This Weekend's Film Festival Celebrates the Best Horror Films of the 21st Century (Thus Far)
In time for Halloween, horror films seem like the obvious choice for This Weekend's Film Festival. As I did earlier in the year when I picked the best five live-action family films of the past five years, this lineup will be dedicated to the best horror of the 21st century. And I'm using 2001 as the start date, because it's actually the real start of the 21st century. There has been a great deal of great horror in the last seven years. However, the five films I have selected are really good examples of the genre. Prepare to be thrilled, but there is some challenging cinema here as well. So let the countdown begin.
Coming in a #5 and starting off the lineup is SESSION 9. As I said in my original review from 2001, "This is one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen." The story follows five asbestos removers who are under a very tight deadline to clear out and old asylum. This truly frightening film is a psychological thriller. The creepy location is just a setting; it's the demons haunting the souls of the five men that bring horror to their lives. One of the workers becomes obsessed with recordings of an old patient in the mental institution, and as we get closer to hearing the session 9 tape the more tension we feel. This horror nail-biter features a great cast including Peter Mullan, Josh Lucas, David Caruso, Stephan Gevedon and Brendan Sexton III. Director/writer Brad Anderson makes a horror film where the threat of something terrible happening is far more frightening than ghosts popping up at every turn.