This has literally been a year in the making.
I love horror. A lot. I’ve danced around sharing a year-end round up for a long time (more than a year, years), but this year I’m finally following through. So if you are here, even if you ignore this bit and scroll down to the list, even if you close the page after this sentence, thanks for being here. Horror is my ultimate love language. It’s fun. It’s grisly. It’s dumb. It keeps me going in a world that’s often worse than what you see on screen. Making it and viewing it is a beautifully human response to the existential agony of being alive.
Anyway, enough of that. Why share my favorites? Why not the movies I think are the best? Well…
…best is a subjective term. Best and favorite are often intertwined, but not always. As Above So Below is certainly a far cry from the best horror movie ever made. But if I put it on for background noise while cleaning the house, will I abandon everything to watch it all the way through? Reader, YES. On the other side of the coin, far too many people have the (incorrect) opinion that The Blair Witch Project is bad. They are wrong. But no matter your feelings on it, it’s one of the most influential horrors in history. People like different things. And different things scare them. So rather than attempt to scholarly determine what shall endure in horror legacy for however long we have left on this planet, I’m instead tossing out and offering to you the things I vibed with the most. The movies that grabbed me and gave me the most to chew on while watching (and after). The movies that challenged me. That ENTERTAINED me. If you’ve read my plays, you know what entertains me. But maybe there’ll be something on this list that entertains you too. In the spirit of giving and the fact that I really don’t like ruining the journey, I’ll try and avoid spoilers as a rule of thumb.
Obviously, I can only speak to the films I've watched. I have yet to track down Red Rooms or Strange Darling, but they’d maybe be down here. I’m sure the Speak No Evil remake is perfectly serviceable (in fact, there’s analysis and fascination to be had with the Americanized ending that I’ll look into one day), but the original is the kind of movie that needs to be sat with for several years. Seriously, go watch the original right now.
So without more words, here you go. I hope you enjoy. I don't think they're all A24 films?
#10 – Nightbitch
Written and Directed by Marielle Heller
Based on the Novel by Rachel Yoder
Where I Watched: Hulu
With sincerest apologies to Lisa Frankenstein (which I did love, notice my blatant cheating already by sneaking another in here), Amy Adams knocked it out right at the last minute. Fearless as always, she killed it. The story of "tired mom who paused her career to raise her child starts surreally turning into dog" is incredibly Prillaman-coded, so it makes sense why I’d gel with it. But there’s so much great cringe comedy in here that it’s easy to forget that it’s horror. It’s a glowing example of how much comedy and horror overlap.
And truly, the thing I loved most about Nightbitch was how it reminds us that birth IS surreal and horrifying. Women push another human out of their body! It’s body horror at its finest, while the ensuing postpartum chaos is existential horror at its finest. Becoming a mother is something animalistic, something primal and life altering, that those of us who haven’t done so will never truly understand. So it would really help if your husband could actually get it together and give the little shit a bath without needing you.
Heller’s script neatly and nimbly tackles the most epic of subjects in its runtime. It’s basically this year’s Barbie, but with more dogs. So if you don’t hate women (and to a lesser extent, absurdism), you’ll enjoy the hell out of it.
#9 – The Devil’s Bath
Written and Directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala
Based on the Book “Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation” by Kathy Stuart
Where I Watched: Shudder
This film, from the directors of Goodnight Mommy, opens with a mother and a child. Then something not great happens. Trade all of Nightbitch’s irreverent surrealism and humor for so much melancholy and depression, and you’ll have an idea of what you’re in for. This is arguably the grimmest movie on this list. Compare and contrast the differences of being a woman in 1750s Austria and 2020s America and weep at how far we haven’t come.
The key difference in our young, newlywedded protagonist’s, Agnes, predicament is not her child, however. It’s her lack of one. She desperately wants a baby, but her husband’s sex drive isn’t really in sync with hers (it’s never outright said, but you discern very quickly he’s gay). Helping matters less, Agnes is also new to her husband’s village, and her mother-in-law’s micromanaging style of teaching daily chores and requirements takes its toll. This is a slow and painful burn. And while an unrelenting portrait of sadness might not be for everyone, the subject matter and religious history is fascinating, which means I desperately want to talk more about it. To do so would result in spoilys, so watch it, then DM me. Let’s talk.
#8 – Late Night with the Devil
Written and Directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes
Where I Watched: Shudder
My sole name drop is that I was in the same abandoned theater as David Dastmalchian once. During the tiny window of 2016-17 that I lived in New York, I did background on one episode of Gotham. We filmed at a derelict theatre building on Staten Island where a bunch of Cameron Monaghan followers were being crazy and getting ready to cause chaos. As a part of the scene, Dastmalchian’s character, Dwight, gives a creepy speech. Between takes, he was both super chill and nice, talking with some of us (I was not one of them, because sometimes I might be introvert) and was just a complete pro.
So it’s beautiful to see David flourishing and doing some hella good work, because I am proud of him without ever having spoken a word to him. He’s put in his dues, and his performance is pitch-perfect, suave and witty on the surface, anguished and tormented beneath that. This entire movie (save the AI bullshit, even a cutaway/interstitial or three is too much, call it out) fucks. The structure and production design are addictive. The entire cast is infectious. It’s a fantastic chamber piece that transports viewers right into the live studio audience, in the process delivering a fiery tribute to not only late night shows and possession horror, but found footage as well. It also, were it not for one notable exception, descends into the most outright insanity of any other movie on this list.
Outside of vampires, interviews have never been more exciting.
#7 – Oddity
Written and Directed by Damien Mc Carthy
Where I Watched: Shudder
In the middle of the woods this summer, I watched a movie called Caveat. I watched it on my phone, even, (sacrilege!!!) and it still creeped the absolute HELL out of me. I hadn’t seen something that got under my skin the way it did in a while. So to hear the same director, Damien Mc Carthy, was releasing a new film this year, I became quite excited.
An incredibly effective opening leads to a little tale of a blind occultist (Carolyn Bracken) using her powers and curios to investigate the brutal murder of her twin sister (also Carolyn Bracken, pulling double duty).
Compared to Caveat, Oddity is more of the same (slightly less creepy for me, but a tighter, better story). However, I say that as the highest of recommendations. Mc Carthy knows the mechanics of horror backwards and forwards, and knows just how to cobble together a sequence that unnerves you inside and out before making you shit yourself (there’s a particular sequence that I’ll forever cite as absolute genius, and if you’ve seen it, it’s not the one you’re thinking of. Maybe). He has patience. Moreover, he subverts a story really well, which is key for good characterization, but something that also makes subsequent viewing delightful and full of discovery.
Also, I love Irish humor in my horror, and there’s a lot of it here. Grim whimsy with just the tiniest pinch of irreverence. Add a chef’s kiss of an ending and you’re in for a grand scary time.
#6 – Alien: Romulus
Directed by Fede Álvarez
Written by Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues
Based on Characters by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett
Where I Watched: Theater
I need you to understand that if I am a “fan” (used here with derogatory connotation) of anything, it is Alien. I have willingly watched Alien: Resurrection multiple times and will again. If Alien has one fan, it is me. If Alien has no fans, I am dead. Although maybe they’ll just bring me back in a horrendous AI performance like Ian Holm (a terrible decision on all counts at best, an ethical crime at worst, but that’s a different blog post). But no matter its sins, as a fan, I forgive them. Because Romulus was the Alien movie I’ve been waiting for for years. I geeked the hell out the entire time.
An Alien movie is at its best when you’re struggling to avoid getting hugged in the face or shunked by a xenomorph. Álvarez wisely takes us back to these basics (because once you're there, anything else is a bonus), letting some young-ins (here meaning 20-somethings, who also all give excellent performances) take center stage for a change. It’s a fun window into a new house of horrors with old (until they’re not) threats. Some of the set pieces are outstanding, and it’s easily the first film since Aliens to really make some proper terror with the facehuggers.
There’s an argument to be made it played its cards a little too safe with the nostalgia and past film references. There’s just two too many. But again, as a fan, it’s the kind of thing you forgive. Especially after Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. And especially after Álvarez manages to actually salvage those two films’ entrances into the canon here. No offense to Ridley Scott, the prequels aren’t bad. I even enjoy exploring creator vs. creation in my stories, but they're not great Alien movies, and feel poorly welded to the rest of the franchise. Again, however, that's a different blog post.
#5 – Exhuma
Written and Directed by Jang Jae-hyun
Where I Watched: Shudder
Can you tell that I watch a lot of Shudder? If you like horror and don’t have it, let me be a corporate shill for a moment and recommend it because some things are still precious in this life.
Another one of them is this movie. It’s incredible, and if Exhuma isn’t on your radar, it’s arguably the film you need to know about most. Coming out of the most left and unexpected field in terms of its subject matter, you wouldn’t think a film about exhumation and Feng shui would be so terrifying, but this movie makes the dead scary again.
It starts with a sick newborn. A shaman deduces the cause to be that of an angry ancestor’s spirit, acting with vengeance from the grave. What follows is not just a dread-drenched journey into multiple Eastern cultures’ folklore, shamanism, and the occult, but insight into the genuine history of the real-life period in the early 1900s when Japan ruled Korea. Choi Min-sik (of Oldboy fame) leads the ensemble cast through the trenches here, and it is a rollicking ride that I won’t spoil. Rest assured, it gets bonkers. I cannot overstate how bonkers it gets.
And then it gets worse.
#4 – Nosferatu
Written and Directed by Robert Eggers
Based on “Nosferatu” by Henrik Galeen and “Dracula” by Bram Stoker
Where I Watched: Theater
Hold on, I just remembered the opening of Nosferatu and pissed myself. Gimme a minute.
Okay, I’m back. I won’t pretend I’m not 100% the target audience for Eggers’ remake. I love vampires. I love historical fiction. I love Willem Dafoe. Of course it’s here.
But the best part about this iteration isn’t the grandeur and novelty of these old characters suddenly given voice and text (and in the women’s case, even some actual agency). It isn’t the gloom and gothic horror of the setting and color scheming. It isn’t even Willem Dafoe (although he has a hell of time).
SPOILER ALERT INCOMING.
It’s Bill Skarsgård’s mustache. They gave Nosferatu a mustache. THEY GAVE HIM A MUSTACHE. And it works. It’s terrifying. Lily-Rose Depp also knocks it out of the park as the doomed heroine, supernaturally bound to the great, mustachioed evil. I appreciate the script's focus on her character as well, truly giving Hutter's/Harker's doomed wife the layered and nuanced role in the story she's deserved. It’s long past due.
If you’re on the fence about this one, it is worth it. And probably just edges out Oddity as the scariest film of this year. If you’re not into Robert Eggers, then you already haven’t seen it and didn’t need this confirmation.
#3 – I Saw the TV Glow
Written and Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
Where I Watched: Max
I just…
If you aren't queer or neurodiverse, or if you’ve never felt different or othered or misunderstood, Schoenbrun’s staggeringly magnificent trans allegory might not hit you the same way. Though if it doesn’t, I would argue you have a problem with your heart. I Saw the TV Glow is about and contains so much more than a fun, Lynchian tribute to 90s heyday programs like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Adventures of Pete & Pete.
It’s a story about being trapped inside yourself. And what it means to be unable to escape, be that for internal fear and confusion, external hatred and abuse, or any combination of circumstances that keep your true self locked within your flesh, where the only brief respites are those little TV shows that just get us.
A heart-wrenching and eloquently told lament to everyone who has struggled and is struggling. And a reminder that yes, “there is still time.”
If you're looking for the most perfect film on this list, it’s this.
#2 – The Substance
Written and Directed by Coralie Fargeat
Where I Watched: Theater
mmWRRRRRRRRHHH.
Coralie Fargeat can do whatever she wants forever.
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley tag team the bloodiest, most gonzo body horror satire critiquing the patriarchal and societal standards we apply to women and their bodies (and the fact that, as people, they have the gall to AGE?!?!?!) not just of this year, but the century. I'm calling it now. It’ll be hard to top. Watching this in a theater filled with people also not knowing what was coming was absolute madness.
The practical effects, the blood, the socio-political commentary and indictment of celebrity culture, the SHRIMP. It all coalesces in a perfect flesh bubble that viewers can actually name, and it rhymes with Bun Bro Aristotrue (maybe…). Far and away the most fun and disgusting fever dream of the year, and truly another example of how important it is to not only read the instructions on your black market experimental injections, but follow them.
Honorable (and Dishonorable) Mention(s):
Before the big finale, let’s take a moment to raise a glass (or pour one out on) the smattering of films that didn’t get a proper number, but I feel (for good or bad) deserve a shoutout. Nicolas Cage appears twice, believe it or not.
Arcadian
Directed by Benjamin Brewer
Written by Michael Nilon
Where I Watched: Shudder
HONORABLE: Nic Cage #1. Arcadian is worth your eyeballs because of its monsters. Prime points this year for even overcoming the xenomorphs as the scariest fucking creatures. I can’t overstate how much in no way do these monsters behave how you would expect, truly being alien, frightening beasts that want you dead. Unpredictable, bizarre, and scary as hell, it’s worth the more run of the mill tale for the production design alone.
Azrael
Directed by E.L. Katz
Written by Simon Barrett
Where I Watched: Shudder
DISHONORABLE: Fun fact, December included a last-minute binge of what I couldn’t get to earlier in the year including: Abigail, Cuckoo, The Devil’s Bath, Immaculate, I Saw the TV Glow, MadS, Nosferatu, and Nightbitch.
But Azrael snuck in at the last minute as a film that just…didn’t do anything. It had everything going for it, which for me, I knew I was getting something dialogue-free (usually translating to fun) and led by Samara Weaving (always translating to fun). She acts the hell out of it but the script gives her so little to do. Before the movie begins, she’s escaped a cult. During the movie, she is recaptured and re-escapes several times and then it ends. It’s the kind of worldbuilding and plot that evokes the feeling of, “wow, I bet if I had read the book I would be enjoying this more.” Except there is no book. It's just blood, heavy breathing, and trees.
In a Violent Nature
Written and Directed by Chris Nash
Where I Watched: Shudder
HONORABLE: This is also blood, heavy breathing, and trees to think of it. If you’ve ever watched a slasher and wanted to watch the murderer the whole time instead of their hapless, perhaps morally loose victims, this one’s for you. The “ambient slasher” is one you’ll love or hate, but I encourage you to give it a chance to see. It's a better attempt than the former, certainly. And you won’t be able to deny it contains some of the best kills of the year.
This is why I don’t do much yoga. These exact reasons. Yep.
Longlegs
Written and Directed by Osgood Perkins
Where I Watched: Theater
DISHONORABLE: Nic Cage #2. The first half or so is actually great, but unfortunately it falls apart by the end. Nic Cage’s performance falls into the genre trapping where the more you see of the scary, the less effective it becomes. Obviously, there's subjectivity at play, but beyond the opening his character just didn't hit for me. Couple that with what amounts to a third act infodump that explains what’s actually been going on the whole time, and you come away with a script that even Maika Monroe can’t really save. For a year with so much good religious horror, it falls short compared to #1.
Speaking of which…
#1 – TIE – Heretic/The First Omen
Heretic
Written and Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
Where I Watched: Theater
The First Omen
Directed by Arkasha Stevenson
Written by Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson, and Keith Thomas
Where I Watched: Theater
Yes, yes, I’m cheating (and threaten me with blueberry pie, I’ll acknowledge and maintain that The First Omen ekes out the ultimate win) but both of these movies are outstanding, so suck a butt. Everybody in both these films is firing on all cylinders.
Nell Tiger Free delivers a performance we haven't encountered in years, practically straight-up channeling Isabelle Adjani in Possession. In Heretic, Hugh Grant’s delectable turn as a demented lecturer is fun as hell, while Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East both slay their respective roles as the Mormon missionaries caught in his web. So good.
Religious horror has existed as long as religion and churches have, but it obviously strikes a particular chord in a post Roe v. Wade America, where Christian nationalists are doing their utmost to entrap women and force their way of life onto all, our own personal beliefs be damned. Both films offer a grim look at the leaders (some big, some small) who cover their insidiousness behind religious doctrine. Heretic does it through an intimate, chamber drama while The First Omen gets distinctly more epic in scope.
Heretic is nigh Jigsaw-ian (with far less blood, though not none) in its meticulousness, and some of the horror is not even the situation our poor heroines find themselves in, but the length their captor will go to MONOLOGUE at them. Beneath the devilish merriment is a well-structured interrogation of religion and faith, asking hard questions about the difference between the two. I loved the hell out of it at pretty much every twist and turn, and it’s certainly one that will reward multiple viewings.
For The First Omen, I think the wildest thing of all is that in a time where our nostalgia for these old franchises is being commodified by IP owners with remakes and new entries into their canon(s), in a time where almost all these attempts are pretty botched across the board (The Exorcist: Believer was only 5 months old), it’s incredible that The First Omen was and is so. fucking. good.
Seriously. It’s really good. It almost has no right to be this good of a film, but Arkasha Stevenson stuck to her guns and the results show on the screen, giving us a wickedly smart and observant tragedy of a novice nun born and bred to birth the Antichrist. The body horror of being impregnated by the devil isn’t new, nor is the commentary on how some Churches desire power and control and intentionally put women into these roles of subservience (of course taking the baby for their own machinations, too, the mother can't keep the child foisted upon her), but the execution is top-notch. And it slides neatly into the 1976 original while also giving us more lore to digest. It’s horrifying.
Whether it’s for giving us more to think about or just getting too close to home (I'm still unpacking my own religious trauma all these years later, pray for me), it’s the religious horror that hit the most for me this year. Which is why the top points are going here.
Immaculate was fine.
Aaaaand that’s it! What did you like? Hate? Am I completely wrong? Did I miss anything that you really dug? Smile 2 was good, but the first was better? Let’s talk. You can’t comment on this, but maybe I’ll make a Substack or something? Would people read that? Did you read this? If you’re still here, thank you. Bye-bye now. It’s over. See you soon.