The year in horror notched some great strides for genre filmmaking (Paranormal Activity, anyone?) but sadly, there were disappointments galore. For starters, some of the year’s highest-profile horror pics turned dismal results at the box office. Too many anticipated films got the shaft with bare-minimum theatrical runs. And what was with all of those lame vampires?

See what got our blood boiling this year in horror in no particular order.

Drag Me to Hell’s Box Office
After breaking box office records and grossing almost $2.5 billion with his last three consecutive films (Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3), you’ve got to think Sam Raimi was a little underwhelmed to gross a paltry $86 million with his 2009 effort, Drag Me to Hell. (That it was Raimi’s first return to the horror genre as director since 1993’s Army of Darkness only rubbed salt in the wound.) Audiences seemed unprepared for DMTH’s blend of horror-comedy, a nuance lost even in its marketing campaign -- to which we say, do you know who Sam Raimi is??

Harper’s Island
The premise was intriguing: a Ten Little Indians-style television event about an idyllic resort island plagued by a killer where one character would bite it each week for a 13 episode run. CBS’s horror television experiment started off well enough, with a pilot episode that introduced a host of CW-ready faces – just the kind of nubile, primetime soap stars you’d perversely like to see suffer. And to the show’s credit, the kills were often inventive and shocking, definitely not your normal broadcast fare. But soon after the pilot aired, ratings began a slow and steady death slide and by the time the finale aired on July 11, 2009, Harper’s Island was uninhabited, so to speak.

Jennifer’s Body’s Marketing Campaign
Say what you will about Diablo Cody; the box office failure of Jennifer’s Body wasn’t really her fault. Blame it on a perfect storm of factors that converged to bring in a measly $6.8 million on its opening weekend. Fox Atomic had a gory, snarky high school horror pic with a mega-hot lead and a much-hyped lesbian kiss between Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. Yes, it worked much better with its naughty R rating than it would have as a tame PG-13 horror flick, but that also cancelled out the under-18 buyers who were being targeted by its MySpace-friendly marketing campaign. Add to that the eternal problem of pushing a horror-comedy hybrid to audiences used to having one or the other, and it’s no wonder Jennifer’s Body languished in fifth place on opening weekend. As of now, it’s barely made its $16 million production budget back.

Cabin in the Woods Pushed Back
The good news: Joss Whedon is making another film, onboard as co-writer and producer of collaborator Drew Goddard’s directorial debut! The bad news: Once scheduled for February 2010, Cabin in the Woods got pushed back…all the way to 2011. Supposedly, the reason was to 3D-ify it for a January ’11 release, but honestly, we don’t need anything fancy. Just give us our Whedon fix (and a few close-ups of his hunky Australian star, Chris Hemsworth) and we’ll be on our way, thankyouverymuch.

The Proliferation of Remakes and Sequels
Seriously, enough with the remakes. With few exceptions, they’re almost always lamer versions of better, ballsier original films, only repopulated with fresh-scrubbed young starlets plucked straight from the sets of the latest teen soap dramas. The only time they stop is when they run out of story or run out of superlative titles. So when will Hollywood learn that we’re tired of these cheesy, easy copies? (More interesting things are being done in indie horror anyway.)

No Sign of Wes Craven’s 25/8 aka My Soul to Take
Horror master Wes Craven began his latest film, 25/8, in 2008, aiming for an October 2009 release. Well, that didn’t come, but the prolific filmmaker did start a Twitter account, where he keeps fans semi-up-to-date on the progress of his film (Craven also used Twitter to announce the new title for 25/8: My Soul to Take). The serial killer thriller will be the first film Craven has written and directed since 1994’s New Nightmare.

Sappy Vampire Overload
Everywhere you look these days, you see a sappy vampire. (Look in our New Moon blog archives and you’ll find a bunch of them.) Between The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the CW show The Vampire Diaries, pop culture’s got a glut of sensitive, brooding bloodsuckers who also happen to be primo boyfriend material. (True Blood offers gorier thrills, but features a lovestruck vampire boyfriend nonetheless.) Hopefully this will change in 2010, when the vampires of Daybreakers will remind us what vampires are supposed to do: kill people, drink blood, and kick a lot of ass.

Horror Flicks Dumped into Dollar Theaters Instead of Getting  Proper Theatrical Releases
It’s time studios learn it’s not okay to dump horror titles from their eagerly anticipated theatrical line-ups. This year’s Carriers seemed promising, an epidemic flick starring Big Names Chris Pine and Piper Perabo; it got a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it limited theatrical run before going direct-to-DVD when its distributor, Paramount Vantage, went under. Ditto The New Daughter and Blood Creek, a Nazi-occult thriller that opened quietly in September in regional $1 movie theaters, ...and Blood Creek was directed by JOEL SCHUMACHER. Unbelievable.

The Drama Surrounding The Wolfman
There is always at least one highly-anticipated, highly-troubled production per year, and 2009’s was The Wolfman.  The remake of the Universal classic was supposed to be out in April, then November, and is currently slated for February 2010. With a revolving door of talent (the director, composer, editor, and FX folks) and a revamp of the look of the film, delays are understandable but still troubling.  Is it possible for the movie to be good after all that drama, or will it end up a collage of different visions?  At least you can look forward to an R rating for “bloody, gory violence.”

Check back tomorrow for our final Top 9 of '09 list, our Top 9 Surprises of '09 and in the new year, we'll present the Top 10 Horror Events we're most looking forward to in 2010.