PandemiFest
Twenty great horror movies lost to COVID
As Variety breaks the news of ticketing company Filmbot’s limited theatrical run series “Lost Films of COVID” - including the horror film Relic - I’ll go ahead and share my dream of a film fest for great horror movies that missed their turn on the cyclorama.
I call it… PandemiFest. (Go with me, it’s a working title.)
Here are my Top 20 films - based on input from socials and the Fangoria reader community - that deserve a chance at the silver screen:
The Dark and the Wicked, dir Bryan Bertino
Anything for Jackson, dir Justin G. Dyck
Possessor, dir Brandon Cronenberg
Saint Maud, dir Rose Glass
Hellraiser (2022), dir David Bruckner
Prey (the Predator film), dir Dan Trachtenberg
The Wolf of Snow Hollow, dir Jim Cummings
The Wretched, dirs Brett Pierce & Drew Pierce
Son (2021), dir Ivan Kavanagh
Malignant, dir James Wan
The Empty Man, dir David Prior
Scare Me, dir Josh Ruben
Werewolves Within, dir Josh Ruben
Gretel & Hansel, dir Oz Perkins
Freaky, dir Christopher Landon
His House, dir Remi Weekes
Gaia, dir Jaco Bouwer
Sputnik, dir Egor Abramenko
Caveat, dir Damian Mc Carthy
Superdeep, dirs Arseny Syuhin & Sergey Torchilin
Host (dir Rob Savage) isn’t on my list because it didn’t get lost to the pandemic - the production team made the pandemic work in their favor by shooting one of the most frightening films ever during lockdown and framing it as a Zoom call between friends toying with a doomed seance.
What films are on your PandemiFest list?
Excellent list! Prey was amazing, and Hellraiser was crazy underrated.
Months back, I was having an I-don’t-know-what-to-watch day scrolling through the options when I landed on Host as my whatever-I’ll-just-watch-this movie. I LOVED it!! So impressed with how chef’s-kiss it is! Will check out your list offerings. Did not even know there was a hellraiser remake, and Prey keeps saying “Hey, come watch me!” :D