First Published via HUB Magazine when I was Culture Editor.

Date Published: 27th January 2023.

It was a great year for horror, the return of the infamous Scream, the cost-of-living crisis, and well, Chris Pratt’s performance in Jurassic World. 

Barbarian, directed by Zach Cregger. 

My favourite thing in the entire world when you don’t watch the trailer is to play a game I like to call: Horror or Romance?  

Imagine this, Georgina Campbell arrives at an Airbnb where she is staying. Only to find that Bill Skarsgard is also there. The renter must have double-booked the Airbnb and now you are helplessly forced to share a house with the gorgeous, caring gentlemen Bill Skarsgard. 

Unless you have watched Andy Mushchietti’s IT, you might assume it’s a romance. 

If like me, you have seen IT a few too many times, you might have reason to believe Bill Skarsgard is the villain. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time he was on my screen. 

It is a monster in the basement horror. I don’t want to spoil much more. Watch it. If you want to watch one horror film from 2022, this is my recommendation. 

I love when films are divided into concrete acts. Others may disagree, they are allowed to disagree, but they are wrong. 

The first two acts show such originality in horror and are excellently acted. The second act includes Justin Long, which, if someone had told me I would have watched this when it came out. Justin Long does play a horrible person which the film seems to forget about. It sets up great social commentary in the second act, yet it never fulfils it in the third act. Even the third act sets up even more about class divide, money, and the police, however, it lets the audience think of its own commentary. 

Unlike Justin Long, there is no amount of money nor desperation for me to go into a basement the light is not working. Even further, he finds a secret door which he is chill with and then enters it which leads to tunnels. Justin Long is happyily exploring these scary and dark tunnels with his measuring tape. 

Horror films this year have taught me I am very afraid of naked elderly people. 

Scream, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. 

The latest edition of Scream is directed by the same directors that brought Ready or Not, aka the best horror film I have ever seen. Although I did not have high hopes going into it, Scream has always been self-aware and it showcases interesting characters that we root for or begins to feel such betrayal.

Is it better than the original? It probably is; however, I love the first one like it’s my child. Though you cannot understand a lot of the characters if you have not seen the first, so it is one for the fans. 

Scream always combines the true beauty of horror: a group of teenagers being morons whilst a killer is on the loose, worrying about teenage drama and having original characters come back each time. 

X, directed by Ti West. 

Jenna Ortega is cementing herself as a scream queen in both her horror films this year. 

X combines the two types of horror. It is a combination of a typical slasher like Scream and a psychological eerie style similar to Ari Aster’s Hereditary or Midsommar. An old woman begins killing a group of young adults who are filming a film in her barn. 

This is Slasher with some nuance to keep the horror alive as it explores the patriarchal competition to pit women against one another with age and beauty. It also explores a new wave of feminism with sexual liberation and a similarity metaphor between violence and sex.  

Ti West does not aim for subtly in his metaphors nor drive away from the typical slasher execution. Many new slashers aim to try fresh and new ideas for Slasher films, even though the formula works. The collection of characters is not so complex nor 2D characters, the right amount to care what happens to them but are not afraid to lose. 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, directed by Sam Raimi. 

It cannot be a Sam Raimi film without an eye shot, it is a must and I eat it up every time. Most people will know Sam Raimi for his Spider-man trilogy which is some of the best Spider-man films if it wasn’t for the last one. Yikes.  

The sequel of Doctor Strange with the hero turned villain Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch. My main criticism is there was enough transition time from the Scarlet Witch in Wandavision to the villain of Multiverse of Madness. 

Wanda Maximoff wants to travel between the multiverse to find her children. For this, she needs power from a young girl called America, and Doctor Strange refuses for this to happen. Maybe I am a terrible person, but Wanda kills so many people just so Doctor Strange can protect one child, it doesn’t add up in my mind. 

Elizabeth Olsen gives a phenomenal performance, and it is visually beautiful. However, it could be improved if they leaned more into the horror features rather than the superhero conventions.  

This film would have made a better miniseries to really explore both the villainisation of Wanda Maximoff and the multiverses they travel in. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the film. I do love Benedict Cumberbatch. However, Elizabeth Olsen was the star of this film. Her line delivery was exquisite and powerful. 

The Menu, directed by Mark Myload. 

I could not care less if I tried. The metaphor is so blatant that I was bored, it is about how food critics have ruined the food industry which is about the film industry. 

I personally agree with Anya Taylor’s character just like the food I don’t need films to be ridiculously smart and needlessly confusing. I just need them to be good. Objectively it was not a bad film, subjectivity I wasted two hours of my life when I could have just stared at the ceiling in my room. That probably would have drawn more meaning from my life. 

To sum up, rich people go to a fancy restaurant and something bad happens. I, however, cannot believe this made me feel slightly sad for rich people. If you can stomach an over-pretentious film, then go ahead and watch it. I understand it is being overly pretentious on purpose but that doesn’t make me like it anymore.  

Aster, Ari. Hereditary. PalmStar Media, 2018.

Aster, Ari. Midsommar. B-Reel Films, 2019.

Bettinelli-Olpin, Matt and Tyler Gillett. Ready or Not. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2019.

Bettinelli-Olpin, Matt and Tyler Gillett. Scream. Paramount, 2022.

Craven, Wes. Scream. Dimension Films, 1996.

Cregger, Zach. Barbarian. 20th Century Studios, 2022.

Derrickson, Scott. Doctor Strange. Marvel Studios, 2016.

Mylod, Mark. The Menu. Searchlight Pictures, 2022.

Muschietti, Andy. IT. New Line Cinema, 2017.

Raimi, Sam. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Marvel Studios, 2022.

Raimi, Sam. Spider-Man. Marvel Enterprises, 2002.

Shakman, Matt. WandaVision. Marvel Studios, 2021.

Trevorrow, Colin. Jurassic World Dominion. Universal Pictures, 2022.

West, Ti. X. A24, 2022.