EvilPhoEniX

The darker side of Marvel. The debut of famed composer Michael Giacchino is an homage to older films and werewolves, and it's an enjoyable hour-long piece with a black-and-white filter that didn't bother me as much as I feared. A fight for a powerful relic with a bunch of hunters in a labyrinth and one monster to boot. It starts off as a battle royale genre flick, which would have suited me better if the whole film was in that vein. The internecine duels are few and fairly rushed, but there is a bit of gore, which surprised me. It's definitely an experimental Marvel genre film that has potential. The best part is the finale with the werewolf, where there is pretty decent action (sometimes it's too dark on camera and you can't quite see in detail what's going on), but it has atmosphere and feels very unorthodox. The hour-long running time makes it a tolerable and enjoyable thing that shouldn't offend anyone. I don't think there was a better werewolf this year. 6/10.

A nice surprise from Poland. Bartosz M. Kowalski is the first legitimate Polish horror director and we can expect more interesting things in the future. This film has an unconventional and fairly original theme about a detective who infiltrates a monastery as a monk to investigate the recent disappearances of women's bodies, but uncovers a terrifying conspiracy in the process. It teeters between crime thriller and satanic occult horror, an attractive combination I think, all backed up by decent craftsmanship. The locations are good (the tree in front of the monastery is breathtaking), the monastery has a lot to offer. I liked the music, I enjoyed the plot, the atmosphere was dense in places and there were a few tasty touches (a spectacular throat slitting, dismembered hanging women's bodies, or flies flying out of the monk's head), and the finale with the devil and Jesus himself had some great make-up effects. The fast pace and short running time is also pleasing, I really don't have a problem with it. The fact that it was made by Poles deserves a round up to 4 stars. 7/10.

Olivier Marchal and another tough macho gangster flick! The combination of France and Marchal has suited me for over 10 years now, the guy makes decent genre films and I always look forward to each of his new releases. This time he's switched from Netflix to Amazon, where similarly-themed films can be found, and while it's not as good as his previous efforts, he still maintains his directorial standards and I still enjoy the hell out of it. The story is obviously clichéd and this time Marchal hasn't tried to invent anything new, he simply relies on rawness, authenticity, realism and if that's enough for you, you'll be satisfied. I liked the fact that the film focuses on the mobsters rather than the cops – none of the main characters are downright interesting, but it doesn't matter. The action is properly raw and brutal as is usual with Marchal, the atmosphere and mood is reminiscent of the best of Sicario, and technically and directorially the film is also of a high standard. If you want a purely male genre film without higher ambitions, Overdose is the right choice. 7/10,

Olivia Wilde and her ambitious psychological thriller evoking The Stepford Wives should have been the gem of the year, but it's just a decent genre flick. The setting in the 1950s is very nice, the utopian experimental community is an attractive subject, Florence Pugh is both sexy and a great actress, and there's a nice final twist with Chris Pine that has something to it, but somehow I was expecting more. When best scene in thriller is Pugh's oral sex on a table doesn't feel enough to me. I found the whole film to be a little too restrained. There is no violence, no proper escalation of the situation. The trailer made me expect downright mind fuck scenes playing with the viewer's mind, shocking and fascinating at the same time and unfortunately Olivia fails to do that. I probably had too high expectations, but it's not a bad film, it's definitely worth seeing, I wasn't bored, there are bright moments and strong performances, and the visuals and atmosphere are also very good. In the cinema it might have enhanced the experience to a stronger rating,at home only for a strong 3 stars. 65%.

An insanely brutal ride from South Korea, where the intensity of the violence reaches a new, undiscovered level! Project Wolf Hunting begins as Con Air crossed with Under Siege with an escort of the worst criminals from South Korea to the Philippines with a cargo ship. A downright excellent premise for any genre, it was entertaining before the film was even announced. To my surprise, however, I got something slightly different than I expected. I was expecting a classic martial arts brawler on a boat with prisoners and cops, which is true for maybe the first hour or so. The second hour, however, leans into Sci-Fi and into a pretty explosive slasher/splatter, which is definitely an unexpected development, but positively received by me. If they had dared to go straight into horror we would have the genre flick of the year, an attractive setting, dark atmosphere and proper gore, but it's still perfect. The film doesn't quite have A-parameters, though. The director isn't A-list caliber, he's done rather more mediocre Korean flicks, there are no stars, and the story certainly doesn't play a major role, which I don't mind, but it's a bit unusual for South Korea, where filmmakers here have absolute freedom and the desire to break free from the chains, because elsewhere they probably wouldn't get away with it. The film has solid visuals and the there's no downright main character for the viewer to root for, there's a bunch of bad guys, one top villain who gets replaced by another top villain, and the bad guys make for a good movie, so why not really. The film is very action packed, has an incredible pace, revels in violence, blood spurts from every human orifice, fountains of blood during knife play are par for the course, and there aren’t even ten minutes where someone doesn’t die – the body-count is so high. They also introduce biological weapons, so we have a mutant that has the strength of three men and he rips limbs and skin off people like they're paper. All great practical effects, high level gore, no amateurism, top quality stuff. It could be compared to the recent Taiwanese flick The Sadness, but this perhaps has even more going for it. The only shame here is that there wasn't some properly kinky mass pape culminating in a shocking climax, it would have put the film in the top 10 of all time. There are a couple of minor twists towards the end that may lay the groundwork for a possible sequel, and I hope it is made! There was also a bit of my expected martial arts with knives in the finale and the kills are really delicious. However, those expecting shootouts or outright fights will be disappointed, it's more about the drastic and insane kills. The most brutal film of the year and the best South Korean film of the year without a doubt. 9/10.

A great return to the world of Game of Thrones! House of Dragon is a fitting replacement for our beloved series, and while it's a bit too rushed and there aren't that many favorite characters yet, I believe the excitement will only grow as the series goes on. From a fantasy perspective, this is without a doubt a top notch affair where you can see where the money went, which this is very important in this genre for me. The dragons look amazing and the production design is eye-catching. Again the main thrust is the politicking and intrigue, the series is unrivalled in this, though it's not yet as gripping as it was in GoT. The best character of the first season is Daemon, a self-centered bastard who steals all the scenes for himself. Next, King Viserys, his final climb to the throne accompanied by Djawadi will probably ground everyone, a downright iconic scene. I also enjoyed Princess Rhaenyra, who may be the Khaleesi of Wish, but she portrayed a strong female character, and I also really enjoyed Aemond, he plays the sleazy snake really perfectly and his final scene with the dragon is awesome. But I'm not entirely without reservations, there are a few things bothered. For example, the exaggerated jumps in time where half the characters had to be recast and I had a hard time figuring out who was what name and who was whose kid. It's also pretty much intimate and takes place mostly in 2 locations. In GoT I enjoyed the changing locations, the new settings, the castles, the towns, the names, hopefully that will happen in future seasons here, we'll see. Also, there's definitely been a decrease in gore and sex, which is what GoT is famous for, but House of Dragon is quite sparse with that. The epic battles will definitely come later, but I would welcome at least one per season. These are rather minor criticisms that prevent me from being maximally satisfied, this is both excellent and intelligent entertainment. 8/10

Joko Anwar is master at his own game! He has set a new standard for hauntings, pushing the boundaries to the next level! Technically, directorially, visually and atmospherically this is a masterpierce and a gem from Indonesia, which also sends a response to James Wan's Conjuring. The first installment was a solid tale based on the classic haunted house with family (where he used an effective method of scare using a bell) and I rated it 7/10, but this is a different cup of tea. He made the sequel straight for IMAX and it's more expensive, wilder, more brutal, scarier, grittier and ball-busting. I appreciate that the film doesn't take place in a house with a family, but we have a whole apartment complex with a bunch of people, and the ghosts are on a rampage. The first hour is a bit slower and quieter, introducing us to the characters, carefully building the atmosphere, but even then there are some solid scenes (the elevator scene with the kids is really uncomfortable. Probably wouldn't pass muster in the U.S.), and once the storm starts outside, things start rolling. An intense chilling hour-long hell that won't let the viewer breathe and will make them change their underwear at least three times and call an ambulance. It's full of mutilated ugly corpses that either roll on the ground or walk, there are ghosts, entities, cults and other creepy nasty apparitions. There's not actually one villain, but the place is haunted by someone different each time and that's pretty damn refreshing. Moreover, Anwar handles the atmosphere brilliantly and makes excellent use of the setting of an old apartment complex, with narrow corridors, dungeons, shafts, darkness and characters who have to make do with just a torch or a match or a camera. Finally, a ghost story where people are really concerned about their lives, so the viewer fears for the characters and Anwar is really uncompromising with them. The characters die sometimes painfully ugly deaths, including the children, to whom the director was especially uncompromising. The camera work, the ideas, the sound and the atmosphere are really from another universe, even Wan would have given a standing ovation here. I also praise the excellent craftsmanship, where perhaps for the first time there are no cheap CGI effects and everything looks expensive and classy. Seeing this in the cinema will probably cause my organs to fail. The scariest genre flick of the year and maybe even a couple of years together! Watching it feels like watching The Conjuring and playing “Resident Evil” at the same time. 9/10.

Your life is in their hands. Tobias Lindholm is a solid Swedish director, I like his films a lot (especially R and The Hunt – I recommend catching up if you haven't seen it), but this time he picked a weaker moment, maybe because his Nordic signature is missing here and he made the film for Netflix. The premise itself could have been conceived in a much more chilling and unpleasant way, as this serial killer has more victims than Dahmer and Bundy combined, but since he killed without touching the victims, it doesn't look very appealing on the screen. The film centers on the likeable Jessica Chastain (unusual to see her blonde) who is a devoted mom and nurse, and rightfully has the nickname Good Nurse. She gets a new colleague on the ward, Eddie Redmayne, with whom she gets on well enough at first, but as patients start dying mysteriously, she begins to grow suspicious of their relationship and slowly begins to drift apart. The criminal investigation is presented in a relatively interesting way and this is one of the brighter moments of the film. Jessica works with the cops as they try to find a hole in a pretty intelligent crime. The film stands mostly on the performances of the two leads and has a chilling epilogue, and that's pretty much unfortunately. It's very monotonously shot (the visuals are strangely grey throughout), nothing exciting or thrilling happens, I found it emotionally cold, we know how it's going to turn out so we don't get a twist and it's also pretty much uninteresting. It could have had more balls for being a true story, but despite these flaws, it's watchable and I didn't die of downright boredom, so it passes for pure average. 5.5/10.

Clear winner of this year's war films, and for me better than 1917 and Dunkirk (Hacksaw Ridge is a little higher in my heart though). I haven't read the book, nor have I seen the original, I just know that it's an adaptation of a literary classic by Remarque and I think the film stood up to it on all counts. From the very beginning the film thrusts us into the action of the war itself, which I very much appreciate – thankfully there is no hour-long introduction to the characters before the war, everything happens on the fly and thanks to that the film also has a decent pace and never gets boring. Edward Berger has his craft down pat, technically it's a decent work, with epic music that adds to the atmosphere and tension. The characters didn't really grow on me, except for the main one, so emotionally it didn't hit me that much, although it is sad in places. I found it interesting to watch a war film from the perspective of the Germans, usually it's the other way around, so the film is definitely unusual in that way too. I enjoyed the scenes with the General screaming for himself (the final speech was great) and the armistice negotiations on the train were also interesting. There's not a lot of action scenes, though, there are only three epic battles, but since the film is set in a battlefield most of the time, I didn't mind. The highlight is the sequence in the middle where the tanks and flamethrowers come on the scene – you can feel the true despair and horror of war, really uncomfortable. As for the gore, there's not much of it either, but there are a couple of brutal shots (the tank running over probably sticks in the mind the most), so for me really big satisfaction and I would say it’s the best WW1 war film. Definitely an Oscar snatcher here and kudos to Netflix. 8.5/10.

A properly intense wild piece that reminds me of my favourite Ghostland. I'm glad to see that every year some talented and unknown horror filmmaker comes along to satisfy our needs for years to come. Zach Cregger has made a very good horror film that can't leave anyone downright cold. Barbarian has perfect craftsmanship (the sound and cinematography are of Wan's caliber). Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård are both perfect (Justin Long a little less so, but it’s alright). The opening is a little slower, but once the action moves to the basement, it starts a hell of an uncomfortable, chilling and intense horror with a very uncomfortable and claustrophobic setting, a properly creepy villain – the best one so far in five years. The film also emphatically emphasizes the rational behavior of the characters, which is a very nice touch. It also manages to pleasantly and unpleasantly surprise the viewer on several occasions, the mystery and thick atmosphere works as well as the fear of the unknown. There were a few heart-attack-inducing jump-scares and of course there was gore – basically, everything we want to see in this genre. I'm giving a standing ovation, tearing my hair out and roaring HELL YEA!. Anyone who is going to be mad at this movie, I'm going to be mad at them. 9/10.