2018 has been an intense year at the movies, including everything from pulpy detective
fiction to bloody tales of revenge, and all manner of nervy narratives in between. These
are the most disturbing movies of 2018.
Many people know Jonathan Ames as the creative force behind HBO's short-lived comedy/detective
series Bored to Death, but he's also an incisive writer of genre-hopping essays, novels, and
screenplays. For his 2013 novella You Were Never Really Here, Ames crafted a corrosively
bleak piece of detective fiction about a troubled war vet tasked with finding the kidnapped
13-year-old daughter of a U.S. senator.
Indie director and screenplay writer Lynne Ramsay unleashed the slow-burning beast that
was the theatrical version of You Were Never Really Here in the spring, changing very little
in adapting Ames' novel. Instead, Ramsay bolstered the tightly-wound narrative with stylistic
flourishes that ratchet the tension to near-suffocating extremes. The result is a frenzied, bloody,
deeply paranoid fever dream of a film that hammers its way into your head like a nightmare
you won't easily wake from.
Hollywood loves a good tale of teenagers running amok, and joining the ranks of tales of youthful
rebellion is Cory Finley's Thoroughbreds. As far as tales of youthful rebellion go,
Finley's sly, bracingly immersive crime dramedy is one for the ages.
Thoroughbreds follows two upper-class teens who live on opposite ends of the human emotional
spectrum - one incapable of feeling anything, while the other feels everything.
"I don't have any feelings ever."
When they're reunited after years apart, each finds themselves in a position to help the
other right a perceived wrong. That help comes at a high cost for each, and together the
teens hatch a violent plan to take control of their rapidly spiraling lives.
The crime itself plays second fiddle to a focus on the tragically inventive young minds
behind it, played by by Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy, whose performances draw you into
the comic and tragic sides of Finley's drama. It all lends an exacting edge to the film's
final moments, which may leave you giggling while also fighting a nasty chill in your
spine.
Coralie Fargeat's debut feature, set in the sweltering Moroccan desert, is proof that
revenge is not always a dish best served cold. Part survival story and part tale of righteous
vengeance, Revenge unfolds in a blood-soaked narrative that uses the desert setting to
serve up a steamy helping of primal payback.
It begins when pampered American party girl Jen's getaway with Richard is interrupted
after his pals show up early for a hunting trip. The weekend pivots dramatically after
a deplorable act that leads Richard to leave Jen for dead in the unforgiving desert. She
awakes to find herself in the midst of a deadly cat and mouse chase, transformed from object
to avenger, leading to one of the best "hunters become the hunted" narratives in recent memory.
It's brutal, bloody and inventive in ways we can't go into without spoiling the fun.
Just know that the almost dialogue-free action is guided to a final showdown that will leave
you absolutely shaken to the core.
Every so often, we get a scary movie that transcends its genre roots. This year, that
movie is unquestionably Ari Aster's utterly terrifying "family drama" Hereditary. The
less you know going in the better, but we can say that this film begins dark, and Aster
spends the next hour tightening the screws to an unbearable sense of atmospheric dread
before hitting you with one of the most shocking moments in horror movie history.
You'll never see it coming, it'll shock you in ways you've probably never experienced
in a movie, and as impossible as it may seem when it happens, Hereditary then sets about
getting a whole lot darker. If you're tough enough to stick with it, you'll be able to
brag to friends that you made it through one of the best, most disturbing horror films
not just of 2018, but likely of all time.
Unfolding in a beautifully realized alternate version of present-day Oakland, Sorry to Bother
You follows the story of a young black telemarketer who experiences a meteoric rise to success
after uncovering his inner "white voice."
"As always, we’ll be getting that out to you right away."
What follows is a hilarious, often horrifying madcap farce that plays like a mashup of Being
John Malkovich and Get Out, only angrier and more perceptive.
Sorry to Bother You may be chock full of comically inspired moments, but it's absolutely venomous
in its presentation of gender and race relations and economic structures, and it never misses
a beat as it pivots effortlessly from one shocking moment to the next. Director Boots
Riley's cast doesn't miss a beat either, and they keep Riley's politically charged, sci-fi
fantasia grounded in particularly hard-hitting ways — though it may leave you wincing the
next time you see a horse, man.
Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria is a fresh, ferocious, and surprisingly political take on Dario Argento's
bloody, brooding 1977 horror classic. The
newest version of the twisted tale about an enigmatic dancer being tormented by dark forces
actually bests the film that inspired it in both scope and scares.
Suspiria's 2018 version also dances past Argento's original in runtime, clocking in at a hefty
152 minutes, and is filled with welcome narrative additions like character development and actual
dancing. It also tends to avoid blind bloodlust in favor of mood and menace as well, ratcheting
up the tension with fiery flourishes of nightmarish imagery that punctuate the gruesome acts of
violence throughout. Even if you've seen Argento's Suspiria, you won't be prepared for the gritty,
grisly carnage Guadagnino brings to the table, making his take not just one of the most ambitiously
unsettling remakes ever produced, but also one of the best.
Mandy is a film whose atypical revenge narrative certainly fits the B-movie mold even as it
mercilessly transcends expectations, made even better by the fact that Nicolas Cage
plays a man hellbent on avenging the murder of his lover. Somehow, Mandy ended up being
one of the most memorable films in Cage's filmography.
"So what you huntin'?"
"Crazy evil!”
It's what director Panos Cosmatos does within this construct that makes the film so uniquely
disquieting, peppering the action with a murderous cult of hippies led by a folk-singing wannabe
demigod. Throw in a demonic biker gang, hallucinatory narcotics, surrealistic imagery, and enough
fake blood to float an ark, and you've earned a spot in the vaunted "cult classic" canon.
Yes, Mandy is every bit the B-movie it seems, but it's also one of the most visually striking,
vividly realized, and wholly original films of the year, and its unbridled insanity simply
must be seen to be believed. Cage crazier than usual? Crazier than this?
"A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S!"
“Not the bees! Ahhhh! Oh they’re in my eyes!"
"T U V W X Y Z! HUH!"
Now that's saying something.
When author Jeff VanderMeer published Annihilation, it became an instant classic of modern science
fiction literature, and an easy target for a big-screen adaptation. Fans of the book
were even more excited when hearing that Alex Garland was handling that adaptation. After
months of delays and behind the scenes troubles, Annihilation finally arrived in theaters…
except it didn't exactly stick to the source material.
Garland took some serious liberties with the story to craft a narrative all his own, but
his Annihilation works as both a direct adaptation and a wholly original story that's every bit
as effective, horrifying, and emotionally charged as the book. Garland even bests VanderMeer's
source material when it comes to scares, with a blood-curdling bear/woman beast that serves
as one of the most unsettling creature creations of this or any year. If only Garland had left
the door open for a sequel, we might've gotten to see even more of his haunting, unearthly
delights.
With no fewer than a couple dozen or so films utilizing social media's "like/share" obsession
as a plot device, Robert Mockler's sobering drama Like Me is nothing like the rest. In
fact, this incisive feature debut is not like any film you've ever seen before.
From its jarring opening moments, Mockler's film is clearly out to shock. His tragic tale
of a young woman broadcasting her crime spree across social media is part road movie, part
hallucinatory crime thriller, opening with an attention-grabbing heist and ending with
brutal violence. The moments in between find a hushed and harried character study.
Vivid photography and kaleidoscopic editing ensure that even the film's muted moments
come and go with galvanizing energy. That manic mix of styles makes Like Me the sort
of soul-crushing, spirited film you simply cannot unsee… so make sure that you do.
After unleashing his sweaty-palmed action epic The Raid in 2011, and following it up
with the equally bonkers The Raid 2, Gareth Evans proved himself to be a master of both
staging and human drama.
So there was good reason to be excited when Netflix announced they'd be producing Evans'
new film Apostle, which saw the director tackling the horror genre. The result was a period
thriller about a troubled man tasked with retrieving his sister from a creepy, island-dwelling
religious cult who worship a bloodthirsty deity.
For the first hour, the movie swings a hypnotically unholy pendulum before viewers' eyes, giving
Apostle with a near-suffocating gothic energy. And then, Evans spends the next hour smashing
that pendulum into bloody bits, making you long for the time when a bloodthirsty deity
was all you had to fear. Expect dastardly deeds, unspeakably gruesome acts, fantastically
grotesque imagery, and a soul-choking sense of dread. You'll be glued to the screen for
every nightmarish moment.
We're in a virtual golden age of genre mashups, and one amazing example of this is the gloriously
unhinged World War II horror thriller Overlord. Few other 2018 films arrive as well equipped
to delight and disturb in equal measure.
Odds are you've heard Overlord categorized as a "nazi zombie horror flick", which is
only a little bit misleading. Yes, there are lots of evil nazis, and the dead aren't always
exactly dead, but we can tell you there's a lot more more going on here than meets the
eye.
The film - set on the eve of D-Day - is an excellent World War II movie, opening with
a harrowing parachute drop behind enemy lines, following a band of soldiers on a suicide
mission that will turn the tide of the war. That mission leads them to a French village
teeming with nazi soldiers and scientists. Without spoiling the film, just know that
the stomach-churning things uncovered in there is the stuff of nightmares. Overlord is the
action-packed, blood-soaked war/horror hybrid we never knew we needed.
After bursting into Hollywood as the scribe behind the legendary film Taxi Driver, Paul
Schrader has continued to make a name for himself as a screenwriter of unyielding vision…
and some very specific opinions about the world at large. Schrader has also directed
his share of classics, with titles like American Gigolo, Affliction, and Auto Focus. He returned
to the director's chair this year to unleash First Reformed, reminding us that he's still
got plenty to say about the state of society.
Schrader's latest is a politically charged narrative of societal despair, environmental
calamity, and righteous indignation. It pits a well-intentioned priest against a world
where moral duplicity has led to big business corrupting not just society, but also the
environment and the church. Anchored by a career-best performance from Ethan Hawke,
First Reformed is a desolate piece of work driven by insightful writing, unforgettable
imagery, and an atmospheric energy that teeters ever on the edge of horror. It's also a bone-chilling
call to arms that we can only hope has not come too late.
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