The RebelScope Top Ten of 2018!
I love this time of year. After all the turkey, beer and familial arguments, the conversation usually turns to cool things we saw or did during the year and we each look back on our favourite moments with happiness. It's in this conversation that I usually discover what I'll be watching next. Be it an awards contender that I missed or a cult classic in the making that some friends demand I see. Which brings me to Top Ten lists. It's the end of the year so most film fans are busy tapping away on their preferred social media platform declaring their respective top tens to anyone who will listen. I see people tear each other down constantly over including or excluding certain films, but really we need to use our collective Best Of lists to share the films that might have alluded us previously. Because these things are GOLD MINES. Without fellow film fans, I'd probably have missed half the stuff on the below catalogue. And to think I'd have slept on these cinematic treasures is a nightmare.
So what I'm saying is don't fight with each other over a difference of opinion. Instead, let's use each other's Top Tens to inform each other of and discuss all the cool shit that was released in 2018.
With that in mind, here is the first RebelScope Top Ten Films of 2018. I'd be absolutely chuffed to read your lists in return, so feel free to comment, share and dissect this afterwards rebels.
By the way, you won't find Sorry to Bother You, Suspiria or The House That Jack Built on here as I haven't seen them!
Without further adieu...
10) THE MEG - JON TURTLETAUB
If anyone was going to question my top ten list, they might very well start here, with the flick I'm most surprised didn't land with horror audiences. Sure, The Meg made a tonne of money internationally ($530 million, to be precise), but the takeaway seemed to be that it was a huge missed opportunity for not having gruesome kills. For me though, The Meg works because of its pervasive, over-the-top, Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe. It never quite hits the absurd gory heights of Renny Harlin's Deep Blue Sea due to its PG-13 rating, but as it stands it's a perfect mash-up of modern blockbusters and video game boss battle style set-pieces.
Bonus points for that final credit, which I won't spoil here, that acts as a nice little tip of the hat from the filmmakers to the audience.
9) BIRD BOX - SUSANNE BIER
Susanne Bier's Bird Box was one of those late night discoveries for me, the type you throw on without expectation and get instantly hooked. Its apocalyptic yarn is well worn territory in cinema but Bier manages to create this absolutely nightmarish vision of how quickly things disintegrate in society when faced with a global pandemic. The first twenty minutes alone are a staggering exercise in escalation as things go from bad to worse for Sandra Bullock's character. Couple this spiralling of events with the impending birth of her child and Bird Box reaches almost unbearable heights of tension.
Bonus points for the superbly constructed river scenes and its use of sound. Those strangers calling the kids from deep within the misty river banks? Terrifying.
8) READY PLAYER ONE - STEVEN SPIELBERG
I caught Spielberg's ode to video game culture in a theatre opening weekend. Sitting there in the (mostly empty) auditorium, I was totally and completely lost in it; a gargantuan vision of the future so colourful, so detailed and so charming. The central message of believing in your true self never gets lost amidst the laser blasts and pop culture cameos and it lets the Jaws director flex a little muscle in the CGI blockbuster arena. This is an entry on the list that I really hope you rebels will discover or revisit, as that Amblin magic is there in spades.
Bonus points for the breathtaking vehicle race in the Oasis.
7) SATAN'S SLAVES - JOKO ANWAR
Shudder, the horror streaming service, has been absolutely killing it this year. The countless hours I've spent perusing its catalogue and discovering insanely original fright flicks is absolutely mad, considering it costs $4.99 a month (this isn't a plug by the way, I just love the service). One of the most delightfully surprising titles of the year was Joko Anwar's Indonesian haunted house flick, Satan's Slaves. Not since Poltergeist have I seen a horror film with a family I believed in and cared about as much as the one portrayed here and so the stakes feel real. Full of terrifying set-pieces (including a brilliant hallway encounter with a ghost) and characters with whom you can really empathise, Satan's Slaves is likely to become a long-lasting cult gem on Shudder.
Bonus points for the aforementioned hallway scene. Chilling stuff.
6) COLD HELL - STEFAN RUZOWITSKY
Cold Hell is the perfect introduction to anyone who is on the fence about horror. Maybe they like some movies, but generally they find the genre silly or repetitive. Ruzowitsky's horror film is a Cat & Mouse serial killer chiller that pits a cannibal killer against a tough-as-nails cabbie who's more than proficient in Krav Maga. To dive any deeper into the plot would ruin its perfectly executed twists and turns, but believe me when I say this is the definition of edge of your seat cinema. Taking a familiar set up and completely surprising the audience with a fierce originality. Like Silence of the Lambs...if Clarice was Jackie Chan.
5) REVENGE - CORALIE FARGEAT
The rape/revenge horror sub-genre doesn't really interest me all that much. It's just something I generally avoid in cinema, outside of The Last House on the Left or I Spit on Your Grave (not that either were good movies per se, simply horror hallmarks when growing up). Which is what surprised me so much with Coralie Fargaet's Shudder exclusive, Revenge. Copying the same set-up as the above movies, Revenge transplants the action to the treacherous desert and creates a modern-day Mad Max style lead in Jennifer; a warrior who refuses to be a victim. Full of excellent performances and excruciating violence, Fargeat's film is a savage debut about empowerment amid the #MeToo movement.
Bonus points for being the bloodiest film of 2018 by a country mile!
4) MANDY - PANOS COSMATOS
Cheddar Goblin rules! Much as I loved Panos Cosmatos' debut film, Beyond the Black Rainbow, his second feature film, Mandy connected with me on a whole other level. Not only is it this insanely cool fantasy/horror/revenge quest, but it's also a meditation on our relationships and how our loved ones haunt us and motivate us long after they're gone. It's beautiful, scary, awesome and bloody all at the same time and it has solidified Cosmatos as one of the most exciting and important voices in genre cinema today. And kudos to Panos for finding yet another level of Nicholas Cage Unleashed.
Bonus points for the Cheddar Goblin advert. Absolutely hysterical.
3) TERRIFIED - DEMIAN RUGNA
Though it's number three on my list this year, if this were a list based purely on how fucking scary a film is, Demian Rugna's Terrified would sit comfortably in the top spot. Essentially a series of vignettes based around a haunted neighbourhood in Argentina, Rugna's film starts with a gag so violent and shocking I immediately knew this was making my top list, not just because of the filmmaking wizardry behind the opening set-piece, but because of its technique and ferocity. Rugna isn't content with a slow-burn chiller, instead opting for a feature length terror train filled with psychics, dead kids, spectres, monsters and more.
Bonus points for the haunting scene pictured below. Not something I'll likely forget soon.
2) THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE - MIKE FLANAGAN
Perhaps the most contentious on the list as I know people will argue this isn't a movie. To counter that argument, I'd point to episode six and its devastating depiction of a spirit trying to warn and reunite a fractured family unit. To me and the rest of the RebelScope team, Flanagan is the most exciting filmmaker working today regardless of genre, and his ability to create and sustain suspense while fostering the emotional stakes is unparalleled. Just as beautiful, scary, entertaining and cinematic as any movie I've seen this year. Bonus points for sticking the landing in the final episode and reducing this particular writer to tears.
1) HALLOWEEN - DAVID GORDON GREEN
Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Final Girl Queen, Laurie Strode? Nick Castle cameoing as Michael Myers? Will Patton? David Gordon Green? John Carpenter SCORING?! Of course Halloween 2018 is my favourite film of the year. Not only is it a fan servicing, full-tilt slasher flick (which is rare enough in theatres these days), Green's sequel is a timely look at a victim who has decided to stop running and confront the evil oppressor in her life. So much works in the film; the nasty kills, James Jude Courtney's portrayal of the legendary killer, the lush autumn cinematography and most of all, Carpenter's kick-ass synth score.Curtis kills it as Strode once again and brings the Halloween series to a wholly satisfying conclusion (although, judging by the crazy box office numbers of over $250 million, there'll be more).
I could gush for hours over the film, but I'll close by saying Bonus points for THE WHOLE THING.
So there you have it! The first RebelScope top ten list! Honourable mentions to Leprechaun Returns, A Quiet Place and Overlord, all of which I loved but couldn't squeeze in.