5 – Tucker & Dale vs Evil

This is just a fun film, it takes the classic horror tropes and lampoons them or twists them, while still kind of being a horror film. Now, there are plenty of horror film parodies out there, but this one I’d qualify as a horror film satire. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine are amazing in this film, and if you’re a fan either of theirs this film is worth checking out. I really do think even if you don’t like horror this is a great comedy film first and foremost, so most people will like this one.

4 – John Wick

The Keanu Reeves renaissance was in some ways kicked off by this film. This is such a well done action film that we really haven’t seen anything like it before. Maybe Equilibrium has a little bit of a feel like it, but John Wick takes it to a whole other level with the gun play and just the artistic nature of everything. This movie has a ton of action, and surprising amount of story. It’s one that I can come back to multiple times and enjoy even with knowing the story because of just the beauty in the gun kata (or gun fu) throughout the film. It feels like a dance as much as it feels like a gun fight.

3 – Dr. Strangelove

Apparently I want humor on my list this year, though, Dr Strangelove has always been around my Top 5, probably generally in my Top 10. Dr. Strangelove is an amazing Peter Sellers and Stanley Kubrick film. It makes fun of the super United States rah-rah mindset, but does so in extremely clever ways. This is one of those films where you almost have to study in order to get all of the jokes, but the jokes in there are definitely a good payoff when you get them. But you don’t need to do that, because it blends jokes like those in with other jokes that you almost always have an absurd situation going on that you get. This is a movie that does get better with more viewings as well, I feel.

2 – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

When I have humor on a list, I like it to be satire, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is amazing for that. This film is in it’s own right a buddy cop film along the lines of Lethal Weapon and others, but it is more than that, it makes fun of buddy cop films as well. Robert Downey Jr is amazing in this film, and whole cast is great really. This film is my favorite Christmas film in the way that Die Hard is a Christmas film. I really do like it when a film can take a tried and true genre, such as buddy cop, and not really dumb down the absurd plotlines or dumb down jokes but end up with it being a really good and smart comedy as well.

1 – Avengers: Infinity War

Now, clearly I’m a big Marvel fan, having a Marvel Podcast, 10 Minute Marvel, so I don’t think it’ll be a big surprise that a Marvel movie is my #1. Also, I have ranked the Marvel movies fairly recently, and this was my #1 movie on that list as well. When it comes to the Marvel films, this one just really stands out to me. I think that Endgame is very good, and I like it a ton, but Infinity War just feels like more, the stakes feel higher because I knew how it was going to end, and while I knew things would be fixed in the second one, the moments where characters die are just really well done, and you get a sense that all the heroes might not make it and that anyone is fair game. This film just has what I want, it is a superhero story with a lot of action, but it is also just a good film and a good story overall.

So, to toss out some honorable mentions, films like Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Ranorak just missed the list. I know previous years I’ve had Dog Soldiers on the list as well which is a really good horror film. In terms of the two films that I remember having seen for the first time this year, I think that Sonic The Hedgehog was a more enjoyable film than Crimson Peak and honestly, as good a story. Crimson Peak just has amazing aesthetics, but everything else felt really flat.

What are the best films that you’ve seen this year?

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Cloverfield

I think in terms of modern creature feature films that fall into that Halloween horror camp, Cloverfield is one that really stands up well. This JJ Abrams found-footage style film where a giant monster attacks New York City. This one works really well because when everything starts you don’t really know what is going on, even as the film goes on, you know as much as the rest of the characters. So often in films you know more than the characters but this really allows you to get into their shoes and join them as they try and find out what is going on and survive.

The Descent

This one, you can question whether or not it’s creature feature, and I’ll let you do that if you watch the European version, but the American cut is definitely a creature feature. This is a great Neil Marshall film and the psychological aspect of this horror stands out really well. One of my favorite horror films and the monsters themselves are very interesting. If you want a good scary creature feature this one is up there.

Dog Soldiers

Another Neil Marshall film, this one is less straight up scary, though it does carry over some of the elements that make a strong horror film that Marshall then uses in The Descent as well. This one is a werewolf creature feature and just has an interesting and tight premise for something that doesn’t seem to have a large budget. But it really doesn’t need it, it has a bit of camp to it, but you’re always wondering what might be happening in it. Really well done and in terms of a horror film, also very high up there.

Cabin in the Woods

Some movies have a monster in them, and other movies have all the monsters in them. Cabin in the Woods is a smartly played horror movie where it critiques the tropes of horror while playing them out as expected. It does some very interesting things to turn everything on it’s head though, and how it plays out is definitely unique. You’ll have to see it to know what I say that it has every monster, but if you’re a fan of the creature feature horror genre, this is one to definitely checkout.

Pitch Black

This is horror film really hits on a lot of tropes, a group crashed onto an alien planet and something stalking them, that’s extremely normal. That said, it works well in this film. Riddick is a great main character and this film just works well. It plays off of the fears that people have, the unknown of what could be out there in the dark and just is really enjoyable to watch.

Tremors

For some giant worms, the spice must flow. But not in Tremors. This is a classic B horror film that is just completely absurd. Enjoyable none the less as Kevin Bacon tries to save as many people as he can and escape after giant worms start attacking the area in which he lives. Of course, he has to get them to believe him first.

Sharknado

Now, if you want a good B film, this isn’t it. But it is a lot of fun, this is completely absurd and just completely out there. Sharks getting sucked up into a tornado and then falling down to earth is a grand old crazy time. The plot is dumb but fun, the acting is bad, but the whole thing is just completely absurd horror humor.

Obviously, there are so many of these films out there. There are things like The Thing, The Fly, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob, or even much better shark films like Jaws that you could be watching as well. I wanted to give a good range of films though that ranged from just a goofy Halloween horror type of creature film, like Sharknado or Tremors to some more serious horror films. What are some of your favorite creature feature horror films?

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Will any of those movies make my list, you’ll have to see, but the big movies this year, for me, were primarily Marvel movies, and with #10MinMarvel podcast, I might like Marvel a little bit.

5 – Tucker & Dale vs Evil
What happens when a group of college students go out to a remote cabin to have a fun weekend? Clearly, the locals are going to attack them, but Tucker & Dale vs Evil does a fun twist on that. If you want a horror comedy film with some over the top deaths, this is a great film. Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk do amazing work in this film being the locals in this film, and how everything happens around them is great. I think that even if you don’t love horror, this is a film that it’s so on the edge of everything that you’ll like this film. If you do like horror, you’ll appreciate the tropes that they use throughout the film and how they subvert them often.

4 – Dog Soldier
Probably the least well known movie on my list, but one that I enjoy a lot. This is from Neil Marshall who directed the battle of the wall in Game of Thrones, or at least one of the episodes around that. He also has done The Descent which is really good as well, but Dog Soldier is my favorite. It’s not a big budget film, but it does horror well. What works well in this film is that it creates a limited area for the characters to interact with the world. So they are cut off, but more than that, they are stuck in a small area, and I think when horror films go too big with the world, it makes it less of a horror film, and that’s actually a trope that another film I like picks up on, see the honorable mentions below.

3 – John Wick
This was a new to me movie this year, and it was a lot of fun to binge through the series of movies quickly. But the first one is my favorite of them. The world in this movie and the sequels is cool, but what everyone is there for is the gun fu/gun kata action, and John Wick has some great action. There’s a scene at a club where there is a gun fight that goes across several floors and it works really really well. This film doesn’t have an extremely heavy plot, but it works well enough to get you into the action and Keanu Reeves is a lot of fun in this film. If you are looking for a straight up action film, this is one of the best that has come out recently.

2 – Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
I really enjoy this film in terms of a dumb pulp sort of film. You get a convoluted plot where you have a giant mystery that ties everything together. I really like the performances in this movie. Robert Downey Jr. does a great job especially in this film, and it’s before Iron Man. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a lot of fun. It isn’t a deep film, but probably my most watched film of all time. I also like that this is a satire of the buddy cop genre of films as well, and done really well that way.

1 – Avengers: Infinity War
Now, as you’ve seen, I don’t have Endgame on the list. I think that the two movies are tied together so closely, that it felt a little bit odd putting them both on there. For me, Infinity War is the slightly better film. Some of it is that it doesn’t have that superhero ending, you end up in a bad place, and that is really interesting, without it being a super dark and depressing again, for a superhero movie. So you get something you’re very familiar with because it has that heroic feel, but at the same time, it subverts expectations. While it might not be the Marvel movie I want to watch the most, but for me, it’s the best Marvel movie.

There are so many good movies, I could easily do my top 5 Marvel movies and it would be pretty close to my top 5 movies of all time. I didn’t want to repeat anything on the list, but that’s what honorable mentions are for.

Honorable Mention:
Cabin in the Woods
Avengers: Endgame
Thor: Ragnorak
Dr. Strangelove
The Fifth Element
The Last Witch Hunter

As you can see, I really love the highly critically acclaimed movies, outside of superhero movies. My taste is really all over the place, but most of the time I just want to sit down an watch a movie that is fun, and not have to think about things too much, so that’s why t hings like The Fifth Element and The Last Witch Hunter make my list.

What are some of your favorite movies? Is there any crossover with my top 5 list?

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5- Cabin the Woods
This one falls into a lots of the categories. The story is fairly surreal, but works well in my opinion, as you get your standard cast of horror heroes, but the world of horror seems like it’s a little bit different than normal. I think this film really shines if you’re a fan of horror, because the easter eggs that are dropped in this film come on thick and the story pulls in many a trope. This film also does have a fair amount of gore, so that’s one of those things to watch out for if that’s the part of horror films that you might not like.

4- Descent
Another scary movie, this one is definitely a horror film in the truest sense and my second favorite Neil Marshall film. Descent puts you in that claustrophobic mindset and then there are things in the dark that you don’t know what they truly are. There is an American ending, because the other one was deemed too scary or sad or something like that, don’t watch the American ending, there is much more depth in the other one. And it really raises the creepy factor. It’s a movie that I need to watch again as I really remember it fondly.

3- Nightmare on Elm Street
Here’s that campy movie that we were looking for. Though, it’s only campy because of the age of the film. Wes Craven’s horror series, Nightmare on Elm Street stands up pretty well, and it’s very much a classic. Freddy Krueger is a very good villain and the concept of how he can get you works really well. And there are plenty more cheesy sequels to watch to this film, if you want. Another one that I should watch again as it’s been a while, and I have the great looking box set.

2- Tucker & Dale vs Evil
Yes, even more campy movies, this is just a straight up spoof of horror films while keeping in basically every horror trope that you’d expect. It would be easy to say that this is more comedy than it is a scary movie, but it definitely fits into that Halloween vibe as you see tropes get played out repeatedly, just with a slight twist on them. This film is probably the best for the non-horror fans on the list because it leans more into comedy, there is some gore again, but that is done for comedy as well.

1- Dog Soldiers
Neil Marshall is back on the list, and for me, this is his best film. It has a great amount of suspense, you don’t have your incompetent group of teens in this film, but it still feels tense the whole time. Like Descent, this film limits where the characters can go, and that just adds to the tension by a long ways. It’s also a werewolf film, and normally I’ve found those to not be that scary and more in the area of camp, but this movie is scary, and it does it while not having a ton of special effects or big names in it. I’d highly recommend this film as one of the better Halloween scary movies out there.

There are so many more movies I could have put on this list, maybe I’ll do a larger horror movie list at some point in time. I watched the “classic” My Name is Bruce recently, there are movies like Repulsion and The Fearless Vampire Killers that are great. And there are many more that I need to check out as well, such as having the original IT on the self and IT Chapter 1 that I could and should watch this Halloween season.

What are some films that really scream Halloween to you? Do you even like scary movies?

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A Nightmare on Elm Street

Out of the three classic series, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street, this is my favorite. Freddy Krueger just makes a better villain and it’s a little less the standard that we’ve seen. The fact that Krueger gets to people through their dreams is a fun horror concept and that separates it from the others which have a bit more of the slahser vibe to them. Now, I won’t say that all nine of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are great, but they are, for the most part, entertaining and not a heavy horror watch.

A Nightmare Before Christmas

Another more main stream horror film A Nightmare Before Christmas is the kids Halloween entry on the list. If you are saying that this is a Christmas movie (clearly says so in the title), go watch Die Hard and stop reading this article, or something like that. No, it’s a movie that you could watch for either if you really wanted, but it has more of the movie in the aesthetic of Halloween than it does of Christmas. There are a few scarier moments in it that might be too scary for a small kid, but it really is a lot of fun. And that’s also where the title for the article comes from, “This is Halloween” is the line from one of the songs in the movie.

Dog Soldiers

Now we’re getting a bit out of the normal, though we’ll be getting more mainstream with the next one which is also by the same director. Neil Marshall is one of my favorite directors, and this is probably my favorite film by him. It’s about a group of soldiers in the woods, dealing with werewolves. It is very much a horror film with some nice twists that might not be too shocking, but are done well. The movie does a good job of keeping the characters confined and ratcheting up the tension. I haven’t seen this in a few years, but having watched it a few times, it has held up well.

The Descent

Another film by Neil Marshall, this is his biggest or most successful film. Now, it wasn’t as big a success here in the US as it was abroad, so before complain about it, watch the unrated version or the European release (both should be the same thing). The film ends like it should and it really packs a punch as compared to the US ending. It’s a smartly done film and again has that confined location, as it’s about a group of spelunkers who are trapped in a cave. The film just has a lot of intensity and a lot of stress while watching it wondering what is going to be happening next. Descent is a movie I really need to watch again because it was that good.

Repulsion

This is not your typical horror film. As compared to a lot of the above that have jump scares, this is just unsettling and it works so well at it. An early Roman Polanski film shot in black and white, it really delves into a character whose world is crumbling around her and she is spiraling into madness. Very different from your standard horror film, but very well done, it doesn’t have jump scares, it’s about things falling apart. It’s not going to be the film for everyone because it has a more plodding pace to it and might not be ideal for what people are looking for with a Halloween film. However, it is a very well done horror film.

10 Cloverfield Lane

This film is a bit newer than everything else on the list, but one of my favorite recent horror films. It’s probably considered more suspense, but seems to have a strong horror feel to it as well. In my opinion there is a good amount over lap between the two and a good horror film should have strong suspense to it. The original, Cloverfield, which isn’t on the list, but I’d still highly recommend, is more of the straight up creature feature horror film, but 10 Cloverfield Lane builds on it in a different direction and it’s done very well. While it is pretty straight forward, there are a few elements that you never feel like you fully have a grasp on and that makes it a strong film. Also, the acting in the film is really well done. You can check out my article on it here.

Black Sheep

The Chris Farley film is absolutely a horror masterpiece. Oh, wait, I’m not talking about that one, I’m talking about the one with the pissed off sheep. This small movie from New Zealand is the classic horror/gore/comedy and is just well done. There are a few scenes where it’s slightly over the top in the use nudity and gore, but for the most part, it’s just absurd. It’s not a high budget film, it’s not even the that well done, but it has that campy feeling that you come to expect from Halloween films and is definitely a film that no one knows about that is fun to watch.

Evil Dead

Classic horror film, the original, with Bruce Campbell. I think the first film that I saw him in, and it’s just amazing. Definitely a violent film, and if you think that the special effects are going to look good still, no chance. But it’s one of those classics that is definitely worth checking out for the B-Movie horror. Since Kristen doesn’t like horror films, it’s again one that I haven’t seen in a while. I think it might be time to do a horror movie night sometime when she can plan something else.

Finally, a few more less serious ones.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

This horror comedy works well as it runs with the classic tropes from Wrong Turn and others where you are alone in a cabin in the woods but instead of the hicks being the bad guys, things are thrown out of balance when the college students show up. This is much more of comedy, but because it uses horror tropes so heavily it’s definitely one to watch around Halloween. It’s probably a film that I could pop in and watch whenever I want. And Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk are amazing in the film.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

A weird little film, it’s a musical and it actually has a pretty decent cast. Yes, Paris  Hilton is in the film, but she’s playing herself, and it actually works out well enough. The film has a bit of a comic book feel to it, intentionally done, and a bit of a horror film to it. It isn’t a pure horror film, but it makes sense to watch around Halloween with the aesthetic in the game. Basically, the plot of the film is that people have extended their lives by getting organs implanted, and it’s a huge deal in the world, however, if you can’t pay, you can take out a loan, and if you can’t pay your loan, the organs get repossessed. It’s weird, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Cabin in the Woods

The final one on the list is really a amalgamation of a ton of horror films. It has a weird ending, but it throws out nods to horror films like they are candy. It isn’t as silly as Tucker and Dale vs Evil or other parody horror films, but this one is more a satire versus parody. It ends oddly, and some people don’t like that, but I think it’s an odd twist on horror and why there are horror films. It definitely has a nice horror aspect to it and one, that if you want to see a ton of different horror films, but only have time for one, Cabin in the Woods will cover all the horror films that you want to watch.

What are some of your favorite horror films for Halloween?

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