Reaper Awards Celebrate 2011's Best Horror

October: the weather is cooling, and the leaves are changing color and dropping off the trees, leaving behind bare, skeletal branches that sway hauntingly in the breeze. As Halloween approaches, interest grows in ghosts and goblins and all manner of things that go bump in the night. Such grim and macabre topics are the focus of the Reaper Awards, an annual event recognizing the best horror films on DVD and Blu-ray.

The “Grimmys” were established in 2009 by Home Media Magazine (a weekly publication focusing on home entertainment) and Dread Central (a website dedicated to the horror genre). Nominees are selected by a panel of judges made up of a variety of horror film experts, and winners are selected by fans in online polls.¹ The award, fittingly enough, is a Grim Reaper statuette. Past honorees have included such notable horror titles and series as Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, True Blood, Dexter, and Ghostbusters.²



This year’s Reaper Award nominees were announced on September 19; the Grimmy statuettes were handed out on October 24. They went to:³

Alien Anthology (Best in Show, Best Extras, Best Packaging)
Machete (Best Kill, Best Line)
Insidious (Choice Theatrical Cut)
Frozen (Best Direct-to-Video)
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Best Catalog Title)
Thriller: The Complete Series (Best TV on DVD)
I Saw the Devil (Best Indie/Foreign Film)
Dexter: The Fourth Season (Best Big Bad)
Forget Me Not (Best Box Art)
Cabin in the Woods (Most Anticipated)

We know there are some horror film aficionados out there—what do you think of this year’s Reaper Awards? Are there any titles you feel they overlooked? What films have been popular in your library around Halloween? Let us know in the comments section below.

¹ http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/32459/dread-central-home-media-magazine-launch-the-reaper-awards
² http://www.homemediamagazine.com/awards/reaper-award-winners-through-years
³ http://www.homemediamagazine.com/reaper/alien-fox-dominate-2011-reaper-awards-25437