The 1st Annual Morbidly Amusing Awards – Part 1
THE 1st ANNUAL MORBIDLY AMUSING AWARDS
With Oscar season now officially over, it’s time for we here at Morbidly Amusing to deliver our own dose of glitz and glamour, albeit through blood-drenched glasses. The 1st Annual Morbidly Amusing Awards hand out honors to those in the world of horror and genre film who we felt best (or worst) exemplified a given film category. Dr. Morbid himself voted on each category from a predetermined list of nominees, along with Ross Tweedy, the Moshing Maniac himself Kenny Nardozza, and yours truly. Who reigned supreme in the year in horror that was 2013? We decide.
BEST NICOLAS CAGE PERFORMANCE NOT BY NICOLAS CAGE
This is a category that celebrates those special acting performances that capture the essence of one of Hollywood’s acting treasures, the one and only Nicolas Cage. The Academy Award winning actor is known for delivering his own brand of insanely unhinged acting, and Morbidly Amusing wants to award once-such actor who truly embraced his inner-Cage in 2013.
The nominees are…
Patrick Wilson in Insidious: Chapter 2
Mel Gibson in Machete Kills
Ethan Hawke in Getaway
James Franco in Homefront
And the winner is…
Patrick Wilson in Insidious: Chapter 2
While Mel Gibson was a close runner-up, it was one of horror’s most prominent actors in 2013, Patrick Wilson, who ultimately took home the award thanks to the mind-bending insanity he brought to his role as Josh Lambert in the follow-up to 2010’s Insidious. The Cage would no doubt be proud.
WORST HORROR EFFECTS
Pretty self-explanatory, this category awards the lack of artistry in a given film’s visual effects. While Gravity raised the visual effects game considerably in 2013, these films lowered the bar for horror and genre films alike.
The nominees are…
Machete Kills
R.I.P.D.
Mama
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
And the winner is…
Machete Kills
Robert Rodriguez, what the hell are you doing? I’ll be the first to admit to enjoying Machete’s first outing, but the last thing a concept like this needed was a sequel. Machete Kills is easily among the worst films I saw in 2013, and my brethren seem to agree. Much of this is to do with the abysmally terrible visual effects on display. It’s abundantly clear that the film’s $12 million budget went to attaining the actors and not much else.
THE TOM SAVINI AWARD – BEST HORROR EFFECTS
Awarded in the name of an absolute horror legend, the Tom Savini Award goes to a film that actually put its low-budget to good use in terms of its visual effects.
The nominees are…
Maniac
Curse of Chucky
Evil Dead
Hatchet 3
And the winner is…
Curse of Chucky
One of the great horror surprises of 2013 was the return of everyone’s favorite killer doll in Curse of Chucky. It was easily one of the best entries in the Child’s Play series and has as much to do with the impressive work of the visual effects artists as anything else. Don’t believe me? Check out the special features on the DVD release and be impressed.
BEST KILL
Long live the Bacon. Always remember. Never forget.
The nominees are…
The Priest in Curse of Chucky
The Axe in You’re Next
The Older Lady in Maniac
The Chainsaw in Evil Dead
The Dad in We Are What We Are
And the winner is…
The Axe in You’re Next
While all the kills on this list are of a certain pedigree, perhaps none made the impact of the axe which brought You’re Next to an incredibly bloody, perfect conclusion.
BEST HORROR VILLAIN
Michael Myers. Freddy Krueger. Jason. What horror villain joined the ranks of the horror elite and made their mark in 2013?
The nominees are…
Chucky in Curse of Chucky
Frank in Maniac
Victor Crowley in Hatchet 3
Annabelle in The Conjuring
And the winner is…
Chucky in Curse of Chucky
He was already a legend heading in to Curse of Chucky, but it’s undeniable that Chucky’s standing amongst the horror villain elite only grew due to the film’s unexpected quality. The film not only provided scares and kills galore, but it also added a new inventive wrinkle to the Chucky mythology.
HORROR QUOTE OF THE YEAR
The nominees are…
“Groovy.” in Evil Dead
“Chucky, I’m scared.” “You fuckin’ better be.” in Curse of Chucky
“Fuck me next to your dead mom then.” in You’re Next
And the winner is…
“Fuck me next to your dead mom then.” in You’re Next
While most of us agreed that Curse of Chucky brought with it a wide array of memorable quotes, there wasn’t one that we could all decide on as the best of the bunch. The majority ruled and the most votes went to this insane declaration of love in Adam Wingard’s You’re Next.
And so ends Part 1 of The 1st Annual Morbidly Amusing Awards. We will be back tomorrow with Part 2. For now, sound off in the comments below on the 2013 films you feel we may have overlooked.
