full Coyote review.

17. Hatchet III

From the review by Kyle Morris, MoreHorror.com: "In likeness of the past two films, it still has gruesome jokes of such caliber like testicles hanging from trees to name one, thanks to Crowley. But it's shot visually awesome, in a far more cinematic and intense way than the other two. Action scenes, dismemberments, hail of gunfire, and even a bit of wirework. Not kung fu style, but more victims being thrown around like ragdolls by Crowley. Derek Mears as a mercenary type role being the only one seemingly somewhat capable to tackling the Victor-Beast. Sort of like RA Mailhoff in the 2nd.

Green also Executive Produced and was on set as much as humanly possibly to make sure his Hatchet baby ended on a good note, giving full trust to its new Director -- with a horror cameo from Green himself. Well acted supporting roles from Caroline Williams of TCM2, Zach Galligan of Gremlins, Sean Whalen of People Under the Stairs, Rileah Vanderbilt of Team Unicorn, and of course the survivor girl Danielle Harris make for a stellar slasher film.

Hatchet 3 might have less comedy, but just as much, if not more gore, blood and guts to keep the audience happy. And barely gets boring with curiosity gleaming as to what will finally kill Victor Crowley once and for all. But is it the end of the swamp killer? Only Ariescope Pictures and Dark Sky Films know." Read the full Hatchet III review.

16. The Collection

From the review by Rick O’Shea, MoreHorror.com: "The heightened tension, plot twists and turns would make even Hitchcock proud. Even the musical score provokes emotion and moods ranging from unease and uncertainty to sheer terror. Far too often this subgenre is labelled as torture porn which I feel is an unjust label. The elements of fear are very much as realistic if not more so than say the average paranormal fanfare or possession films that have flooded the marquis as of late.

Directors and writers such as Dunstain (Saw IV-VI, The Collector, Piranha 3DD) evoke tremendous imagination within the darkest recesses of our minds while at the same time suspending our sense of belief. If a director can attain our sense of wonderment far beyond departing the theatre or turning off our DVD players, than suffice to state a resounding achievement has been made in terrifying us out of our wits.

If you only see one horror film in 2013, I highly recommend this title. Granted it may not be for the faint of heart, for the rest of us it’s a horrific addition to any collection." Read the full The Collection review.

15. Krampus: The Christmas Devil

From the review by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com: "With the cast, I thought they were all pretty solid but I want to particularly highlight A.J Leslie for putting in a fantastic performance that conveys believable emotion and sells the character and Bill Oberst, Jr. - who snarls and spits out his dialogue and wonderfully steals the show as a psychopath on the loose.

I thought Samantha Hoepfl and Erica Soto both lend solid support here, as Jeremy's daughter and wife, but I so found their characters to be a little underdeveloped and wasn't too invested in their safety as I was with Jeremy.

Another strong point that Krampus possesses is its musical score - a mix of rousing synth work and hard hitting rock beats that accentuate the scenes and add to the fun 80's horror flick vibe that worked so well for me.

As 2013 winds on down to Christmas, KRAMPUS would be my holiday horror recommendation and look, I had a blast with this flick - it's fun, it's breezy, it's original, it's black comedic beats made me laugh out loud and it's just a great way to spend 80 minutes or hell, it's at least much better than most Christmas chillers out there." Read the full Krampus: The Christmas Devil review.

14. V/H/S 2

From the review by Matt Boiselle, MoreHorror.com "Some scenes are genuinely frightening, while others will make you chuckle with their goofiness, but make no mistake, V/H/S/ 2 is meant to unnerve you as you view it, and for that I applaud all writers and directors of this movie. Simon Barrett & Adam Wingard are the two lone returnees to the director's chairs this time around, and offer their demented visions to us with 5 new honchos (Jason Eisener, Gareth Evans, Timo Tjahjanto, Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale)) - each of these helmers performed to a standout level with their tales of resurrection, possession, and abduction.

At 96 minutes of runtime you feel as of you've only been watching the videos for a short time, mainly because the stories immediately pull you in with little or no down time, and you are left with a yearning for more. It's been rumored that with the success of the first movie, this installment was rushed into production, but it doesn't appear to show any ill-effects of a quick assembly. I don't think that this surpasses the first V/H/S in any way, but the shocks and scares run quite the parallel line each of their renditions." Read the full V/H/S 2 review.

13. Quite A Conundrum

From the review by Jonathan Weichsel, MoreHorror.com: "Parts of "Quite a Conundrum" are hilarious. The film has by far the funniest ongoing dick joke I have ever seen in a movie, and a lot of the dialogue and physical humor had me laughing out loud. But the humor is balanced by other parts of the film that are very serious. I especially liked the way Quite a Conundrum uses class jealousy as a motivation for its villain.

On the one hand, the victims are so annoying, privileged, and self-centered that you kind of root for the villain, but on the other hand, the things he does are so horrible, and the horrible girls redeem themselves enough, that by end you will be rooting for them. The very end of Quite a Conundrum is unexpectedly chilling, and will stay with you long after the end credits have rolled.

The supporting cast is all around strong. I especially liked the awkward, breast obsessed male virgin who gets too drunk, and his religious zealot of a mother. I also enjoyed the character of the younger sister, who provides a voice of reason to the insane mix. Quite a Conundrum is a highly recommended comedy-thriller." Read the full Quite a Conundrum review.

12. Cheap Thrills

From the review by Brandy Bunce, MoreHorror.com: "Don’t expect to see tons of gore or the naked dumb blonde teenager that always seems to run upstairs at exactly the wrong moment, but do expect to see unexpected situations that will make you want to turn your head away from the screen, except due to the pure genius of the storyline you simply cannot look away.

Clearly I was not the only one that was impressed with this film in its entirety; it tied for the Audience Award for Best Feature at the festival (it tied with Israeli thriller Big Bad Wolves for those who are curious, deeply recommended) and was highly spoken of by all my fellow Mile High Horror Film geeks for the rest of the weekend and beyond I’m sure. The only downfall I have discovered is this film was shown to the MHHFF audience in advance of its February 2014 release date to the public.

Trust me the wait will be worth the price of your ticket and make you count the days until the film’s release on DVD and Blu-ray where you can watch this horrific tangle of events unravel before your eyes anytime your little heart desires. You should definitely check Cheap Thrills out, I dare you." Read the full Cheap Thrills review.

11. Hate Crime

From the review by Jason Lees, MoreHorror.com "We’re talking slice of ugly life here, akin to early Wes Craven stuff, only shot and edited with some serious technical skill. Normally the cinema verite, for me, gets in the way of the story, but Bressack shoots with an ease that rarely inhibits his actors’ performances. We get fleeting glances, just enough at times to follow the action, but it’s never played out for us. The technical restrictions never hold us from entering that world. We lean in further, not get pushed back by the restraints of the found footage aesthetic.

It’s the kind of synergy that could’ve saved Romero’s DIARY OF THE DEAD, but again, that film was meant to be fun. HATE CRIME is a lot of things, but fun is never one of them.

Whether it works for you is something that no one can inform you of. All I can do is promise you that it’s a damn well made movie by a talented and dedicated group that set out to do more than sicken or cash in. Bottom line is HATE CRIME made me physically ill, and I can’t wait to watch it again." Read the full Hate Crime review.

10. Carrie

From the review by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com: "People like to complain about use of CGI and in some films, that's definitely a strong argument but when people apply that argument here to Carrie, I just don't think it works. I'm referring to the climatic prom sequence and here, there's definitely a lot of CG work done to the sequence but I don't think it looks that bad at all - it all looks rather effective and impressive.

Would it have been even more impressive if done practically? Perhaps - but the work here is not over done so it doesn't bother me that much. That and I think the violence captured here is some particularly nastier stuff than what's in the De Palma version, which adds to the overall horror of the scene - which must've been the intention of the re shoots the production pulled.

I will say that there is a violent slow-mo scene that is slightly comical and gratuitous but other than that, the violence is all good with me.

I too was skeptical about Carrie but I ended up really enjoying it, so I think you absolutely should take the chance to see it because what you've got here is a slickly made adaptation and at the end of the day, this is one horror flick that is worth the viewing." Read the full Carrie (2013) Review.

9. The Lords of Salem

From the review by Kevin Scott, MoreHorror.com: "Remember those films from your youth with imagery that seemed so shocking beyond belief that made such an impact on you that you had to search them out again as an adult? “The Lords of Salem” is one of those movies for this generation. Looking at it as an adult, I see elements of “Rosemary’s Baby”, and in a strange turn “Jacob’s Ladder”.

Faceless minions, naked witches hanging from the cabinets of Heidi’s apartment, and Sheri Moon Zombie doing a mechanical bull routine on a goat lend credence to Zombie for bringing all of this together.

The film’s score and cinematography are beautiful, and I like to think that Zombie knew that if we were going to except all the ugliness, it had to be pleasing to the eyes and the ears to go down the way it should. I was happy to like this, and now maybe me and my old friend Rob Zombie can hang out again. I missed him." Read the full The Lords of Salem review.

8. Slink

From the review by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com: "Slink brought to mind fond memories of these late night horrors because it’s so madcap itself, chugging along in such a lurid and energetic way that makes it hard to look away from the utter craziness that’s going on the screen.

That the story is about an insane and perverted tanning salon owner who likes to skin his victims and so forth makes this film all more nastier, creating up a really seedy vibe that works in the film’s favour.

As a horror fan that’s always on the look out for new and interesting stories in the horror genre, I was sold on the premise alone and happy to put out there that the story held my interest for the 80 minutes it ran for.

At it’s core, Slink is an enjoyable slasher, with its own unique charm (and a helpful serving of nudity for the male crowd) and despite a few issues that irked me, I find that it’s main strengths lies in it’s nasty story that manages to captivate and thrill – maybe you’ll even think twice about going to the local tanning salon." Read the full SLINK review.

7. Evil Dead

From the review by Chris Risdal, MoreHorror.com: "I loved this movie. Now that that is out of the way, let me get into the gory details. First off, why don't I recap the story of Evil Dead, I mean why not right? Five friends go to a cabin to help one of their own detox from drugs when they discover the Book Of The Dead and unleash hell upon themselves and possibly the world.

The score by Roque Baños is haunting and very effective in building tension and making you quite uncomfortable with blaring sirens and screeching strings. Then you have the great practical effects and even the CGI (what little there is...) looks great and looks absolutely disgusting and squishy, which is helped by some great sound design.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one little thing...this film is so gory that in the last ten minutes it literally rains blood from the sky and that should tell you everything without me having to spoil any big details." Read the full Evil Dead review.

6. Curse of Chucky

From the review by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com: "Mancini wanted to make this more horrific and he's succeeded - the film builds dread wonders and establishes atmosphere from the very beginning and peppered throughout are jump scares that worked for me.

That whole build up to the moment Chucky comes alive is just sensational, which is fantastic because I had thought had seen it all before when it comes to the anticipation of Chucky coming alive but I was wrong - Mancini uses every nauseating camera angle to capture the tension.

Making things a little more eerie is the gothic musical score by Joesph Deluca, which features this unnerving piece that makes the rising dread all the more haunting as events unravel.

Brad Dourif steals the show, despite his minimal dialogue, and delivers dialogue maniacally - that's what most of us come here for and it doesn't disappoint as he really masters the skill of being skin crawling here." Read the full Curse of Chucky review.

5. The Conjuring

We didn't get around to reviewing this for the MoreHorror (how did that happen) but most of us dug it. The Conjuring is definitely worth seeing if you need a James Wan haunted house fix.

About The Conjuring:
"Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville. "The Conjuring" tells the true story of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga), world renowned paranormal investigators, who were called to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most horrifying case of their lives." Here's a link to some The Conjuring reviews.

4. Mama

From the review by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com: "I could begin this sentence by going into the plot and setting up the storyline for you all, but Mama is one of those horror films where you are best going into blind and discovering plot details for yourself and even beginning to describe how this film opens would take away from that magic.

This film is a hell of a ride –constantly disturbing, often surprising and one of those rare and intelligent horror films that goes against what you believe is going to happen and ends up shocking you with satisfying and original scares.

I’ve seen way too many horror films now that I can see, by the film’s camera angles, that they’re gearing up for the scare and though Mama does in fact have a few of these times, it also have a few ingenious and shocking tricks up its sleeve itself that I couldn’t predict and for horror fans, I think that is most satisfying." Read the full MAMA review.

3. Maniac

From the review by Marcey Papandrea, MoreHorror.com: "Some may say Maniac uses a gimmick, as it is shown entirely from Frank’s perspective. The only time we see Frank is through reflections, or when he is having a fantasy/flashback. This for me didn’t feel very gimmicky, it really became an immersive experience and it really placed me in his shoes. We the audience see what he sees, there is no holding back at all, and it really becomes quite the voyeur experience. In this way, it was rather disturbing, I personally felt like I was stalking these women and having been in a situation where I had been followed (and managed to get away) it just added to the whole experience. It felt real in some ways, other things felt very silly but this in a way eased the situation.

There is no doubt Frank is one messed up man, and the fact that he looks unsuspecting adds to how chilling it was for me. When the killer of the film looks normal, like the person who could be living next door, someone who I even feel a bit of sympathy for, I am disturbed. This in a way reminded me of Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, they have a lot of things in common, from the terrible upbringing and abusive mothers, to having a woman come into their life and challenge them, to that aspect where they can feel very normal and sympathetic. This is a portrait of a man going absolutely insane, which worked well for me." Read the full MANIAC (2013) review.

2. Big Bad Wolves

From the review by Brandy Bruce, MoreHorror.com: "We all know the typical parental revenge for a child’s death story from past mainstream thrillers; Big Bad Wolves is the Israeli version of this played out story with a list of new twists and from another country’s perspective. Written and directed by Aharon Keshales & Navot Navot Papushado, starring Guy Adler, Lior Ashenazi, and Dvir Benedek, this film has been praised by the likes of Quentin Tarantino as “the best film of the year”.

The sad part about that being said is, for those of us interested in seeing a film of such praise from such an iconic director, it’s kind of a hit or miss as to our chances of seeing the film in a theater setting. Israel has come a long way in the genre of horror/thriller films, introducing audiences to Kalevet (also known as Rabies (review)) in 2010 and now Big Bad Wolves in 2013 at various film festivals around the world (Both films written and directed by Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado)." Read the full Big Bad Wolves review.

1. American Mary

From the review by Shannon Hilsom, MoreHorror.com: "Those who saw the Soska sisters’ previous film Dead Hooker in a Trunk (review) will be pleasantly surprised at the time, care, and quality that went into filming American Mary. While Hooker certainly had its strong points and was entertaining enough, it still had a relatively homemade feel to it that separated it from bigger films in the genre. However, Mary feels like a bona fide theatrical horror film in every way. The look of it is gorgeous, the writing is smart, and the plot definitely satisfies one’s need for something dark, juicy, and depraved, but without it going so far that it becomes nothing but a sensationalized gore-fest.

The characters are well-developed and the acting is really quite good to boot. Katherine Isabelle especially turns in a memorable performance as the strong, but unpredictable Mary. However, Tristan Risk is also a major highlight in her role as Beatress, a woman who has devoted her life and her finances to surgeries to make herself look exactly like Betty Boop. The Soska sisters themselves even make a cameo as a particular interesting pair of potential patients for Mary." Read the full American Mary review.