Stephen King is one of the most popular horror authors of the modern day, publishing almost 60 novels since the release of his first novel in 1974, known as Carrie. Though, most known as a horror author, it’s the author’s non-horror works that have made the biggest splash critically when being translated to the big screen. Director Rob Reiner’s 1986 film Stand By Me, based on short story ‘The Body’, and Frank Darabont’s pair of releases, 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption and 1999’s The Green Mile based on the short story and novel of the same name, stand as prime examples of the success of adaptations of King’s more dramatic pieces of work.
Director Mike Flanagan has already had tremendous success working with King, adapting two of his horror novels, Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game, into features released in 2019 and 2017 respectively. The director is also most known for his horror works, starting with his low budget feature Absentia in 2011, and most probably known to a general public for his horror Netflix television series, notably 2018’s The Haunting of Hill House, 2020’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, 2021’s Midnight Mass, 2022’s The Midnight Club and 2023’s The Fall of The House of Usher. Before he returns to the worlds of horror, with the director attached to a new Exorcist film and a Carrie television series for Amazon Prime next, Flanagan has sought out a lesser-known King-drama short story to adapt, The Life of Chuck.
Carl Lumbly and Chiwetel Ejiofor in The Life of Chuck
Told through 3 separate chapters, that tell the life of Charles Krantz, known as Chuck to his friends, as the film explores the character’s life backwards. Starting with the end of his life, and beginning with his coming of age, the film and original short story showcases how the people in his life shaped him to the man he is, exploring the multitudes of life and memory.
Through his previous two works adapting the horror author, it was clear to argue that King and Flanagan almost felt like they were made for each other, the connection between King’s introspective dialogues and Flanagan’s wordy monologues is palpable. The same can be said for The Life of Chuck, a short story that seems like it was made to be adapted by Flanagan. Flanagan makes the genius decision to give this film a voice-over narration, with Nick Offerman doing the voice-over duties, delivering narration directly from the novel word-for-word. This helps the narrative for sure, some of the strongest emotional beats come from Offerman’s delivery and words and helps to bring structure to such a weirdly structured film. Delivering accurate narration onto the big screen is not the only thing pulled from the short story, the film essentially brings everything from the story onto the screen, favouring expansion to some elements than removing any. Narrative-wise, the story of this film leans a lot more on the emotional side of the King adaptation filmography, its overly sentimental and wordy in its messaging, a choice that will not work for every audience member but works well for people used to Flanagan’s dialogue-heavy previous projects.
Mark Hamill in The Life of Chuck
Flanagan’s Netflix series, mostly Midnight Mass, would be criticised commonly for its lengthy dialogue sequences, with many conversations between characters ranging between 3 to 5 minutes in length. These scenes could be argued as an example of show, don’t tell, featuring characters discussing the themes of the show, exploring topics of religion, greed, death and the meaning of life, but the writing was so well-realised and moving that it could be ignored for its lengthy inclusion. This film is a treasure-trove of lengthy monologues, the film being held together by the people that come in and out of Chuck’s life, imparting wisdom on him and then leaving the narrative. Running just under two hours, viewers who would criticise Flanagan’s meaningful but lengthy dialogue sequences may find the inclusion here more meaningful and emotional in their frequented but shortened inclusion.
The themes that the director explored in his long-running series also make appearances here, from discussion around religion, the fear of death and the meaning of life, all explored in new ways through both the characters and the central narration. The narrative also being in reverse chronological order allows for a central mystery to build, opening with characters dealing with the end of the world, and how this end links to a man they barely know, Chuck. Through the reverse chronological narrative, the film becomes more complex and denser as the narrative moves on, revealing answers and a central twist as Chuck’s life becomes simpler and more mundane, from adult to child.
Karen Gillan and Chiwetel Ejiofor in The Life of Chuck
Flanagan’s film has delivered an incredibly surprising cast, with most of its biggest names being in small scenes and essentially cameos. Flanagan mainstays, that have populated his casts for a decade at this point each get a moment to shine, notably Rahul Kohli, Carl Lumbly, Kate Siegel and Samantha Sloyan. David Dastmalchian and Harvey Guillen share a fun singular sequence each which brings some welcome levity to the proceedings. Scream and now-Five Nights at Freddy’s star Matthew Lillard has a memorable sequence that will tug at the heart strings, and Nightmare on Elm Street’s own Heather Langenkamp makes a notable return to the big screen. Starting the film off with people reacting to Chuck outside of meeting the character ourselves, welcomes Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan into essentially being the opening acts main characters and they handle the focus perfectly. Newcomers to the worlds of overlong monologues, they seem naturals at talking about the meaning of life and death itself. Mark Hamill and Mia Sara give heartbreaking performances as Chuck’s grandparents, bringing some realistic humanity to such a fantasy-esque narrative.
Benjamin Pajak in The Life of Chuck
The titular character has been marketed as being played by Tom Hiddleston, but the Marvel-star is in very little of the film. Chuck’s most common actor is newcomer Benjamin Pajak as the 11-year-old version of the character, and he delivers the true heart of the movie through his performance. The entire narrative reveals itself through his impassioned performance, reflecting himself through Hiddleston’’s short tenure as the character, selling the positivity of the character amongst all the pain he encounters, his love of dance and the teenage angst that comes at that age.
The Life of Chuck stands strong next to some of King’s most successful adaptations. Mike Flanagan just knows how to breath the cinematic language into the author’s texts, delivering a scene like a man and woman dancing to a reggae beat which any other director could make silly or heartless, but it ends up on the screen as a heartfelt and moving sequence. It may be overly sentimental at times, but the heart is in the right place, it’s a movie which feels like a lifetime, filled with so many characters and actors giving a moment of wisdom. Each sequence feels better than the last, feeling like a film designed perfectly for fans of both Flanagan and King.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby in The Fantastic Four: First Steps
In the age of the modern superhero boom, the time where characters like Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man and many more have flown into the cultural zeitgeist there has always been one team that has struggled to marvel audiences on the big screen, The Fantastic Four. Originally conceived into live action in 1994, with the Roger Corman-backed low-budget feature bearing their name, that project was scrapped once completed, and will presumably never see the light of day as a released picture. 20th Century Fox took a second chance at the team in 2005, starring Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Michael Chiklis, which was successful enough to warrant a sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007. Plans for a third film and a Silver Surfer spinoff would be cancelled after the box office disappointment of the 2007 follow-up, and the franchise would lay dormant again. Just in time to keep the rights away from transferring back to Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox would return Marvel’s First Family to the big screen with Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four in 2015. Starring Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Miles Teller and Jamie Bell, the film was a massive critical bomb, and the behind-the-scenes drama would break the potential franchise that would come.
Fourth time seems the charm for Marvel Studios, as the Fantastic Four have returned home and joined their Cinematic Universe, after Disney’s buyout of 20th Century Fox. The Fantastic Four: First Steps follows these famous heroes, four years removed from their origin that gave them their fantastic powers, as they exist in an alternate reality to the one where the Avengers reside. When Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm falls pregnant and the team comes into conflict with Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson’s Galactus, the team must come together as a family once more to welcome the new child and stop their planet from being destroyed.
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph
The most notable part of the film’s marketing campaign has been its focus on its new setting, capturing a reality which resembles the 1960s and the retro-futuristic artwork that Jack Kirby drawn in the team’s first comic outings. The film’s world is one of the highlights for sure, the film has a clear style in the set dressing, costumes and direction that gives it an authentic old-timely charm. A studio which commonly makes the use of green screen instead of authentic sets, Marvel Studios makes a welcome change here by giving their actors an actual palpable world to bounce off with, as the sets complement director Matt Shakman’s direction. Best known as a TV director, directing episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Game of Thrones and Marvel’s own WandaVision, he shows of a great level of control behind the camera and wows with some breathtaking visuals. Cinematographer Jess Hall works to capture the film with so much colour, colour that has been missing from Marvel’s output lately. Michael Giacchino’s score gives the movie an upbeat and timely feel, matching the tension and the family moments that are contained in the film. The world just feels alive because of these technical aspects, and the fact that the film spends so much time showcasing the world’s reaction to the heroics of its signature team. Ripped out of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, the public are important to the movie, saving lives are important and it imbues the film’s optimistic view of the world.
Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby are the leads of the film as the stretching scientist, Mr Fantastic, and the invisible matriarch of the family, the Invisible Woman, respectively. Pascal delivers a side to the troubled scientist that no actor has been able to yet, the fear of a newborn in the family, a part of life he cannot control, or study is something he is terrified of. Pascal delivers the vulnerability of a man obsessed with science, to the point that he thinks there is something wrong with him. Kirby is the first time Sue Storm has felt like a fully fleshed out character in one of The Fantastic Four’s cinematic outings, she is the heart of the team, the matriarch that keeps the family together. She gets to show off her powers during her fight scene with showy effects and flex her emotional range when her son comes under threat.
Vanessa Kirby and Pedro Pascal in The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Joseph Quinn’s hot-headed Human Torch gets a lot of play in the story, tying him in with a small romantic story where he gets to fight conventions of the idiot he is thought of as. Quinn nails the comedic aspect of the character, but also how deeply loyal he is to his sister and overall family. Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s super-strong The Thing gets the least to do narrative wise, but he remains a strong character, feeling like the member of the team that deals with the public the most, contrasting his rocky exterior with a kind and gentle demeanour. His romantic side-plot with Natasha Lyonne however feels like an afterthought, contained to merely two scenes. The highlight of the film is seeing the central four interact, they bounce off one another splendidly, with the film spending a lot of time setting up this dysfunctional but loving family.
Action sequences take a backseat in the film, for a clearer focus on drama. There are essentially only two action sequences across the film, but the film stills have a lot of plots to crawl through in its small runtime. Once the plot starts going, a mere 20 minutes or so into the feature, the film moves at an incredibly fast pace and never lets up, feeling too fast in some moments. Based on the recent news that John Malkovich’s character was cut from the theatrical release of the film, it seems there is a longer cut that exists, a longer runtime that the film would benefit from. More time would be beneficial to focus on the strongest aspect of the film, the family dynamic, but also the side characters that seem like an afterthought in the fast-moving narrative. Additional scenes would benefit the non-existent romantic relationship between Nastasha Lyonne and The Thing, and Paul Walter Hauser’s Mole Man, who’s role feels superfluous in the overall narrative flow. The opening struggles the most with this squeezed runtime, with the editing being sloppy and chaotic as it clearly squashes a longer-opening featuring Malkovich’s Red Ghost into a montage which only mentions the character.
Ralph Ineson provides the voice of Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps
A longer runtime would also benefit the most wasted aspects of the film, Silver Surfer and Galactus. This film feels like a second try at Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s Galactus saga which was already adapted in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. There, Galactus was translated into a planet destroying space cloud, but here is translated into the giant god in purple armour. The movie sets it apart as well from moving away from the iconic Norrin Radd, comic’s most famous Silver Surfer, in favour of Julia Garner’s Shalla-Ball. The character feels very one note across the film’s runtime, with only one scene giving Garner any material to chew on dramatically. For most of the film, she exists as a visual effects-created antagonist, whose only role essentially serves to herald Galactus and has Human Torch be attracted to her. Ralph Ineson’s Galactus does not serve much better but at least has the booming presence that comes with the design and the voice. The threat of the character feels larger than the actual depiction of the character, his lack of screen time allows him to feel like a bigger threat as his name continues the mind of its characters, but when the character does eventually draw his head into the narrative, he meanders more than wows.
Julia Garner in The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is easily the best out of the team’s cinematic outings, but it is not without its pitfalls. The central four are casted perfectly and are brimming with personality and family charm, but the film doesn’t always blend the world of family drama and superhero action perfectly. Pacing is shaky across the film, and the film falls when dealing with its generic end-of-the-world plot, with paper thin villains. It however promises more to come, with Marvel’s First Family looking to improve in future outings.
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph
Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd star in Ghostbusters
Released in 1984, a film about four down-on-their-luck working class men who start a ghost-catching business to make money became the start of a long-running multimedia franchise. Ghostbusters, the brainchild of star Dan Aykroyd, was originally conceived as a big-budget project featuring Aykroyd and John Belushi as they hunted down supernatural threats across time and space. After the death of the former and director Ivan Reitman joined the project, the film was downsized to the New York-set supernatural-comedy hybrid that it is remembered fondly for now. It is hard to argue against that Ghostbusters was a lightning-in-the-bottle film, releasing in the height of the careers of Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis after their stints on Saturday Night Live, and capturing a moment in Hollywood where blockbusters and franchise cinema were becoming a hot-commodity.
A film that spawned the future of big budget comedy features and set in a very specific time in America which formulated the narrative, and it’s a film that is hard to replicate. The popularity of the film spawned one of the pillars of multimedia merchandising, off the back of the success of Star Wars’ similar turn in 1977, launching the follow-up animated series The Real Ghostbusters in 1986 and its sequel, Extreme Ghostbusters in 1997. The theme song ‘Ghostbusters’ by Ray Parker Jr was a number one hit for 3 weeks, spending 21 weeks on the charts, and starting the trend of film-artist theme song collaborations. Reitman would return for a sequel in 1989, and a third film was eventually cancelled after the death of Ramis in 2014, instead being followed by a reboot in 2016, and a direct-follow-up to the original directed by Reitman’s son, Jason Reitman, in the duology of Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021 and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in 2024. Each subsequent film has been a success of course, successful enough to warrant continuations, but never has the franchise hit the peak of the original, with the first sequel seeing diminishing returns instantly, seeing negative reviews on release and a drop in box office, earning a worldwide gross of $215.4 million against the original’s $282.2 million.
Behind the scenes with director Ivan Reitman
Director Ivan Reitman found success with his collaborations with star Bill Murray in comedies Meatballs in 1979 and Stripes in 1981, with his prior work being the horror-comedy feature Cannibal Girls in 1973. This collaboration between the pair would come as one of the biggest strengths of the feature, as the passion project of Aykroyd became a star vehicle for Murray, playing lead character Peter Venkman. Both star and director’s background in comedy lent the film a comfortable edge in bringing alive the SNL-like comedy that would be absent from the sequels. The ghost-catching business the protagonists would take part in would be a clear spoof on exterminators, capturing the reactions of the everyday working-class man as a blockbuster hero, while also making time for the scientific backdrop that Aykroyd was so interested in. Murray plays his role with deadpan expressions, playing the character as a suave conman who is straightened out by a romantic encounter with Sigourney Weavers’ Dana Barrett. Aykroyd’s Ray Stanz is the fanatic of the group, one of the two scientists that make up the cast as the character reflects the actor’s obsession with the supernatural.
Ramis’ Egon Spengler serves as the straight man of the group, a colder and more serious scientist whose comedic input comes from his own deadpan delivery, a character favoured by Ramis when he co-wrote the script with Aykroyd. Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore joins the central cast late into the runtime and serves as the film’s ‘normal’ man of the group, just a man trying to make money with no scientific backdrop. These four characters are central to the film, using the supernatural elements as a backdrop for situational comedy and allowing the actors to bounce off one another. One of the key sequences to show this is the Ghostbusters’ first job, with the central three bouncing off each other in a still middle shot in the elevator. Once Egon turns on Ray’s proton pack, Egon and Venkman scoot further away from him, eyes raised high as they hope it doesn’t explode. They become startled once they exit the elevator, shooting a maid and her trolly with their proton packs as they scream in terror, and would soon follow that mess with destroying the entire interior of the building they are trying to save from Slimer. Scenes like this showcase the importance of the actors’ heightened performances and situational comedy to the success of the original feature.
Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray in Ghostbusters
Sequels struggled with continuing these comedic threads, with one of the major complaints of Reitman’s initial sequel was that the comedy was made more family-oriented in response to the success of the animated series. The film’s plot was also critiqued for its similarities to the original, replicating the events of the original and resetting most character’s arcs for the beginning of the film. 2016’s reboot made a return to the comedy of the original, but with a swapped gendered cast it became a controversial film on the internet. Both late sequels by Jason Reitman reflected two separate looks at the franchise, as Afterlife took focus as a serious-drama dealing with the brand as almost mythological, and then Frozen Empire being easy to be described as a live-action version of an animated series episode. This mismatch tones led to the former film to be seen as a failure critically and at the box-office, reflecting how far the franchise has strayed from the original. Ghostbusters becoming a franchise has become one of its major weaknesses in some regards.
Socio-political commentary precedes over the narrative of Ivan Reitman’s original feature. The film reflected the new free market that came after the 1970’s financial turmoil that inspired the look of a grungy and uncomfortable New York that preceded over films like Taxi Driver and Escape From New York. The grunge was still present moving into the 1980s, but Ghostbusters reflects the freedom that comes from new President Ronald Reagan’s sweeping reforms, reflecting a feeling of togetherness and comfortability for the working-class people. Reaganomics focused on limited government spending and the removal of state regulations, in favour of a free market provided by the private sector and private businesses. The incoming movement of free markets and mass-consumerism because of so, is reflected in the film commonly, from Ray being unable to think of anything other than a consumerist mascot in The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, or the first encounter with Zuul being in a stocked fridge. Ghostbusters’ draws its comedy from being a satire of American way of life moving into this era, spoofing the academia and intellectuals of the upper classes, governmental officials and tax officers, and the average New Yorker.
Slavitza Jovan joins the cast of Ghostbusters as Gozer
The entire plot is based around the private business owned by the four protagonists, as the governmental official, Walter Peck, played by Willaim Atherton, causes more problems for them. Peck’s involvement in trying to close this private business leads to the ghosts being freed and the eventual freedom of lead ghost antagonist Gozer, marking Peck as the true antagonist of the film. The movie sparks a connection to the new working class that had finally been given a leg over in making money, as the government is incapable of containing the threat, while the private sector comes in to save the day, working for a fee, however. The mayor picks a size in the conflict; paying for the Ghostbusters to save the day once he realises his own backers cannot do much to help and Peck reveals himself to be useless, and after being reminded that his choice will help to save millions of registered voters that could help him stay in power. It is a still cynical look at America, reflecting government officials only doing what is right, only helping the private sector when it benefits them as well.
Removed from this political context, the cynical nature of the first film is lost in the sequels. Ghostbusters II reflects the commercialisation of the franchise at the time, but in less of a spoof and more leaning into becoming a product. It’s central plot around a river of slime appearing in New York which is leading to New Yorkers becoming more hostile to one another feels more cartoonish in nature. There is still political commentary, with the Ghostbusters institutionalised after being outspoken around their ghost encounters, being forced to give up their jobs by the government that looked like fools because of them. They are only brought back into action when the government lift their ban to save the day when the government once again fail in containing the threat, reaffirming the private sector’s importance against governmental bonds.
Behind the scenes of Ghostbusters, designing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
What becomes the problem is that the film is mainly just reaffirming the political context of the original, copying the events and doing them just again, but this time in a less serious manner and with more childish antics. The Ghostbusters are locked away in the first film as well, with the franchise running out of ideas from its first sequel. 2016’s franchise reboot would see the same series of events happening, with governmental officials stopping the now-female Ghostbusters from doing their work, but removing the political context of the original, it just feels like an imitation. Similar could be said with 2024’s Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire, which brought back Peck to threaten the Ghostbuster’s with closure once again, ticking one more of the franchise’s tropes off the list.
In the years after the release of the original Ghostbusters, the popularity of the film’s mise-en-scene would transcend the original context of the film. A film about working class pest controllers who save the day because the government cannot stop the pests, and they save the day for a quick buck, would be remembered for the pop culture toys that hit the zeitgeist. Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the Proton Pack, the Ecto-1 would all become the face of the franchise, morphing the franchise from one which placed comedy foremost other its blockbuster qualities, into one that would market itself as the newest summer action blockbuster. The newest entry, Frozen Empire, seen the entirety of New York encased in ice as an end-of-the-world threat, with almost eight Ghostbusters assembling to stop the threat. The days of the franchise being a simple situational comedy, using ghosts as backdrop, has long gone, but the original film remains as an important touchstone in cinematic history, a lightning-in-a-bottle feature.
Ernie Hudson, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd behind the scenes of Ghostbusters
Nothing is ever truly gone, and like a fossil out of amber, the Jurassic franchise is roaring back into cinemas with another entry. 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion marketed itself as the end of the Jurassic saga, wrapping up the story of the Jurassic World trilogy and bringing back original Park cast Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill. That conclusion didn’t seem to stick for long, as a new film was reported to be written by David Koepp, who co-wrote the original Jurassic Park and wrote its original sequel, in January 2024. A mere month later, a director was announced, and it was reported that most of the principal visual effects-footage had been shot and was ready to go, prepared well-in advance to avoid another COVID blunder, which affected the predecessor.
Describing the director’s role as more ‘shooter than auteur’, director Gareth Edwards had essentially been hired to direct a film that was completely out of his hands. This film was Jurassic World: Rebirth, an attempt at a clean slate for the Jurassic franchise. Set years after the events of its predecessor, Rebirth sees the dinosaurs no longer out free in the wild, but instead re-homed around the equator, the only area habitable to them. The lead characters of the film are a group of scientists and former military who have assembled to obtain samples of three different dinosaurs in hopes of using their DNA to help with heart disease treatments. They find themselves in an abandoned research facility which holds rejected samples of mutated dinosaurs, and a lost family that have shipwrecked onto the island.
Jonathan Bailey and Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World: Rebirth
Director Gareth Edwards has made a name for himself directing franchise films, most notably 2014’s Godzilla and 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the former being another film that was controlled by the studio. Edwards knows how to direct a good-looking feature, the biggest positive that can be applied to this film is that the direction and cinematography is stunning, brimming with colours and looking authentically real. The dinosaur sequences are spectacular of course as well, mainly down to the fact that they have been mapped out and ready to go years in advance. The plot boils down to essentially a fetch-quest, a video game-type narrative where the characters must deal with three separate set pieces, with Edwards essentially bridging the gap between these effects-heavy sequences. The sequences are entertaining, focusing the plot around the Mosasaurus, Titanosaurus and the Quetzalcoatlus, with the primary dinosaur having the most thrilling sequence in the film. There is also a thrilling sequence featuring the T-Rex that is ripped straight out of Michael Crichton’s original novel, one of the only scenes not translated into Spielberg’s original feature.
What lacks in these sequences however is the complete lack of originality. Seven movies into the Jurassic franchise and it really seems like the franchise is running out of ideas, and especially when the freshest sequence is ripped straight out of the source text. The movie’s plot can be described as colliding together the basic plot of Jurassic Park 2 and Jurassic Park 3 together, taking the research expedition and military component of the former, and the lost family aspect of the former. Even the mutant dinosaurs, who seem to be an afterthought in the movie, only making an appearance at the tail end of the film and in the cold open, pale in comparison to the more thought-out inclusion of the concept in Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The attempt to do all three of these plot elements from former Jurassic movies just leaves them all feeling incredibly half-baked, with no side of the film feeling as developed as they should be.
Mahershala Ali in Jurassic World: Rebirth
Scarlett Johansson leads a cast of talented actors, with Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend and Jonathan Bailey joining her on the expedition. All the actors are trying their best with the material they are given, but Koepp’s script pales in comparison to his former work in the Jurassic franchise. The characters are incredibly surface level, engaging in bravado dialogue straight out of the Marvel wheelhouse, and bringing up interesting character details that are instantly forgotten about once they are brought up. Explorations into PTSD, the loss of a daughter and the destruction of a marriage, and the moral ambiguity of what they are doing, as they are essentially selling these health cures for money, are brought up in one scene and then never mentioned again, leaving each character half-baked.
The inclusion of the family as well, played by actors Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda, serves to essentially slowdown the plot, as they enter and exit the movie as a distraction, not serving any narrative purpose. The inclusion of so many named stars also cause the franchise to lose any of the grit or suspense that these movies used to have, deaths are bloodless and mostly off-screen, and the characters exist as superheroes with very little danger facing them. The movie includes various cannon-fodder characters who only exist to die, leaving so many thrilling sequences with very little thrills.
Never has John Williams’ iconic Jurassic Park theme feel so misused and less powerful than in this film, where it’s thrown into every sequence where the movie cannot convey that emotion by itself. The movie opens with a crawl that reminds the audience what the last few Jurassic World movies kept stating, that people are growing tired of dinosaurs. What it is accidentally proving is how tired and formulaic these Jurassic movies have become, even when a talented franchise director like Gareth Edwards goes behind the camera, it still comes out as the same film you have seen so many times before. The same set pieces, the same character archetypes, even the same dinosaurs, this franchise is going the way of the dinosaur.
Genuine human kindness stands out as rebellious in the modern day, where the news focuses on so much death, war and attempts to divide us. It is normal to be cynical and cruel nowadays, but director James Gunn’s newest feature, Superman, puts a spotlight on the belief that being generally kind and heartfelt is the way we should be. In the past decade where the Man of Steel was depicted as an unfeeling, God-like being through the films directed by Zack Snyder, it is fundamentally refreshing to see a film which depicts Superman as the closest yet to Richard Donners’ original big screen take.
Gunn’s newest big screen depiction of the Man of Tomorrow follows the hero as he sees his worldview and his public status tested when he saves lives in the middle of an ongoing war. When uncertain truths are revealed about his past, the hero sees himself coming into conflict with fellow heroes, the United States government and his archnemesis Lex Luthor.
David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan in Superman
Gunn has worked with ensembles throughout his career in the superhero genre, with his four previous features all following superhero teams, namely the Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. Crafting a solo feature is a different task for the director, and the extended cast for this film could have been a detriment for sure, but this talented director always makes it work.
This film feels the closest a director has come to capturing the tone and feel of an actual comic book, the film opens in media res, the characters already exist, and the origin stories are skipped, like the audience has opened a comic book in the middle of a story arc. All the characters have important roles to play in the film, but they all enter and exit the movie as the story requires of them, feeling like a Superman story with crossovers. Starting this new cinematic universe with the superheroes already active and the world being built around that really makes it stand apart from the competition. The film does get bogged down in some exposition in the first act, but the movie really functions perfectly without any need for justification of the events or the characters. The film also just retains its character-focus by the plot being so focused on the conflict between Lex and Superman.
Nathan Fillion in Superman
David Corenswet is the newest actor to take on the iconic role of Superman. He is the linchpin of this film, the most important character who dictates the tone of the film, and Corenswet impresses as the character. The film reflects the light-heartedness and the earnest portrayal of the character, giving Corenswet so much opportunity to mark out a unique take on the character that sets him apart from both Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill. He is a hero who believes in love, kindness, the fundamental ability for people to change and the protection of all life, to the point that so many action sequences in this film pay specific attention to the hero saving people and protecting them from harm’s way. The hero is charming and warm, brimming with personality and he uplifts the film’s cheesy nature into feeling hopeful and bright.
David Corenswet’s Clark Kent in Superman
The actor also just has magnificent chemistry with co-star Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane. Brosnahan delivers a levelled Lois Lane performance, depicting the character as troubled and untrusting, but so filled with the need to seek the truth. She is a realist, which clashes with Superman’s look at the world which may seem naïve to an audience, but is proven right through the character’s actions.
Nicholas Hoult portrays the film’s lead antagonist, Lex Luthor. Luthor is among the most iconic comic book movie villains, portrayed throughout the decades by many talented actors with vast different takes on the character. Hoult portrays the obsessive nature of Luthor, he is cold and calculating, treating his staff terribly, the only passionate speeches from him comes from talking about killing his archenemy. His character acts as an anthesis to the message portrayed by Superman, he represents the realistic evil of humanity, his xenophobic and cruel side opposing the kindness and emotional nature of the protagonist. His role also serves to configure the movie’s political analogy with the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict, with the waring nations that Superman takes part in being a clear analogue to this real-world conflict. The film takes a clear side in the conflict and critiques the American government and the upper class for the role in the conflict through Lex, a hard stance that is a surprise for a mainstream Hollywood film.
Nicholas Hoult’s villainous portrayal of Lex Luthor in Superman
Corenswet, Hoult and Brosnahan are joined by a massive cast of supporting actors who range in importance. Skyler Gisondo, Wendell Pierce, Beck Bennett and Mikaela Hoover serve as the team behind the Daily Planet newspaper, each having a small but memorable role in the film. Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced and Edi Gathegi portray the heroes that make up the ‘Justice Gang’, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mr Terrific respectively, three heroes that serve as supporting players in action sequences and as moral support. The characters serve as more of a taster for what’s to come, as a promise of more solo adventures in this new universe. Action sequences serve as a major highlight of the film, as Gunn makes the use of the heroes’ wide variety of powers to convey interesting and unique action sequences. Filmed on IMAX, Gunn’s direction consistently amazes and surprises, shooting flying sequences so dynamically and with head-on shots that remind of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick.
A common critique of the Marvel films is their flat directions, commonly grey and dull in colour with very little stylistic flair. Gunn’s work has always stood out as visually interesting, and Superman is his most visually distinct yet. The film is colourful and bright, matching the tone with a direction which looks like it was ripped out of the comic pages. Gunn’s work is also commonly critiqued for its tonal mismatches, the mixture of both comedy and emotional moments leads to one overpowering the other. This film feels like his most tonally consistent film, the emotional beats land and the comedy feels contained and concentrated, and there is still a sizeable number of jokes that for everyone that doesn’t land, there will be one that does. The music needle drops are also very contained and focused to only two in this film, compared to the cohesive soundtracks of the director’s previous work.
Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced and Edi Gathegi in Superman
Composers John Murphy and David Fleming’s score puts a great end stone to the film’s style, marking a hopeful film with an equally hopeful score, remixing John Williams’ original Superman score into something unique and vibrant. The electric guitar marks a connection to punk rock, connecting to Superman’s central vision, that human kindness and empathy is the true punk rock.
David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan soar in Superman
On the week that the Man of Steel flies again onto our cinema screens, through the release of director James Gunn’s take on the character, it is only natural to look back on the cinematic history of the character. It has been twelve years since the last cinematic version of the character debuted, with Henry Cavill taking on the role in 2013’s Man of Steel, returning to play the character in 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2017’s Justice League, 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League and finally 2022’s Black Adam. The character is synonymous with the superhero genre, adapted to live action so many times at this point that he, Batman and Spider-Man would be argued to be the faces of the genre, but pre the superhero boom of the 2000s, Superman would start any interest at all in the genre in the late 70s, where Christopher Reeve donned the suit for the first time and made people take the superhero film seriously.
George Reeves portrays Superman
Christopher Reeve was not the first actor to don the cape, Kirk Alyn was the first actor to play the character in 1948’s Superman serials, and George Reeves would play the character in 1952’s Adventures of Superman television series, but Reeve has easily become the most iconic take on the character. Released in 1978, Superman the Movie was marketed as the film to make you believe a man could fly, marketing the film as almost much of a science-fiction film as it was a superhero feature. What is today a well-known origin story that has been done to death in superhero cinema, was fresh and new at time of release.
The film saw the first cinematic depictions of the destruction of Superman’s home-planet, Krypton, his childhood in Smallville by earth parents Ma and Pa Kent, his debut as Superman, starting his work as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent and romance with Lois Lane in Metropolis, and his first showdown with long-time nemesis Lex Luthor. All conveyed across a two-hour runtime, the movie is almost a filmic epic in the amount it conveys to its audience but doing such a herculean task with such confidence in front and behind the camera.
The cover of Action Comics #1
Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1938 for Action Comics #1, Superman is essentially the modern superhero, he is the archetype for every superhero that would follow on the publishing scene. It is because of this character that so many tropes of superhero media have since become typical, Superman wears a costume, has a masculine physique, uses a codename and makes the use of extraordinary powers. At the time of the release of the film as well, Superman had the largest array of powers possible for a comic-book character, not simplified for a long time after the release of the film.
The superhero comic was popular in the 1940s as war propaganda but soon became to slip in popularity after the world returned to normal, and this was when comics became sillier in nature. The general depiction of comics to the general masses would be based on the adaptations of the work, and mainly that would be from the Adam West-starring Batman television series, and its accompanying film in 1966. The material reflected the camp that was contained in superhero narratives at the time and changing that general audience perspective would be the focus going into Superman the Movie.
Director Richard Donner behind the scenes with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder
Director Richard Donners’ goal when creating the film was to take the material seriously, to formalize audiences with a world that was now like their own. Lex Luthor would be reinvented from the original evil scientist that was found in the comics, to a rich businessman which would soon become the most iconic take on the character. The titular character’s father would die from a heart attack in an early scene to humanize the god-like character, showcasing that even with all these powers the hero could still not save everyone. The film reinvented Krypton as a planet of coldness and cruelty, from the world that had just advanced past humanity from the source text to one made up of crystalline structures and resembled a dystopia. Superman’s connection to Krypton would also be emphasized more throughout the film, with this feature being the first time the symbol on the character’s chest would be the same as the family crest that his Kryptonian parents would use.
Christopher Reeve’s depiction of the Man of Steel would also become the blueprint on how to depict the character; his portrayal still being held to high regards after all these years. The actor would portray the two sides of the characters as two separate roles, Clark Kent would hold himself with a nervousness, a man with a large mass but looked small because of his bumbling nature, he delivers his lines with such pause and intentional bewilderment that he stands apart from the stoic Superman. The actor holds himself large and strong as Superman, his mass on full display as he portrays the character’s genuine warmth and happiness, the character was synonymous with the superhero genre because he is kind and comforting, a friend and not just a protector. The film depicts him wearing a clearly silly costume, but the film takes the hero seriously through Reeve’s performance.
Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve as Lois and Clark in Superman (1978)
Margot Kidder would portray the love interest of the feature, intrepid reporter Lois Lane, who first appeared in Action Comics #1 as well. She brings an ambitious spark to the character that was needed, sharing fantastic chemistry with Reeve in what would become one of the most iconic romantic pairings in cinema. After an interview between the costumed hero and the reporter, he takes her on a flight across the world, selling the wonder of the concept but also marking a wonderful connection between these two characters. The film made time for romantic beats, which would become a staple of the superhero genre moving forward. The superhero genre is a hybrid genre in nature, with Superman becoming the blueprint for so, blending the worlds of romance, action, science-fiction and comedy through the role of Lex Luthor.
Gene Hackman portrays the hero’s archnemesis, who first appeared in the source material in Action Comics #23 in 1940. Depicted as the opposite of the text’s hero, Lex represents ego, the human’s reaction to aliens and superpowers, and the attempt of supremacy over those superpowers through intellect. When first introduced, the character was a one-off antagonist who was a villain because he blamed the hero for the loss of his hair, depicted as a mad scientist. Hackman’s portrayal of the character stays true to some of the silly renditions of the character but updates him to a businessman whose whole plot revolves around money. The character would soon develop into a ruthless businessman and politician in the source text after the release of the film, fuelled with racial discrimination for the alien immigrant main character. That fundamental change would be fuelled by this very film, where Hackman stands out from the crowd as a humorous villain who opposes the kindness of the lead.
Gene Hackman as antagonist Lex Luthor in Superman (1978)
The effects of the time were groundbreaking, there is a reason why the film was marketed with the promise of making you believe, the flying sequences are excellent. The film’s final act builds on a crescendo as Superman flies around the world multiple times to reverse time and save Lois from her fate, ending on a triumphant moment and a showcase of the hero’s impressive powers. The franchising possibility would also be threaded throughout the film, setting up the promise of future films through comic book references and easter eggs that would become important to the genre. The movie would begin with the imprisonment of classic Superman foes General Zod, Ursa and Non by the Kryptonian high council. The characters would return to the film’s sequel as the main antagonists, a film that was originally to be shot alongside the original film, but was paused 75 percent of the way through, only being resumed once the original was a success. Franchises would become the backbone of the superhero genre coming into the 21st century, and turning Superman into a 2-film epic would be the first sight of that.
Christopher Reeve faces Terrence Stamp’s Zod in Superman II, Sarah Douglas and Margot Kidder also star
Superman would become the first major hit of the superhero genre, and the first one to become a franchise. Released in 1980, Superman II would follow up on the tease of General Zod, a character who was a smaller villain in the comics, debuting in Action Comics #283 in 1961, and only becoming one of Superman’s biggest foes in response to his role in the sequel film. The film would continue the serious take on the character, with hints of camp, but would start a downwards trend for the franchise, with original director Richard Donner leaving the project. Followed by two sequels, Superman III in 1983, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987, the franchise saw diminishing returns in both box office and critical reviews. The serious tone was completely replaced by camp and a silly tone, returning the superhero genre to the angle it was seen as from before the release of Superman the Movie. The genre would only come back to prominence with the release of Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989.
Even with the diminishing returns with the franchise, Superman the Movie still stands as an important piece of cinema. With the boom of the superhero film with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the continuing cinematic importance of Superman, it is the blueprint for an entire genre and stands as one of the sole reasons why the character still stands the test of time.
The horror genre has consistently been a genre that has moved with the times, from the slashers of the 70s, the torture porn and found footage sub-genres of the 2000s, and the current trend of socially conscious horror spearheaded by A24 and Blumhouse. Tracking the movement of the genre, below are a list of the most important films to the genre:
Psycho (1960)
Janet Leigh in Psycho
Sometimes dubbed as the first slasher film, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was a trailblazer of a film at its time of release. Based on the 1959 novel of the same name by author Robert Bloch, the film centres its narrative around embezzler Marion Crane, escaping from her job with a sum of money and hiding out on the road, leading to an encounter with Norman Bates, a seemingly normal man who runs the Motel she stays at. After a worrying encounter, the film shifts focus to Crane’s friends and family as they attempt to track down the woman and find out what happened to her. Director Alfred Hitchcock is easily one of the most influential American filmmakers, and this can be easily argued as his most influential feature. In a horror landscape where the antagonists were commonly monsters, vampires and creatures from fantastical regions, Psycho finds its horror in a rare case of humanity, setting up a long running obsession with Hollywood filmmaking around serial killers. Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins, would become the central figure of realistic horror, a man who can put on a façade to remain in society, but behind closed doors is a murderous killer with sexual impulses. Shocking subject matter for-the-time perpetuate across the feature, as star Janet Leigh is murdered in a violent manner, watched by both the voyeuristic Norman Bates and the audience in his point-of-view. The sudden death of Leigh would have been a shock to audiences, killing off the biggest star early on the feature and shifting focus was very groundbreaking material.
This comes with some of the earliest uses of the point of view shot for the genre as well, as the film puts you into the perspective of the killer, a slasher trope that would become synonymous with the genre come the release of Halloween in 1978. Norman Bates has also seen himself become a topic of discussion through Freudian psychoanalysis, with his close relationship to his mother and his need to keep her alive even after death, by perceiving her body and dressing as her, connecting him to the Oedipus Complex. He cannot separate himself from his mother and develop sexually away from this root, and this can be seen commonly across future slashers, most noticeably Jason Voorhees. Though received with mixed reviews at the time of its release because of its graphic subject matter, Psycho was rightfully praised in the years to come. It has slowly been regarded as the importance touchstone it is in the movement of the horror genre from Universal Monsters and ghouls to the realistic killings to come in the 70s with the slasher genre.
After his passing in 1980, Psycho opened the door to join its slasher family in becoming a franchise of its own, spawning three sequels, a remake, a TV film and a TV series.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Various actors dressed up as zombies in Night of The Living Dead
Shot through black-and-white photography to save budget, Night of the Living Dead would be the first film by director George A.Romero. Although only referred to as ‘ghouls’ across the runtime of the film, this first film by the influential director would become the blueprint for the rise of the zombie sub-genre. The film follows a group of survivors trapped in a farmer house as they attempt to survive the flesh-eating undead that are trying to break inside. Zombies had existed in popular culture before the release of this film, but commonly only linked to voodoo and black exploitation films, where the zombie was linked to magic rather than being distinctly undead. Though it is never explained in depth in the film how the zombies come to be, Night of the Living Dead is important in introducing many tropes that would become synonymous with the monster in the coming years.
The need to feast on flesh and specifically brains, the monster being undead and being able to bite and infect others and the concept of the slow-walking zombie all come from this important feature. Even the concept of man being the true villain in these apocalyptic scenarios come from this film, as the true drama comes from inside the farmhouse as the survivors turn on each other to survive. Though cast without skin tone in mind, the film would become equally important through it being one of the first horrors features to feature a black leading man in Duane Jones. The film ends with its lead being gunned down as the white mob confuses him with the zombies, connecting Romero’s zombies back to race. Many critics have compared the death of the film’s lead as like the at-the-time recent death of Martin Luther King Jr, and the current events of the civil rights movement, taking a critical look at racism in America by showcasing the white mob’s summarisation that a black man must also be a monster.
The film would launch Romero’s storied career with the horror genre, as he would return to make various other zombie features. His two initial follow-ups, 1978’s Dawn of the Dead and 1985’s Day of the Dead, served as continuing the narrative parallels to real world issues through the zombie sub-genre. The films tackled the current rise of consumerism, sexism and took on criticisms of the American armed forces. Before his death in 2017, the director also released three more, 2005’s Land of the Dead, 2007’s Diary of the Dead and 2009’s Survival of the Dead.
The Exorcist (1973)
Linda Blair in The Exorcist
Audiences left their local cinemas in 1973 calling The Exorcist one of the most terrifying films of all time, as it became synonymous with restrictions, namely in the United Kingdom, and for being seen as highly offensive by the Catholic Church. The film, directed by William Friedkin, and written by original novel writer William Peter Blatty, follows the possession of a young girl as her mother attempts anything to get to the bottom of what is wrong with her daughter. When general practices and science fail to help her daughter, she begs a disillusioned priest, a man struggling with his own faith, to come help her and exorcise the demon from her daughter. The aspect of The Exorcist that stands out the most from its competitors at the time is how human and relatable it feels, it blends the worlds of horror and drama perfectly. The horror of the picture comes from the home, as a woman desperate to save her own daughter nearly drives herself mad trying to protect her daughter in the new home and city she lives in. The priest does not believe in his own god, as he must come to terms with forgiving god for the death of his mother to save this little girl from harm.
The movie is slow and dramatic, almost proving the horror genre as something to be watched by critics and not something schlocky and played for audiences, as the film became the first horror to be nominated for Best Picture. The film is also deeply religious in its exploration of faith versus evil, Father Karris may struggle with his faith in the end, but it is only through his sacrifice after devoting himself back to the church, does good win the day. Even after getting her memories removed of her possession, the young Regan sees comfort in the Christian cross. Popularising a new horror sub-genre in the possession film, the film launched the concept of exorcisms back into the public consciousness and led to various calls to Churches to attempt to do them for real. Exorcism films would soon become a staple in the genre, with various haunted house features and possession films following the release of The Exorcist, namely The Amitytville Horror in 1979. The genre remains relevant today, with the Conjuring franchise being one of the most popular franchises in the 21st century, spawning an entire cinematic universe based around possession and exorcisms.
William Peter Blatty would follow his original novel with a sequel, known as Legion. The film sequel would not follow this however, returning Linda Blair as Regan as she takes on the demon again. Exorcist 3 would adapt the novel’s sequel, as the storyline would shift to a demonic serial killer being hunted by police officers. Two prequels would follow, and a direct sequel to the original was released in 2023.
Halloween (1978)
Nick Castle wears the mask of The Shape in Halloween
There were slasher films before the release of John Carpenter’s Halloween, namely aforementioned Psycho, but also Black Christmas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974, but it is hard to argue against the fact that Halloween pioneered the sub-genre into the 80s. Following the killer Michael Myers, who murdered his sister as a child on Halloween night, the film follows the killer as he escapes from the mental hospital and travels back to his hometown of Haddonfield. There, Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, must survive the night while being stalked by this infamous killer. A low budget film that wowed audiences and set Carpenter onto a storied career in the world of horror, the film is essentially a blueprint for the slasher features that would come into the 80s and 90s. Namely, there was a slew of slashers based around certain national holidays after the release of the film, from Friday the 13th, to Prom Night, or even My Bloody Valentine. The final girl originated from this feature, with many slashers favouring to end with their killer bested by the holy girl, a final survivor who survives not just by her wits but her abstinence. Laurie is responsible in the film, she does her schoolwork, babysits the neighbour’s child, and even agrees to takeover her friend’s babysitting job when she goes to meet her boyfriend. Sex is something that is shown to be frowned upon by the film, people become victims to the killer because they have had sex.
The opening scene is young Michael killing his sister while she is naked, preferring to have sexual activities than to look after the young boy. The slasher film refers to abstinence as something to up your chances of survival, with the killer out for any who doesn’t abide to that rule. Though used in Psycho as well, the film makes the use of various point-of-view shots as the audience looks through the eyes of Michael and welcomes the genre to one of their first marketable masked slashers. Carpenter’s score establishes a central theme for the killer, linking a connection between music and the genre, establishing a killer’s theme would be important. The success of this film would spark a resurgence in the 1980s, with masked killers hunting sexually promiscuous teenagers being all the rage for the horror genre.
The slasher genre only becomes more popular with the continuation of its famed killers in sequels and franchising. Michael would soon become the face of a franchise that has spawned 13 separate features, with its latest feature being only in 2023.
Alien (1979)
Yaphet Kotto, Sigourney Weaver and Veronica Cartwright in Alien
During the slasher era of the 70s, where the horror genre was focused on small-town horror and killers wearing masks, the film that stood out more was Ridley Scott’s alien horror. Blending the world of science fiction and horror, the film stood out for its blending of genres, essentially grafting the slasher film into a galactic setting. The film follows a group of the spaceship Nostromo, as they investigate a mysterious alien planet and come face to face with a dangerous extraterrestrial. Clearly inspired by the likes of Jaws by Steven Spielberg, the film made the use of suspense as the alien picks off the survivors one by one, hiding the full design of the alien until the film’s climax.
Sigourney Weaver plays Ellen Ripley, who essentially serves as the film’s final girl, as she outwits the alien and survives past the stronger men to win the day, and the film continues the signature sexual exploration around the horror genre. Sexual imagery appears across the film, with the titular killer laying eggs in its victim’s chest as a face hugger, attaching on its victims’ face. The alien will then pop out of its victim’s chest once born and once separated from its host will form into an adult. This life cycle marks a comparison to phallic imagery, as the face hugger is like rape, while the chest burster compares itself to forced birth and appears phallic in structure. The combination of the worlds between science fiction and horror marks as a blueprint in how to make these sci-fi-horrors, grafting horror narratives and tropes into the mise-en-scene of science-fiction. After the release of this feature, a wave of science-fiction features that blended with horror became a promising trend, with the release of films like The Abyss in 1989.
Alien would spawn itself a franchise, spawning seven features in total. Across these seven features, the films would bridge the world between not just science-fiction and horror, but also action as well. Crossing over with its neighbouring Predator franchise, saw the release of Alien Vs Predator in 2004 and Alien Vs Predator: Requiem in 2007, which served as a bridge between horror, science-fiction, action and adventure features.
Scream (1996)
Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and Jamie Kennedy in Scream
Director Wes Craven joined the slasher boom in the 80s, with the release of his own supernatural slasher, A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. Come the turn of the 90s, slashers were becoming stale, stuck with releasing the same franchises again and using the same tropes that Halloween pioneered. Craven attempted something different with his return to Elm Street, with the release of 1994’s Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. The director crafted a meta-narrative, where the film existed in the real world where the movies exist, as returning actors instead play themselves rather than their franchise characters, and Craven appears himself in the film. This would essentially be a proof-of-concept for the release of 1996’s Scream, a film that can be pointed out for being responsible for the revitalisation of both the horror genre and slashers themselves. The film follows Sydney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, and her high-school friend group after they must survive a costumed serial killer known as Ghostface, who attempts to murder the friend group on the anniversary or the death of Sydney’s mother.
The opening of the film showcases what the 90s was all about for horror features, as Drew Barrymore is quizzed on her horror knowledge while over the phone with Ghostface, only murdered because she misremembers Jason as the killer in the original Friday the 13th. What made Scream stand apart from its slasher peers is that the characters are like the audience, they know the tropes of a genre that had nearly been around for 20 years at that point, and they know horror trivia. The characters make references to various slashers, there is an entire scene where Randy comments on how to survive a horror film, stating that they cannot drink, have sex or take drugs. Various cameos appear across the film, from Linda Blair from The Exorcist to a janitor who wears an outfit like Freddy Krueger. When the killers are finally revealed, Syndey shouts at them for seeing too many movies, which the two killers reject, featuring a postmodern commentary on violence in the relation to film. Postmodernism refers to works that are aware of other art, self-referentially reflecting other works of art. This self-referential humour is very much part of modern cinema at the time as well, with films like the Marvel movies commonly making jokes about other films, with Spider-Man: Homecoming featuring references to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for example. In response to the release of Scream, the slasher film became a staple of the horror genre once again, with a prominent number of features featuring teenage high-school victims, self-referential humour and masked killers once again. From I Know What You Did Last Summer to Urban Legend, the slasher film was back and had a new film to base themselves off.
Each subsequent film would continue its meta-commentary on the genre, Scream 2 referring to sequels, Scream 3 to trilogy-closers, Scream 4 to the torture porn and remake era of the 2000s, and Scream 5 and 6 to franchises and legacy sequels.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Heather Donahue in The Blair Witch Project
Moving into the early 2000s, the horror genre was looking for a new cash-cow, a new sub-genre that would take the cinema going audience by storm, and that came in the release of The Blair Witch Project in 1999. Following a group of three college students that travel to Burkittsville, Maryland, the group are hoping to shoot a documentary about the local legend of the Blair Witch. Once they got lost in the woods, the legend becomes real as they must hope to survive. The film stood apart from its modern horror siblings because of its use of found footage, a term referring to a film which presents its filmmaking as camera-recorded footage that has been found and played for the world, commonly recorded through point-of-view shots of a character’s own camera. There had been found footage before released by Hollywood, most noticeably 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust and 1998’s The Last Broadcast, but the success of Blair Witch was unfathomed. Made for a minute budget, the marketing of the film allowed it to become a massive success, still one of the most profitable films to this day.
The film was one of the first features to make use of the blossoming marketing potential of the internet, launched an associated website which marketed the film as a true event, with each character in the film using the real actor’s names. The potential of crafting a film which could be made for a very small budget and see a return majorly from that, sometimes doubling and tripling that budget, was a rich promise that Hollywood took upon instantly. The late 2000s and early 2010s seen a sudden insurgence of low-budget found footage films, especially after the success of Paranormal Activity in 2007, an indie film that had the backing of Steven Spielberg. Movies like Cloverfield, V/H/S and The Last Exorcism became the newest moneymaker for the horror genre, rising to spawn franchises of their own, like Paranormal Activity.
The Blair Witch Project would become a franchise of its own with the release of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 in 2000. This film would dodge the found footage aesthetic and instead aligned itself with the metatextual commentary of Scream, featuring the original film as a film-in universe of the film’s narrative. 2016’s Blair Witch would return the franchise back to it’s found footage roots.
Saw (2004)
Cary Elwes in Saw
Found footage features were not the only new wave that came during 2000’s Hollywood filmmaking, as the release of the low budget feature, Saw in 2004, opened the door to the ‘torture-porn’ sub-genre. A sub-genre that emphasised the gross-out parts of horror, the sub-genre would indulge in all the blood and gore you would expect from horror but make that its entire focus. Rooted in the so-called ‘splatter films’, films which rooted their narratives around violence, gore, nudity, sadism and mutilation, it was very common for films that were labelled ‘video nasties’ in the United Kingdom. What stands these films apart from the modern ‘torture-porn’ is the difference in release, the original era of splatter films were independent features and commonly released on home video, while the modern variation had bigger budgets and widespread releases from major movie studios.
Saw is relatively tame compared to the franchise it would become, and for the films it would spawn. A low budget feature, the film was made after the screening of a short film that depicted on scene from the longer feature and was written by the duo of Leigh Whannel and James Wan, who would direct the feature. The film follows a non-linear timeline, as two men wake up in a rotten bathroom with no memories of how they got there and how they relate to each other. As they attempt to survive, the police hunt down the notorious Jigsaw killer, after a trial of bodies are found. The Jigsaw Killer serves as the original prototype killer for these films, a killer who places people in traps where they must take part in giving themselves immense pain to survive, in hopes of the victim becoming a better person. The violent nature of these films reflected the mood of the American people at the time, fresh of the heels of 9/11. Films became more violent and serious in tone, torture porn reflecting the fear of the time, reflecting the fear of the unknown and the distrust between one and another. Films which depicted people inflicting pain on each other to the most severe level was the big new thing, and the mistrust of society is palpable. Films that followed Saw emphasised this further, as films like Hostel explored the fear of foreign countries and people to American society, and the racism that comes from that.
Hostel was the first film that was labelled as a ‘torture-porn’ film, but this name was eventually referred to Saw. Saw has since become the poster child of the 2000’s torture-porn era of horror and has also lived past the death of this genre. With the 10th film released in 2023, the Saw franchise has staying power unlike any other.
Get Out (2017)
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out
Coming into the 2010s, the horror genre had morphed again away from the torture porn and found footage of the 2000s and had opened the door to a new brand of horror. When released in 2022, franchise restarter Scream gave a name to the new trend of horror features as ‘elevated horror’, and it could be argued that the success of Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out in 2017 has led to the new trend of ‘socially conscious horror’. Get Out follows a young black man, played by Daniel Kaluuya, who drives to meet his new girlfriend’s parents, only to find worrying signs about the family. The film features various social and political commentary on America throughout its runtime, exploring life for African Americans and how white Americans can make their life hard even if they are not meaning to. It features a full spectrum on commentary, not just exploring the harm of racism, but the pain that can be caused when people turn a blind eye to racism, claiming to be an ally when they are not committing to change. Even the girlfriend, who would commonly be the one good person in the family or a white saviour, is revealed to be the worst member of the family, dating black men as trophies rather than seeing them as a romantic interest.
Off the back of this film, Peele would make two follow-up films, Us in 2019, and Nope, in 2023, two films that continue thematic messages in their narratives. Get Out would not be the first successful socially conscious horror to be released in the decade but would be the one that would become the most successful, being one of the only horror films to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2018 Academy Awards. This success would inspire a movement of new features that would commonly be released from independent studios Blumhouse and A24. The former would become a famous film distributor moving into the 2020s, spawning various features that would highlight the horror medium of the modern day. Whether its commentary on the greed of the upper class in films like Opus in 2025, criticism of enforcing one’s beliefs on others in films like Heretic in 2024, or exploring grief in Midsommar in 2019, horror has now focused upon making social comments through its horror.
Amie Donald stars as the titular character, with voice work by Jenna Davis in M3GAN 2.0
3/10
No one could predict the success of Blumhouse Pictures’ surprise smash hit that was M3GAN, a killer robot film that went viral on social media app TikTok after a clip was posted of the title character dancing before her next kill. It is known since that the movie was reshot after becoming an internet sensation, transforming itself from a R-Rated feature to a PG-13 that would allow those that made the film viral to see the feature for themselves.
Internet popularity allowed the film to become a success, audiences witnessing a homage to films like Child’s Play or even The Terminator, as a killer robot terrorised its creator and the child she was assigned to help, and featuring enough campy and sensational moments across its runtime to match the internet sensation it became. As frequently it becomes when a horror feature becomes a smash-hit, its now become time to franchise out this new feature, and here we arrive at M3GAN 2.0.
Allison Williams stars opposite the killer robot in M3GAN 2.0
The sequel follows the events of the original feature, as Cady (Violet McGraw) and Gemma (Allison Williams) attempt to move on after destroying the titular killer. When a new humanoid robot, made by the military using M3GAN’s original code, goes rogue, Cady and Gemma must attempt to rebuild the murderous robot that plagued them in the past in a bigger and bolder new body. The three must now work together to stop a potential AI takeover.
If this plot sounds complicated, it is because it is. M3GAN 2.0 does not really know what it wants to be, and the script by director Gerard Johnstone, based on a story idea from original script writer Akela Cooper, is messy and overcomplicated. This follow-up feature removes the horror elements from the original completely in favour of becoming a straightforward action-science-fiction hybrid, feeling like an overcomplicated mismatch of stories told before, like the James Bond films, the Mission Impossible features and most clearly T2: Judgement Day.
Director Gerard Johnstone described the movement between M3GAN and its sequel to essentially be a homage to Terminator and its follow-up. What works there however just does not work in M3GAN’s sequel, the movement to action leaves so much what worked about the original out the door, the kills are replaced with sloppily edited action sequences, the personal story about dealing with grief as a family through a self-help robot is replaced with a over-the-top heist movie with sets and plots that feel ripped out of a Marvel movie. These elements that are missing seem to be replaced with elements that just double down on the elements of the first film that emphasised the internet sensation it became.
Ivanna Sakhno joins the cast of M3GAN 2.0
The original feature’s charm came from the film’s tonal inconsistency, the film was commonly hilarious and filled with campy sequences, but the film took itself seriously throughout. The sequel’s script, which features only a story-by credit from the original script writer, leans heavily into the camp to a detriment at times. The plot, characters and emotional beats struggle under the weight of a film trying to recapture the original, a film attempting to recapture the viral sensation of its predecessor. Jokes land every second in the film, but the fact that the film is attempting to be in on the joke instead of being inconsistent with that tone leaves the film feeling more ridiculous than camp.
Johnstone’s direction was easily the weakest part of the original feature, the film was not popular because of its technical prowess, and when this follow-up has nothing from the first film that particularly worked, that direction becomes more apparent. Scenes are frequently shot over-lit, especially during the first act where the locations look so mundane and visually comparable to a commercial, and when the film does become an action film in the second half, the action is shot so flatly.
Action sequences are hard to follow, shot in quick cuts where Johnstone fails to hold onto a shot for long, leaving a viewer disoriented and confused with what is happening. It is an action trope that feels like it should have long been removed from the genre after the Bourne franchise and franchises like John Wick reinvented long-take action sequences.
The film has not faired well at the box office, with producer Jason Blum already stating that Blumhouse over-emphasised the franchise potential that M3GAN could have had, and the change of genres seems to be a big point of contention. Doubling down on the campy nature of the film and reverting to an action film rather than retaining the serious tone and the horror elements of the original has served to create a film that seems like a pale imitation of its predecessor. Franchise potential this does not have.
The sports drama has essentially become one of the backbones of the summer movie season, with at least one released a year. Whether it’s a more spirited attempt at exploring the dramatic components like Luca Guadagnino’s tennis feature, Challengers, or a more straightforward underdog drama more focused on the actual sport, like Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo. Joseph Kosinski’s newest blockbuster, F1, falls more closer to Blomkamp’s sports endeavour, following the basic plot structure that would be expected for this genre. What it doesn’t make up for in originality however, it makes up in execution, the film hits the beats but its hard to argue against the tropes when they are done perfectly.
F1 follows aging driver Sonny Hayes, portrayed by Brad Pitt, whose life went ablaze after crashing in a race during his youth. Bitter and aged, he returns to Formula One racing after thirty years to save his old teammate’s underdog team from failure. With the threat of his old friend being removed from leading the team, a potential love interest amongst the team and butting heads with the young talent, the formerly retired driver has his work cut out for him.
Brad Pitt and Damson Idris in F1
This is Kosinski’s follow-up to his tremendously successful Top Gun: Maverick, a film which is certainly not his breakout hit, but is the film that has definitely put his name on the map. What really stood out about that feature was the direction during the dogfight sequences, with star Tom Cruise making each cast member fly the planes for real, and become confident enough to film themselves doing so in camera. It is the closest we have seen to true dogfights on the big screen, and F1 continues this tradition with star Brad Pitt and race-cars.
The central narrative crux of F1 sees the underdog team racing across nine separate races to move their board position from bottom to hopefully gaining the win. Across these nine races, the film impresses in Kosinski’s dedication to making the races feel authentic as possible. Pitt and his co-stars learned to drive similar F2 cars for safety, allowing a mix of stunt driving and actual driving sequences from the stars.
The sequences are absolutely exhilarating, filled with tension and beautiful shots, showed perfectly in a rain-shot sequence and a breath-taking final one-shot from the perspective of Hayes as the camera follows the track in one massive lap.
Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem in F1
Direction is easily the standout of this film, but there is still a lot to enjoy. Brad Pitt puts in an enjoyable lead performance as a suave, mess of a man that he has seemed to master through his years of playing similar characters. His co-star Damson Idris, who is making his big-screen debut here, is perfect for the role of the cocky and egotistical youngster, even if the dynamic between him and lead Brad Pitt seems to be lost sometime when it should be the focus. Javier Bardem makes up for this tenfold however, giving Pitt scenes to bounce off with someone equally as suave.
Kerry Condon serves as the movie’s romantic angle of the film, and she serves a fun, yet cliché part of the film. It is probably the least fleshed-out part of the story, feeling like it is there because it just had to be. The film follows all the cliché quirks these movies follow, the story of a loser becoming a winner, finding romance from a standoffish rival, and then training the next generation to do it after him. It even has the second act low-point where everything goes wrong, and does so twice. These cliches could be a problem to any other film, but when they are delivered in such an earnest and fun way, an audience cannot help but feel entertained. Paired with those racing shots, the film can only leave you wanting more from director Joseph Kosinski.
Five years have passed and we have finally entered the mid-point of the decade, and below we will be ranking some of the most engaging and memorable films of the decade so far:
25) The Father
Olivia Coleman and Anthony Hopkins in The Father
Directed by Florian Zeller
A sad and sometimes uncomfortable film is how you can describe Florian Zeller’s directorial debut, The Father. Starring Olivia Coleman and Anthony Hopkins, the film follows the slow descent of a man living with dementia and how that affects his surrounding family. Based on the director’s 2012 play, La Pere, the film treats the situation with the honesty and care that it demands, but also attempts to convey the true horror that also comes from the situation. Hopkins puts in a dynamic performance in this emotional film, awarding himself with a second Oscar for Best Actor, becoming the oldest actor to ever have won the award, and the film walked away from the 2021 Oscar Ceremony with a second award in winning Best Adapted Screenplay. It is a must-see drama from this decade, lead by two great performances that convey each part of such a devastating topic.
24) Nosferatu
Lily Rose Depp in Nosferatu
Directed by Robert Eggers
1922’s Nosferatu served as the first adaptation of Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel, even in an unofficial sense, with the film eventually being forced to be destroyed after a long legal battle. The original film is one of the most important horror features ever made, introducing long-running vampire features like the fear of light, and dwelling itself in the important film movement of German Expressionism. Robert Eggers’ has long teased his passion in creating a remake of this classic horror, and in 2024, when this film actually became a reality, he did not disappoint. Starring Lily Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hoult and Willem Dafoe, the film explores the attempts by vampire Count Orlok to travel to Germany and reunite with the aue of his infatuation, a woman named Ellen. After releasing such acclaimed critical hits as The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman, Nosferatu continues Eggers’ eye for time-period accurate set design and costuming, adding so much to the original narrative, making key changes to Orlok himself and the dialectic spoken through each character. Rooted in inspiration from the original, the film includes many German Expressionist staples, including the use of darkness and shadows. Eerie moments break from reality, as Orlok’s shadowy hand englufs the entire town, or Hoult’s character seems to float towards a carriage encased in darkness. It can easily be argued as Eggers’ scariest film, but also his most thematically rich, exploring sexual liberation, the vampire as a metaphor for sexual assault and the plague being brought upon by Orlok having a lot in similarity to the COVID-19 pandemic. It slowly became Eggers’ most successful film at the box office, marking a large success for indie’s darling of a director and finally rushing him into the limelight.
23) RRR
N.T. Rama Rhao Jr. and Ram Charan in RRR
Directed by S.S. Rajamouli
The Bollywood film that took the world by storm, its hard to classify RRR as any specific genre. It mixes the worlds of action, comedy, historical drama, musical and romance in such a way that it can only be classified as an epic. Starring N.T. Rama Rhao Jr. and Ram Charan as fictionalised versions of Indian revolutionaries Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju, the film follows their fight against British colonial rule during the era of pre-Indian independence. The film sees these two revolutionaries becoming fast friends, as they battle together through impressive and over-the-top action sequences, fantastically crafted musical sequences and even romantic moments with potential love interests. In what could become a film buckling under its own weight, the epic only excels in becoming everything and more, all wrapped up together with a clear political message against the British Empire. The film’s signature song ‘Naatu Naatu’ won the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Award ceremony, marking this historical film as the first win ever for an Indian film at the Oscars.
22) The Batman
Robert Pattinson in The Batman
Directed by Matt Reeves
Attempting a fresh new take on such an iconic character like Batman is a hard task in the modern day, with so many actors donning the cape and cowl. Following Christopher Nolan’s well-received Dark Knight trilogy is an even more daunting task. Director Matt Reeves, famous for his work with both Cloverfield and the modern Planet of the Apes trilogy, however met these stakes and delivered one of the most unique blockbusters of the decade. Inspired by the works of David Fincher, namely Zodiac and Seven, the film takes the iconic superhero through a crime investigation thriller, as he attempts to track down the serial killer known as the Riddler. Robert Pattinson is the new actor that has put on the batsuit, and he leads a cast that includes big name actors like Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Andy Serkis, Jeffrey Wright and Colin Farrell. Portraying the narrative mainly through the superhero’s eyes and lacking many Bruce Wayne-moments, the film takes its time to dispel its mystery to the audience. Clocking in at nearly 3 hours, the crime-drama is smart and entertaining throughout, keeping its action grounded and realistic, seeing a young Batman being challenged by the own symbol he has created. The movie explores the meaning of vengeance, and how Batman must become a symbol of protection and not one of fear. This marks the film becoming a clear standout in the modern superhero boom, meeting the worlds of superhero action and the world of police procedurals into one cohesive whole.
21) The Last Duel
Matt Damon and Adam Driver in The Last Duel
Directed by Ridley Scott
Director Ridley Scott has been hard at work this decade continuingly crafting new features for audiences, from the middle-of-the-road House of Gucci, to the long-awaited sequel to Gladiator. However, his adaptation of the 2004 book, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by writer Eric Jager, is the feature that stands high amount the rest. Starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and Ben Affleck, the film follows two knights who are drawn into a duel to the death after one is believed to have raped the others’ wife. The film is portrayed in three separate chapters, each displaying the same set of events but from a different characters’ perspective. This smart storytelling device keeps the audience guessing to the true nature of events, and to question their own preconceived notions of an event like this. The film is intense and can be hard to watch at times, dealing with a heavy subject like sexual assault and how that can be normalised in a world structured around men and so focused around misogyny. It is a thematically complex film which seeks to question its audience’s own perspectives, and stands out as a key film of Scott’s later works.
20) Sinners
Michael B.Jordan and Miles Canton in Sinners
Directed by Ryan Coogler
The newest feature on this list, Sinners is director Ryan Coogler’s first big-budget original film. The director gained notable attention after working with notable IP-hits like Creed and the Black Panther duology, and the studio put a lot of faith in the director being able to craft something original and crowd-pleasing. Sinners is that and more, following criminal twin brothers, Stack and Smoke, as they attempt to open a duke-joint back in their hometown of Mississippi Delta, until their night of debauchery is crashed by unexpected guests. Starring an impressive cast like Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Moskau and Delroy Lindo, the film proves the star power of its director through a truly moving narrative. What starts as a movie that emphasises drama and character-work soon become a living nightmare as the horror elements set in, and our characters are plagued by vampires. Action sequences are engaging throughout, and the film has some freakish sequences, but really stands apart is the usage of the vampire. Vampires have long-been used as metaphoric forces for a film’s underlying message, even dating far back as Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel, where it can be gleamed as discussing around sexual liberation and taboo. Sinners sees the vampire become a hivemind, absorbing each person it bites into its web, absorbing their interests and culture until each vampire becomes one-in-the-same. Essentially, the film explores the vampire as a metaphor for cultural assimilation, but does so in an even smarter way. The lead vampire is Irish and is a similar victim to this cultural assimilation, removing any generic takes of white versus black that this could have easily fell back on. Removed from all that however, the film also just serves as love-letter to music and the power of song, delivering some exceptional musical sequences.
19) Past Lives
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo in Past Lives
Directed by Celine Song
A film focusing around what ifs, the concept of the ‘in yun’, the idea that any person you might in life is a potential other life opened for you, another romantic or platonic relationship that could exist in another life. Past Lives, Celine Song’s directorial debut, semi-based on her own life, deals with the concept of what ifs thoroughly. Starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro, the film follows two estranged childhood friends who were separated for 24 years after one emigrated to the states. 24 years later, they come back into each other’s lives, one single and one married, and they reconnect about their shared past and what could have been if they had stayed. This is a romantic-drama that feels honest and true, it involves a love triangle between our three leads, but they are all thoroughly fleshed out people who never outstep their roles or boundaries. A lesser film would demonise one of the characters to bring the estranged friends together but this film doesn’t, instead the film fleshes all three out and what they mean to each other, in this life and any others. The friends mean a lot to each other, they are all they have got to remind themselves of their past and the culture clash they feel now in the United States, but the film questions how important the past is when they have the life they have now. A film that’s bound to make you think about your own life, this honest look into relationships, what ifs and cultural dissonance is one of the decade’s finest romantic features.
18) The Worst Person in The World
Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in The World
Directed by Joachim Trier
The closing film in director Joachim Trier’s Oslo trilogy, following 2006’s Reprise and 2011’s Oslo, August 31st, a trilogy brought together by the shared location at the heart of the features, Oslo. The Worst Person in the World takes place over a 4-year gap, following Julie, a woman lost in both her love life and her work life, as she attempts to take a hard look at herself and make crucial changes in her life. A Norweigan romantic-comedy that essentially subverts all regular tropes of these two genres, the film can be more easily classified as a drama at times, being both hilarious but deeply sad at the same time. It is a brutally honest look at being lost in life, mixing in all the bad and good moments that come from trying to discover yourself and figure out who you want to be in a romantic and professional length. Leading actor Renate Reinsve delivers one of the best performances of the decade, elevating the lost-and-struggling woman trope and filling that character with so much personality and ethos. She won the award for Best Actress at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, sadly missing out on any nomination from that year’s Oscars, a massive snub for one of the most memorable films of the decade.
17) Dune: Part Two
Timothee Chalamet in Dune: Part Two
Directed by Denis Villenueve
Following up David Lynch’s original attempt at the material would have been a daunting task for any big director, but Villenueve made the strong choice to split the original novel’s narrative into two distinct films. Both films released this decade, but Part Two is the clear victor of the two. Dune served as the set-up, familiarising audiences with this vast world and setting up a much action-packed follow-up, and Dune: Part Two delivers this premise masterfully. Starring big names like Timothee Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Zendaya and Austin Butler, the film follows the story of Paul Atriedes, one of the sole survivors of the assassination attempt on the House Atriedes by the Harkonnens. Surviving in the desert of the planet Arakkis, he is believed to be the deity known as Muad’Dib, and gathers an army to take his revenge. Based on the back half of the original Frank Herbert novel, the film ups the scale from the first feature, delivering exceptional action sequences and incredible action sequences. The action and scale are not the only things to be in awe of however, the narrative becomes equally more complex and compelling, as our own hero becomes someone to fear and question. The film explores the concepts of the novel through a true mature lens, exploring cultism, false prophets and revolution in a way that strikes fear in its audience, and really questions who is the true hero of this story. Timothee Chalamet delivers one of his finest performances yet, marking this as having the potential to be this decades’ equivalent to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, equally if Dune: Messiah hits the landing in the coming years.
16) Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse
Shameik Moore in Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson
Sony Pictures Animation challenged animated filmgoers in 2018 with the release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse, a film which buckled the trend of stock studio- animation styles. With its comic-book inspired animation style, and blending multiple different animation types, the film became an instant success and challenged other animation studios to also experiment with new forms of animation. Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse, the 2023 sequel to the Sony Pictures original, doubles up on the impressive animation quality and delivers easily the most ambitious animated film in decades. Starring notable names like Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Daniel Kaluuya and Oscar Isaac among an even more impressive cast, the film follows spider-hero Miles Morales as he bravely steps out of his own universe and into the multiverse in an attempt to stop a villain who may destroy the web that holds the multiverse together. Distinctively more ambitious than its predecessor, in both story and animation, with the film ending on a cliff-hanger to set up its 2027 follow-up, Beyond the Spider-Verse, the film could have buckled under its own massive weight but instead delivers a moving and incredibly impressive story. With scenes that include over 250 animated characters on screen at once, and blending multiple different worlds with visually distinct animation styles, the film cannot help to impress you as you watch. Blending all these parts with a moving story about finding yourself away from home and accepting who you are, and mixing it with comic-book references in a earnest way, the film stands out as a clear highlight of the superhero movie boom.
15) Bones and All
Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell in Bones and All
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Director Luca Guadagnino has had a very busy decade, crafting film after film to commercial and critical success, from Challengers to Queer, the director has definitely made a mark this decade. For this list however, his romantic-horror road film Bones and All takes the cake as his best work this decade. Starring Taylor Russell and Timothee Chalamet, the film, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis, follows two cannibals who fall in love across a road trip through the United States. The film is a notable piece of the director’s work, a film which blends the world between gross-out horror and earnest romance perfectly. Romance is a classic trope of the director’s works, the yearning, the look for connection, the sexual need and the feeling of loneliness purpurates across all his work, but never has it felt more earnest and innocent, even in a film featuring pure horror. The road-trip elements allow the leads to fall in love and meet fresh new characters, with their sense of belonging being connected to their ability to sniff out other cannibals, and also being tested by the dangers that can come from such a way of life. The film is equal parts creepy and earnest, blending the worlds perfectly to craft Guadagnino’s finest film of the decade.
14) The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Following his memorable directorial debut In Bruges, Martin McDonagh delivered another perfect dark comedy in The Banshees of Insiherin. Set in a fictional island off the coast of Ireland, the film features Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two friends whose friendship comes to an explosive end when one decides he no longer wants to be friends, starting a domino effect of consequences between the two. Crafting a screenplay this hilarious and deeply heart wrenching based on such a simple premise is a massive achievement in itself, and its all wrapped up in a narrative about the power of legacy, the fear of loneliness and the fear of death and how we will be remembered once we are gone. Padraic, played by Colin Farrell, is a happy man who is willing to be remembered as just the kindest man in the village, willing to be remembered for his character and not for his work. Colm on the other hand, played by Brendan Gleeson, is bitter for how much time he has left and how little he has done, wishing to be remembered for not his character but his work in music. These two different views could be seen as the director making comparisons across the storied history of Ireland’s divisions, from the Irish Civil War to its long dealing with the Catholic Church, its all important to understanding McDonagh’s perfectly crafted film. Legacy and conflict seem to be one in the same in this film’s world, and that’s a message to think over when viewing one of this decade’s most finely crafted features.
13) Tar
Cate Blanchett in Tar
Directed by Todd Field
Never has a fictional film about a ‘real person’ felt like it was reality more than Todd Field’s Tar. Starring Cate Blanchett, the film follows Lydia Tar, a world-famous conductor, whose life falls apart when she is accused of misconduct. Blanchett delivers one of the finest performances of her career, crafting such an emotionally complex character, the film constantly leaving you guessing who the real Lydia Tar is, the person she is pretending to be or someone even more evil than that. The film seems to deal with the current trend of cancel culture, exploring how a celebrity deals with this trend and attempts to put things right, or double down on their behaviour. It is a film that is so confident in its messaging and narrative that director Todd Field never attempts to guide your hand in thinking a certain way, he just leaves you to make your own judgements about both the identity politics it plays with and the cancel culture it thoroughly explores.
12) Everything Everywhere All At Once
Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once
Directed by The Daniels
Multiverse narratives are the new trend in Hollywood, with franchise features banking on nostalgia of long forgotten cinematic outings in films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Flash. However, the film that really stood apart in this trend was A24’S Everything Everywhere All at Once, a film exploring the multiverse concept in such a human way. Following a Chinese-American immigrant, who after being audited by the IRS, must travel the multiverse and join forces with different versions of herself to stop a mysterious enemy who is seeking to destroy the multiverse. Multiverse stories are a tricky gamble for sure, there is a vast amount of storytelling possibilities but they can threaten to fall apart if there is no cohesive storyline to ground the chaos. The Daniels made the smart decision to ground the narrative in a simple story of mother and daughter reconnecting, and wife and husband learning that there is nothing more important in the multiverse than being together. There are themes of depression, neurodivergence, generational trauma and identity that bring together the chaos of the narrative and the absolute creativity in crafting alternate realities, into becoming a human narrative. The film became a surprising Oscar winner for sure, winning the Best Picture Oscar at the 2023 awards ceremony, alongside best director, best editing and best original screenplay. The film is also equally important for finally marking a accolade in Michelle Yeoh’s career, winning best actress, and revitalizing Ke Huy Quan’s career, winning best supporting actor for a equally memorable role.
11) Barbie
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in Barbie
Directed by Greta Gerwig
Barbie captured a cultural moment on release in 2023, becoming the highest grossing film of the year, marking a big turnout for female audiences for Hollywood cinema. Directed by long-running and proven feminist director Greta Gerwig, the film proves there is still a future in franchise filmmaking, and in a feature that is both a toy commercial and an auteur-driven comedy. Featuring a variety of big performers, the cast includes such big names as Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Michael Cera, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell and Issa Rae. The narrative follows Barbie as she questions her own existence, travelling away from Barbieland to the real world in order to meet her creator and set her right. A hilarious comedy that appeals both to general audiences and the built-in audience from Gerwig’s previous work, the film delivers on being an appealing children’s film but also a product to market the Barbie world to the world. Filled to the brim with engaging themes around embracing female beauty through all shapes and sizes, the film also explores both toxic masculinity and toxic femineity. Through its breakout performance of Ryan Gosling as Ken, the film explores a need for men to stand up and be better, but also deserve to be loved and show love as much as the women that appear across the film. The release of Billie Eilish’s song ‘What Was I Made For?’, which was awarded the Best Original Song Oscar at the 2024 awards ceremony, marks the theming of the film, questioning why you were put on this earth and how you can love yourself with so.
10) Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Paired with Barbie, Oppenheimer became another cultural touchstone of the 2023 Hollywood film season, pushing audiences to the cinema to see both on the same day as a viral trend. The film became the highest grossing R-rated film at the time, grossing nearly 1 billion dollars at the box office, marking a rare time a historical epic became one of the highest grossing films of the year. Christopher Nolan has had a long-standing career across Hollywood, being under the Warner Bros studio partnership for a long-time. After the release of Tenet in 2020, a film which was released during the COVID-19 pandemic and was the centre of a falling-out between the director and his former studio, the director jumped ship to Universal Pictures. Here, he was given free reign and a massive budget to deliver one of his finest features yet. Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus, the film conveys the timeline of events in its titular character’s life. Dramatic recreations of Oppenheimer’s studies, his work at the Los Alamos Laboratory and his eventual security hearing years later. Starring Cillian Murphy in the titular role, the film is one of Nolan’s narratively complex films yet, seeking to understand a man who essentially created death as a weapon. The Trinity Test sequence is one of the most compelling sequences of the decade, making the use of the IMAX filmmaking to its biggest degree. The film doesn’t seek to demonise or victimise its lead character, forcing its audience to decide what they think of the man who created the atomic bomb. The film was a massive success at the Oscars, winning seven of its nominations. This seen the film gain the most notable accolades for Best Picture, Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor for Murphy and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. It is hard to argue against the fact that Oppeheimer could easily be seen as the most influential film of the year 2023.
9) Titane
Agathe Rousselle in Titane
Directed by Julia Ducournau
A French body horror, psychological drama film, Titane is one of the most outlandish picks for this list, but it’s a notable film for the decade. Following a near-fatal car crash, lead character Alexia gets fitted with a titanium plate in her skull, with the film then flashing forward to adulthood. As an adult, she becomes a car model and serial killer, dealing with a sexual obsession with automobiles. Similar to her film Raw, which followed a young girl dabbling in cannibalism, the director brings together a very human film through horror and some of the most disgusting scenes put to film. Through all the disturbing imagery, the film boils down to a simple narrative about a lost woman finding connection with an elderly firefighter who has lost his son. The mixing of absurd body horror and a simple human narrative, marks this as a very memorable feature from this decade.
8) Aftersun
Frankie Coro and Paul Mescal in Aftersun
Directed by Charlotte Wells
Memory is a key component that makes up the backbone of Charlotte Wells’ debut feature, Aftersun. Starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Coro, the film, inspired by Wells’ own childhood, sees an older woman looking back on her final holiday with her father when she was a child, watching her old recorded footage to try and find new meaning. Impressive in nature for a directorial debut, the film conveys its meaning through a mixture of traditional filmmaking and home-video footage. Paul Mescal portrays a struggling father, who the film never explains the fate of, and explores his daughter’s coming of age as she is unaware of her father’s struggles. Through the use of home-video footage, the film marks a connection between memory and technology, and explores the new found perspective people will have on their memories once they have aged with them. The film brings alive a natural look at British holidays, and conveys a child-like look at the world and the ambiguity that comes with the lack of understanding of adult topics when you are a younger age. There is symbolic meaning across the entire runtime of the film, and clues to draw the audience’s own analysis of the film and the eventual fate of Mescal’s character. This makes the film one of the most rewatchable films of the decade.
7) Anora
Mikey Madison in Anora
Directed by Sean Baker
Sean Baker’s film that finally awarded him the Best Picture Oscar in the 2025 award ceremony, Anora is a film of three halves. It begins as a romantic comedy, drawing a connection between a young sex worker and a rich son of a Russian oligarch, and then slowly transforms into a slapstick comedy in its second act. The final act opens the door to the true reality of the situation, matching the realness that comes from Baker’s previous features, and becomes a true drama. Mikey Madison became the first member of Generation Z to win the Best Leading Actress Oscar for her performance as the lead, playing a character which emphasises the positive aspects of sex work, a common aspect of Baker’s works. Baker emphasises lesser-known members of society as his leads, displaying them as three-dimensional characters through his empathetic direction, like transgender characters in Tangerine and single mothers in The Florida Project. Anora sees itself as a chaotic fun time, a comedy filled with entertaining characters and fun set pieces, most noticeably the search to find the oligarch’s son in the second act, turning the movie into an almost Three Stooges situation. Ending on a sad note however, as you learn more about how this comedic situation has actually left a lasting impression on the lead, Anora’s connection to sex as a commodity and a comfort welcomes a deeper message worth exploring.
6) Killers of The Flower Moon
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon
Directed by Martin Scorsese
The Western genre has always been rooted in the promise of freedom in the west, the freedom for the cowboys across the open desert and plains. However, for the Natives of that land, that so-called freedom was instead fear and pain from the people that took their land, and sought to marry trhem and then murder them to claim their riches and land for their own. This is the central narrative crux of Martin Scorsese’s newest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the novel of the same name by David Grann. Sometimes called an anti-Western, the film seeks to squash the beliefs of the American Dream and show the dirty and secret truth to the riches of America. The director has long crafted films about despicable humans and making no attempt to humanise them for their terrible actions, examples being The Wolf of Wall Street and Taxi Driver. The true villain of this film however is the pull of greed, the focus characters are evil because of their greed, they are big pillars of society but make their money through pain and misery, while pretending to be honourable and just. Starring actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, the film narrows the perspective of the book, from the birth of the FBI and the mystery around the killings, to instead being focused from the perpetuator’s perspectives and from the victims themselves as well. The narrow focus allows for a more focused narrative, and allows Scorsese to have a honest discussion about the horrors at play in America’s history, proving why the director is still one of our best working in the industry.
5) Poor Things
Emma Stone in Poor Things
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring actors like Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, Poor Things, based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray, follows Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a young woman who is brought back to life with the mind of a child. Sharing much of its DNA with the classic tale of Frankenstein, the film’s science-fiction roots seek to question the meaning of life and is it sound to try and control death and life. Through its female perspective, the film also explores body positivity and sexual positivity, and how our development can be easily linked to our sexual development. The film broads the line between comedy and science-fiction, with its steampunk and almost German Expressionist set design and backdrops, with Stone’s heightened comedic body performance marking this connection even further. Stone received her second win as Best Actress for this film in the 2024 Oscar award ceremony, portraying the hilarious coming of age character in a way its never been seen before
4) The Boy and The Heron
English Voices of Luca Padovan and Robert Pattinson in The Boy and The Heron
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
A seemingly personal film from director Hayao Miyazaki, and a film that could mark his long-career working in Studio Ghibli, The Boy and The Heron became the winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar in the 2025 ceremony. The film follows a young boy, who moves away after the death of his mother, and in the process of exploring his new home, discovers a strange Heron that takes him to another world. Originally announcing his retirement in September 2013, the director went back on his announcement soon after, and in order to create a film which is seemingly heavily rooted in his own childhood. Continuing a notable trend in his past work with the studio, the film explores the coming of age of its lead character through its fantastical elements, but also has deeper meanings behind its engaging visuals and incredible voice-acting. It explores themes of coming of age mainly through a life plagued by sadness and death, and exploring grief through the eyes of a young child. The signature director of such classic animated features like Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro, marks a potential end to his career with one of Studio Ghibli’s very best.
3) The Substance
Demi Moore in The Substance
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
Following up her debut feature in 2017’s Revenge, a rape revenge film from a feminist perspective, was bound to be a big task for director Coralie Fargeat. Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, The Substance follows an aging Hollywood starlet, who takes a mysterious drug after being fired due to her age, a drug which has the ability to create a younger version of herself. The film made history in the 2025 Oscars, standing out amongst all of its competitors as a body-horror film actually being nominated for Best Picture, and the first horror to do since Get Out in 2017. Directed with expertise from only second time director Fargeat, the film is inspired by the works of Kubrick and Cronenberg, and is edited in such an expressive way, it stays in your mind permanently. The film uses body horror to form some topical discussion around societal standards of female beauty and female aging, taking those pressures to their extreme in some effective body-horror sequences. Demi Moore received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress from this film, marking a moving performance, where the saddest sequence does not come from the squeamish body horror but a woman unsatifised with her appearance when attempting to go on a date.
2) Nickel Boys
Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in Nickel Boys
Directed by RaMell Ross
Based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead, the film was inspired by real-world incidents like the Dozier School for Boys, reform schools which were infamous for their poor treatment of African-American youth. Starring Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson, the film follows an example of one of these reform schools, as two young boys attempt to survive and eventually escape their own school. Continuing a notable movement in this decade of black storytelling in film, the film stands apart by being shot in POV shots for its entire runtime, seeing the pain and anguish through the eyes of our two protagonists. Constantly moving, the film explores untouched moments of American history and seeks to dwell not in black suffering, but learning from those lessons in order to create a better future.
1) Nope
Daniel Kaluuya in Nope
Directed by Jordan Peele
The third film by Get Out-breakout director Jordan Peele, the director took his own spin on the summer blockbuster and the UFO-film. Starring actors like Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun, the film follows horse rancher siblings, who in an attempt to save their business, attempt to capture evidence of an unidentified flying object that appears above their home. Inspired by Spielberg films like Jaws and Close Encounters of The Third Kind, the film takes the Hollywood blockbuster and re-evaluates it within the borders of Peele’s signature use of symbolism and metaphors. The film instead becomes an evaluation of people’s will to seek entertainment and thrills no matter the danger, African-American’s importance to the history of cinema and the abuse that animals can come under when being used as film props. Paired with some genuinely thrilling horror sequences, and the director’s signature style of comedy, the film standouts as one of the decade’s best blockbuster features.
Rhys Reviews 