Escape real-life horror this 2011 with the lovely dark thrill of the cinema. We’ve got a grab-bag of the top (nearly) 30 best horror films in 2011, from franchise blockbuster to indie foreign horror. Actually, 28. We had 30 but the last two were rubbish.

The Animalmen is an American French New Wave film seen through a mumblecore filter, a lovely, stylish look at the yearnings of today’s disaffected youth. It’s about 3 would-be revolutionaries and how rad their uprising would be… if only they had a cool group name.

Nakashima’s genre-busting revenge drama is an intense tale of the unremitting evil that lies within children’s hearts (and, possibly, the hearts of their teachers). It’s dark, intense, internationally lauded and would make probably make Gus Van Sant (a) feel jealous and (b) do a happy in his pants.

A trio of doctors take a detour… only to find themselves kidnapped and caged by masked men for unknown purposes. A paucity of gore is balanced by an unnervingly effective excess of tension in this high quality French torture porn horror…

The Chaser is a dark yet charming Korean cop thriller with a detective-turned-pimp antihero who has discovered all his girls are going missing. The western remake is hitting the big screen in 2013, so for god’s sake see the original first!

In the supernatural sci-fi thriller Altitude, five teens trapped on a failing plane discover the plane’s mechanisms are being jammed by a monstrous, unearthly source. Prepare yourself for teens in the Twilight Zone…

Animated short The Incident at Tower 37 qualified for the 2011 Oscars – and it was been released for free online yesterday (World Water Day). It follows the lone steward of a water processing station which siphons every drop of water from a once-pristine lake. When two unexpected guests arrive, the tower’s operator learns the high cost of his ignorance…

North West Five, is currently going to be screened at the Screentest Film Festival in London this month, and at the No Limits Film Festival in Sheffield next month, where it is nominated for Best Film and Best Cinematography. We get a sneek peak and quiz the director!

Hong Kong actor, martial artist, producer and director Sammo Hung is known to the West through ventures like TV series Martial Law and Kung Fu Hustle. We caught up with him to chat about action directing on Ip Man 2 He’s just a lovely, lovely man.

Fancy a nice little documentary about the biggest trash dump in the world? Get ready for a Cinderella story with true grit, a wonderful cast and an improbably big heart…