Announcing the 4th Annual Cyber Horror Award Nominees!

Four years ago, I had a dream. That's right, dear Vault dwellers--I did. I wanted to create a horror film award for horror bloggers to decide. I saw a thriving horror blogosphere out there, and I felt like the time was right for those fine, intelligent folks doing the blogging to have their voices heard as to the finest achievements in horror films each year. So I created the first horror film awards voted on exclusively by the online horror journalism community: The Cyber Horror Awards.

And now, here I am, announcing the nominees for the fourth annual awards. I'd like to thank all the writers who get into the fun of this whole thing, and who take time out to vote each year. I'd like to specifically thank those who helped me put together the nominations this year: Heather Buckley of Dread Central, Stoker Award-winning author Vince Liaguno, League of Tana Tea Drinkers head honcho John Cozzoli, Christine Hadden of Fangoria.com, and Unkle Lancifer of Kindertrauma.

This year turned out to have a better crop of horror flicks than I originally thought, since I snuck in a whole bunch of last-minute viewing during the nominating process. We've got quite a fascinating list of nominees, which you can check out in its entirety over at the official Cyber Horror Awards website. In the meantime, allow me to whet your appetite with this year's nominees for the Val Lewton Award for Best Horror Film of 2011:

• Attack the Block, Studio Canal

• Troll Hunter, Filmkameratene A/S

• Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Reliance Big Pictures/Loubyloo Productions

• Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Miramax/FilmDistrict

• Insidious, FilmDistrict/Stage 6 Films

In the past, the award has been won by Let the Right One In (2008), Trick 'r' Treat (2009) and Black Swan (2010). Which motion picture will lead the pack this time around? As I write this, bloggers and other online horror critics the world over are putting their votes together thanks to the ballots I sent out en masse last week. If you're an online horror blogger/writer who hasn't received a ballot, let me know and we'll remedy that.

Expect the winners in all 13 categories to be tabulated and announced by the middle of next month. In the meantime, I'll be sitting back and letting those ballots keep rolling in...