Best of ('15-)'16

The honorable mentions:

Movies both from the eligable years and those older than '15, but that I'd just watched relatively recently-

Citadel
Rosewood Lane
Stalled
The Last Shift
The Expedition a k a Extinction a k a Extinction: Jurassic Predators
The Drownsman
Dark Signal
The Inhabitants

I also watched the Fairy Tail movie which resulted in me strting to watch the series, so there's that.

Best Syfy Channel original of the year:

Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda

Best wide theatrical release horror of the year:

Friend Request - amusingly, when I saw the trailer I thought it was different from other wide theatrically-released horror movies by not pretending to be anything more than some random entity killing people. Too often the big budget horror films try to pretend to have something to say while portraying characters who don't talk or behave like a real human.

Onto the list proper, then-

10: Train to Busan

People try to escape masses of zombies by train. The only problem is there's lots of zombies on the train!

9: SiREN

This is retelling of the first segment of the first V/H/S movie but expanding the mythos and getting in some information the anthology did not, but that the writers of the original intended as canon.

8: Broken

The caretaker of a bitter former rock star starts to crack under the pressure of the task. Actually, they did a good job at the characterization here. In particular, this rock star may be bitter over being crippled, and may make the caretaker feel like crap sometimes but he's still far from abusive.

7: The Unfolding

A movie about paranormal investigators investigating a notorious house - there's probably enough of those already, though this one had good atmosphere and other characters showed up throughout the movie, so unlike many found footage films it doesn't feel padded.

6: Confined

A mother desperate for work ends up working the night shift security at a large building with only one other guard there. Then a homeless guy tries to get, and is eventually let in, but it's unclear if he has evil intentions or if some entity is dwelling in the building.

5: The Creature Below

A scientist finds some strange creature at the bottom of the ocean and steals it from the laboratory. But then she becomes obsessed with looking after it. A very good take on Lovecraftian horror.

4: Hangman

A family returns home after vacation to find the house trashed. But it hasn't actually been burgled; rather, someone has planted hidden cameras around the house and begins to screw around with the family's lives.

3: Hacked

Actually, this kinda parellels both Friend Request and Hangman, though what makes it better than those is mainly the atmosphere. Also, I preferred these messed up people tormenting someone after hacking into her computer over Friend Request's version, which had supernatural elements thrown in that just took away from the overall idea.

2: The Hallow

This is among those horror movies aimed towards adults and like many of those the major theme is the threat of losing a child. This is among the better ones like The Babadook, The Canal and Sinister.

1: The Forgotten

This is a coming-of-age story and an atmospheric story about some haunted apartment or something. The atmosphere is pretty good although the supernatural elements are kind of a background thing since it really is a very good character piece first and foremost.