Posts by Brent Lorentson

With the end of the year upon us, I felt this was the best time to talk about what I feel was the best film of 2024. First I want to start by saying that this hasn’t been my favorite year for cinema, especially when you look at the kind of films you see at award shows, mostly all those films were forgettable and not anything I feel will become cinematic classics. That being said, when it comes to the horror genre, this has been a pretty great year. For a while I would have said Late Night with the Devil was going to be my favorite horror film of the year, but then The Substance came out, and that just floored me, and I’ve kind of become a bit obsessed with the film. It’s the only film this year that has stuck with me for days and just had me wanting to watch it again so I could savor its visuals, whether they be beautiful or grotesque.

For just about the past decade I feel Samara Weaving has earned the title of scream queen in the horror genre. She may not be a box office name like Jenna Ortega, but I feel Samara Weaving has a more impressive resume of cool and fun horror films, and she just consistently delivers. Ready or Not in a lot of ways is the film that best showcases her talents, and I thought for sure she’d level up to A-list status, but it seems the movie gods have other plans for her. Thankfully she is still cranking out some fun films for genre fans. Azrael is Weaving’s newest dip into the horror genre, a film that was written by Simon Barrett, who previously wrote the horror gems You’re Next and The Guest, and to sweeten this ghoulish cinematic pot, it is directed by E.L. Katz, who directed the 2013 dark comedy Cheap Thrills. Does this all add up to another genre hit, or is this a dud?

There is something about how the French make their horror films that I find a bit hard to resist. Films like High Tension, Inside, and Martyrs are films I go back to time and time again and just have a blast with, and with the release of MadS I was a bit optimistic that this could also be a film to add to my rotation when I’m on a French horror film kick. What really gave me hope for this film is seeing that it was directed by David Moreau, who gave us the criminally underappreciated home invasion horror film Them (2006). If you are a fan of home invasion horror and you’ve missed on Them, I highly recommend checking it out. As for MadS, it seems Moreau was going for something a bit different, this time doing a one-shot horror film about a virus outbreak that causes those infected to go “mad” and violently attack people. Sure, we’ve seen it before, but is the one-shot approach a fresh enough take to make this an experience worth sitting through?

It seems it would be easy to do a film about the urban legend where a driver picks up a woman in white who turns out to be a ghost. We are all familiar with this story, though the details of the urban tale can vary from one storyteller to the next, and it really seems like something so straightforward that it would be hard to make a mess of it. I at least thought so until I watched Black Cab. The film at first glance just seemed like something in my wheelhouse that couldn’t go wrong; it was a ghost story starring Nick Frost, whom I’ve been a fan of since first seeing him in Shaun of the Dead and Spaced, but despite how likeable he is, there is just nothing much that could have saved this movie, which was mostly dead on arrival. Anne (Synnove Karlsen) and Patrick (Luke Norris) are a recently engaged couple. After a night of celebration turns sour, they attempt to take a cab ride home, but instead their night is about to go from bad to worse as they discover their driver is a bit unhinged. As for their cab driver, Ian (Nick Frost), his plans for the couple remain ambiguous for a good portion of the film,

When I first heard Anna Kendrick was stepping behind the camera to direct her first film, I kind of expected it to be another Pitch Perfect film … but to find her instead doing a thriller about a real life serial killer and rapist who appeared on a game show in the 1970s was a curve ball I wasn’t expecting. But this isn’t simply a true crime story but instead is about how women were marginalized and heavily objectified. But the biggest takeaway I had while watching this was simply how dangerous things were back then and just how easily a serial killer could be prolific and walk the streets while no one suspected a thing. To get it out of the way, my major gripe with this film is that we meet Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) in the very beginning, and we see that he’s a vicious serial killer who lures his victims with charm while posing as a photographer.

I always found it a bit funny when Hollywood churns out movies that have similar plots to compete against each other. Back in the 90s Armageddon dueled the same year with Deep Impact, when disaster films were all the rage. 2024 had the same situation, though not in the form of big blockbusters, but this time in the form of two horror films about nuns and strange pregnancies taking place within the confines of the convent. The prequel to The Omen was better than I had anticipated, and when Immaculate was released, I just never got around to seeing it … at least until now. While The First Omen is a slow burn that actually pairs well with the first film, Immaculate I feel is the more bloody and popcorn-friendly romp that I feel fits into the sub-genre of nunsploitation (something I wouldn’t object to seeing more of).  So is this film worth congregating in front of the television for 90 minutes, or is this a hard pass in a year that seems to flourish with quality horror films, but not much of anything else?

With it being December this is when all the critics and groups start to announce their picks for best films of the year. This year has been a bit of a lackluster year in my opinion, but there have been a few gems that have managed to surprise me. A Real Pain, the directorial and writing debut for Jesse Eisenberg, is one of those few gems that crackles with great dialog and impressive cinematography, but most importantly is anchored by the performances of its two leads, played by Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin. On a surface level, this is a story about two cousins going on vacation together, but really it’s about two young men struggling with their own pain. You’d think a film like this would be a drag or even a chore to sit through, but instead it is engaging and heartfelt throughout and has moments that will have you laughing and crying.

It’s that time of the year again when critics start to makes their lists of the top films they’ve seen since January. Personally, this year has been a bit lackluster when it comes to “great” films, but there have been a lot of fun films to come out this year. To be even more specific, the horror genre has kind of taken off the year in my opinion. Now, while Sting may not be the best horror film of the year, it is a lot of fun.  Every year there’s that fun movie that comes along that flies under the radar, but I feel is great. Cocaine Bear and Violent Night immediately come to mind. Sting, at least in my humble opinion, is what going to the cinema is all about. It’s not high art, but instead it’s pure escapism, and it’s just a fun way to shut your brain off for 90 minutes while a giant alien spider wreaks havoc on a New York apartment. Is it the most original concept? No, but it has just enough scares and blood to make arachnophobes squirm in their seats.

As a horror fan, 2024 has easily been one of the best years for horror releases in a long time. It’s not just that we’ve gotten several horror releases this year, but the quality and the diversity of the genre has kept the year fresh. Cuckoo is one of the better horror films of the year. It sadly got overlooked at the box office, but it’s one of those films that for those who have seen it, I feel it leaves an impression, because aside from taking familiar tropes, it manages to feel fresh but also has a WTF factor that seems harder to come by these days. In my opinion, Cuckoo is a film that works better knowing as little as you can about it. Going in blind definitely puts you firmly in place to enjoy the film’s ambiguity, and when it starts to go into some strange directions, just go with it. The film may seem a bit odd and confusing as it progresses, but that’s the fun of it.