FANGORIA's 2023 Staff Picks

It’s that time of year again: the end. It’s when everyone’s posting their Top 10, Top 20, their Best of the Year lists, what have you. Our social media feeds are clogged- er, enriched with everyone under the sun taking all the unique and special art we were privileged to be exposed to this year, and ranking it like so many prize hogs at the state fair. It’s popular content, and we get it!

We also, here at Fango, are a bunch of stubborn jackasses (just ask our bosses), so we’re rejecting the standard “Best of the Year” format that will be forgotten seconds after you read it, and instead present you with FANGORIA’s 2023 Staff Picks: a collection of media, moments, and metric-less memories that will live in our hearts long after the book has closed on 2023.

We asked a selection of our staff to name one thing from 2023’s horror offerings that will stick with them. A movie. A book. A scene. A score. And so they did. Here now are their collected, cherished highlights of 2023.

That Music Sting in Godzilla Minus One.

Bringing up the rear of 2023 with the surprise blockbuster hit of the year was Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One, a gargantuan, post-war kaiju action epic in the purest sense of the word that many hardcore Gojira-heads are calling their favorite since Godzilla ‘54. That’s probably because Godzilla Minus One is nostalgic in all the best ways, revisiting the original’s themes of national distress, humanity’s perseverance in the face of a seemingly unstoppable natural force that keeps evolving, and stripping the beast back to his to most frightening form — a walking A-bomb allegory wreaking havoc on the traumatized citizens of Tokyo.

For me, the Ginza sequence was a particular highlight and as I sat, biting my nails down to the quick as Noriko looks on at the kaiju king in shock, awe, and dread, Akira Ifukube’s sweeping musical sting from 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla hit me harder than the train car she’s sat in — BWAAAAAA… BWA BWA BWA BWA BWAAAAA. As an unapologetic film snob, I usually hate a cheap shot at the audience’s heartstrings, and nostalgia bait has never worked on me. But I’m not ashamed to admit that, upon hearing the rousing march of Ifukube’s Godzilla 1954 theme pound through theater speakers as Shikishima, Noda, Tachibana, and Akitsu rally to pull their people out of the ashes of trauma, I cried (and not just because I love G Man and hate seeing him in pain.) Godzilla Minus One is a triumph and — I can’t believe I’m saying this — I wouldn’t even mind a sequel. The King is dead — long live the King. (Amber T, contributor and newswriter)

When When Evil Lurks Lived Up to the Hype.

I missed out on several opportunities to see When Evil Lurks during its festival run this year, and with each failed attempt at scoring tickets the buzz surrounding the film only grew louder. Friends and colleagues who did manage to get into those screenings tended to come out the other side of them in a state of near-religious euphoria. When this sorta thing happens at film festivals, you gotta take it with a grain of salt: film festivals and early screenings do weird things to people’s heads sometimes, make ’em hyperbolic when a simple “Yeah, that was great” would do. I was cautiously optimistic that Demián Rugna would deliver (this was, after all, the guy who made Terrified, which fucking rules), but I kept my expectations in check. What a delightful surprise, then, to discover that all the hyperbole was justified: When Evil Lurks is a true pull-no-punches horror movie, one wherein each new grotesque set piece tops the one that came before it, all the way up through its utterly shattering conclusion. There is nothing more satisfying than a powerhouse horror movie living up to the hype, and no buzzed-about horror movie this year went as hard as When Evil Lurks. (Scott Wampler, contributor and Kingcast co-host)

The Scariest Words I Read All Year.

Mariana Enríquez’s Our Share of Night was first published in 2019 as Nuestra parte de noche, but the English-language edition was published in February of this year. It’s a masterful, sprawling novel that largely takes place amidst Argentina’s “Dirty War” and its aftermath, following father Juan and son Gaspar as they try to escape the clutches of The Order, a community of occultists that performs hideous acts of violence in their quest for immortality. The book spans decades and continents, jumping through time and perspectives, and each section is mesmerizing in its own way. But no single scene – in this book or any other – kept me as dreadfully riveted as when a preteen Gaspar and his friends Vicky, Adela and Pablo finally enter the creepy, abandoned house that has been calling to them for hundreds of pages. The house is much larger inside than out, filled with inexplicable objects and presences, and what happens within those shifting walls haunted my dreams night after night. It’s a little bit House of Leaves, a little bit IT, a little bit Night Film, and also something absolutely itself, brand-new and bone-deep terrifying. (Meredith Borders, Senior Editor)

The Voltron Deadite in Evil Dead Rise.

Ellie, aka Maggot Mommy (played by Alyssa Sutherland), was already a horrific Deadite as she terrorized her family and tenants in their apartment building, but the climactic scene in which she merged with her two Deadite kids was one of the top horror moments of the year. I was seated at the North American premiere of Evil Dead Rise at SXSW and the audience was not ready. People gasping and a person next to me yelping “holy shit,” it was a fun movie to watch with an audience. Then, the reveal of this new form of Deadite – The Marauder – was pure body horror goodness as it attacked Beth (Lily Sullivan) before being chainsawed and shoved into the wood chipper. It was a bloody good entry in the Evil Dead franchise, one that was featured on the subscriber cover of FANGORIA #19, and we got a behind-the-scenes shot of The Marauder in issue #20’s Spoilers and Splatter. Evil Dead fans were happy with this latest installment and from what Bruce Campbell said earlier this year, it sounds like we are going to get new Evil Dead movies soon. (Jason Kauzlarich, Creative Director)

When Evil Lurks’ Dog Meets Girl Moment.

You knew it was coming. Sitting with a packed Fantastic Fest audience at a late-night screening, we all knew it was coming. Or was it? Would director Demián Rugna really take it there? Or was he just making us anxious about the possibility of taking it there? A palpable tension settled heavily into the room; maybe some folks even stopped breathing. The suspense of it building to a fever pitch, until finally… I turned away from the screen! That’s right, your most humble horror girl turned away, and somehow that made it worse. In that instant, I knew the dog attacked the child, but I did not know what level of carnage was playing out on the screen. Was he feasting on her face? Was the violence merely alluded to? In my mind, terrible images flashed by. And upon my second viewing, I discovered… I wasn’t too far off! Rugna is a masterful architect in building utter terror, and he pays it off. Also an absolute master of the “fuck them kids” sub-subgenre, he dares to tread deep into the taboo. This moment is forever seared into my memory (in a rich cornucopia of memorable moments), along with the collective audience gasp and Fango Friend Dorina Arellano sitting beside me, audibly gleeful at the carnage unfolding. When Evil Lurks and Talk To Me were two movies that caused me to momentarily turn away from the screen this year. It’s rare, but it’s possible! And they were two of the most delightful surprises of 2023. (Angel Melanson, Digital Editor)

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I applaud my colleagues above for being able to focus on one instance from 2023 and deliver such impassioned words about their choices. I myself cannot and, since this assignment was mine to give, I now decline to do so. Presented below, in no order at all, are my favorite horror moments from 2023. I didn’t count how many. Seems like a lot! (Phil Nobile Jr., Editor-in-Chief)

The giddy creative joy of Poor Things. It’s probably not horror (though it’s certainly genre-adjacent), but there’s no getting around the fact that this was the best movie I saw all year, as well as the funniest. An entire, from-the-ground-up reality built in service of ballsy, bawdy satire, you can literally see every person on screen realizing the once-in-a-lifetime experience they’re having.

Watching Nicolas Cage’s Dracula berate Nicholas Hoult’s Renfield on screen. A year after I watched them film it in New Orleans, I saw Chris McKay’s Renfield at the Overlook Film Fest and knew that the dozens of hilarious and bizarre variations of the scene I witnessed on set would now live only in my memory.

Vision Video’s music video for “In My Side.” Though we’ve yet to meet in person, I feel a great deal of kinship toward Vision Video’s Dusty Gannon after profiling him in Fango #21, so it was our absolute pleasure to debut the band’s music video/horror short in which their gig at Athens’ legendary 40 Watt Club goes quite to hell. Directed by 2023 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards editor Elwood Walker!

Alyssa Sutherland becoming a human record player in Evil Dead Rise. Sutherland’s face is this movie’s secret weapon — a big, expressive, human special effect that silent filmmakers would’ve killed to have had access to. Director Lee Cronin knows this and uses Sutherland’s amazing visage to great effect throughout the film, but when her character puts a fingernail on a record player and the sound of the LP comes out of her so very wide open mouth? That’s cinema, baby!

The continuing adventures of The Adams Family. With Where the Devil Roams, the family filmmaking unit from upstate New York continues its singular riff on the genre, while growing and expanding their canvas in all the important ways.

M3GAN’s murderous hallway dance. A jaw-dropping viral moment that was wisely spilled in the trailer, the scene led to the Yassification of a horror icon the likes of which the genre had never seen. The uncut version ties the movie’s mean spirit together in surprising ways.

The level of idiocy displayed by the kids in Talk To Me. I’ve said it before, but the secret sauce of The Philippou Brothers’ debut feature is the authentic, absolutely stupid way the kids in the film confront demonic possession. It is of course revealed to be no joke, but the kids’ initial reaction — to treat it like a party drug, laugh their stoned asses off about it and post it on social media — rang so true that the film’s reality was 100% secured from then on.

The delivery of the line, “Live!” in Godzilla Minus One. I wept. If you say you didn’t, you’re lying.

The entire career of Fango Friend and contributor David Dastmalchian. David was seemingly (and deservedly) everywhere this year, and the enthusiasm he has for the genre, as evidenced by his choice of projects, is both palpable and contagious. We’re lucky to have him.

Russell Crowe’s accent in The Pope’s Exorcist. When Mr. Crowe has fun, we all have fun. That’s just the truth.

The beheading in Suitable Flesh. When Judah Lewis hacked off Bruce Davison’s head, held it up to the camera and asked out loud, “Too much?”, we responded by making it our fall cover.

The return and return and return of the slasher film. From Scream VI to Thanksgiving to It’s A Wonderful Knife, the once-decried slasher continues to have the most exciting comeback in Hollywood. Speaking of…

Everything Dewayne Perkins did in The Blackening. Give this man the Scream franchise.

The bitchy soap opera vibe of The Fall of the House of Usher. Mike Flanagan’s series deftly remixed and re-wove Poe’s classic stories into something not only fresh and compelling, but something that could comfortably sit alongside Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, and whatever other salacious primetime soaps my mom used to watch. I was riveted.

Watching Fango creative director Jason Kauzlarich propose to Alyssa Vidales halfway up Vasquez Rocks. Movies are great, but seeing lives change before your eyes is pretty cool too! And I have the horror genre to thank for putting this moment in my hard drive this year. I sorta/kinda introduced Jason and Alyssa, so being part of that special day was extra meaningful for me. Next fall, I’ll have the honor of officiating their wedding ceremony, and odds are THAT moment will make next year’s list!