Describe your least favourite horror-related experience of 2007.

Sean - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat

That would be seeing the New York premiere of Hostel: Part II. I mean, sure, it was fun to go to a screening with the filmmakers and stars. But that movie! It’s as though Eli Roth consciously chose to make a film that lived up to the inaccurate criticism directed at the first. Listening to the Q&A afterwords, as fawning true believers showered the movie with praise to the sounds of Roth obliviously tooting his own horn, was like watching a subgenre drive off a cliff.

Kimberly - Cinebeats

The whole idiotic “debate” over so-called “torture porn” and the ridiculous arguments I read against it. I think the term was created by lazy uninformed critics who wanted to start a controversy and they clearly haven’t watched a lot of horror movies. Some of the worst and most uninformed film criticism I read this year was directed at Eli Roth and it got really ugly, personal and unprofessional. Even some horror sites and publications started to parrot mainstream critics because it was popular or trendy to bash anyone associated with “torture porn” and that added to the level of noise and really got on my nerves frankly.

Retropoliltan - Tales To Astonish

While I can’t say that I’ve really had a *terrible* experience with horror in 2007, I’d say that “Saw III” comes the closest. I’ve long been a proponent of films having characters that are somewhat likable, but in this flick, I really couldn’t wait until they were all dead; and yet when they died it wasn’t even satisfying. I think Jigsaw’s big torture move in the final installment should be cutting off their eyelids and making these people watch the entire Saw franchise in one sitting. Could anyone possibly survive that? UNLIKELY

Eric - Bloody Good Horror

Finally being forced to watch the Black Christmas remake from 2005. One of the WORST movies I’ve ever seen, and a true insult to the original. Seeing the way that Rob Zombie butchered Halloween was also quite an unpleasant experience.

Jeff O’Brien

Watching Hills Have Eyes 2 - the freefall of Wes Craven continues.

Rony

It would definitely be seeing night of the living dead 3D. So much potential and yet one big piece of shit came out. BOOOOO!!!!

Nathan - MicroHorror

I can describe my worst horror experience of 2007, I have to retract my previous answer regarding the best. I don’t know why I failed to bring this to mind last week– I suppose I mentally filed it under “life-affirming memories to warm my soul forever” instead of under “horror”– but it happened at Baltimore Comic-Con, and it was when I got to meet, shake the hand of and express my gratitude to Al Feldstein. Feldstein, of course, is the writer of most of the stories that appeared in the great EC horror comics of the 1950s (in addition to his duties as editor and regular artist). No single person has done more to influence and inspire me as a horror writer and fan. He’s one of my idols, and having the opportunity to tell him so in person was one of the high points of my life.

I had to mention Al Feldstein because my worst horror experience this year was tangentially related to him. You see, an operation by the name of Papercutz somehow landed the rights to publish new comics under the “Tales From the Crypt” title, and I, blinded by the sight of the old logo, bought a copy of their first trade paperback. Guess what? It stunk like a six-week corpse. The stories were predictable and boring, the writing was weak, the jokes weren’t funny and the art just barely qualified as tolerable. The host segments were drawn by Rick Parker, and I don’t know who he is, but he’s sure as hell no Jack Davis.

To make matters worse, if you can believe it, the violence and gore were actually toned down compared to the originals. Papercutz, it seems, bills themselves as a “graphic novel publisher for tweens and teens.” Their other flagship titles include comic adaptations of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Clearly, this is not the house to be taking over where Feldstein and company left off. So save your money and don’t be fooled by the appealing title. These are not the Tales From the Crypt you’re looking for. I’m expecting the offices of Papercutz to be attacked by the shambling corpses of Bill Gaines, Johnny Craig and Graham Ingels any day now.

I’ll tell you what I’m liking about this year. My brother and I kicking it in a penthouse condo playing Marvel Alliance for Christmas. Thanks to all Roundtable elves for providing the coal for Horror’s stocking. Leave a message at the beep.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 2:14 am and is filed under Roundtable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.