Five phantasmagoric flicks from the year 2000

John Fawcett's Canadian teenage werewolf film "Ginger Snaps" centers on sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins). The film's preeminence stems from horror fans' affinity to the girls, who disdain everything associated with typical high school popularity and instead harbor a strange fascination with death. The film's most beloved segment occurs before the werewolf plot gets going, with the girls, for a school project, creating a slideshow of artistic photos depicting their gruesome deaths.After discovery of a mutilated dog in the neighborhood, Ginger gets her first period and is subsequently attacked and wounded by a strange wild beast. Brigitte rescues Ginger, and, as they flee, a van narrowly misses hitting the girls but instead kills the animal. From there, Brigitte fights to protect Ginger as her appearance changes and her behavior becomes erratic until, eventually, the auburn-haired Ginger snaps (a play on words with the spicy red-brown cookie). Both a sequel and prequel were released in 2004.Some may argue that "Battle Royale" does not classify as horror, but those who have seen it would not likely argue its rank among the best of 2000. Before Suzanne Collins penned her wildly popular "Hunger Games" books, Kinji Fukasaku directed and co-wrote the similarly plotted "Battle Royale." Although lauded among dark film aficionados, until interest sparked from the release of the first "Hunger Games" movie, no good print of "Battle Royale" had been available in the U.S. With Anchor Bay's March 2012 DVD release, this masterpiece can now be enjoyed by the masses. With excellent characterizations and acting, great pacing, and a fresh approach, this action-thriller pits ninth grade students against each other in a deadly game. In response to unprecedented juvenile crime after an economic downturn, the government passes The BR Law, which requires the game Battle Royale be played by a randomly chosen class of students each year. The students are sent to an island and must kill one another over a three-day period until only one survives. Those who choose not to participate die. In "American Psycho," Christian Bale ("The Machinist," "Batman Begins") turns in a stellar performance as Patrick Bateman, a successful Manhattan investment banker in the 1980s. His desire to one-up his colleagues with the ultimate business card seems almost as insane as his maniacal killing spree in this satirical bloodbath based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The OCD Bateman, driven but vacuous, lacking any shred of empathy for fellow human beings, throws himself into a series of sadistic murders with resplendent glee. No one really mourns the loss of Bateman's friends, all shallow materialists who mix up one for the other within their superficial social sphere. Bateman becomes especially frustrated when he eventually confesses to his brutal crimes, but no one believes him. Canadian filmmaker Mary Harron's gory satire also features Academy Award caliber actors Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon and Chloë Sevigny.View the list »
'American Psycho' stars Christian Bale as a Manhattan investment banker in the 1980s whose desire to one-up his colleagues with the ultimate business card seems almost as insane as his maniacal killing spree.

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Ready to be scared, to cringe with disgust, or sometimes even laugh? This column delivers the first in a series of lists of better-than-average horror movies by year, starting with the first decade of the new millennium. What follows here are five of the best from the year 2000, starting with "American Psycho." The next column will feature five of the best from 2001.

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  • In "American Psycho," Christian Bale ("The Machinist," "Batman Begins") turns in a stellar performance as Patrick Bateman, a successful Manhattan investment banker in the 1980s. His desire to one-up his colleagues with the ultimate business card seems almost as insane as his maniacal killing spree in this satirical bloodbath based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The OCD Bateman, driven but vacuous, lacking any shred of empathy for fellow human beings, throws himself into a series of sadistic murders with resplendent glee. No one really mourns the loss of Bateman's friends, all shallow materialists who mix up one for the other within their superficial social sphere. Bateman becomes especially frustrated when he eventually confesses to his brutal crimes, but no one believes him. Canadian filmmaker Mary Harron's gory satire also features Academy Award caliber actors Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon and Chloë Sevigny.
  • Some may argue that "Battle Royale" does not classify as horror, but those who have seen it would not likely argue its rank among the best of 2000. Before Suzanne Collins penned her wildly popular "Hunger Games" books, Kinji Fukasaku directed and co-wrote the similarly plotted "Battle Royale." Although lauded among dark film aficionados, until interest sparked from the release of the first "Hunger Games" movie, no good print of "Battle Royale" had been available in the U.S. With Anchor Bay's March 2012 DVD release, this masterpiece can now be enjoyed by the masses. With excellent characterizations and acting, great pacing, and a fresh approach, this action-thriller pits ninth grade students against each other in a deadly game. In response to unprecedented juvenile crime after an economic downturn, the government passes The BR Law, which requires the game Battle Royale be played by a randomly chosen class of students each year. The students are sent to an island and must kill one another over a three-day period until only one survives. Those who choose not to participate die. 
  • John Fawcett's Canadian teenage werewolf film "Ginger Snaps" centers on sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins). The film's preeminence stems from horror fans' affinity to the girls, who disdain everything associated with typical high school popularity and instead harbor a strange fascination with death. The film's most beloved segment occurs before the werewolf plot gets going, with the girls, for a school project, creating a slideshow of artistic photos depicting their gruesome deaths.After discovery of a mutilated dog in the neighborhood, Ginger gets her first period and is subsequently attacked and wounded by a strange wild beast. Brigitte rescues Ginger, and, as they flee, a van narrowly misses hitting the girls but instead kills the animal. From there, Brigitte fights to protect Ginger as her appearance changes and her behavior becomes erratic until, eventually, the auburn-haired Ginger snaps (a play on words with the spicy red-brown cookie). Both a sequel and prequel were released in 2004.
  • Action movie guy Vin Diesel stars as antihero Riddick, in sci-fi horror "Pitch Black." During a prison transfer, Riddick, a prisoner, along with crew members, survives the ship's crash landing on a supposedly uninhabited planet. When surviving crew come under attack by malevolent alien creatures, they team up with  Riddick, whose background as a vicious criminal then becomes an asset. "Pitch Black" also stars Radha Mitchell ("Silent Hill," "The Crazies"). Now considered a cult classic, the film spawned the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick in 2004, with both films directed by David Twohy. The third installment, simply entitled "Riddick," also helmed by Twohy and starring Diesel, is slated for a September release. 
  • Significantly more accessible than E. Elias Merhige's 1991 experimental film "Begotten," the director based his "Shadow of the Vampire" on real life people and events. Merhige's fictional film imagines if Max Schreck, the real actor who portrayed Count Orlok in Murnau's 1922 German expressionist vampire film "Nosferatu," became unable to separate himself from his screen role. John Malkovich plays Murnau. Willem Dafoe was deservingly nominated for the Academy Award for his portrayal of Schreck, with scenes of him as Nosferatu interchangeable with those from the original film. Supposedly, in order to really get into his character, Schreck will only appear amongst his cast mates in character and makeup. The film emulates the silent film around which its events are based with use of title cards and the iris shot (a black circle used to close the end of a scene).
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, Jacksonville Horror Films Examiner

At times Susan’s passion for film, especially horror and dark independent and foreign films, seems to take possession of her very soul. She began journalistic and essay writing in high school, taught essay writing to high school and college students, and, as she transitioned to the business...

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