As for this year's offerings, it's been an interesting year too. I'm a believer that your film perspective can change over time. When I started going to the cinema back in the 80's, I would stick to the big films. Over time, I've gotten into smaller films, foreign films and all manner of strange ones too.
And if anything this comes to the forefront of my films of 2018. Basically, if someone had told me, even at the start of the year, this list would be my favourite films of the year, I wouldn't have believed it. Some of these films I hadn't even heard about at the beginning of the year. To see a list that doesn't contain any major Hollywood releases is surprise, not least to me.
Now, to be clear, there is only one rule I have when forming this list and that is the films had to have been seen at the cinema. For me, it doesn't matter if it was seen at a festival, or a preview screening. As yet, I'm not including films that premiered on streaming services such as Amazon Prime or Netflix. It may change at some point, but not yet.
But before getting to the 10 that had the biggest impact on me, we have to deal with the worst.
THE WORST!
3.The Field Guide To Evil
This anthology film about the creatures of folk stories and legend has an interesting premise to be fair. It's the execution that is horribly wrong. Each story doesn't work. Rather than have an ending of sorts, they simply stop. There's no scares, often no logic either. It's as if each director and writer took a creature but didn't really know what to do with it. I saw this film at FrightFest and thought it the worst film I saw there.
But it wasn't the worst film of that week.
2. Slender Man
I came out of this film and had a Twitter rant about how much I hated it. And then came to my Blog and ranted some more! To be slightly fair, due to off screen issues it is possible that the changes made may have affected the finished film, but even so, the film's own logic doesn't work. It's a mess of a film, edited so badly it's incoherent, it's never scary at all (there were more scares in the trailers before the film!). It's a film that utterly wastes a talented cast.
1. Primal Rage
I've never walked out of a film. I always stay to the end no matter how bad I think a film is. With Primal Rage, I came bloody close. A film about a Bigfoot-like creature should have been interesting at the very least. But then you have a group of characters you really don't care about, waste the only good thing in your film, the lead actress Casey Gagliardi reducing her to the victim of an utterly misjudged rape scene, that the film doesn't let her get revenge for and an ending that nearly had me standing up and shout at the screen and you are left with a film, that I certainly don't want to watch again and wouldn't recommend to anyone else.
Right, with those out of the way, time to get into it, the 10 films that had the biggest impact on me this year.
MY FILMS OF THE YEAR
10. Arcadia
Arcadia is a documentary that looks at the relationship between the British people and the land. It uses rare, old footage and some terrific music to tell the story very well indeed, looking at the 'old ways' and how things have changed over time. It strays at times into what might be considered folk horror but that is never a bad thing. The combination of visuals and music stay with you long after the film has ended. Director Paul Wright has put together a tremendous film.
9. Journey's End
2018 has been the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, the Great War as it is called. There has, rightly, been many programmes and films about WW1 this year, such as Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old (sadly, yet to catch up with it). For me though, Journey's End was a stunning film. Based on the novel by R.C. Sherriff and written for the screen by Simon Reade and directed by Saul Dibb, it focuses on a small group of British soldiers on the western front in 1918. With a terrific cast, headed by Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany and Asa Butterfield, it shows the effects war has on the men fighting it. The final act, will leave you haunted and devastated. A stunning film.
8. Beast
The debut of writer and director Michael Pearce, Beast tells the story of a troubled young woman who begins a relationship with a stranger, while a series of brutal murders have been happening. Sounds very predictable, doesn't it? Well, nothing about this film is predictable. With two stunning performances from Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn at its heart, Beast will have you on edge throughout, right up to its tense, perhaps shocking ending. I was blown away by the film and look forward to what Michael Pearce does next.
7. Revenge
On the surface, Revenge seems a standard story, of a young woman getting, well, revenge after being raped then left for dead. But nothing about this film is standard. Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat and with what should be a star making turn from Matilda Lutz at its core, Revenge may be light on plot, but more than makes up for that with very brutal violence as the woman, Jen, goes after the men. It may be a film where the style is more important than the substance, but when done this well, you really don't mind at all.
6. One Cut Of The Dead
Sometimes a gut feeling pays off. I hadn't intended on seeing One Cut Of The Dead at FrightFest. In truth I was wanting to see something else (the name of which escapes me right now). But I didn't get a ticket for that. So I got one for this instead and I'm glad I did.
Simply put, One Cut Of The Dead is one of the funniest films I have seen for years. I'm not going to go into the plot, it works best if you know little or nothing about it going in. But the cast are first rate, the direction brilliant (the film begins with an amazing 37 minute single take!) and by the time it ends you will leave with a huge smile on your face.
And to think I was going to pass on it!
5. Anna And The Apocalypse
What more can I say about Anna And The Apocalypse? It's a high school set musical comedy with zombies and it it utterly brilliant as that sounds. With great songs, tremendous performances (Ella Hunt should be a star after this) and good direction from John McPhail, Anna makes you laugh, makes you cry and even breaks you at points. Forget a Star Is Born or Mamma Mia 2, or even The Greatest Showman! Anna And The Apocalypse is the best musical of the year by a long way!
4. Custody
The scariest films don't always have to be horror films. Custody is proof of that. This tension filled film about the breakdown of a marriage, and the battle over the children is utterly gripping, leading to a final act that will have you holding your breath. With strong performances from the cast, Denis Menochet being the standout and a great script and direction from Xavier Legrand, Custody is not only one of the best thrillers I've seen in years, but also one of the most frightening.
3. Errementari The Blacksmith And The Devil
Seen at FrightFest Glasgow, Errementari is a dark fantasy film, with horror elements. And it is magnificent. From it's opening narration, up to its ending, with one of my all time favourite moments ever in cinema, one that also gives that opening narration a new context perhaps, I fell in love with this film. It may not be full on horror, but the descent into hell in the final act is visually stunning, the violence we see bloody but never gratuitous and there are some good moments of humour in there too. Briliantly written, directed and acted, it's the best fantasy film of the year....
2. Tigers Are Not Afraid
...until this screened at the same event. Tigers Are Not Afraid (or Vuelven) is a truly astonishing film. While several films have done it recently, few films have hit me as powerfully as Tigers has. The story of young children on the streets trying to survive the drug gangs and the violence on the streets, while one of them, a young girl, is haunted by her missing mother, this is a moving, heartbreaking, devastating film, that does have some chilling moments in there too. It's been said that the film is the best film Del Toro never made. That may be true, but the film's writer and director Issa Lopez, has made a film that, in my opinion, is better than Del Toro's Oscar-winning The Shape Of Water.
I'd go further. Tigers Are Not Afraid is up there with Let The Right One In and Pan's Labyrinth. It is that good a film.
For a long time, I was convinced I wouldn't see a better film in 2018 than Tigers Are Not Afraid. Until...
1. Utoya July 22
Films based on actual events, ones that still haunt those involved are hard to pull off. How do you try to show the events that took place, in a way that an audience will, to a degree feel what the survivors went through?
In Utoya July 22, which is based on a mass shooting that took place on that date, the director makes two decisions that I think hits hard. By focusing on one girl, Kaja, as she tries to find her sister as the shootings take place and by also shooting in one single take, covering the entire time of the shooting, he does make you feel like you are there with Kaja as she desperately searches for her. The gunman we rarely see, just glimpses, but we keep hearing the shots which have you on edge. At one point, Kaja finds a wounded girl and it's a scene that utterly destroys you. Personally, it is my scene of the year.
At the film's end, you are left, as the credits roll, haunted and devastated by what you have seen. It's a powerful film, a stunning film and simply put, my film of the year.
So there you have it. The 10 films that have in one way or another made the biggest impression on me. I think this is the first year, no Hollywood film has made my 10 of the year, since I started doing this Blog. That's not to say Hollywood hasn't made some good films this year. But the best ones have come from elsewhere.
I think overall 2018 has been a good year for cinema. Let's hope 2019 is at least just as good.
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