The Innkeepers

Before we cut out for the long weekend, let us bring you one more "best of 2012" list.  Today, we share with you Paul Doro's picks.  Again, another writer who has been contributing to Shock for some time and I think you'll dig the diversity that he brings to his list.  Read on! - Ryan Turek, Managing Editor

All week long, ShockTillYouDrop.com's contributing writers are weighing in their favorite horror films of the year.  Today, we continue with Spencer Perry's picks.  What made the cut?  Head inside to find out!  You'll also find links to our previous "Best of" lists.  As always, feel free to use our comment boards to weigh in with your picks.  Just keep it classy.

The Ti West-directed spookshow, The Innkeepers, is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on April 24.  Extras include The Inkeepers: Behind-the-Scenes, commentary with West, producers Peter Phok and Larry Fessenden and 2nd unit director/sound designer Graham Reznick and another commentary with West with his stars Sara Paxton and Pat Healy.

Head inside for a look at the cover art.

Ti West had already earned considerable respect among horror fans from his early movies, but with 2009's The House of the Devil, he broke out to new audiences thanks to Magnet Releasing's Video on Demand distribution. Suddenly, Ti West had fans (and a few detractors) among the film community at large. For his follow-up The Innkeepers, he teamed with Sara Paxton, another horror movie veteran after starring in The Last House on the Left and Shark Night 3D.

Paxton and Pat Healy (Great World of Sound) play Claire and Luke, the young caretakers of the Yankee Pedlar Inn, an old hotel in Connecticut with a lot of history as well as strange supernatural occurrences attributed to the ghost of Madeline O'Malley, who was murdered at the hotel centuries earlier. The Yankee Pedlar is about to close for good, giving them one last chance to try to record proof of the inn's haunting, though they soon find themselves way over their heads. The film also stars ‘80s screen icon Kelly McGillis, who was so great in Jim Mickle's Stakeland last year.

2012 is kicking off in a great way for horror fans as Ti (House of the Devil) West's The Innkeepers, an innovative take on the haunted house movie starring Sara Paxton (Shark Night, Last House on the Left), is now playing on Video On Demand with a theatrical release planned for February 3.

ShockTillYouDrop.com had a chance to sit down with the two of them earlier today and we eventually got around to asking West about some of his upcoming projects including the anthology found footage flick V/H/S, premiering at Sundance in a couple weeks, which will feature segments from him, David Bruckner (The Signal), Glenn McQuaid (I Sell the Dead), Joe Swanberg and the filmmaking collective Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Justin Martinez, Tyler Gillett and Chad Villella), with a framing sequence by Adam Wingard (You're Next).

I don’t look back on 2011 with as much disdain as I did 2010.  In fact, my view of the last twelve months in horror is rather positive.  The VOD and foreign film output broadened the canvas of films to choose from and presented a welcome (often much-needed) alternative to the usual steady stream of studio remakes, sequels and overall "bad decisions." (Priest?  Blech.)

The list inside represents my top five of the year.  And it was tough to narrow the selection down, however, these five best represent films that I enjoyed the most, that I think are incredibly strong and will stand up over time.  Far too often I think "best of" lists are riddled with - yes, terrific movies - but their staying power dissipates.

Before we start, I wanted to fire off a few titles that didn’t make the cut but deserve a mention.