Movies & TV

I really like Peele's movies. I don't usually get scared by horror at all, but he seems to know what gives me existential dread. Plus Nope is [Spoilers]

I also liked Annihilation, but it helps that it's loosely based on a pretty good book by Jeff Vandermeer, who does some fun weird fiction (I recommend Borne, which is not in any way related to Jason Borne, but rather a fun distopian biopunk romp about raising an Eldrich abomination.)

Jeff Vandermeers books are what introduced me to China Mieville, a great author (and a leftist). Perdido Street Station is up their as one of my favorite books now.

Also shoutout to Brandon Cronenberg for Possessor (my all time fav) and Infinity Pool

I'm told that Australia is currently having a horror renaissance. Talk to Me and The Surfer are the two I've actually seen, and I enjoyed both a lot.

Annihilation is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen without having a single real "scare". I felt different after watching it.

Nope is pretty great. I didn't think it was as good as people were saying at the time, but still very very good.

A much older example that I watched recently is Slither. Really good, really funny, the visuals and concepts are terrifying but I'm usually laughing too much to be scared. James Gunn knows how to make a good movie

Ive seen about 90% of the movies listed in the OP and have enjoyed them all.

That said, while horror movies are about the only genre I regularly watch, I dont watch with a critical lense. I enjoy spooky vibes and scary atmospheres, and as long as a film at least tries to deliver on those (horror comedies notwithstanding, they get some leeway), im a happy camper.

But, of all the movies ive watched in the last decade or so, movies like these do tend to stay with me more, and im more willing to watch them more than once (which is a lot for me, regardless of any films genre, even other horror movies).

Happy to expand on any of these ideas more but I am about to go sleepy time now

To me most of these are okay. I feel like Alex Garland made Men to do social commentary like Peele. I feel like Aster made the aptly named Midsommar to do folk horror like Eggers. I think The VVitch is the best of Eggers' portfolio. The Lighthouse was too indulgent and Nosferatu felt too commercial. I enjoyed the novelty of Weapons but it felt very much like an Aster movie. It Follows predates a lot of movies on this list and I like UtSL just for the conspiracy stuff. I enjoy Perkins "Gretel and Hansel" way more than longlegs and I think he works better as a director than a writer.

I have not seen Raw or Titane, but I hear Doucournou is good with body horror. Beyond the Black Rainbow is another movie that's older than the rest and I liked it. Stranger Things ripped it off so hard I'm shocked there was never a lawsuit. It's much more experimental and stylistic than Stranger Things. Mandy was a dud imo. But we have to keep Nic Cage employed so I understand.

Peele didn't direct Him, he just produced it.

But yeah, I think all of these are varying degrees of good, with some being amongst the best of their year. Auteur horror is in a great place right now.

in addition to the source material, the sound design and music and art direction for Annihilation was firing on all cylinders.

i still find myself haunted by scenes from that movie, but in like a cerebral level.

Hereditary just plain scared the fuck outta me. the whole movie, every scene gave me the creeps, and by the end it had risen to some kind of fascinated hysteria.

I love it all, even some of the mid films. Cinema has been dominated by fucking remakes and Marvel shit for so long that I welcome almost anything with an original plotline.

Jordan Peele is a legend, love all of his films.

Hereditary was so scary when I first watched it. My partner does not get freaked by horror movies, but he was so scared he didn't want to go outside to smoke alone after lol.

Midsommar depicts the most realistic visual effects for hallucinogenic drugs that I've ever seen. Other than that Aster is a miss for me, mostly. I did not like Edgington (intentional typo)

Weapons is one of my favorite horror films now, perhaps because my theater experience was so excellent. The whole crowd was in sync with our shrieks and laughs and there was one stoner dude who kept flipping out and it was hilarious. I love that it didn't totally rely on body horror and really extreme gore (mostly). Idk if it's just me getting older or what but horror gore has gotten so realistic over the last decade or so that it's gotten much more difficult to watch where I used to enjoy guessing how they made the guts and prosthetics.

Longlegs was cool but I hate that everyone thought that Longlegs was transphobic or whatever. Longlegs was just a rocker!!! I guess only us olds remember glam rock.

There are quite a few I havent seen so I plan on putting them on my watchlist. How are Raw and Titane?

I like horror movies, but not artsy fartsy garbage; of these movies:

Annihilation: good, but could've been better

Men: haven't watched it

Get out: enjoyed it, but I wouldn't call it a horror movie

Nope & Us: both could've been MUCH better, especially Us's very interesting premise

Hereditary: kind of got bored; had awesome scenes but overall was kind of bored

Midsommar: very entertaining

Barbarian: heck yeah! I love claustrophobic horror movies!

Weapons: tons and tons of potential, but fumbles it

It follows: loved it

Longlegs: so boring, soooooo booooooring; couldn't even force myself to watch it

The monkey: absolutely awesome, will probably watch it again soon; enjoyed the heck out of this

Raw & Titane: never heard of these; will give them a shot

Beyond the black rainbow: exactly the kind of artsy fartsy horror movie I was talking about and am absolutely not into

Mandy: couldn't force myself to watch this; it looks like it'll have good scenes, but very boring and also artsy fartsy

The witch: not for me; the old timey language was also a pain

The lighthouse: got bored and couldn't finish it

Nosferatu: heck yeah! This was the lord of the rings of horror movies! A genuine epic, mythical horror movie!

Alex Garland's Men was legit one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life, and stands alongside Smile as a perfect encapsulation of everything that sucks about elevated horror. I quite liked everything else on this list though lol

It's worth adding the Philippou brothers to this list. I thought Talk To Me was a very strong debut and Being Her Back fucked me up more than any horror movie since Hereditary.

I haven't seen it, but I think it's funny that Jordan Peele is still getting saddled with "credit" for Him. He put his name all over it, it got critically shat on, and now nobody can tell you who actually directed it.

Pretty good list. I love the movies by Eggers, especially VVitch, and The Lighthouse. Peele does some good stuff. One that I didn't see anyone mention here is Talk to Me, which I enjoyed quite a lot.

Also, for non-English stuff, I've absolutely loved Lapachhapi, Aamis, Tumbbad, Kothanodi, and Bulbbul. Some of them might be hard to find, but totally worth it.

Unsure if A Cure for Wellness fits in here but it's an alltimer

Loved most of these, but thought Barbarian and Weapons were hardcore overrated.

I've only seen three of these, but I liked all of them and mean to watch about three others. I generally like horror that tries to be artsy or experimental, like Skinamarink or They Look Like People or Occult (2009). I admittedly got all of them from the same hype-monger, I'm not really aware of film . . .

I like most of this stuff that ive seen and fucking love a few.

The Substance could be on this list! It was gripping and utterly absurd in a fun way, in addition to all the body horror of course

Its okay, M. Night Shyamalan, isn't too good to be on your list.

Weapons was really cool except for the anti-Romani coding.

Loved The VVitch, adored The Lighthouse, really need to get around to seeing Newsferatu but every time I want to watch Nosferatu I want to watch Oldsferatu so I still haven't seen Eggers' version.

Mandy was pretty cool. Oh and here's a plug for another colorful nic cage film in that vein, we're going to be watching Color Out of Space in the pre-night slot tomorrow.