No matter how you like your horror, the last few years have been an especially rich time for the genre. In the realm of studio horror, blockbuster hits likeITandA QuietPlacehave thrilled critics and audiences. If franchise horror is more your speed,The Conjuring,The Purge, andthe triumphant return ofHalloweenthis year have led the charge. As for indie horror, things have arguably never been better with folks like A24, Blumhouse and IFC Midnight keeping the release date calendar lined with stranger visions of terror a laHereditary,The Witch, and last year’s surprise giantGet Out. Across the board, horror storytellers have more support – from audiences, studios and distributors alike – and more reach than anytime in recent memory. Get Outeven went to the Oscars… and won!
In fact, there’s so much excellent horror content to go around right now, that naturally, a lot of good horror movies – movies that might have been the talk of the town less fruitful years – end up falling through the cracks. In a year where Steven Soderbergh made his horror debut and nobody saw it (!), it’s safe to say a lot of great horror this year flew under the radar. For everyHeredtiaryandHalloween, there are twice as many movies that should have made it to theaters but didn’t, and even films that faltered at the box office likeSuspiriaandAnnihilationbecame a larger part of the conversation than so many horror movies that seemed to arrive in silence from general audiences.
Part of it is no doubt the amount of content; between streaming services, VOD releases, and theatrical hits, there’s just a lot to keep up with. Just look at Shudder; the horror streaming service continues to build an excellent lineup of Shudder Originals and Exclusives (many of which are in the list below), but the platform simply isn’t as big as other household name streaming services yet.
Fortunately, there’s no fandom more passionate and eager to talk about the movies they love than horror fans. If you miss a great horror movie, the folks on Twitter and Reditt are going to let you know. With the year drawing to a close and the time of Top 10 lists upon us, I wanted to look back at some of the bets horror movies of the year you might have missed, from theatrical releases to streaming exclusives.
The Endless
Justin BensonandAaron Moorhead’s trippy cult dramaThe Endlessspent a year earning rave reviews from critics and audiences in the festival circuit before landing in theaters earlier this year to more rounds of rave reviews from critics and audiences. But still, in a year as crowded as 2018, plenty of folks missed the genre-bending delight at the time. Fortunately,The Endlessis now available on Netflix and you should definitely move it to the top of your list. Set in the same mythology the filmmaking duo built in their 2012 indie horrorResolution,The Endlessfollows two brothers (played by Benson and Moorhead, who also wrote, directed, shot, edited, and produced the film) who return to the cult they abandoned in their youth in search of closure. But in the mysterious lands surrounding the seemingly idyllic cult, they find a threat bigger and more wondrous than they ever could have expected. Benson and Moorhead to wonderful work conjuring a sense of awe and menace with their Lovecraftian chiller, and Benson’s clever, heartfelt script creates a vast world that captures the imagination, even without the help of expensive effects or showy set-pieces. Smart and surprisingly funny,The Endlessis one of the smartest, most inventive horror films of the year with enthralling strokes of world-building that will knock around in your brain long after the film is over and leave you hoping the filmmakers return to this universe again one day.
The Cleanse
A strange and intimate little character drama by way of creature feature,The Cleansesnuck way under the radar this year, but it’s well worth seeking out (and currently available on Hulu). Written and directed byBobby Miller,The CleansestarsJohnny Galeckias Paul, a down on his luck man looking for change after losing his job and fiancée and signs up for a mysterious self-help seminar based around purging yourself of your negativity. After chugging some mysterious liquids with his fellow attendees (the standouts played by the reliably great Anna Friel and Kyle Gallner), Paul vomits into a sink, but this ain’t your average detox and the next day, he discovers a goopy little creatures crawling out of the drainpipe. The Cleanse isn’t so much scary as a dark fantasy about coming to terms with your own grief and disappointments, which makes it a surprising and emotionally rich little creature feature. For a film built around the gimmick of disgustingly adorable little critters,The Cleanseis surprisingly soulful and delightfully strange, with a third act kicker that drives it all home.
The Witch in the Window
YellowBrickRoadandWe Go Onco-directorAndy Mittonswings solo withThe Witch in the Window, a quiet and moving little haunted house yarn about a man desperate to reconnect with his family.Alex Draperstars as Simon, an estranged husband and father looking to reforge those bonds when he takes in his 12-year-old son (Charlie Tacker) after the boy’s sneaky online habit spark an intense row with his mother. In the midst of refurbishing an old home, Simon brings his son to the remote house and the two make good strides until it becomes terrifyingly clear that they’re not the only ones in the house. Despite the title,The Witch in the Windowdoesn’t have anything to do with witchcraft and often, little to do with the haunting, but Mitton does a fine job keeping the tension throughout his slow-burn and every time you start to think you’ve been tricked into watching a domestic drama, the moment curdles into a cleverly constructed scare. This isn’t a flashy movie and the deliberate pacing won’t be for everyone (especially at the start), but Draper and Tacker do great work keeping the father-son dynamic engaging in between the scares and Mitton crafts a tight story about the challenges of keeping your kids safe in a world where the horrors don’t even bother to hide anymore.
My nominee for the most criminally under-watched movie of the year,Unsaneis one of those films everyone seemed to care about right until it landed in theaters. There was some natural interest based on the talent and the gimmick —Steven Soderberghshot a movie on an iPhone starring the girl fromThe Crown! — butUnsaneis so much more than a weird experiment from the famously eclectic filmmaker.Claire Foystars in a bracing and unrelenting performance as Sawyer Valenti, a woman forced to relocate and rebuild her life after falling victim to a stalker. But once she’s in her new home, she starts seeing him everywhere, and a quick trip to a therapist turns into a forced stay at a mental institution after she’s committed against her will. Soderbergh makes the iPhone-shot film look impossibly good, using the intimacy and strange angles to heighten the ever-growing sense of anxiety, and for anyone who doubted the filmmaker was going to go the distance with his psychological horror, nope — this one gets brutal in the third act. Soderbergh has a lot to say too, tackling the perversions of a capitalistic mental health care system and digging into deep-seated, toxic gender dynamics. It’s a fascinating, truly wonderful and weird little film with some of the best, most sickening use of anxiety and dread in film all year.
There’s been no shortage of horror movies rooted in the anxieties of parenting this year (thinkHereditary, A Quiet Place, The Haunting of Hill House,andCargojust to name a few), but few have been as relentlessly grim and unforgiving asAdam MacDonald’sBackcountryfollowupPyewacket.Nicole Muñozstars as Leah, an angsty teenage girl who’s completely had it with her mother’s (Laurie Holden) mood swings and harsh moments of parenting. When he mom decides to move them to a remote home, Leah enacts a hasty and ill-conceived ritual to put a death curse on her mother – something she regrets instantly, with a mounting sense of dread as she realizes how deeply she’s in over her head. MacDonald takes a minimalist approach to his eerie chronicle of an unfolding curse, letting character reactions and unnerving imagery build a disquieting sense of doom, keeping his cards close to the vest until he smacks them down in a wrenching, visceral finale so bitter it sticks in your throat.
Mom and Dad
Sure, we all know how greatNicolas Cagewas inMandythis year, but way too many people slept on his deliciously deranged performance in Brian Taylor’sMom and Dad. TheCrankandGhost Rider: Spirit of the Vengeanceco-director makes his solo filmmaking debut with the anarchic exploitation-tinged horror, butMom and Dadhas all the relentless energy and stylistic zeal of his previous films, with tighter execution. The film stars Cage andSelma Blairas a pair of suburban parents who get caught up in a viral crisis that causes parents to want to, nay,needto murder their own children. It’s such a perversely humorous hook, and Taylor plays it for all the yucks you can imagine (the film’s dark streak of humor never gets sicker than the moment a woman tries to murder her newborn baby moments after giving birth), letting the film be breezy and chaotic, and most importantly, relentlessly fun. You probably didn’t know that you need to see Nicolas Cage destroy a pool table while sing-screaming the Hokey-Pokey, but I assure you, you really do.
And the award for most outrageously bloody film of the year goes too… [drum roll]Revenge!Coralie Fargeattakes on the ugly tradition of the rape-revenge film and transforms it into an empowering tale of rebirth withRevenge, a visually striking, viscerally relentless tale of a woman thrown into a fight for her life after her vacation with her married lover goes disastrously wrong.Mathilda Lutzgives fantastic, trope-diverting performance as Jen, a bleach-blonde party girl, who goes transforms from a Lolitla-fashioned nymphet into a battle-hardened warrior right before your eyes, and Fargeat films her in a sun-soaked, color-drenched wonderland of horrors every step along the way. The writer-director also demonstrates a deft, thoughtful hand when dealing with the film’s trickier subject matter, abandoning the sexually exploitative roots of the rape-revenge film in favor of empowering Jen’s body and sexuality, and depicting her assault without a whiff of eroticism. It all culminates in a relentless final showdown that paints the walls with buckets more blood than the human body actually contains, building to a nightmare logic fight to the death that’s as brutal as it is viscerally satisfying.
Possumis a deeply weird, intentionally off-putting film and it wouldn’t be quite accurate to say Ilikedit, but it’s also a downright impressive and deeply unsettling piece of filmmaking that deserves way more attention that it got. Writer-directorMatthew Holnesscrafts an atmospheric, droning trudge through a relentlessly bleak psychological terror and he does it with a truly stunning showcase of imagery, shot on 35mm with cinematographerKit Frasier, using lights and shadows to dive into the polluted mind of a broken man.Sean Harrisstars as Philip, a children’s puppeteer who returns to his hometown after some untold disgrace, confronts his hideous stepfather, and seeks to destroy an ungodly, hideous possum puppet from his past. The puppet – a manifestation of all that is wrong and dysfunctional below the surface – is as unnerving as anything else I’ve seen on screen this year, and Harris' performance is a haunting picture to match. The actor, best known for playing the villainous Solomon Lane in the last twoMission: Impossiblefilms, has made a career of playing monsters and misfits and he’s never cast a darker shadow than his turn, here, a red-eyed and wincing portrait of some internal darkness that has spread through him like a cancerous stain.Possumis bracingly bleak and disturbing, truly terrifying at moments, and whether it turns out to be your cup of tea or not, this is a precision, singular cinematic experience.
An aptly titled film,Terrifiedis one of the most downright scary movies of the year, dripping in nightmarish energy and imagery that will make you want to sleep with the lights on. Set in an Argentinian neighborhood where a number of malevolent paranormal forces are making their way into the suburban households in unique, and yes, terrifying ways. Creatures under the bed, whispers from the sink; the film traffics in those primal childhood fears and pays them off with chilling images and set-pieces from the mind of writer-directorDemián Rugna,who announced himself as a talent to watch and does a great job making familiar scares feel fresh and gripping, balancing his spooky ass set-pieces with moments of character and genuinely upsetting horrors. This is a scary one y’all, bottom line. Of course horror is always personal and dependent on the viewer’s fears, but if you’ve been in the camp complaining that horror movies just aren’t scary enough these days, give this one a try. I could never promise that it will have the same effect on you, butTerrifiedscared the heck out of me and earned a reputation as the scariest movie at this year’s Fantastic Fest, which is no small feat!
Satan’s Slaves
On the surface,Satan’s Slaveshas a lot of story similarities toHereditary, so it makes sense why a lot of folks have framed the two as sibling films this year. But stylistically, the Indonesian chiller is closer to the James Wan style of filmmaking – slick camera movements, high action, and some creepy ass ghosts ladies in veils. A remake of the 1980 film of the same name,Satan’s Slavesfollows a tight-knit family that falls into otherworldly terror when the matriarch passes away after a battle with illness.Satan’s Slavesstarts with a bang, or a quiet streak of terror, with an absolutely shuddersome first act that’s just downright spooky as hell. Unfortunately, the film loses that live wire of tension somewhere in the second act and never quite gets it back, but in the absence of shivering terror, the film serves up a series of thrilling sometimes genuinely shocking moments of undead action and Satanic influence. An entertaining crowd-pleaser with stylish set-pieces and strong acting,Satan’s Slavesbrings the goods.
