My Top 10 Favorite Horror Films 2023

I’m guilty of dragging my feet getting this list out there. I’ve been rather busy this past year and nothing really has changed. In fact, I might be the busiest I’ve been in a long time recently. It also should be noting, like I’ve done in years past, I simply could not see all the movies I wanted to see.

Now it should be pointed out that slashers are my lest favorite subgenre of horror. I didn’t bother with either Thanksgiving or the new Scream flick (yawn!). But I do feel I have a good variety of titles here.

This year I’m going lazy and writing just a list of the films that became my favorites of 2023.

1. Infinity Pool

2. No One Will Save You

3. Talk To Me

4. Cobweb

5. Birth/Rebirth

6. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

7. Evil Dead Rise

8. The Last Voyage of the Demeter

9. When Evil Lurks

10. Knock at the Cabin

Honorable Mentions: The Nun 2, Insidious: The Red Door, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Bury the Bride.

Since I view kaiju movies as science fiction, or even fantasy, I won’t include it on a horror film list. That’s why Godzilla Minus One will be listed as the best science fiction film of the year.

And as for fantasy…

Surprisingly, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves turned out to be a great movie, IMHO.

Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga, Chris Pine plays Edgin, Sophia Lillis plays Doric and Justice Smith plays Simon in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Until next time, this is Charles T. Cochran wishes all a great 2024.

My 10 Favorite Horror Films of 2022 and More

Once again, I will list off my favorite horror films of the year. As usual, I must point out that I have not seen all the horror released in 2022. However, I have seen enough for a top 10 list.

There are also the films that would be on my list if only I viewed them as horror. If I considered Chloe Okuno’s Watcher a horror film, it would be number one. Also, questionable films include Mike Mylod’s The Menu and Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All. These last two are borderline, so I do not have much of an issue with those who view them as horror. This would also include the Predator prequel, Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey. More on it down below.

Then there are the films I truly hate that came out in 2022. I am not sure if I hate Halloween Ends more than Speak No Evil. However, these movies seem to exist mostly to anger me. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin’s and Tyler Gillett’s Scream had good scare scenes; between them the film had no sense of fun like the Craven flicks. For the most part most of the film is boring. Alex Garland has made two of my favorite films in the last few years. His Men, however, seemed unfinished and unsatisfying. It was, for me, the biggest letdown of the year.

Jordan Peele had shown such profound disrespect toward Clive Barker, as well as Bernard Rose, that there will be no way I will ever consume anything from him again. So, it means nope to Nope. I did not see it, and I never will.

Earlier this year, when Ti West’s X was released to theaters, I felt that that was the film which will remain my top horror movie of the year. Then West’s prequel to X, Pearl was released. I struggled with which film I liked better. I concluded that Pearl had more meat to it. However, I still am unsure if I would have liked Pearl as much as I do if I had not seen X first. That is neither here nor there at this point. So, for a few days X was at number two favorite for the year. Then I watched on Shudder, Andrew Seman’s Resurrection. This film about gaslighting gone over the top was amazing. Mia Goth in Pearl has a long monologue that is very gripping. Rebecca Hall in Resurrection also has a long monologue. This monologue is what pushed this film to number two on this list.

As we all know, gaslighting is a trait of narcissism. Narcissistic mothers became a recurring theme within many horror films in 2022. Iris Shim’s Umma was one of them. It was not the most successful of these films by a long shot. It did not make it on this list. It is also not bad enough to make it on the dishonorable list either. Two films, however, very much make my top list. Hanna Bergholm’s Hatching is my favorite of the year which uses this theme. Goran Stolevski’s You Won’t Be Alone is the other. These two films are the best example employed in any films released in 2022, in my opinion.

Stolevski’s film also is a good example of folk horror, which has risen in popularity in recent years. Another one is the werewolf picture, The Cursed. You Won’t Be Alone is a folk horror dealing with witches. The Cursed is one that deals with werewolves. Both films have a take on these two subjects in ways I have not seen before.

Two more movies on my list have problems. They do not kill my enjoyment of them. However, these problems do distract from the films to a degree. The lead character in Scott Derrickson’s adaptation of the Joe Hill story, The Black Phone’s lead character is same age as I was in 1978, the year the film takes place. There was a Puerto Rican family in our neighborhood with a boy my age. He never wore bandanas nor Cheech & Chong shirts. His older brother did not either. Miguel Cazarez Mora who portrays Robin Arellano does a fine job in the film. It is just too bad that they made him dress rather stereotypically. Then there was what was supposed to pass for the Brightmoor area of Detroit. I have been there a few times. I know what it looks like. It does not look like how it is shown in Zach Cregger’s Barbarian.

Since, I do not view neither X nor Pearl as slashers, I guess Terrifier 2 is the only one of those I have on my list. Yes, it is too long. However, the concepts presented within the movie are far too interesting to dismiss the whole thing. It would have scored higher on my list if it was shorter. Art the Clown can be funny. He is also one of the most unnerving characters that I have ever encountered in a flick.

Now here is the list of my Top Favorite Horror Films of 2022:  

1. Pearl

2. Resurrection

3. X

4. Hatching

5. You Won’t Be Alone

6. The Cursed

7. Barbarian

8. The Black Phone

9. Glorious

10 Terrifier 2

Honorable Mentions: The Reef Stalked, Mad God, Smile, Orphan First Kill, Slash/Back, Crimes of the Future.

As for my favorite science fiction film, it would have to be Prey. Even though I consider the first Predator film one of my favorite horror films of the 1980s, I also view it as science fiction and action. This new one is not horror enough to view it as a horror flick.

As for fantasy, this George Miller romantic fantasy, Three Thousand Years of Longing had me charmed to my core.

Well, this it for 2022! Happy New Year to all!–Charles T. Cochran

Top Ten Horror Flicks 2021 and More.

I’m sorry that I’m so late in posting this. Being busy is a drag at times. However, I was VERY busy during October and I did 31 reviews and an unboxing. Excuses, excuses! 

Just looking at the lists for “Best” horror films of 2021 tells me that I had barely scratched the surface on the films released last year. Of course, I say this just about every year; I cannot get to all the horror that came out in any given year. However, this is still a top ten my favorites in horror cinema that I did catch.

Moreover, it should be noted that there are films on other lists that I do not consider horror that I did enjoy. Till Death is one of them. I enjoyed the hell out of this film. However, it is clearly a suspense thriller. Army of the Dead may have zombies all over the place. It is still just an action picture. An excellent action picture to be honest. But, just an action picture.

Then there is the dreck that I sat through: Bad Candy, the Wrong Turn remake, Spiral: the Book of Saw, The Reckoning, and The Unholy. I could not even sit through, Old.

I’m just going to do a list with the pictures below. I do want to note that it was good to see at least two of these films brought some much needed levity to the horror line up.

In order and in descending order.

10. The Night House

9. Howling Village

8. Don’t Breathe 2

7. The Boy Behind the Door

6. Psycho Goreman

5. The Vigil

4. Titane

3. Werewolves Within

2. Jakob’s Wife

1. Antlers

Honorable Mentions: Separation, Halloween Kills,The Djinn, Blood Red Sky, Last Night in Soho.

And we all know what my pick for best superhero film is so I’ll put that aside this time out. I’m still going to recommend an action film. I LOVE Copshop and every chance I get I’ll bring it up. Check it out!

For fantasy film last year, Encanto was wonderful. Great story. I liked all of the songs. That never happens much anymore.

Well, this is hoping for a better year in 2022!–Charles T. Cochran

Have Cheetah,Will View #196 – “The Jurassic Dead” (2017)

I liked this schlocky movie more than the Cheetah and his friend Patrick. However, this review does paint the proper picture for viewers going into this flick.

The Inner Circle

It’s 7:56 pm

I came downstairs to make some coffee and feed the cheetah,as I was prepping the coffee pot,the cheetah came into the kitchen holding a DVD in his jaws. I sort had a feeling with movie he had picked for us to watch and I was right,he had picked out “The Jurassic Dead” aka “Z-Rex” aka “Zombiesaurus”. I dunno why but I had a bad feeling about this one.  Wild Eye Releasing had pleasantly surprised us with “House of Salem”,would “The Jurassic Dead” continue the winning streak?

After all,our very first review was also about crazy dinosaurs and that didn’t turn out so bad so the cheetah and I sat down with high hopes.

I don’t even know where to start with this. I truly don’t. It’s about a mad scientist who has developed a toxic gas that will re-animate the dead and he has brought back a…

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Separation 2021–review

Separation stars Rupert Friend (Hitman: Agent 47) as Jeff, a down on his luck comic book artist whose wife, Maggie (Mamie Gummer, John Carpenter’s The Ward) leaves him and takes their young daughter with her. A nasty divorce ensues with an even nastier child custody battle. It seems that Maggie plans on full custody over their daughter, Jenny (Violet McGraw, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House). In addition, she and Jenny will be moving far away. This turns out to be a good domestic drama. If it stayed on this course, I would have still liked the film as is. However, this is a horror film and things have to get dark.

At one point, Maggie is killed in a hit and run “accident” and things start to change in the narrative. Jenny starts acting younger than she is, referring to herself in the third person as “Baby”. Jeff starts having nightmares and even visions of his eerie comic book creations coming to life. On the other hand, Jenny sees a figure in real life. Jeff believes this figure is an imaginary friend and tells his daughter not to be afraid of it. In time, Jenny starts to refer to this thing as her mother. It takes some time for Jeff to accept this and not view it as part of Jenny’s coping mechanism to help with the loss of her mother. In the meantime, Maggie’s father (Brian Cox, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) is trying to find out the truth about the death of his daughter. Most of this is kept off-screen and brought back near the end of the film to good effect.

I do not think I have ever seen Friend in anything. He carries this film very well. Jeff is a man/child and you can understand why Maggie is so frustrated with him. Though I am sure that Gummer would have been great if the character had more screen time. It is just that we see mostly her being sweet with her daughter and fuming mad at Jeff. We get that also from Cox’s character, Rivers. Yet, with more screen time, he gets more depth to his character. As Jeff’s character becomes increasingly more mature, Cox becomes much more accepting of him. Violet McGraw is a great find. She has loads of charm. In addition, she and Friend have great chemistry as father and daughter.

Director, William Brent Bell may be best known for that silly doll movie, The Boy, and its sequel (which I passed on), I have hope he is on the right track. He does a great job of building suspense and scares. The pacing, for the most part, is spot-on. I did feel that the second act wanted to linger longer than needed. Nevertheless, that is a rather small quibble. The one small problem I have with this flick is the last scare. It is one of those things that filmmakers like to place at the end of such films to tell the audience that the danger is still around. In this film—and many more—we all know that is BS. It is not one of my favorite movie trends.

In conclusion, this is a solid horror flick, with some great drama and some good scares.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5

Two Small Reviews For Two Big Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong

Adam Wingard (You’re Next) has made the best American Godzilla film. Godzilla vs. Kong is one of those films that gets better and better as it goes along. A little slow in the beginning. But when it really gets started it puts cool on top of cool. There is one character that was meant as comic relief, but he’s mostly annoying. However, he goes from being a relatively big quibble to a much smaller one as the great stuff increases, dwarfing him into nothing. And the great stuff isn’t just the fights and other action set-pieces; there’s some delightful surprises they served up for us all.–Charles T. Cochran

Rating: 4 and a half stars out of 5

Raya and the Last Dragon

I knew nothing about this film before sitting down in my local IMAX theater. I’ve been enjoying movies with Awkwafina recently and I was happy to see that she plays the dragon in this. This is a light breezy adventure story with a lot of heart. It also has an infant street gang leader  of three primate things who provide much of the humor. Great character design and rendering; fight scenes are some of the best I’ve seen in a movie in a long time–bloodless, of course. I had far too much fun with this one.–Charles T. Cochran

Rating: 4 and a half stars out of 5

Tower of London (1939)–A Horror-Related Review

Being a big Boris Karloff fan–let’s not forget Basil Rathbone–since childhood, I’ve always wanted to see this film. I finally got to see it a couple days ago, and I’m very impressed. This comes off as more like a 1939 version of Game of Thorns than horror. However, I’ve always felt that TV show was much like a Hammer Studios film turned up to 11. There’s treachery, murder, torture, and bad hair cuts. I was delighted to see Vincent Price in the film. I didn’t know he was in it. His character was different from anything I’ve seen him do before; he’s a cowardly, whiny drunk. All the performances are top notch, though Barbara O’Neil as the queen over does much of her screen time. Even though this is a costumed historical drama, it’s grim enough for the horror fans who are interested in seeing this film.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Favorite Horror Films 2020

Goodbye, so long, good riddance to 2020. With all the other stuff screwing up everybody’s lives, I was legally blind in my right eye for most of the year due to a diabetic induced cataract. Surgery was pushed back due to Covid-19. However, my surgery did happen and I’m seeing a lot better. 

On to the main topic. Movies. Horror movies to be exact.

Much like last year I have to state that there are far too many of these films released each year  for me to see them all. So, this is a list of favorites of the ones I’ve been able to see in 2020. This year made it hard for me to have a clear view of things; such as, being cognizant of what I was seeing and their place in my mind. This was true, until I began to think about what my favorites could be for 2020. Things took form and I easily was able to put together a solid top ten list. A couple films on the list I was lucky enough to catch in the last week of the year. 

Aside from maybe the first three films, the remaining list does not have an order. And, I’m feeling a little lazy, so this is just a list. 

Side note: no matter what people tell you, both Come To Daddy and Swallow are not horror films. Great stuff, to be sure. However, not horror.

Color Out of Space

The Lodge

Hunter Hunter

The Dark and the Wicked

Host

The Invisible Man

Virarium

Blood Quantum

Freaky

Scare Package

Honorable mentions: Teacher Shortage, The Pale Door, Spiral, Possessor: Uncut, The Shed

I’m going to forego my usual habit of picking a fantasy, superhero, or science fiction film here. The list above will have to do.

Happy New Year!!!

–Charles T. Cochran

Top Horror Favorites 2019 w/Other Stuff

Firstly, unlike Fangoria’s Tony Timpone, I will not be listing Joker as a horror film. However, I do understand what he’s getting at as he describes that film in that way. If I did, it still would not be placed as my number one pick for favorite horror movie of 2019.

 

It would be in the top ten, though.

 

Nevertheless, it is not a horror film.

 

This year was going to be special. We had releases by three newly crowned Kings of the Horror Directors: Jordan Peele’s Us, Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, and Ari Aster’s Midsommar. None of which I liked. In fact, I hated Aster’s film so much I doubt I will ever bother with any of his upcoming work. Yes, I liked his Hereditary. However, I found it rather overrated at the same time. As for Us, it just seemed like a film made for film nerds like me. Those of us that like to take apart a film to see how it works. Get Out has that element as well. Unlike this film, it was also interested in entertaining its audience. Much like Peele’s Us, I did not hate The Lighthouse. It is mostly just too damn long for a movie about two guys yelling at each other. I loved both Get Out and The Witch The Witch, so both directors are still of interest to me.

 

As usual, I have come to find that there is just too many films each year to get myself in front of to watch. This has become clearer than ever since I started watching Myron Hladyniuk of Happy Wax TV (here is his favorites of the year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQIeuIEnNhw). This person sees a lot of horror and science fiction films throughout the year. He is one of the better Youtubers doing reviews for films of interest to me. As for me, I see but a faction of the stuff he has his eyes scoping out.

 

Therefore, even though there is many other films I would love to check out before making this list of favorite horror flicks of 2019, I have decided it would be best if I just cut it off where I left off. Below is my Top Ten Favorite Horror Films of 2019.

 

10. Nightmare Cinema

Directors, Mick Garris and Joe Dante gather three other filmmakers (Alejandro Brugués, Ryūhei Kitamura, and David Slade) to helm one of the better anthology horror flicks to come out in recent years. We get a descent into madness, plastic surgery run amok, demon possession, and a slasher with a twist that makes it something completely different. My favorite segment is David Slade’s ‘This Way to Egress’. It has the feeling of David Lynch directing an episode of the original Twilight Zone series.

 

9. Rabid

I have not been a fan of Sylvia & Jen Soska’s work. To be honest, American Mary was just OK, in my opinion. However, I have been rooting for them. They are clearly horror fans. Moreover, since the original Cronenberg film is one of the rare films that he has done that I do not like, I was hoping for them to make a version that I can like. Therefore, now, there is a Soska Sisters film and a film called Rabid that I am a fan of. There is just a hint of Cronenberg’s version here. It is to a point where you could view it as an original film, albeit a work inspired by his films. Laura Vandervoort does an excellent job in the lead role. In addition, Mackenzie Gray, who plays her fashion designer boss, is a standout. I actually thought he was German with his spot-on imitation of Werner Herzog.

 

8. Pet Sematary

This is a case of being too close to the novel when the first film was made and not liking that version. Because I have not watched the original adaptation in many years, I cannot really say what made me dislike Mary Lambert’s film. However, I am not a fan. With distance and some nice alterations, this version really did it for me.

 

7. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

For years, I have been aware of the book. Or books. I’m not even sure. I have always found the illustrations interesting. To be clear, I went into this pretty blind. I am a bit of a sucker for the spookier supernatural type of films. This film fits right into that category rather well. With André Øvredal’s direction and, cinematographer, Roman Osin photography (both known for The Autopsy of Jane Doe) the mood and the look of the film is as good as it gets.

 

6. Daniel Isn’t Real 

Have you ever wondered what it may look like if 1991’s kid flick Drop Dead Fred was done as a brutal psychological horror flick? Well, here you go!

 

5. Ready or Not

It is as if Agatha Christie on acid decided to write her own version of The Most Dangerous Game. This film is brutal, suspenseful, and loads of fun.

 

4. Piercing

If The Eyes of My Mother was a bigger deal like Get Out, Hereditary, or, The Witch, Nicolas Pesce might have been added to the list of directors above. There is one difference: I actually really liked this film about a man who plans to hire a call girl so he can kill her, but does not expect that she just might be far more dangerous than he is. Ryû Murakami, who also wrote the book in which Takashi Miike’s Audition is based upon, wrote the novel in which this film is based on.

 

3. The Perfection

I think this is the only Netflix film on this list. I had two Stephen King Netflix adaptation on my list from 2018. As for this film, well, it is so inventive and strange that I find it impossible to describe here. I know it is never what you think it is at any given moment. It also has one of the best endings of any film I have seen in a very long time.

 

2. Depraved 

Chances are I am a sucker for Larry Fessenden films. The Last Winter is still my favorite of his films, but Depraved is a close second. Fessenden films are usually adult, intelligent, and filled with heart. This modern take on Frankenstein is no different.

 

1. Tigers Are Not Afraid

Talking about a film with heart? Here you go. This dark fairy tale features kids living on the streets of a Mexican city who have to deal with the drug cartel who runs the city and the ghosts of their victims. It would be proper to feature this and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth on a double-bill. They are both Spanish language films that weave great and moving horror stories with brutality and magic.

 

This is the usually the space I reserve to tell you what my favorite superhero film is for the year. I have to be honest; I am kind of sick of superhero films. Therefore, I will replace that kind of film with a science fiction movie instead. Aniara is a Swedish science fiction film from 2018, but was released in North America in 2019. Earth is becoming increasingly uninhabitable and a large ship called, Aniara is sent to Mars to set up a colony. Some man-made space debris hits the ship and pushes it off course. Unable to go back on course the ship travels around as society eventually breaks down.

 

As for my favorite fantasy film, this year I would have to go with Abominable. It is a fun adventure story with good characters and stunning visuals.

 

–Charles T. Cochran

 

 

 

3 Short Horror Film Reviews

Sorry, but these aren’t in depth looks at these films. These are just quick thoughts on three films that I was looking forward to this year.

 

Doctor Sleep

First off, they could not have found a better young actress to play Abra. Kyliegh Curran is perfect in the role, notwithstanding the racial change in her character. It’s like she jumped out of the book and onto the screen. Rebecca Ferguson is also impressive as Rose the Hat. Changes were made from the book that I could understand and some were rather questionable. But, I was willing to go along with it all. But, there’s a but. That ending killed it for me. That change was FAR too much for me. My guess is, if I hadn’t read the book it all would’ve been just fine with it. In fact, I liked it until that ending. And I didn’t really like the book that much. I would give the book a 3 out of 5. This film gets a lower rating. Rating: one and half stars

 

The Lighthouse

I think I would have liked it if it wasn’t so repetitious. There’s a lot of arguing. Lots. Not much story dynamics with only two characters. This film is nearly two hours long. There’s an actor from a flashback and an actress playing a mermaid, but I can’t count them; they’re just images, really. If there was about fifteen minutes cut out of it to tighten it up then I’m sure I would’ve liked it. Rating: 2 stars

 

Midsommar

I knew where the story was headed before it was even in theaters. That’s not a problem for me as long as the events leading up to the story points are interesting. But, I found this mostly tedious. What we get is beautiful photography and next to no character development. Rating: 1 star

–Charles T. Cochran