The Top Ten Films of 2024

It's time once again for HMC's annual round up of the films of the year. As usual the rules stay the same - to qualify for inclusion, each film had to have been shown in the UK for the first time during 2024, either at a festival, or as a cinema, disc or streaming release. Big budget studio successes don't get a look in, but big budget studio flops are fare game because those flops might be undeserved. Also as usual, while I didn't get to see everything this year, hopefully there will be enough amongst these recommendations that even the most seasoned of film enthusiasts will find something they didn't have the chance to catch up with.

Bubbling Under

First, let's have the films that didn't quite make the top ten but which I thought were highly worthy of mention anyway:

Boy Kills World

"Do you know how hard it is to get a cereal company to sponsor mass murder?" There are parts of BOY KILLS WORLD that reach near-ROBOCOP levels of satirical violent SF perfection, and I found myself hard pushed to think of another film I've enjoyed as much on the big screen in the same way since the Verhoeven classic. The script is witty, the camerawork is kinetic while never resorting to shakicam confusion, and the choreography of some of the fight scenes is something else, with the highpoint being a set piece of utter carnage at a television studio.

Monkey Man

A bloody excellent action revenge thriller, with the emphasis on the bloody. And the excellent. It's Dev Patel's first film as a director (he also stars) but everything is executed so perfectly you'd be forgiven for thinking he's been doing this kind of thing for years. In a nice bit of 'reverse inspiration' the villains are right out of Hindi/Bollywood cinema (and splendidly portrayed), while the action scenes are excellent. The best thing about it, however, is that whereas a comparable film like JOHN WICK feels like a movie directed by a stuntman (and I don't mean that disparagingly - WICK is a classic), MONKEY MAN is a film made by a storyteller with an effortless feel for narrative. No info dumps, no awkward exposition, just a good story told really well. In fact it gets everything right. Patel's character even has a dog. Does it die? Didn't I just say this film does everything right? And well done to (producer) Jordan Peele for rescuing this from its planned streaming release and getting it into cinemas.

Longlegs

Oz Perkins' first film to get a proper multiplex UK cinema release is a superbly creepy serial killer thriller. Nicolas Cage is (arguably) at his most terrifying as the titular character whom FBI agent Maika Monroe is on the trail of. It's not quite as gorgeous or weird or visually arresting as his previous GRETEL AND HANSEL, but as a bid for the mainstream while maintaining integrity as an auteur this is satisfyingly unique and uniquely terrifying in places. The only people who might be disappointed will be those unfamiliar with Perkins' oeuvre and if that's you, start with 2015's THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER (aka FEBRUARY) and work from there.

Civil War

There's something rather brilliantly British about Alex Garland's CIVIL WAR. The trailers promise an almost Marvel-style action picture whereas in fact this is much more informed by things like Terry Nation's Survivors, the second half of HG Wells' War of the Worlds and (yes) THREADS. As the film went on a part of me wished there was no dialogue at all, just a dispassionate voice-over narration like that employed by Peter Watkins in his classic (and somehow similar in feel) THE WAR GAME. The film takes no sides because it doesn't need to. It's a journey through madness and death where there are no winners. Scenes of utter horror are played out in jolting juxtaposition against the beauty of the American landscape and some of the imagery is by turns starkly cold and emotionally wrenching. Ignore the negative reviews, this is a future classic and a remarkable piece of speculative cinema about the world we're living in right now. Quite possibly Garland's best.

Ok those were the runners up. Here we go with my top ten list of films from 2024 that I think are highly deserving of attention. 

10 Lord of Misrule

An engrossing, well made folk horror picture that gets so much right it's a joy to watch. The production design and set dressing are wall to wall creepy and there are fine performances from the leads, with Ralph Ineson playing the leader of the Pagans and a bunch of British character actors who look born to play weird villagers. The literate script that deals with the Christian versus Pagan religion is by Tom DeVille, best known to readers here for his 2000 TV anthology series URBAN GOTHIC.

Guiding everything with a sure and steady hand is director William Brent Bell. I've previously likened Bell's style to some of the better British B horrors of the 1960s like Don Sharp's WITCHCRAFT and LORD OF MISRULE may well be his best film yet. It's assured, creepy and doesn't miss an opportunity for a well-orchestrated scare or a chance to build creeping unease.

9 Schlitter - Evil in the Woods

When he was a boy, Lucas was witness to his brutal lumberjack father accidentally running over Lucas' best friend Matthieu. Years later he is summoned back to the family home after a fire has destroyed it and two charred corpses have been found within. Matthieu's father never found out how the boy died and he seems overly willing to help Lucas and his friends. Is he as friendly as he seems? Is he actually wheelchair-bound? And doesn't he seem to have an unnatural penchant for designing complex animal traps?

A highly entertaining, gory, revenge-driven horror thriller from France, the title smacks of comedy but schlitting apparently refers to the lumberjack practice of shifting logs using a sledge. That said, while SCHLITTER is played dead serious, if you're the kind of person who can chuckle at the cheekily outrageous excesses of a SAW film this is going to be right up your alley. In fact while SAW has Jigsaw, Schlitter's villain could perhaps be nicknamed Bandsaw.

8 Immaculate

A great, gory, EuroShocker in which a nun travels to a remote convent and finds herself pregnant by supernatural means. The film cranks up the crazy about 30 minutes in, and the final act is just barnstorming, with all kinds of stuff that it would be too spoilery to mention here. If you're a nunsploitation fan you'll probably enjoy the fight in the bath, and the film even manages to inject some politics into all the mayhem and get away with it. Sydney Sweeney is excellent in the lead (she'd not really registered with me until this) and seeing as this was apparently a passion project for her she now has my full attention. Will Bates provides an effective music score that is half Lost Hearts hurdy gurdy and half James Horner's NAME OF THE ROSE, and we even get the theme from Bruno Nicolai's score to THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES while the nuns are hanging out the washing. Marvellous. 

7 Love Lies Bleeding

A fantastic noirish thriller that's arguably even better than director Rose Glass's excellent SAINT MAUD, thanks to a great cast of familiar faces (Kristen Stewart, Jena Malone, Dave Franco and Ed Harris with his Fried Barry hairstyle) and at least one new one (Katy O'Brian), an intriguing plot and some really great directorial touches that embrace the weird, the psychedelic and especially (for me anyway) the gothic. There are touches of Cronenberg, Lynch and Refn in here but Glass is too good a director for any of that to feel derivative. 

6 The Coffee Table

A film that displays some of the broadest swings between humour and horror ever put on screen. Many, of course, will not find the film funny at all and it likely takes a very special kind of black sense of humour to appreciate it. I'm not going to say what happens but suffice to say Caya Casas' THE COFFEE TABLE is likely to make as many 'Best Of' lists as 'Most Hated' lists purely because of how skilful it is at achieving what it sets out to do. I thought it was brilliant in its excruciating execution and I'll leave it at that, I think.  

5 A Different Man

I was a big fan of writer-director Aaron Schimberg's 2018 CHAINED FOR LIFE and his new film, A DIFFERENT MAN, is even better. Sebastian Stan plays a man with severe neurofibromatosis who is given a cure. Assuming a new identity he then tries to get a starring role in a play that, unbeknown to everyone else involved, is all about him, but finds that at every turn both in the play and in life he is upstaged by the constantly upbeat Oswald (real-life neurofibromatosis sufferer Adam Pearson from UNDER THE SKIN and CHAINED FOR LIFE). Stan and Pearson both deliver Oscar-worthy turns while some of the subject matter (and especially the 'strong sex' bit) will probably ensure A DIFFERENT MAN won't get anywhere near that particular awards list. By the final shot I was thinking 'this is so excruciating it's just like a Ramsey Campbell comedy' as it cut abruptly to black.

4 Joker: Folie à Deux

Is this the most misunderstood and inappropriately maligned movie of the year? I liked JOKER but JOKER FOLIE A DEUX takes things to a whole other level, or rather levels because this is a film that needs a few viewings to take everything in. It's like they kept offering Todd Phillips more money to make a sequel until he said 'Ok, but you're not going to like it'. I half expected him to appear at the end saying 'Well what did you expect this was going to be like?' Of course it wasn't going to make a profit. It's a $200 million deadly serious art house project, and a glorious one at that. Years from now there will be essays unpicking every scene, every nuance, every thing it has to say about comic book movies (and the fans thereof) and likely provoked exactly the reaction amongst many that it was intended to. The reaction to it this year has felt much like the reaction to John Carpenter's THE THING in 1982, and I wouldn't be surprised if it takes 20 years for it to start getting the recognition it deserves. Marvellous.

3 The Substance

There's the flavour of fairytale to Coralie Fargeat's THE SUBSTANCE, the story of an older woman who wishes she was younger and believes she is willing to pay the terrible price to achieve that wish. It's a great, complex, visceral piece of work, one so skilfully told that its runtime doesn't feel anything like its actual 141 minutes, and, as alluded to by many, it does indeed go completely insane in the final act. It's also extremely funny, with frequent moments of grotesquely gleeful hilarity comparable to the very best of South Park, especially the climax (I couldn't stop chuckling). As such it definitely won't be for everyone but if you love body horror, Peter Jackson's early gorefests, and the concept of large numbers of people being hosed down with blood you'll have a very good time with this.

2 Dead Talents Society

A frenetic, next level WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS from Taiwan about ghosts and the highly competitive lifestyle many of them seem to end up 'enjoying' in the afterlife, filmed with the manic energy of Joseph Khan's DETENTION and easily as funny as both. No idea if a UK release has been secured yet but if you enjoyed either of those films (and especially if you loved both) this one's a must see.

1 Blink Twice

Regular readers will think I might be biased in awarding the number one spot to the film with the strongest Jess Franco vibe of the year (and there were others), but there's  so much to love and appreciate about Zoe Kravitz's directorial debut that if you haven't seen any of the films on this list this is the one you should start with. If you do love EuroHorrors of the 1970s you'll find plenty of touchstones in this, from the posh island location run by blokes you just know are rich perverts, to the two girls dropped into that very situation where they realise something is just wrong, to the fact that BLINK TWICE isn't even the film's original title - distributor Amazon apparently forced director Zoe Kravitz to change it from her preferred title of PUSSY ISLAND very late in the day (now there's a Franco - or even a Joe D'Amato - title for you). It's the film DON'T WORRY DARLING could and should have been, but it's actually much more than that, with a fine cast of familiar faces amongst the support (Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osmont, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis) and best of all some truly inspired direction from Kravitz leading to moments of soul-squirming weirdness and dread.

And that's it! As always, many thanks to the festival organisers, the companies who send me films to review, everyone involved with running the cinemas we are lucky enough to have in this area, and most of all everyone who reads, and is hopefully entertained by, these reviews. Once again my desk is piled high with discs awaiting review for next year, but until then this is me signing off. Be nice to each other & House of Mortal Cinema will be back in 2025. 

Demolition Man (1993)

Arrow Films are bringing out Marco Brambilla's highly entertaining futuristic action picture that stars Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes in 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions.

John Spartan (Stallone) is a cop known as the 'Demolition Man' because of his habit of causing 1980s action movie-degrees of explosions when performing such tasks as rescuing one small child. Spartan's hot pursuit of arch villain Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes, looking like he's having a great time although apparently he hated his hairdo) ends in disaster, with both Spartan and Phoenix sentenced to be frozen as part of a new punishment protocol for criminals.

Thirty six years later Phoenix gets thawed out for a hearing, immediately escapes and starts causing havoc. Times have changed so much that the police are unable to cope with Phoenix's levels of violence and have to defrost Spartan to fight him. Meanwhile Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary) is leading an underground movement (complete with one big Libertarian-style rant in the middle) in protest against Governor Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) and the environment he has created, and Cocteau might just be the reason Phoenix escaped in the first place.

A fun action SF piece that came at the tail end of a ten year period of big budget action pictures to top line either Stallone of Arnold Schwarzenegger (and there's a gag about him in here as well), DEMOLITION MAN has a decent sense of humour about itself, is well shot and moves at a clip, and is probably the most entertaining of these sorts of pictures not to have either Shane Black or Steven E de Souza's name on them. Kudos are also due to Sandra Bullock who makes the absolute most of what could have been a forgettable sidekick role in other hands. There's a gag in here about Taco Bell on the US version which was changed to Pizza Hut internationally, and in case you want to compare them both versions of the film are included on the disc. 

Arrow's 4K and Blu-ray comes with three commentary tracks - a new one with director Brambilla and screenwriter Daniel Waters (who was called in to rewrite the original script. He ended up having a ball doing so and you can tell), and another new one with film historian Mike White. The archival commentary with Brambilla and producer Joel Silver is also included.

Other extras include interviews with production designer David L Snyder (14 minutes), stunt coordinator Charles Percini (6 minutes), makeup FX artist Chris Biggs (6 minutes), and body effects coordinator Jeff Farley (10 minutes). There's also a 17 minute visual essay from Josh Nelson on the state of Stallone's career at the time of the film, plus an image gallery and trailer.

Finally, you get a 60 page book with new writing on the film, limited edition packaging, two-sided poster, art cards, 'Three Seashells' and 'Edgar Friendly' graffiti stickers and a reversible sleeve. 

Marco Brambilla's DEMOLITION MAN is out from Arrow Films on Limited edition 4KUHD and Blu-ray on Monday 16th December 2024

Creep (2014)

 

With the TV series The Creep Files starting to air on Shudder, what better time for Second Sight to release one of their whistles and bells packages (in both standard and limited editions) devoted to the original found footage thriller? And if those 'f' words have you running for the hills, let me tell you now that CREEP very much still deserves a chance, so read on.

A found footage (I know) mumblecore (stick with me) improvisational (it's really very good, though) piece featuring only two actors, the plot involves film-maker Aaron (co-writer and director Patrick Brice) answering an ad placed by Jacob (co-writer Mark Duplass) who lives in a remote mountain town. The job? Jacob is dying and wants his final thoughts recorded on video for his unborn son. 

But is any of that true? As the day goes on things get weirder, as does Jacob's behaviour. He takes to wearing a terrifying wolf mask he refers to a 'Peachfuzz' (the film's original title) and Aaron starts to realise he may be in the presence of a dangerous lunatic. When CREEP premiered at Frightfest it boasted an ending that was one of the most horrible and disturbing of the festival that year, and if you've not seen it I'm not going to spoil it for you.

Second Sight's new Blu-ray wipes the floor with previous bare bones releases. We get a new commentary from Brice, Duplass and editor Christopher Donlan to compliment the archival one with Brice and Duplass only. There are also new interviews with Duplass (19 minutes), Brice (37 minutes) and Donlan (16 minutes), a half hour Q&A with the cast and crew, a deleted scene, an alternative scene (two minutes), and two alternative endings (seven minutes). 

Finally, the limited edition comes with a 70 page book, six art cards, and the usual rigid slipcase to keep it all in. Excellent. Now who's for Tubby Time?

Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass' CREEP is out in both standard and limited editions from Second Sight on Monday, 

9th December 2024, just in time to make it a nice 

Christmas present for anyone who might also 

be getting a video camera.

The Last Video Store (2023)

 

"Nowhere Near as Good as it Could or Should be"

Back in February 2023 I reviewed a no-budget British anthology horror film called VIDEO SHOP TALES OF TERROR that, while often crude in its execution, made up for that with dollops of enthusiasm and occasionally a little style.

THE LAST VIDEO STORE, due out on Blu-ray from Arrow Films, feels almost the opposite. Don't get me wrong - this isn't a big budget affair, but everything that made VIDEO SHOP TALES OF TERROR watchable and ultimately extremely entertaining is lacking in this, a film which features stilted acting, terrible pacing, and a near-plotlessness that makes its 78 minute running time feel much longer than it actually is.

When her father dies, he leaves Nyla (Yaayaa Adams) a note asking her to return some outstanding VHS cassettes to the shop of the title. This includes a mysterious, unlabelled tape that, when played, unleashes a whole load of 1980s movie-style trouble.

And that's where THE LAST VIDEO STORE's strength and major failing lies. The film is packed with visual references to straight to video tat of the 1980s, but rather than use that as background colour it seems to be the sole reason for the film's existence, which means watching it for more than 20 minutes is a bit like sitting next to someone very annoying who keeps poking you and saying 'Weren't the '80s great?'

It also makes the mistake of having posters for Astron 6 productions everywhere (and Adam Brooks turns up at one point) which only helps remind you how much better that team are at this sort of thing. The terrific short DEMONITRON: THE SIXTH DIMENSION gets pinched and redubbed to the film's own ends, again just reminding you of how much better other satires of, and tributes to, this kind of material have been than this.

Unsurprisingly, THE LAST VIDEO STORE started life as a short film (and probably should have stayed as one). You can find the short film on the extras along with the first attempt to make the subject into a feature. Other extras include a commentary track by critics Matt Donato and Meagan Navarro (they're both far kinder to it that I've been), new visual essays by Heather Wixson and Martyn Pedlar, three more short films from the same directors, behind the scenes, a trailer and more. 

There's also a booklet with new writing from Anton Bitel and Alexandra West, a reversible sleeve and a double-sided poster. 

THE LAST VIDEO STORE is now available to stream on Arrow and on Limited Edition Blu-ray

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

One of the best films of 2023 finally gets a disc release (and in a number of different editions to boot) from distributor Anime Limited.

We're at the end of World War II. A kamikaze pilot fakes a problem with his plane and lands on a remote island, where he witnesses all his colleagues dying at the hands (and teeth) of a huge dinosaur-like creature known by the locals as Godzilla.

He makes his way back to Japan only to find Tokyo in ruins and those who knew him disgusted that he did not die honourably in battle. He meets a girl with a baby who is not hers and the three move in together. Soon he has a job helping to diffuse sea mines by using his gunnery skills, and it's not long before his boat is deployed to help deal with a huge mysterious sea creature that's approaching Tokyo.

GODZILLA MINUS ONE was a deserved smash hit on its release last year, beating out much higher budgeted contenders to win the best visual effects Oscar and providing a welcome beacon of integrity in a market swamped with soulless Disney Marvel burnout movies. 

And it's very much the human interest element that makes GODZILLA MINUS ONE the hugely affecting success that it is. As well as his makeshift family life at home, our lead has his 'bunch of mates' family at sea, all of whom come to play an important part in the climax. That's not to say the effects aren't great too because they are. Apparently achieved on a fraction of what the other films in its Oscar nomination category cost, Godzilla has never looked better or bigger or more terrifying that here. 

Anime Limited (and Toho) are releasing GODZILLA MINUS ONE in a variety of packages. If you want the bare bones there's a standard Blu-ray with two sound options. The English dub is ok but the American accents do feel a bit incongruous. That mix is in Dolby 5.1 but the Japanese dialogue version has been mixed in Dolby Atmos.

There's also a Deluxe four disc edition which gives you the film on 4K UHD, on Blu-ray, GODZILLA MINUS ONE MINUS COLOR on Blu-ray (which is actually pretty atmospheric. It would be interesting to run it in a double bill directly before the original GODZILLA), and a fourth Blu-ray disc of bonus features. All those discs apart from the black and white version of the film are available in a steelbook. 

        The Bonus Disc includes an excellent 67 minute making of with plenty of behind the scenes footage and an interview with writer / director / VFX artist Takashi Yamazaki. There's also 20 minutes of VFX footage showing how scenes of that and live action were combined to achieve the final result, plus a 23 minute electronic press kit.

        The disc also contains four interviews from four special screenings of Godzilla movies that commemorated the release of GODZILLA MINUS ONE and all featuring director Yamazaki with special guests. These were the original GODZILLA (1954) with guest SHIN GODZILLA co-director Shinji Higachi; GHIDORAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER (1964) which was the first Kaiju Yamazaki ever saw - the guest this time is legendary monster suit maker 88 year old Keizo Murase who made not just King Ghidorah but also Godzilla and Mothra amongst others; GODZILLA GMK (2001) with guest director Shinsuke Kaneko who directed the first film Yamazaki did FX for; and SHIN GODZILLA with guest editor, writer and chief director Hideaki Anno. Finally there's a collection of 68 minutes of footage from the various premieres around the world. 

GODZILLA MINUS ONE is out now in the three different editions outlined above and if you're a fan, definitely get an edition that includes the bonus disc.

The Second Act (2024)

"Frequently Very Funny Indeed"

The latest comedy from quirky French writer-director Quentin Dupieux, and the film that opened the Cannes Film Festival this year, get a digital release from Signature Entertainment.

David (Louis Garrel from Bertolucci's THE DREAMERS) is being hounded by Florence (Léa Seydoux from lots of things including Cronenberg's CRIMES OF THE FUTURE and Bertrand Bonello's THE BEAST) who is madly in love with him. But he doesn't have any feelings for her so he arranges for them to meet at an isolated café called The Second Act in the presence of his friend Willy (Raphaël Quenard who plays the title character in Dupieux's excellent YANNICK). Florence brings her father Guillaume (Vincent Lindon from TITANE) along and, in the presence of hopeless waiter Stéphane (Manuel Guillot), the scene is set for sheer excruciating awkwardness.

However, the story quickly becomes more awkward, and the film itself more meta, as the actors constantly break character, complain about their roles, insult each other, and prolong the telling of the story. At one point it transpires they are acting in the first film ever to be written and directed by AI, and the AI even comes to talk to them via a laptop.

Even at a brisk 80 minutes (a typical run time for a Dupieux opus) THE SECOND ACT does begin to flounder in its attempts to go even more 'super meta' at the end, but even so this is a very funny, inventive, ambitious piece of work, one which on the one hand occasionally feels like Beckett or Pirandello while on the other could almost be an 80 minute Monty Python sketch. Some of the sequences are laugh out loud hilarious, especially a wine pouring scene that just goes on and on and becomes funnier as it does so.  It might just be Dupieux's best work so far. Fans will need no further persuasion and if you're yet to encounter his work this is an excellent place to start. Here's a clip that unfortunately doesn't do the film justice as it's one of the rare bits where no-one really breaks character:

Quentin Dupieux's THE SECOND ACT is out on digital from Signature Entertainment now.