An author, filmmaker, and journalist working in the horror genre, Jovanka Vuckovic is

What better way to ring in the New Year than with a little godless onscreen violence? As always, last year there were plenty of pointless-yet-entertaining big-budget remakes (The Thing, Fright Night 3D, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Straw Dogs), sequels (Paranormal Activity 3, Scream 4, Wrong Turn 4, Final Destination 5), and other genre-bending fare at the multiplexes (127 Hours, Super 8, Attack the Block, The Darkest Hour, Contagion). Then there were the big misses (Season of the Witch, Priest, The Rite, Red Riding Hood, Apollo 18, Dream House), which came and went like a fart in the wind. The original horror films–the ones that made this list anyway–lurked around the independent scene. Of course, that, too, is a mixed bag. There were movies I really wanted to like but didn’t (Red State, Burke & Hare, The Ward) and others I wish I could un-see (The Human Centipede 2, A Serbian Film). Then there was the abysmal straight-to-DVD drivel, which you should take care to avoid entirely (Hellraiser: Revelations, The Howling: Reborn). I’ve waded through the good, the bad, and the ugly to bring you a list of the year’s finest genre films. Here they are, in no particular order. Happy New Year!

The Skin I Live In
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Spain
Antonio Banderas stars as a research scientist who has developed a synthetic skin that he’s using on a guinea pig whom he alters to look like his dead wife. Obvious comparisons to Eyes Without a Face aside, The Skin I Live In is a unique, melodramatic art-house horror film that reveals its shocking secrets slowly. Not since David Cronenberg have surgery, sex, and violence frolicked in the same stained bed so skillfully. A must see.

Martha Marcy May Marlene
Directed by Sean Durkin
USA
Elizabeth Olsen (yes, the younger sister of the Olsen twins) walks the line between sanity and madness in a breakthrough performance as Martha, an ex-cult member who tries to re-enter polite society after having been brainwashed to ignore social values. Told in a style that’s reminiscent of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, Martha Marcy May Marlene divided critics at festivals due to its ambiguous ending. Powerful and unsettling.

I Saw the Devil
Directed by Jee-woon Kim
Korea
A serial killer (played by Old Boy’s Min-sik Choi) gets more than he bargained for when he kills the fiancée of a prominent special agent in this highly stylized, savage thriller from the director of A Tale of Two Sisters. Seeking vengeance, the grieving cop kidnaps his wife’s murderer, tortures him a little, then frees him only to track him down and torture him over and over again. Worth the price of admission for the wildly creative (and brutally bloody) taxicab scene alone. Merciless, uncompromising, and unforgettable.

The Woman
Directed by Lucky McKee
USA
Feminist filmmaker Lucky McKee (The Woods, May) examines the horrors of misogyny is this incendiary intellectual revenge film (co-written with Jack Ketchum) about a handsome family man and successful lawyer who kidnaps a feral woman and chains her up in the cellar. Beautiful, bizarre, and barbaric. As a primer, you can watch this video of a viewer’s extreme reaction to The Woman at the Sundance Film Festival.

Troll Hunter
Directed by André Øvredal
Norway
What do you get when you combine Cloverfield with Nordic Trolls? This very funny monster mockumentary. I know what you’re thinking: Trolls? Really? Just see it. And when you do, watch it with Norwegian subtitles lest you miss some great voice performances in this foreign creature feature. Great fun.

Cold Fish
Directed by Shion Sono
Japan
A teenaged girl takes a job at a fish store owned and operated by a couple who turn out to be much more than fish mongers. If you’re familiar with Shion Sono’s work (Suicide Circle, Love Exposure), then you already know what to expect from Cold Fish. This is totally bent Asia extreme serial-killer cinema at its best–equal parts disturbing and blackly comic. Make time for it, though, because like Sono’s other films, it’s overlong.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Directed by Eli Craig
USA
In this, the Three’s Company of horror comedies, two redneck buffoons run afoul of a gaggle of teen partygoers on spring break who misjudge the hillbillies as a threat. Grave misunderstandings give way to fountains of unintended violence. Hilarity ensues.

Amer
Directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
Belgium
This film has been doing the festival circuit since 2009 but became available on Blu-ray this year, and, boy, is it ever a doozy. If the films of Mario Bava and Dario Argento could make a love child, Amer would be it. A dizzying, non-narrative, near dialogue-free art-house experiment in avant-garde filmmaking, Amer shares as much in common with Un chien andalou as it does Strip Nude for Your Killer. Lush eye candy or psychosexual nightmare? You decide.

Stake Land
Directed by Jim Mickle
USA
Director Jim Mickle (Mulberry Street) retrieves the vampire’s balls from the Twilight franchise with this gory apocalyptic road movie. It’s about an orphan who travels through a vampire-ravaged America with a hunter known only as “Mister” on their way to find the last place of possibly unspoiled humanity. Imagine The Road meets True Grit meets I Am Legend on a very low budget and you’re sort of there. (Read Revolver‘s interview with Stake Land actor and co-writer Nick Damici here.)

We Are What We Are
Directed by Jorge Michel Grau
Mexico
An impoverished family of cannibals struggles to find new meat when their patriarch dies. Sound familiar? Although obviously reminiscent of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jorge Michel Grau’s We Are What We Are is its own beast. A thoughtful but flawed exploration of the collapse of familial roles amidst a landscape of social decay in Mexico, We Are What We Are is more than the sum of its, er…parts.

Snowtown
Directed by Justin Kurzel
Australia
One of the many feel-bad movies of the year, Snowtown is a true crime film that centers on the unusual relationship between sixteen-year-old Jamie and his newfound father figure, John Bunting, who happens to be Australia’s most prolific serial killer–bodies in barrels and all. This is his Jamie’s harrowing story.

The Dead
Directed by Howard J. Ford and Jonathan Ford
UK
Following a zombie outbreak in Africa, Lt. Brian Murphy tries to make his way home in this beautifully shot, slow moving road movie. The Dead evokes classic George Romero with its political commentary and pacing, but most importantly, it succeeds at making slow moving zombies scary again. Great visuals.

The Innkeepers
Directed by Ti West
USA
Ti West’s lighthearted spookfest about two employees (and amateur ghost hunters) putting in their last shift at a century old haunted inn was a crowd-pleaser on the film festival circuit last year. It isn’t actually being released in theatres until February 3, 2012, but it hit VOD on December 30th so I encourage you to order it. Support independent filmmaking. Please don’t torrent.

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
USA
OK, so it’s not a horror movie per se, but it’s by far the most depressing film of the year. Tilda Swinton stars as a grieving mother who has raised a misanthropic sociopath (played by Ezra Miller) who tortured her and her family before going on a killing spree at his high school. A deeply disturbing dramatic thriller not for the faint of heart.

Honorable Mentions: Rubber, Absentia, The Last Circus, Wake Wood, Hobo with a Shotgun, Black Death, Insidious.

*All films were released in North America in the 2011 calendar year.

REVOLVER What was the initial inspiration for the Stake Land script? What was your biggest goal for the script?
NICK DAMICI  Jim Mickle and I wanted to make a movie. That’s it. Nobody was giving us the money so we brainstormed and decided we could try a web series, something we could do cheap and on weekends. We came up with [futureusgallerythe characters] Mister and Martin, basically a man teaching a boy how to kill vampires. Each webisode would be a different type of vampire. We wrote about 40 eight-minute scripts and brought them to Larry Fessenden who loved the idea but thought it would be better as a movie. He brought the funding to us and we turned those webisodes into Stake Land, mostly by condensing and creating the apocalyptic world.  My biggest goal was to take a very overused and cliché-ridden concept and bring it back to where we felt a vampire-apocalypse movie worked best. Dirty, gritty, and definitely not pretty.

How did you and Jim go about working together on the script? What did each of you bring to it, in particular?
Jim and I have been doing this for about 10 years now together so we’ve developed a pretty organic system of working together. We brainstorm. I do most of the hands-on writing and then Jim pulls it into place. We do that over and over until we feel it’s right. Jim brings himself, his comparative youth–to me, that is–and his artful cinematic eye and intelligence and unwavering sense of truth. I bring my balls and my hack writing skills, spit it out with passion, and let Jim do the rest.

Did you always plan to play the character of Mister?
Yep. And I’ve taken some critical flack for writing myself starring roles in movies that I write. I’m fine with that. It’s either play bit parts on tired television show as cops or hoods or pick up the pen and write something I want to do. I’ve been lucky enough to pull it off a couple of times.

Tell us about Mister.
His name says it all. He’s an enigma. We don’t know where he comes from or who he is. His character is developed by his actions…period. I based him essentially on John Wayne’s character, Ethan, from  The Searchers. Love him or hate him, you want him on your side when the shit hits the fan.

What did you relate to the most in your character? What did you relate to the least?
His sense of hatred most, but also his sense of hatred least. That’s what makes him an enigma.

In the beginning of the movie, there’s pretty gruesome scene involving a vampire in the rafter and a baby. Tell us about how that scene came to be and what it was like filming it.
That was the opening scene in the webisodes. We didn’t want Martin to become sympathetic and just a victim. By demonstrating a willingness to kill off his whole family in front of him and to have him basically be helpless. Nailing that in by killing a baby seemed effective. Nothing is sacred and anyone who isn’t strong enough or is unlucky enough becomes fodder. You know right off the bat you are not in Kansas anymore.

What was the most fun scene for you to film?
There’s a bit where Connor and I are in the trunk of the car all snuggled up close. It’s a dramatic moment, but when I looked down at him and lit the lighter, he was all smirks and cutey pie and it just busted me up. I still laugh about it. He’s a terrific person and the most fun I had was working with him.

What was the most challenging scene?
Opening the barn scene, Jim Mickle had cold water pour down the crack of my leather pants for an hour.  Mister was not a happy cowboy.

What was the craziest thing to happen on set?
Danielle Harris, in the scene where I pick her up, she was so good, and when I looked down at her and her eyes all misty, it brought tears to my eyes, too. It was unexpected but somehow delightful to discover that Mister–and I–had that in me. I don’t think I ever thanked her for it so I will now. Thank you, Danielle.

When you saw the finished film, what surprised you most about it?
That after writing it and filming it and living it for almost two years and being so inside of it, the film grabbed me and held on. I found myself along for the ride with these characters in this world.

What are you most proud of about the film?
I don’t know if proud is the right word, but I feel good that all these people it takes to make a movie came together and got it done. I guess a little proud that Jim and I came up with an idea that moved people to action.

Finally, Revolver is a hard-rock and metal magazine. Are you a fan of that kind of music at all?
Well, I’m over 50 so I’m an Ink Spots kinda guy… I guess the closest I get to hard rock or metal is Queen. Van Halen, Def Leppard…. Does Elvis count?