Best New Horror 29

by Stephen Jones

  Both on and off the screen, movies in 2017 were defined by their women and the emerging #MeToo movement. For the first time since 1958, the top three highest-grossing US releases featured female leads Daisy Ridley in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast, and Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman.

  Meanwhile, Andy Muschietti’s It, a perfectly serviceable remake of the 1990 TV movie based on the 1986 novel by Stephen King, inexplicably became the most successful horror movie of all time (with a record-breaking $117 million opening weekend in the US), surpassing The Exorcist’s lifetime domestic gross of $232.9 million. A horror film for the Stranger Things generation, Bill Skarsgård starred as Pennywise, the demonic shape-shifting clown preying on the children of Derry, Maine, during the summer of 1989.

  In September, Warner Bros. and Wild Creations teamed up to create “The Pennyplex” interactive immersive experience in a South London cinema for those people who wanted more out of their film-going experience of It.

  The latest attempt to reboot the Universal Monsters franchise, as part of a larger “Dark Universe” concept (along the same lines as Marvel’s The Avengers team-ups), unfortunately floundered from the outset. Tellingly, the studio slapped a global review embargo on The Mummy, which starred a miscast Tom Cruise as a smug soldier of fortune who found himself under the influence of evil ancient Egyptian Priestess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella). Russell Crowe turned up as a pompous Dr. Henry Jekyll.

  Director Alex Kurtzman’s flashy visuals accentuated the adventure aspects over the horror, and the multi-authored screenplay blatantly borrowed from many other much better movies. As a result of disappointing box-office returns (a terrible $32.2 million opening in the US) and poor reviews, the studio quickly pulled the plug on its planned “Dark Universe” series, resulting in the cancellation of Bill Condon’s Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man starring Johnny Depp, and yet another misguided remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon.

  We didn’t need it anyway. Set at the height of the Cold War in 1962, The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s love-letter to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, found Sally Hawkins’ mute cleaner falling in love with a captured Gill Man (Doug Jones) being held prisoner at the secret government facility where she worked. The terrific supporting cast included Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, David Hewlett, Nigel Bennett and John Kapelos. The movie received the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

  Set in 1973 for no apparent reason, story and characterisation took a backseat to the impressive CGI effects in Kong: Skull Island, in which a team of scientists (including Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and John Goodman) investigated the titular Pacific atoll and discovered a gigantic ape and some nasty, reptilian “Skullcrawlers”. The real villain was Samuel L. Jackson’s over-the-top army colonel. The ending hinted at a forthcoming match-up between Kong, Godzilla and a bunch of other members of the kaijū “MonsterVerse”.

  It’s doubtful that anyone was crying out for a remake of the 1990 Joel Schumacher movie, but Sweden’s Niels Arden Oplev gave us Flatliners anyway, in which Ellen Page’s manipulative doctor and a group of medical students (Nina Dobrev, Diego Luna and James Norton) experimented with near-death experiences to get a glimpse of the afterlife. Kiefer Sutherland returned from the original film, but as a different character.

  Rupert Sanders’ Ghost in the Shell was a flashy, live-action version of the cult manga comic and anime movies, although Scarlett Johansson’s casting as a near-future, cyber-enhanced spy, predictably resulted in accusations of “whitewashing”.

  Dean Israelite’s Power Rangers was yet another movie reboot of the 1990s TV series, as five high school misfits were given special powers by a buried spaceship. Bryan Cranston played the teenagers’ mentor Zordon, while Elizabeth Banks camped it up as the evil Rita Repulsa.

  Emma Watson’s Belle fell in love with Dan Stevens’ majestic motion-captured Beast in Bill Condon’s live-action remake of Walt Disney Pictures’ animated musical Beauty and the Beast. A box-office smash, the classy supporting cast included Kevin Kline, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci.

  Set three years into the American Civil War, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning starred in The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola’s more gentle remake of Don Siegal’s 1971 Southern Gothic that starred Clint Eastwood. For the new version, Colin Farrell played the unfortunate Union soldier who took refuge in a delapidated girls’ school.

  Predictably, Rian Johnson’s overblown eighth episode, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was the most successful movie of the year, as a grumpy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) returned to help his sister Leia (the late Carrie Fisher in a poignant cameo) and her rebel forces escape the fascist First Order. Despite Kelly Marie Tran’s annoying resistance fighter, at least it was a lot better than Rogue One, and there was solid support from Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, Frank Oz and Adrian Edmondson.

  With a $220 million North American opening and $36.7 million in the UK, The Last Jedi took an impressive $450 million worldwide in its first weekend—the fifth highest of all time—and went on to gross more than $620 million in the USA and earn a cumulative $1.332 billion throughout the world.

  Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant was certainly better than its lugubrious predecessor, Prometheus. This time audiences got a full-on Alien movie, as Billy Crudup’s colony spaceship captain took a detour to investigate a mysterious signal and the crew ended up fighting for survival on an uncharted planet. However, despite the terrific visuals, fans of the series had seen it all before.

  London’s Madame Tussauds opened an immersive adventure game in July entitled Alien: Escape. Based on the movie franchise, visitors found themselves trapped on the colony spacecraft USCSS Covenant overrun by various aliens, from face-huggers to a fully-grown xenomorph.

  Coming thirty-five years after Ridley Scott’s original, Denis Villeneuve’s belated sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was actually much better than expected, as Ryan Gosling’s LAPD blade runner uncovered a monumental secret that led him to the reclusive Rick Deckard (a returning Harrison Ford). The impressive supporting cast featured Robin Wright and Jared Leto, along with Edward James Olmos and Sean Young from the earlier movie. However, the movie’s poor opening weekend ($31.5 million) was blamed by Hollywood analysts on a lack of appeal amongst women and younger audiences.

  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (aka Pirates of the Caribbean: Salaza’s Revenge), the fifth entry in the Disney series, was also a definite improvement over the previous entry (On Stranger Tides), as Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow searched for the legendary Trident of Poseidon while being pursued by Javier Bardem’s undead sea captain and his ghostly crew. It even included a trio of zombie sharks! Series regulars Geoffrey Rush, Kevin McNally, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley were joined by Sir Paul McCartney and Bruce Spence.

  Andy Serkis’ motion-captured Caesar was back for Matt Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes, the fourth in the rebooted franchise that actually began with Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, as the simian leader squared off against Woody Harrelson’s power-mad Colonel. Although it opened at #1 in the US, the initial weekend gross was below that of the previous entry, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), which was set two years earlier.

  Although Steven S. DeKnight’s Pacific Rim: Uprising was an unnecessary sequel to producer Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 original, it benefitted from a likeable young cast as John Boyega played the son of Idris Elba’s character, who led a new team of big CGI battle-bots into kicking the shit out of another kaijū incursion.

  A slumming Anthony Hopkins added some much-needed class to Michael Bay’s bombastic Transformers: The Last Knight, the Arthurian-themed fifth entry in the franchise based on a line of Hasbro toys.

  New Zealand director Taika Waititi decided to inject some much-needed fun into the all-so-serious Marvel universe with Thor: Ragnarok, probably the best superhero movie of 2017.

  The eponym
ous God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth, who actually looked like he was enjoying himself for a change) found himself battling his older sister Hela, the Goddess of Death (the wonderful Cate Blanchett, camping it up) with a little help from Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Idris Elba’s Heimdall, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, Anthony Hopkins’ Odin, Mark Ruffalo’s The Hulk, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange and Jeff Goldblum’s Grand-master. The director turned up as a likeable motion-capture rock creature named Korg, and there were a number of surprise cameos.

  The movie grossed an impressive $121 million during its US opening weekend, which was around 42% higher than Marvel’s Doctor Strange took during the same period the previous year.

  Despite not being quite as much fun as its 2014 predecessor, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 found the motley crew of reluctant space heroes helping Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) to bond with his omnipotent father (Kurt Russell). Sylvester Stallone and Michael Rooker also turned up, along with cameos by Rob Zombie, Stan Lee, David Hasselhoff, Gregg Henry, Ving Rhames, Michelle Yeoh, an uncredited Jeff Goldblum, and Seth Green as the voice of Howard the Duck. It also had no less than four teaser trailers at the end!

  Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart brought a surprising amount of depth and pathos to their apparently final outings as an aging Wolverine and a dying Professor X, respectively, in James Mangold’s thoughtful superhero movie Logan, which was set in a futuristic version of Marvel’s X-Men universe. The movie debuted to an impressive $88.4 million at the US box-office, and it was subsequently re-released in a moody black and white version known as Logan Noir, which was also included on the Blu-ray release.

  Having taken over the role in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Tom Holland’s baby-faced webslinger finally got his own movie with Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Homecoming, as he faced Michael Keaton’s bluecollar villain, the Vulture. Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts and Chris Evans’ Captain America all showed up to firmly tie it into The Avengers universe. It was still a box-office hit, despite dropping more than 60% during its second weekend of release in America.

  Gal Godot was the best thing about the overpraised Wonder Woman. As DC’s Amazonian heroine, she was the heart and soul of director Patty Jenkins’ 1940s origin story, and she acted rings around Chris Pine’s dumb hero and David Thewlis’ pantomime villain. Marvel’s Agent Carter still did it better though.

  A movie that could have done with a lot more fun was Zack Snyder’s bloated Justice League, based on the DC comics franchise. Attempting—and failing spectacularly—to match the success of Marvel’s The Avengers blockbuster movie franchise, the movie re-united Ben Afflick’s grumpy Batman, Henry Cavill’s Superman and Gadot’s Wonder Woman with fellow DC heroes The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) in a battle with CGI alien villain Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciarán Hinds). Inspired by Geoff Johns’ 2011 reboot of the comic series, it reputedly cost $300 million to make but grossed less than that in the US.

  A series of murders pointed to the long-dead John Kramer (Tobin Bell) in Jigsaw, Peter and Michael Spierig’s cynical and unnecessary attempt to reboot the Saw franchise for a new generation. Made for around $10 million, the eighth film in the series opened at #1 with a below-expectation $16.3 million during the worst October US box-office since 2007.

  Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s Leatherface was an uneccessary prequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). It featured Stephen Dorff as a vengeful sheriff on the trail of a trio of Texas asylum escapees.

  Jennifer Jason Leigh’s single mother moved her comotose son into the infamous haunted house in the beleaguered Weinstein Company’s Amityville: The Awakening, a much-delayed meta-reboot of the franchise that was cut by thirteen minutes to achieve a PG-13 rating and earned just $742.00 after playing a Saturday-only engagement on only ten screens in America. It quickly ended up on Blu-ray and DVD from Dimension Films.

  Matilda Lutz and Alex Roe were the young couple who watched a cursed videotape in the unnecessary and also much delayed franchise reboot Rings, which featured Johnny Galecki and Vincent D’Onofrio. Meanwhile, Kôji Shiraishi’s Sadako vs. Kayako pitched the vengeful spirits of The Ring and The Grudge series against each other.

  Matthew Vaughn’s lazy sci-spy sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle revived Colin Firth’s supposedly dead agent Harry Hart and added Julianne Moore’s demented drug-dealer. The supporting cast included Mark Strong, Michael Gambon, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Bruce Greenwood, Emily Watson and Elton John as himself.

  Possibly even better than the 2014 original, Paul King’s Paddington 2 once again featured the CGI-created bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) and his adopted family (including Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins) getting involved with more mayhem with support from Julie Walters, Ben Miller, Jessica Hynes, Jim Broadbent, Tom Conti, Peter Capaldi, Brendan Gleeson, Joanna Lumley and a terrific Hugh Grant. There was even a sly homage to one of Vincent Price’s best films! More than two decades after the Robin Williams original, the entertaining Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was described by its makers as a “continuation”, as four high school kids were sucked into the titular videogame and found themselves inhabiting the bodies of Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Karen Gillan and Kevin’s Hart’s avatars.

  And then there was Tyler Perry’s dire Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, the ninth movie in the low budget comedy franchise. It was cut for a PG-13 rating.

  Jessica Roth’s college student was trapped in a time-loop where she had to relive the day of her murder over and over again until she could discover the identity of her baby-masked killer in Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day, an inventive horror twist on Groundhog Day. The original ending had to be re-shot after test screenings.

  Ry Ruso-Young’s Before I Fall, based on the YA novel by Lauren Oliver, had a similar theme as Zoey Deutch’s seemingly perfect teenager relived her last day over and over again and learned to be a better person, and a teenage girl (Joey King) found a magical Chinese box that granted seven wishes—at a price—in the PG-13 Wish Upon, which also featured Ryan Phillippe, Sherilyn Fenn and an uncredited Jerry O’Connell.

  Daniel Kaluuya’s African-American suitor wished he’d never met his white girlfriend’s wealthy, seemingly liberal parents (Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford) in comedian-turned-film-maker Jordan Peele’s low budget debut Get Out, which became a surprise box-office smash.

  The creepy doll from Warner Bros.’s now-franchised “The Conjuring universe” got its second stand-alone feature with David F. Sandberg’s prequel Annabelle: Creation, which told how a girl’s orphanage run by a married couple (Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto) was terrorised by their late daughter’s demonic plaything.

  It was announced that movies set in The Conjuring “universe” reached the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box-office as, in July, Warner Bros. opened a pop-up immersive haunted house attraction for two days in east London, inspired by the movie. The purpose-built Victorian mansion was filled with props from Annabelle: Creation.

  When the eponymous religious teenager (Eili Harboe) suppressed her feelings for a female classmate (Kaya Wilkins), it triggered her psychokinetic powers in Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s art house horror Thelma.

  Seeking revenge for the death of his father, a sixteen-year-old boy (Barry Keoghan) insinuated himself into the bourgeois family of a respected cardiovascular surgeon (Colin Farrell) in Yorgos Lanthimos’ twisty mystery The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which also featured Nicole Kidman and Alicia Silverstone.

  Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem’s married couple found their lives interrupted by uninvited guests (Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris) in Darren Aronofsky’s art-house horror mother! [sic]. The movie received both boos and a standing ovation when it was premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

  Casey Affleck’s melancholy dead musician wandered around under a white sheet attempting to reconnect with his bereft wife (Rooney Mara) in A Ghost Story, writer-di
rector David Lowery’s gloomy art-house treatise on love and death.

  Katee Sackhoff’s sculptor tried to save her estranged daughter (Lucy Boynton) from the urban legend of murderous witch Baba Yaga in Caradog James’ Welsh-made Don’t Knock Twice, and writer/director Alice Lowe starred as a heavily pregnant woman whose unborn child guided her through a homicidal rampage in the black comedy Prevenge, also filmed in Wales.

  Although also set in Wales, writer-director Liam Gavin’s atmospheric folk-horror debut, A Dark Song, was actually filmed in Ireland as a grieving mother (Catherine Walker) and an occultist (Steve Oram) used ritual magic to—apparently—contact ancient forces.

  A couple (Jasmine Hyde and Richard Flood), grieving for their dead son, took a break in the Lake District with disastrous consequences in Gary Sinyor’s low budget psychological thriller The Unseen, while in Totem, a teenager (Kerris Dorsey) tried to protect her family from a supernatural intruder. It was released directly to TV in the UK and elsewhere.

  A family hiding in a remote cabin in the woods from an unspecified pandemic received some unwelcome visitors from the infected world outside in Trey Edward Shults’ It Comes at Night.

  A pair of estranged sisters (Taryn Manning and Clint’s daughter Francesca Eastwood) were forced to rob a mysterious bank and unwittingly released a supernatural force in Dan Bush’s low budget The Vault, which also starred James Franco.

  Malcolm McDowell turned up as a devilish character in the Faust-inspired music movie American Satan, which also featured Denise Richards.

  Based on the novel by Adam L.G. Nevill, Rafe Spall and his friends discovered that they should never have gone down into the woods in David Bruckner’s eerily effective The Ritual, shot in Romania.