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2023 proved challenging at the box office on many fronts, Barbenheimer aside. Horror offerings were quite a mixed bag. That’s true every year, but some delightful innovation stood out amid plenty of by-the-numbers efforts during calendar 2023.
Since the highest achievements I spotted were disparate, I decided to serve up special awards rather than do a straight Top 10/Best of. Here is what I saw regarding some unique achievements or refreshing new takes in 2023.
No One Will Save You
High Achievement in a Creepy Supernatural Single Location Thriller
The at-home scenes offered some true chills with a beautifully-textured, ostracized character portrayed with nuance by Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart). Back-story unfurls slowly to a stinging personal reveal, and the sometimes intense and varied scares make this worth the journey even if the ending may disappoint in a way that even challenges the category name I have given this. Directed by Brian Duffield.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
High Achievement in Historical Horror
I’ve always found the Captain’s Log from the Demeter a chilling element amid the endlessly compelling thrills of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. If you’re deeply immersed in the reading, the captain’s report of a mysterious, unknown man sighted on deck at night amidst crew and passenger disappearances can bring true dread. Hammer comparisons are inevitable for this film, but it achieves historical verve of its own as a claustrophobic and atmospheric journey aboard the doomed ship. It’s transporting a very ungentlemanly Dracula to England in this excursion. Corey Hawkins provides an engaging protagonist in Clemens, a doctor whose need of passage plunges him into a truly monstrous battle for survival. Ah, what the Universal Dark Universe could have been. Directed by André Øvredal
A Haunting in Venice
High Achievement in Adaptation of Material From Another Genre
Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party, considered by many a lesser entry in her Hercule Poirot book series, received excellent, purist treatment in the David Suchet telefilm of the same name. Scripted by Michael Green, A Haunting in Venice re-imagines the novel with surreal and hyper-cinematic touches, plunging director Kenneth Branagh as Poirot into a third adventure that’s technically an old dark house tale. The nucleus of the original plot is preserved, but psychics, seances, dreamlike touches and new plot twists make the tale fresh and rich for the big screen. There may be a few too many cutaways to dripping rain and other creaky old mansion elements, but in general, it’s a fun ride that keeps true to the Poirot spirit. Demerits for gross misuse of Christie literary alter-ego Ariadne Oliver, though Tina Fey’s portrayal presents the actress a nice divergence from comedy.
Insidious: The Red Door
High Achievement in A Sequel Directed by A Returning Franchise Star
Patrick Wilson takes the reins of the Insidious franchise and directs Ty Simpkins as the now teen-aged Dalton, whose haunting provided the first film one of its freshest surprises. It’s the son not the house that’s haunted! No film in the series has achieved the level of fear generated by James Wan’s direction of Leigh Whannell’s script in the original. The finale lacks intensity here, but the relationship between Dalton and dad Josh (Wilson) adds depth. The core of the film and Dalton’s ongoing experiences and battles with supernatural forces keep things entertaining.
Night of the Hunted
High Achievement in a Non-Supernatural Single Location Thriller
Real-world anxieties charge this tale of a woman trapped in an all-night quick stop with a sniper outside. Non-supernatural single location thrillers can be kind of hokey programmers, but the brutal course of the night faced by the trapped Alice (Camille Rowe) who’s given a young charge to defend, keeps this grounded. She suffers bad luck but not the usual bad choices or plot stretches to keep her plight intense. Directed by Franck Khalfoun
Totally Killer/It’s A Wonderful Knife
High Achievement in Slasher Film Refurbishing
Variations on the slasher film have taken various directions in recent years from the gritty, period re-purposing and trope-inverting of X to the lighter hearted Groundhog Day-treatment in Happy Death Day et al. New concoctions of many of those elements brought new energy to both of these films in 2023. Time travel, humor and a just-slightly-zany masked killer generated some excitement in Totally Killer with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Kiernan Shipka. Knife’s quirky take on It’s A Wonderful Life spins the Happy Death Day riff into a tale with effective slasher kills and a season-inspired killer outfit that’s pretty cool. Both films provided extra twists before their dispersals as well.
When Evil Lurks
Best Foreign Language Possession And Ensuing Chaos Achievement
From bloated and grotesque possession victims to unrelenting havoc and mayhem, Spanish-language When Evil Lurks keeps surprises and shocks coming, all built around a complicated family situation that makes disbelief of the protagonist’s warnings authentic. There’s a feel of folk horror here too as two men from a rural area attempting to dispose of a possessed body let pure evil rip instead. Directed by Demián Rugna
Saltburn
High Achievement in a Neo-Gothic Sorta Crime Thriller
The always quirky Barry Keoghan brings his quiet, subtle style to this second dark thriller from director Emerald Fennell. He plays Oliver Quick, a poor kid invited to the estate of his rich college pal. Poor Oliver’s been put upon by the in-crowd including the snotty cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), but his aid to wealthy heir Felix (Jacob Elordi) has endeared him. But wait, Oliver’s much more than a smart kid from bad circumstances. There’s a long set-up here, but it’s ultimately bone chilling and clever.
Godzilla Minus One
High Achievement In A Giant Monster Film
In a return to Godzilla’s devastating roots, Takashi Yamazaki delivers a character-driven creature feature. Ryunosuke Kamiki stars as a disgraced kamikaze pilot whose attempts to form a family unit in war-devastated Japan are challenged by Godzilla incursions. The creature’s raw power generates awe anew for the big screen, especially in a dark-of-night introduction. Destruction and triumph with a meaningful arc for Kamiki make this infinitely watchable and emotional.
Cobweb
All Around Horror Achievement of the Year
Growing progressively weirder as the runtime unfolds, Cobweb blends strange sounds in the night with parental weirdness and other dark thrills. Eight-year-old Peter (Woody Norman) has problems with school bullies, but the biggest troubles are at home. He hears things in the walls, and his parents (Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr) know more than they’re telling about secrets in their house and the dangers of Halloween. Small clues and grotesque seasonal images keep the audience engaged on the way to the mystery’s culmination. Cobweb’s the something different horror fans didn’t know they needed. Yes it’s been said it’s kinda-sorta like Barbarian, but it’s also it’s own special thing and easily the true standout of 2023. Directed by Samuel Bodin.
Honorable mention: Leave the World Behind directed by Sam Esmail for its social commentary and existential chills plus that car scene!
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