A great remake sometimes discards the original and could be titled differently. Such is the case with Black Christmas (2019). Here, Wrong Turn, is about a society living in an M. Night Shyamalan-ian Village cut-off from the rest of the world. This group has less inbreeding and less deformities due to their Draconian laws. The traps in the woods, the hunting and being hunted, and the performances make this a great film. Maybe not a good remake, but a great horror film.

David Charbonier and Justin Powell’s directorial debut is one for the ages. This directing team puts two boys through absolute hell. There’s realistic gore and multiple nods to The Shining which are always welcome. It is the story of two boys who are kidnapped and awaiting to be sold into a sex trafficking scenario, but the boys fight back and struggle to survive. There is not one moment of wasted time on-screen. We are gripped from the moment the boys are taken.

Barbara Crampton’s Anne is married to Larry Fessenden’s Jakob. She has allowed 30 years of soul draining monotony to pass her by. But when she’s given a new life by a vampire, she’ll fight for her newfound freedom with everything she’s got. What more do you need, other than stating that Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden are in a film together?

Camille Griffin and her star-studded cast including Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-Rose Depp, and the Jojo Rabbit kid (who also happens to be Camille’s son) make Christmas great again. While on the set of Jojo Rabbit, Camille learned from Taika Waititi that if you use comedy, you can do anything. This film was a long time coming as the director had tried for years to get a project off the ground. Finally, she set out to make a parody of class system and a pro-socialist film. But timing makes fools of us all. While the film was complete prior to pandemic, it was the pandemic that created a wholly different interpretation of the film. Thus an accidental anti-vax propaganda subtext emerged. To be clear, this was never the filmmaker’s intention. In the film she envisioned, the elite have been given a way out so they do not have to experience the end of the world. The poor and homeless were not given this ‘advantage’ and thus a possibility exists that the meek shall inherit a dead world. The discourse this film provides to those who see it, is phenomenal as it helps to provide jumping off points in which to discuss climate change and the end of the world. Not, the anti-vax subtext that only emerges during our current pandemic. Silent Night is a fantastically bleak comedy.

Maximiliano Contenti, the film’s director, intended to make a film that paid tribute to Italian Giallo and American Slasher films. A black-gloved killer and elaborate murder set pieces peppered through a tale that ends with a ‘final girl,’ solidify that Contenti’s wish came true. From its Giallo tropes, Contenti utilizes beautiful camerawork, tantalizing colors, and depth with lighting and shadow. There needs to be more horror made inside a movie theater. In the short tradition of Demons (1985), Popcorn (1990), and to a smaller effect in He Knows You’re Alone (1980), Scream 2 (1997), and Deadly Games (1982), theater horror is the best horror.

David Bruckner’s follow up to the highly creative The Ritual is a story of mourning. At least that’s how it begins. What follows is a great mind-f*** of cinematic proportions. How do you put on film the nothingness of a non-spiritual beyond? If you do not believe in the afterlife and believe there is a great void awaiting us when we die, how do you convey that void on film? In what we first believe is a haunted house film, Bruckner's story slowly gives way to representations of demons both personal and metaphorical. New territories are created by allowing the story to evolve past demons and show trauma’s ability to follow and infect those around us. All the while, Bruckner utilizes perspective in exciting and jarring ways. He can create figures out of the way we look at the edges of crown molding in our home. Maybe the ornate details of woodwork along with a stain on the ceiling in the background look oddly human? You squint and let your eyes adjust. And when the moment comes to dismiss the possibility that a human shape exists... it moves. Absolutely terrifying.

It’s 1985, and the British Board of Film Censors has deemed certain horror films as too atrocious to unleash on the public. These titles become known as Video Nasties. There were cases where people were imprisoned for owning a copy of I Spit On Your Grave. The film utilizes this history of hysteria created by Mary Whitehouse, a moral crusader, who compiled a montage of vicious horror and screened them for the press and parliament. Horror films became a scapegoat for all terrible issues within society. This gave rise to movie theaters showing endless marathons of the films that were banned for home viewing. Prano Bailey-Bond’s directorial debut seems to spring from that melting of reality and dream that occurs during a long marathon of horror viewing. You fall asleep in one film and wake up in another. Your dreams mesh with the screen. Our protagonist in Censor, Enid (Niamh Algar), is tasked with deciding which films can be viewed by the public or what cuts need to be made to make them ready for public consumption. When she sees a particularly unnerving film, it triggers the trauma from her past and sets her on a nightmarish course to uncover parts of her life she has self-censored.

Original review here. A sophomore feature is a different beast for filmmakers. Your first film is filled with self-doubt that you bury so deep in the present-ness required to hold all the spinning plates in the air. There’s that taunting belief that this is your only shot. You feel your entire life is riding on getting it right. And in some cases, you succeed. The film is loved by most and purchased by Shudder and finds support from every direction. Josh Ruben’s Scare Me did just that. As a side-note it made our top ten of 2020. If you thought the burden was heavy creating your first feature, that burden has doubled if your first feature gave you praise. With Werewolves Within, Ruben proves himself as a worthy filmmaker. His cast increased from a trio to an ensemble of a dozen all working in unison to create that fine-line balance of comedy and horror. Based on a bestselling murder mystery game from Red Storm Entertainment, comedian Mishna Wolff was tasked with writing the script and found the proper balance of comedic timing and horrific discovery. Sam Richardson and Milana Vayntrub (yes, Lily from AT&T) absolutely steal the show.

We’ve written about this film before here. We absolutely loved Danishka Esterhazy’s take on the Slumber Party Massacre films. It is widely known that the original Slumber films were all directed by women and interwoven within the plot was feminist slasher satire. Esterhazy dials this up to eleven with her remake. The comedy is spot on, there are great references to the original trilogy while also injecting gender-swapping throughout, and there’s an Abbott & Costello-type bit that had us crying from laughter. Esterhazy thoroughly knows the slasher tropes she’s inverting and the whole piece works from beginning to end.

The most divisive horror film of the year. The one that chanted “Evil Dies Tonight!” Way too many times. How did it end up as number five on a top ten list? Easy, those brutal kills. We’ve seen Kills at least three times now since October, including our first viewing in the theater. From viewing one, Tommy Doyle is the albatross that brings the entire film down. David Gordon Green’s Halloween (2018) was an absolute favorite. Though it brought with it all the baggage of starting a new timeline, it also brought back the scary of a motiveless and brutal Michael Myers. Needless to say, it has been a long wait for Kills. But, something that we’ve conditioned ourselves to acknowledge with subsequent viewings is that like Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills has two villains. In 2018, Michael’s doctor wanted to see the killer in the wild and brought Michael and Laurie together. In Kills, Tommy Doyle is the film’s additional villain. His childhood trauma brought on serious anger management issues and debilitating alcoholism. Therefore, at any cost, he wants to do battle with his demons. Even if that cost is stirring up an entire community toward vigilantism that results in the death of an innocent mental heath patient. As Tommy chants throughout the film, Evil Dies Tonight, when Michael disposes of him in a final confrontation, we can sigh a bit of relief. With the death of Tommy Doyle, evil did, indeed, die tonight. Big John and Little John stole the whole damn film with a second and third place going to the return of Lindsey and the continuation of the Halloween III Season of the Witch reference.

Patrick Brice can do no wrong at this point. We’ve championed Brice since our first encounter with Creep at the Telluride Horror Show back in 2014. Here, he has taken the formula of a slasher and wrapped it around a killer’s warped sense of morality. The idea of a slasher’s mask being a 3D printed version of their intended victim’s face is genius. This was a fun murder mystery with fulfilling slasher kills throughout and enough red-herrings to make the guessing game rooted in its Giallo origins.

Original review here. The film was a perfect mix of social commentary, reboot, sequel, fan service, and conversation engagement. This more than makes up for the fact that it didn’t kill any teens on-screen. Nia DaCosta balances the tightrope between remake and sequel with absolute precision. We loved the connections made between 2021 and 1992. In the original Candyman, Helen was punished but was also a white savior. As the story has been handed down, this information is lost as the 90’s had a lot of white saviors in film. DaCosta takes that away as one of it’s first layered connections to the original work. Instead of sparking intelligent conversation, it appeared that DaCosta’s take on Candyman sparked online division. Comments about a film being too-woke, or too much BLM messaging, or a forced single opinion seemed to froth forth from fans of entertainment that apparently hate to be challenged. It was the film’s messaging that made it one of the top horror films of 2021. Birthed into the world at a time it was needed the most.

It may be unfair to clump these films together, but we saw the trilogy as one complete story. We would probably choose 1978 as our favorite installment, but the three work in tandem to create an enormously fun experience. 1994 borrowed from the post-modern slasher, 1978 was heavily coded Friday The 13^th praise, and 1666 had folk horror written all over it. Original reviews: 1994, 1978, and 1666.

No other film last year will challenge you as much as Titane. Through beautiful cinematography, perfect pacing, and awe-inspiring acting you will witness a few What-The-F*** moments that will leave you speechless. Sure, there were other films that had shock value, but none of them required additional viewings. We’d love to one day properly address the themes in this film; however, the magic of the what-the-f***ery is very fresh and should be held onto as long as possible. If you haven’t seen Titane and someone tries to tell you what it’s about, it is okay to slap them in the mouth and walk away. Don’t let anyone try to explain away your experience.

Can Midnight Mass be considered as a 7 ½ hour film? If so, then, it is by far the best film we’ve seen in many years. The monologue-ridden masterwork by Mike Flanagan sparked a lot of debate this year, but for anyone who was moved by the discourse and astonished by the horror, it was everything. A failed novel and failed film made for the best seven episodes in streaming TV history. From the moment Riley Flynn makes his way to Crocket Island, I felt the Stephen King vibes - 'Salem's Lot, Storm Of The Century, Needful Things, and Tommyknockers . There's world building and monologues to enrich each member of the community. The acting is top notch, the story is brilliant, character's with such heavy depth, and a pondering of existential dread is threaded into the fabric of Flanagan's world. Read on here.