So, it’s been a year since we did one of these lists and I have been head-down watching all the movies I could get my chubby paws on. Did I miss anything? What’s that? A global pandemic? Ugh, see you guys in 2022… In the meantime, here are, in very particular order, the top 10 horror films of 2020. Suck it, you garbage year.
10. Color Out of Space
It may be a tradition at this point to have an oddball Nicholas Cage-starring movie on my list, but when you couple him with fellow oddball Richard Stanley and adapt a tricky Lovecraft story into something weird and trippy and slimy, well you have my attention. Stanley is, of course, the director who was famously kicked off the Marlon Brando version of Island of Dr. Moreau, and he returns to feature filmmaking with help. The folks at Spectrevision, namely Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh Waller, have already promised more from this collaboration, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Stanley has his roots in 80s and 90s filmmaking, and Color Out of Space feels more like a Stuart Gordon movie than most Stuart Gordon movies. It’s full of purples and pinks and reds, iridescent plants glowing and wavering, bodies melting and oozing and, threaded through it all, a sense that nothing will ever be quite right again. Cage’s performance begin subdued, but it’s not long before he’s channeling his inner Trump and getting delightfully bonkers with the role, while bit by bit the world, affected by some object from space warping the land and everything on it, becomes something foreign and beautiful and dangerous. Color Out of Space is strange and offbeat and all the things I want a psychedelic creature feature to be. There’s more than a whiff of camp, if that isn’t your thing, but that light touch belies a deeper pessimism in the movie that’s more haunting than I first gave it credit for.
9. His House
The one thing you can say for the rise of conservative politics in America and the UK, among other places of course, is that it inspires some amazing art. His House, a Netflix premiere, is the tale of Bol and Rial who have arrived in England as refugees from South Sudan. When they are fortunate enough to be placed in a home in an English neighborhood, they do their best to assimilate and start a new life for themselves. But there’s something else in the house, too, a force that will not allow the past to be forgotten. In a series of revealing flashbacks, we come to understand more of this family’s past and the true cost of escaping a country as it rips itself apart. There’s commentary about how the English neighbors and administration, as made flesh by Dr. Who’s Matt Smith, see and treat our characters, but the real threat comes from within. His House isn’t so lazy as to be just a movie about overcoming stereotypes. It’s about the wages of survival and the compromises we make with ourselves to sleep through the night. Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku, who Duncan and I fell in love with during our Lovecraft Country recaps, deliver a pair of powerful performances. Also, this may be the only movie on this list to deliver a jump scare that took me out of my seat this year. Oh, yeah, it’s a great ghost story, too.
8. Spiral
Shudder continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. While the very fine Impetigore didn’t show up on my top ten, Shudder’s commitment to bringing premiere horror to their service is making me real happy about spending that $5 a month. Spiral is another on the list of exclusive movies that deserve to be seen. Set in 1995, Spiral sees a same-sex couple moving into a neighborhood that, superficially, is welcoming of their new additions, despite their “lifestyle.” Ari Cohen is Aaron, who brings along his daughter, Kayla, played by Jennifer Laporte. With Aaron’s partner Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman), they intend to forge a life for themselves, but soon Malik spots some strange behavior from the neighbors. Like the way they all gather in a circle and sway, and there’s that weird book with no name on the spine, just a spiral shape. The formula isn’t entirely new here, we certainly have a long history in horror of a family moving into a community that may not be what they seem, but what makes Spiral special isn’t just the fact that we are substituting a gay couple for a straight one, it’s the manner in which the movie reveals how minority groups are casually dismissed by the majority culture. I won’t spoil how Spiral resolves itself, but it’s in the last moments that the film becomes something more transcendent, a call to continue to fight for the values we believe in and to hand the torch to those who come after. Progress, Spiral says, is slow and painful, but we must fight nonetheless, and hope that those who follow may stand on our shoulders.
7. Possessor
Comparisons between Brandon Cronenberg and his father David are inevitable, especially when the son plays in the same psychological minefields as his father. With Antiviral, Brandon Cronenberg’s first feature, he proved that he could be as weird and sterile and provocative as the elder Cronenberg’s work. With Possessor, The younger Cronenberg also shows he has some chops of his own, delivering a movie that is borderline experimental. This is absolutely arthouse cinema, but that is no bad word here. I fully acknowledge Possessor may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is a grueling film if you can tap into its wavelength. The story is fairly simple: A woman played by Andrea Riseborough serves as a sort of psychic hitman, downloading her consciousness into hapless citizens to perform corporate espionage and assassinations, then retreat back into her own body with the aid of her boss, played by the always-welcome Jennifer Jason-leigh. Things go sideways when her attempts to bounce out of her latest corporeal rental fail and she is in a battle of identities with her host. With a hint of psychedelia, Possessor takes aim at the idea of corporate culture and its appetite for its human workforce. While I feel Possessor has an antiseptic and distant quality that never hooks me emotionally, the thematic critique of capitalism is the kind of punk rock horror I can get behind. Intensely weird and sporadically very graphic, Possessor doesn’t play nice, but then again neither do corporations.
6. The Invisible Man
By far the most mainstream entry this year is one of the most surprising, too. When Universal announced it’s Dark Universe way back in 2017, they fumbled the ball with overwrought action movies that somehow forgot to be horror movies, not to mention good movies. If this effort from Saw creator Leigh Whannell is any indication, the course has been corrected. Elizabeth Moss, one of the finest actors of this generation, fronts this reimagining where the adult Luke from The Haunting of Hill House is such a beast of a man, Elizabeth Moss flees for her life. This loss forces her husband to take his own life, or so it would seem. What follows is as much a tale about women being believed as it is about the invisible threat stalking Moss. Worth repeating, Elizabeth Moss is stunning in this movie, and The Invisible Man is worth seeing for her alone. I’m a believer in voting with the dollar, so please rent or buy this movie to encourage studios to take these kinds of chances with the properties. This is without question a horror film, but one in the tradition of Get Out, where social issues are being tackled with a deft touch and an eye toward story over message. Turns out, when the story and characters and performances are this good, it makes that message all the clearer and more resonant.
5. Hunter Hunter
Hunter Hunter is a little messy. Its themes aren’t easily resolved or charted, it doesn’t go out of its way to make its intentions clear, and that can be off-putting to some. But wrestling with vague ideas of man’s intrusion into the wilds and how the feminine is viewed in this environment made up of predators and prey is my idea of a good time. Especially when you back it up with a twisting tale of a family living on the bleeding edge of civilization and their encounter with a rogue wolf, and something else far more dangerous. Familiar face to horror fans Devon Sawa shows up as as Mersault, the patriarch of this family of three, rounded out by Anne, the mother played spectacularly by Camille Sullivan, and Renee, the daughter as played by Summer H. Howell, who is also terrific. There is a laundry list of things I love in this movie. The remote and beautiful setting, the woodsman expert embodied by Devon Sawa’s character, eager to impart his wisdom about what scat smells like what animal to his daughter, the subtle exposition of this family’s rough and tumble life… There is a clash of cultures as their frontier-style existence is threatened by the intrusion of civilization, represented by a very creepy Nick Stahl, and there is a powerful ending that ranks among the year’s best “what in the ever livin’ hell?!” moments. While I think Hunter Hunter buries some of its meaning in obfuscation, there isn’t a single minute of the movie I’m not captivated and/or horrified by. I love love love this movie.
4. Spontaneous
I am becoming a Brian Duffield fan in a big, bad way. He has not one but two movies that fell into runner-up status on this list, Underwater and Love and Monsters, but while the rest of the world has been a mess, Brian Duffield managed to get three movies out this year that he penned It was this one, Spontaneous, that he chose to direct, and I think he scored big. While never once stringing the words “school shooting” together, Spontaneous is all about how to live one’s life in a world where sudden and unexplainable violence is the norm. How do you reconcile love and trust when the people you care about could explode into a column of red mush any second? That’s the question at the heart of the film, and Mara, our heroine played to perfection by Katherine Langford, is up to the challenge of this existential riddle. Mara is acerbic and funny and frustrated and broken and hopeless and joyous, an emotional role and performance that is so winning, I can’t help but love this film. Her amour Dylan is played by The Clovehitch Killer’s Charlie Plummer in a similarly charming role, and their romance is honest and warm in a way you rarely see in a film like this. I found myself laughing in between jaw drops and a couple of tears. It’s smart, honest, sarcastic, and gleefully bloody at times. Maybe the movie I’ve recommended most this year, and I’m happy to do so again. See Spontaneous. You’ll thank me later.
3. The Wolf of Snow Hollow
Jim Cummings has clearly taken to heart the idea that if you want to make it in show business, you make your own projects and cast yourself. In his second feature film outing, the first being the dramatic Thunder Road, Cummings pivots to horror and delivers a terrific movie that has so much going on under the surface, I almost forget this is a werewolf movie. Or is it? That’s the big question underlying the movie’s plot, as the peaceful and picturesque town of Snow Hollow is plagued by the vicious murders of women on each full moon. The women are torn apart, in some cases missing pieces of their anatomy, which is way beyond anything this sleepy town’s police department is used to. While gossip rages through the town, we bear witness to a family drama playing out between Jim Cummings’ John Marshall, who lives in the shadow of his aging sheriff father, played wonderfully by the late Robert Forster. Cummings’ character is plagued by inept underlings, a deputy who is better at just about everything than him, played with a subtle perfection by Riki Lindhome, and his by-the-fingernails sobriety as Cummings also struggles with alcoholism and anger issues. It’s a tough balance to make a character like John Marshall likable, and maybe he never quite gets there, but Marshall is understandable. He’s a guy who is getting by, but just barely, and all this killer werewolf business is pushing him into some dark corners of his own psyche. There are some threads showing in this relatively low-budget affair, but the emotional high wire act it pulls off is terrific, and did I mention how damn funny this movie is?
2. The Hunt
The Hunt appeared in cinemas this year just as the world was shutting down. Nonetheless, it garnered a lot of early criticism for its premise, much of it hurled by people who hadn’t seen the movie but were triggered by the very idea of it. So what is The Hunt about? A text chain between well-to-do liberal types goes public. The content is, unfortunately, a joke about hunting die-hard MAGA types on an estate for sport. And, sure enough, that’s just what happens. But director Craig Zobel, who is perhaps best known for doing a film adaptation of Z for Zachariah, is up to more than a simple critique of one side’s politics versus another. Along with writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof, Zobel is digging beneath the argument to critique the existence of that argument. Some have read this is cowardice in not picking a side, but that’s precisely the point of the movie. This is a movie about the radicalization of politics and the inability of either side to communicate in a meaningful way with the other. It is, in fact, a movie about listening and understanding. But make no mistake, while the underlying message is important, watching The Hunt isn’t some college lecture about political compromise. It’s a wild, raucous, gory romp with an ascendant Betty Gilpin in the lead. Saying an actor is a revelation is cliché, but boy is it true here. Gilpin is feisty, joyous, and multi-dimensional. Also, that last fight scene is wild fun. There may be better horror movies this year, but there isn’t one I had more fun with than The Hunt.
- Relic
First-time feature director Natalie Ericka James may never make another feature film, and she’d still be lauded as one of the finest horror directors of the year, if not the decade. What she has managed to do with Relic is nothing short of remarkable. Countless filmmakers have attempted to take real-world horrors and create analogous, if fantastical, interpretations with nowhere near this kind of success. Using an incredible cast including Emily Mortimer as Kay, her onscreen mother Edna, played by Robyn Nevin, and daughter Sam, a very good Bella Heathcote, James crafts a story that is visually resonant and occasionally very unsettling. But what makes Relic my favorite film of the year is the aftershocks that accompany the viewing. For days, you may find yourself haunted by the final moments of the film. Obviously, I don’t want to spoil these final images, suffice to say, Relic is all about the nightmare of dementia, and the lingering horror of its hereditary nature. No monster could be more terrifying than the knowledge that the disease you see in your parents and grandparents is yours, too, and it’s only a matter of time before it comes for you. Relic’s terror is both well-observed and unstoppable, and the inevitability of our own genetic land mines is more than enough to keep me up at night. This, folks, is essential horror viewing and a modern masterpiece.
There you have it! Go forth and watch some great movies, and drop me a line over on our Facebook group or by email (bo@legionpodcasts.com) and let me know what you thought. Be kind to everyone you meet and have a great 2021!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download