Top 10 horror movies of 2020

His House

A young refugee couple, fleeing the war in Sudan, move into a new home in suburban London, where they find themselves facing both hostility from their new countrymen, the inextinguishable trauma that they have tried to leave behind and some dark spiritual presence in their dilapidated house. What makes Remi Weekes' "His House" one of the greatest horror movies of the year is not only the memorable scares, the memorable scenes and the memorable central performances, but that it's got a clear point of view and something to say.

 

Sputnik

During the Cold War, a young psychiatrist (Oksana Akinshina from "Lilya 4-ever") is brought into a secret facility to perform an evaluation of a cosmonaut who was exposed to something while in space. So begins "Sputnik," by debut filmmaker Egor Abramenko, and it's completely gripping from start to finish. "Alien" of course comes to mind as a comparison. Also the perfect scary movie for 2020 in that it is proof that quarantine can be a thrilling and entertaining subject matter in the right hands.

 

The Grudge

Most of the time, ghosts in ghost stories want your help, but in "The Grudge" they really just want to kill you. The "Ju-On" franchise is by now so big that it rivals "The Ring" franchise. This is by far the best American version of it yet, as to my memory the 2004 remake was a more or less inferior copy of the original Japanese masterpiece. Although this takes place concurrently with that film, it feels more like a sequel than a reboot. The grudge curse is here brought to the US by an American working in Japan, like some horrible version of the corona virus. I like that the story focuses on a cop investigating the grudge case, instead of a care worker as in the older version. And the main reason it works as well as it does is in my opinion because the character of Detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough) works - sometimes she is in fact strongly reminiscent of the original Clarice Starling. I like the non-linear narrative, I like the cast, I like the music, I even like the jump scares, which I usually don't.

 

The Rental

Dave Franco shows some serious potential in his directorial debut with this great indie horror, which for most of its running time is a slowly building thriller that turns into a pretty solid slasher in the final twenty minutes. The brilliant thing about "The Rental" is its unassuming, low key style, which manages to hold your interest with the great chemistry between the four lead actors, featuring the always captivating Dan Stevens and Alison Brie, and you know something fucked up is going to happen but it's not in a rush to get there.

 

Relic

One of the most acclaimed horror movies of the year, Australian Natalie Erika James' "Relic" is an insanely creepy depiction of dementia that is both unusual and moving, where the rot of the mind takes on physical form and spatial proportions that are monstruous and bizarre, as mother and daughter Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote visit the senile grandmother Robyn Nevin and find themselves struggling with not only the old matriarch's illness but also a claustrophobic mould-like presence that seems to be haunting her house.

   

Anything for Jackson

Like a lot of indie films, the Canadian horror drama "Anything for Jackson" by  Justin G. Dyck, about an older couple that kidnap a pregnant woman and attempt to use her unborn child as a host for the soul of their dead son, will require a little patience going into it. But those with enough of it will find a very rewarding, at times genuinely creepy and quite original experience. A mix of satanic horror and haunted house, that at its best moments feel like something Clive Barker could've done.

 

Gretel & Hansel

As with his previous films, Oz Perkins' arty horror style may not be for all tastes, but I delight in the luxury of something so out of the ordinary, particularly in a niche that tends to be rather formulaic. I find the trippy visual style and exquisite cinematography lovely to look at, I like the slightly off-beat, poetic dialogue, I get a nostalgic kick out of the music and format ratio that are meant to remind you of films of old, and I'm completely entertained by the weird and quite modern take on a classic fairytale, if I'm not totally mistaken a decidedly post-#MeToo movement version that centers almost entirely on Gretel (Sophia Lillis from "It") and her growth as a character.

 

Caveat

It occurs to me looking over this list of the year's top horror movies that the covid-enforced lockdown of 2020 must have been a source of great inspiration for many filmmakers. "Caveat," a really creepy, low budget scary movie from Ireland, directed by Damian McCarthy, presents a truly macabre and visually very interesting twist on social distancing, in that the main character, an amnesiac nam named Isaac, is offered payment to babysit a mentally unstable woman in an old cottage, with the bizarre caveat that he must wear a collar that limits his movements about the place. But does he have to wear the chain for his own safety or for hers?

 

Come Play

Horror movies are kind of odd in that they thrive on familiarity, and the concept of a mother trying to protect her vulnerable child from a supernatural entity invading their home is nothing if not familiar by now. It's been done particularly well already in the modern classic "The Babadook." But what Jacob Chase's "Come Play" lacks in originality it makes up for where it matters, namely in the chemistry between the excellent Gillian Jacobs as the mother and Azhy Robertson as her autistic son, the creepy atmosphere, the earnest and imaginative use of horror to dramatize issues of mental health, which is a rather gratifying subject to adress in a supernatural setting, and an unforgettable ending.

 

The Turning

Well, don't expect "The Turning" to reinvent the horror genre, but it's a competent and satisfying take on a creepy evergreen, a more jarring horror movie in the modern sense, than Henry James' very different gothic story. Director Floria Sigismondi has put together a good cast led by Mackenzie Davis and gotten two great performances out of the young Brooklyn Prince and Finn Wolfhard as the innocently creepy children. She also shows she's got some pretty interesting visual ideas, which is no surprise considering her experience working on TV series like "The Handmaid's Tale" and "American Gods." I look forward to seeing what more she's got up her sleeve.