A wonderfully low-budget, psychedelic coming-of-age film about raising children with particular values and the monsters they may become anyway. The Adam’s family have created a film you will think about for weeks to come.
2. X
Bringing the 70s slasher back to the big screen with creative kills and feminist commentary on sex, beauty, and aging.
3. NOPE
So rich in meaning it nearly spoils the sweet, simple enjoyment of a summer blockbuster, Peele nonetheless maintains his noted prowess as a horror director with an original and fun film.
4. Barbarian
Buckle in for a wild ride! Barbarian is gruesome fun with plenty of twisty turns and a great performance by Justin Long.
5. Bodies Bodies Bodies
This whodunit is both a satirical and loving look at Gen Z that gives a lot of laughs and plenty of cringe.
6. Smile
Smile is a surprisingly welcome return to the horror style of the 2000s with plenty of jump scares and a familiar plot formula. It delivers, though, with an insidious tension.
7. Scream 5
This sequel “requel” can’t claim to be the best in the series, but it’s certainly not the worst. Some of it’s twist and turns are a bit predictable, yet it’s a fun film that works the meta angle well.
8. Fresh
About as fun a movie can be for it’s subject matter. An effective and gruesome satirical story about what women face in today’s dating world.
9. Pearl
The prequel to X that just doesn’t quite compare. Despite this, Mia Goth shines.
10. Watcher
A Hitchcock-ian plot that doesn’t surprise but still manages to thrill.
11. The Black Phone
This grim 70s crime story with supernatural elements seems like a natural follow-up from the director’s well-known Sinister in style and tone, but with heartwarming aspects to make up for it’s lacking scares.
12. Crimes of the Future
Cronenberg’s latest is at once a titillating and repellent outlandish imagination of the future of humanity with a film noir edge. It’s a film with a lot of ideas to share and heart, too, but leaves a lot of these ideas seemingly half-baked.
13. You Are Not My Mother
14. Men
Haunting and poignant, Men reads like Garland’s way of grappling with our patriarchal society. This isn’t entirely a criticism; the film offers up unique, though at times excessively dense, symbolism to explore women’s trauma at the hands of men. The body horror is unparalleled but proud of itself to the point that the audience says, “We get it!”
15. Glorious
16. A Banquet
An interesting examination of trauma, disordered eating, and mental health that for all of its merits never succeeds in completely satisfying.
17. Master
Though the plot is a bit messy and the messaging at times too overt, Diallo still manages to chill with the genuine horrors of racism that permeate throughout historically all-white spaces.
18. Hatching
A Finnish body horror with notes of Cronenberg tells a prepubescent coming-of-age story. It’s the kind of gross you want to see in a horror movie, but despite the themes being interesting it all feels too on the nose.
19. Mad God
A feat for stop-motion pictures with impressive special effects (no surprise coming from SFX veteran director Philip Tippet). However, without a strong plot this may not be a film that works for many.
20. The Sadness
Gore and violence are inherent parts of the horror genre, but its usage in this film is over-the-top and without need.
21. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
“Less is more” goes the saying but We’re All Going to the World’s Fair suffers from less being not enough. The film is less horror and more an upsetting glimpse into the life of a lonely and isolated Gen Z teen.
