21 favorite new watches of 2021
2021 was a bad year in a lot of ways but it was a stellar year for me in terms of watching new films (or at least films that were new to me). I spent a lot more time doing solo watches as well as hosting movie streams over discord with a fun and friendly group of folks who share my passion for weirdo cinema. I'll admit that this year was not particularly one where I watched a ton of current releases but I'm hoping to catch up soon- still need to see Titane, Benedetta, tons of other stuff.
So here in no particular ranking or order are a bunch of my faves from this year. I'm also listing at the end the movies I didn't enjoy. I'm not including short films on this list either but might consider making another post about favorite shorts by theme. You can also check out my letterboxd to see all the stuff I watched in 2021 and years prior.
My Faves viewed in 2021
1) Shirley (2020)
I started my year off strong by catching a digital screening of Shirley (paired with Leigh Whannel's Invisible Man) that I enjoyed together with a good friend. I remembered seeing trailers for this film which weirdly advertised it more like a thriller, but instead it's a semi-fictional biopic/drama about horror author Shirley Jackson, where the lesbian subtext of her work is explored through a fictional relationship between her and the wife of a young professor who is staying at her home. It's an incredibly tender film and very bittersweet. I'm a sucker for a biopic that goes more into the realm of exploration than for the literal facts of a person's life.
2) The Invisible Man (2020)
I wasn't sure what to expect from this film. I'd never seen the Saw movies that Whannel worked on, and I remembered not caring for Insidious very much (it was about half a tense interesting film). This genuinely blew me away in terms of delivering a scary and extremely tense experience. It builds up the horror slowly and in a way that doesn't fall into dumb or boring cliches. It very sincerely captures the experience of having a horrifying stalker ex who works to turn all your loved ones against you and blends it with elements that feel supernatural. There's an absolutely buckwild escalation and reveal of what's actually happening that I really enjoyed. I feel that this film is a bit what Malignant tried to be (but in the case of the latter I didn't really get the same feelings of creeping dread from its build up- though I loved the reveal).
3) Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
I already wrote a review of this and dumped a bunch of screencaps on my blog previously, but it bears repeating that this was a cool new watch that surprised me with both its well-choreographed action, lush sets and cinematography, and a share of weird and surreal imagery too. Not without its problems (the noble savage shit it pulls) and is cheesy in some ways, but I still really liked it.
4) Space Truckers (1996)
Honestly? To me, it's the perfect movie. If you want to see a sci-fi movie that's funny, weird, exciting, and ultimately quite satisfying this is the one to see. Stuart Gordon doing sci-fi is a total treat and it's loaded with neat practical effects, space ship modelwork and some genuinely eerie and unique robot designs. I like how this movie realistically depicts the evils of capitalism while giving us a satirical vision of the future. It gets very zany and gross with its practical effects too, thanks in part to Screaming Mad George. I also enjoyed Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox, but I didn't love it quite like Space Truckers.
It's Convoy (1978) in space with evil mega corporations, space pirates, a nazi cyborg with a malfunctioning cock, killer robots, and Dennis Hopper.
5) Razorback (1984)
You'd think you know what to expect from a film that is about a giant deadly razorback pig, right? Perhaps a rehash of Jaws or a similar retreading of other creature features? Incorrect, put those assumptions aside. Razorback is much darker and harsher than first impressions let on, in that it's as much about the awfulness of men who get to do whatever they want in a rural and deeply isolated environment as it is about the harshness of the outback.
A female reporter goes missing while doing a story and her husband goes to Australia to find out what happened, and it leads him in a harrowing stand-off against two creepy locals and the killer pig. Fair warning- in an early scene we see she was nearly raped by two locals and then was eaten by the killer pig- this was surprisingly harsh and I'd completely understand if you'd need to pass on this one. Otherwise, it's a hell of a watch.
I also couldn't help but think of the kangaroo hunting scene in Wake in
Fright (1971), which was somewhat referenced in Razorback when the husband goes tooling around with the local creeps while investigating.
Razorback is grim but also unexpectedly beautiful with some outlandish dream sequences and gorgeous cinematography. Makes sense that Russell Mulcahy has a background of directing music videos, which feels apparent also when you watch Highlander.
6) Evilspeak (1981)
Really cool and bonkers in ways I wasn't expecting. A young Clint Howard makes a sympathetic anti-hero in the form of a bullied military school student who summons the devil through an Apple II. Really highlights the nastiness of both religious and military environments very well. A very weird and satisfying revenge film. The old tech angle definitely makes it extra fun.
Another rough watch in the sense that they really establish what total creeps its characters are before they get their comeuppance. There's little moments of tenderness too that balance it out and in some ways make the whole thing just a touch more tragic. Funny how a film with a silly premise and very over the top scenes can be both so goofy and a little too real.
7) Day of the Beast (1995)
The best Christmas movie you may not have heard of! In order to prevent the birth of the antichrist on Christmas, a Basque priest is committing as many sins as possible in the hopes that it'll put him into contact with the group of devil-worshippers he's trying to stop. He joins forces with an absolutely lovable metal-head and together they kidnap a tv psychic whose help they need. This film is hilarious, super blasphemous, and sure to be a new Christmas fave for yearly rewatches. I should note it's quite nicely filmed, well-paced, and has good physical humor too.
I've heard that Mutant Action by the same director is also incredible. I really need to see more of his work.
8) Communion (1989)
Another film that really surprised me. It doesn't deal with alien abductions in the way you might expect and instead pushes further into the surreal. While it's based on the book of the same title about the experiences of Whitley Strieber, the film really departs into weirder territory. Christopher Walken is surprisingly good and compelling in his role here as Whitley, and I'm glad they didn't pick a more conventional actor for this role. Ultimately it's not clear if the main character is dealing with aliens- if it's dreams, if it's a result of trauma, sleep paralysis, something else we don't understand. The bigger pull is that it's a story of a family working through the experience together and learning to find peace. It's honestly quite beautiful and hopeful. Very cool imagery, surreal sequences that are both humorous and eerie, and some lovely set decoration and practical effects.
9) Venus Flytrap (1987)
This one was a really cool find! Very minimal and DIY shot-on-video thriller/horror/drama by a director who worked quite famously in gay porn- and the gay gaze is totally apparent in the film too. It's a lot like Ruggero Deodato's House at the Edge on the Park but far more campy, playful and fun. Some rich young yuppies invite some criminal punk-aesthetic youths over for a party and all is not what it seems with the supposedly well-adjusted hosts. Murder and mayhem follows. If you can forgive amateur acting (I can, always) and low budget productions, and some "homophobic" dialogue (which is played for effect, it's a lot of parody of machismo and heteronormativity), you'll love this one.
10) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, Her Lover (1989)
It almost feels like cheating to be recommending something so well-regarded and well-beloved, but I think people who primarily enjoy horror and exploitation films might miss out on arthouse stuff on the assumption that it's all quite dry. This film is one I'd been meaning to see forever and it's all the things I like in exploitation cinema wrapped into a luscious and larger than life drama. It's dark, it's sexy, it's funny, it's tender, it's gruesome, and it has immaculate detail put into its sets, costumes, and set dressing. The story follows the wife of a gangster who owns a fancy restaurant, where the chef gives her preferential treatment over her cruel boorish husband and covers up for her illicit affair with a scholar taking place right in the restaurant. Things take a very dark turn- it's as much a tragic love story as it is a revenge film. In many ways the film has the sensibility of theater too in terms of its sets and the limited locations that in some ways show their artifice. Defies genre in a really really good way.
11) Mutilations (1987)
Mutilations is loads of fun and very weird. It's right in that low-budget sweetspot and has that really specific flavor of "hyper-local weirdness" that I love about indie horror. It's as uniquely Tulsa, OK as The Abomination is Texan and Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo is Michigander. A group of college students and their professor go to investigate some weird sightings and encounter deadly UFOs and aliens. This film has charming stop motion monsters and even some silly yet oddly gruesome claymation mutilated cattle. Even if rough around the edges, I'm kind of impressed at these special effects being pulled off at a low budget. Just a totally weird trip that doesn't overstay its welcome. Both very goofy and mean-spirited with its deaths and gore. I hope that this gets a restoration and blu-ray release soon.
Reminds me a lot (in the good way) of the equally weird Winterbeast (1992), which also features a veritable parade of stop motion monsters and claymation grue. I'd revisited Winterbeast recently with friends and I think it'd make a killer double feature with Mutilations.
12) Highlander 2: The Quickening (European theatrical cut)
I was also going to put the first Highlander movie on this list but it wasn't technically an entirely new watch- I'd seen some before. Highlander is great and has some oddly tender gay vibes, but I really wanted to give Highlander 2 some love since it's such a maligned film. Partly it's due to editing and production troubles, but it's also about THE FANS hating the sci-fi angle of the European version. With all the stuff about planet Zeist cut out you're not left with a very coherent film. Frankly, I can totally buy a slight revision of the first film to add a sci-fi explanation for who the immortals are and how they came to be. It also gives us what is essentially an alien gay wedding between McLeod and Ramirez on planet Zeist, which connects nicely to that very queer-coded bond their characters have in the first film. Of course I'm going to like that.
This movie delivers on all the same thrills and cheesiness of the first film while ramping up the action, but now it's in a dystopian setting and with Michael Ironside playing a main villain. I like that there's an ecology message to this one too which feels oddly prescient about current proposals to "fix" global warming by potentially disastrous artificial means (as opposed to like, stopping deforestation and pollution). Lots of fun and I recommend you ignore what fans say and just hunt down the fan-restored euro version as opposed to the renegade cut. Or watch them both to compare and contrast.
13) Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
This is another film that I'd meant to properly see for ages and finally took the chance to watch it on one of my livestreams- I paired it with The Apple as a musical double bill with similar themes of "musicians making deals with the devil" and extremely different executions. Great music, beautiful imagery, and a lot of DePalma's signature themes like mirroring and voyeurism in the film. Also quite campy and humorous in the best ways. Beef is one of the best characters and is absolutely iconic.
I'd watch this any day over the Phantom of the Opera musical. *fart noise* Sorry, I've never really enjoyed Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals.
Funny that when I'd only seem bits and pieces before I'd assumed the Phantom was the bad guy and Paul Williams' character was the good guy. Very funny to see Paul Williams play a ruthless and devious guy and do it so well.
14) Wait Until Dark (1967)
Wait Until Dark pits a blind woman against thieves who are posing as police/friends of her husband in this tense home invasion thriller. Unbeknownst to her, her husband received a doll with drugs tucked inside it at an airport and now a killer and two thieves are in pursuit of the doll while his wife is home alone. I love a film with a protagonist who is smart and quick on her feet- she finds out how to use her own blindness as an advantage against the intruders and figures out that she's being tricked by them. I also liked her relationship with the stubborn neighbor girl who acts as a sometimes caretaker/assistant to her. Both are so smart and likeable and it's so refreshing to see characters who feel real and grounded in their little mundane moments.
Wait Until Dark is a super tense film and it even made me jump a few times. I was reminded a lot of the film Hush (2016) which has a deaf author facing off against a serial killer in her isolated forest home. I imagine that film must have taken some notes from this thriller- though Hush certainly ramps up the violence.
15) Nosferatu the Vampyr (1979)
This is another film that feels like I should have seen it ages ago, but it feels good to catch up. Herzog's take on Nosferatu is fantastic and stunning. It's also interesting to have seen it so soon after a rewatch of Possession (1981) because you can see a line between Adjani's performance here and in the later film. Nosferatu is slow and atmospheric and so rich visually. Do yourself a favor and watch it if you like a good haunting vampire story. Klaus Kinski's Nosferatu is quite scary when you also think about who he was as a person, but the character himself is written with some element of pathos which does come through. Nosferatu is a creature that is tired of living but he can do little else.
As a laugh, follow this one up with Nosferatu in Venice (1988)- the absolutely chaotic and incoherent unofficial sequel also starring Klaus Kinski. Or just look up the fight scene between Kinski and Christopher Plummer's character on youtube. Reading about this film's history (and about Kinksi as a person) is pretty upsetting so proceed with caution.
16) Caltiki: The Immortal Monster (1959)
Earlier this year I binged a bunch of blob themed films, rewatching the original The Blob (1958) and it's much grodier and cynical remake from 1988, as well as the goofy and colorful Beware The Blob (1972). I also watched some films I'd never seen before- Island of Terror (1966) and the incredibly stunning and surprising Caltiki, an Italian take on The Blob that is far more gruesome and exciting than its American predecessor. Here the creature is discovered in an old Mayan ruin, where it devours and attacks some of the researchers and a sample of the creature is brought back for study- and of course the sample begins to grow and multiply. I was really wowed by this films clever use of miniatures, matte paintings, and camera work to create this illusion of lush jungles and giant amoeboid monsters overrunning houses and people. The film looks especially beautiful in black and white thanks to Mario Bava having worked as cinematographer on this film. It's shockingly grisly and tense for 1959 too!
I highly recommend checking this one out, even though it does slow down at some places with its human characters.
17) Atanarjuat- The Fast Runner (2001)
Technically this isn't an entirely new film to me. I caught scenes from it when my parents watched it in the mid 00s, but I never sat down and watched it in full til 2021. I screened this to folks on discord while I was sick in bed recovering from my booster and flu shot and it was a wonderful way to spend my evening. This film is notable as being the first feature film with all its dialogue in Inuktitut. The story is based on old Inuit tales and is also an intimate look at how people lived, dressed, sang, loved, ate, and survived for hundreds of years. In many ways it feels very candid and personal. There are mystical elements- a shaman who curses a lineage and is later expelled by another shaman in a ritual where both embody the spirits of animals- but those are minimal. The supernatural here sits mundanely and normally among the chores, hunting, and other parts of daily life. It's very much a story about love, conflict, revenge, and survival. Interesting to note that this film is also about breaking cycles of violence, which does not reflect the original story but instead is an update related to Christianity and its concepts of forgiveness being important to contemporary Inuit folks. Also nice to note that this film was a huge success in Canada.
Zacharias Kunuk also directed some other films that I really want to check out- an Inuit retelling of the John Ford western Searchers from 2016 that he co-directed with actor/artist/film maker Natar Ungalaaq. I'm also very curious to seek out a movie he helped produce, a drama called Edge of the Knife which is the first feature film in the Haida language. As a Native it's so exciting to see more indigenous cinema like this!
18) The White Reindeer (1952)
This is one the coolest vampire films I've ever seen. This Finnish film is based on stories of the indigenous Sámi and is made by a director who spent time with them and made an documentary about their lives and their herding of reindeer. A woman visits a shaman with the hopes that he can make her irresistible to her husband, who is often tired from his work as a herder and is away for periods of time. It's implied that she was born a witch- the visit to the shaman awakens the power within her. She is told to make a sacrifice of the first living being she sees to a stone altar- a white reindeer calf. She then turns into a white reindeer herself, luring men after her so she can drink their blood. Even though reindeer are very cute, the film still manages to make its premise quite eerie.
The White Reindeer is also an extremely pretty film, shot in black and white and with poignant breath-taking shots of the landscape and some excellent framing. The lighting is incredible and there's so many striking and haunting shots that make use of shadows and high contrasts.
A view through the scattered antlers at the Stone God's altar
Incredible use of light and shadow!
19) Game Over aka Deadly Games: Dial Code Santa Claus (1989)
Supposedly this French film directly inspired Home Alone (1990), which borrowed heavily the idea of a boy fending off home invaders using toys and home made traps. However, Deadly Games is much more grim and dark than Home Alone, which is a much lower stakes and light-hearted film. However, there's a direct line between the nastiness of the traps that Thomas of Deadly Games sets for the killer Santa Claus and those that Kevin McAllister sets for the wet bandits. As a kid I really thought Home Alone was disgusting when I first saw it.
Tone-wise this is an odd film. Our boy hero is seen playing Rambo and larping elaborate war games with his cute pet dog and his elderly grandfather, but he is also very naive and sheltered by his very rich lifestyle and doting mom. When a crazy and disgruntled mall Santa is fired by his mother for striking a child, the killer Claus goes on a rampage and targets the wealthy family's estate. Young Thomas must defend himself and his grandfather from the killer. Even though the premise sounds silly it's quite tense, especially since the characters feel so real and the stakes are quite high. It's exciting and compellingly weird, but you do also have to watch a child's innocence be shattered in a really awful way throughout the film. He's clever and resourceful, but you don't forget for one minute that he's just a little boy who loves and needs his mom and grandpa. That's the cost of good dialogue and believable characters- you care about them.
I'd mentioned it on letterboxd as well but the Minitel features prominently in the film and the film addresses the anxieties about children having access to the internet. The French more or less had home internet a decade before other countries and already the worry was that you or your children could be talking to creeps online. Deadly Games was prescient about a lot of things- internet child predation, the role of American pop culture in the lives of kids (and the kind of nerd culture surrounding it). So very interesting!
Also of note: filmed nicely, good use of miniatures and clever sets that made it really feel like our characters were navigating a huge mansion.
20) Blood Beat (1983)
Another Christmas film and another bit of weird hyper-local low budget horror. Set in Wisconsin, a girl visiting her shitty boyfriend's family seemingly becomes possessed by the ghost of a samurai warrior. The boyfriend's mom is also a psychic and seems to have been battling/staving off the entity for years. The film is quite incoherent but all the more compelling for it. It also has such a specifically Wisconsin vibe with all the little mundane aspects and quirks of people's lives in it.
There's also (whether intentional or not) a lot of focus on dysfunctional relationships and unhappy women whose needs are never met and whose words are never heeded. Kind of interesting that the possession seems to be quite sexual in nature, with the girl practically having an orgasm while the samurai manifests and starts murdering people. Truly, this is a weird one and I like it the more I think about it.
21) Spirits of the Dead (1968)
I streamed this movie to pals in October along with another film that dealt loosely in anthology- The Company of Wolves. Spirits of the Dead features three shorts by three prominent directors, Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini all based loosely on the work of Edgar Allen Poe.
The Vadim segment was decent- about a sadistic countess becoming infatuated with a distant cousin, being spurned by him, burning down his stable to punish him, and unintentionally killing him in the process. A black stallion emerges from the fire and she becomes obsessed with it. It's a good moody film with some spectacular costumes.
The Louis Malle short was the weakest one, dealing with a cruel man and his virtuous doppelganger. Malle was really phoning it in for this one. Bridget Bardot gets brutalized on screen in a scene that lasts way too long.
The real star is the Fellini short, Toby Dammit, about a haunted English star coming to Rome on the promise of receiving a Ferrari. It's both incredibly funny and eerie, with the trip to Rome basically being like a descent into the underworld as Toby is paraded from airport to interview to awards ceremony. Very disorienting, beautifully shot. Great costumes too! Out of the three directors, Fellini is the one who actually enjoyed the assignment and wasn't just making something to bankroll a different preferred project and it shows.
Awful Stinkers and Time Wasters
1) Cruella (2021)
One of the worst cynical pieces of shit I've ever seen. Disney reimagines one of its iconic cartoon villains as a quirky heroine and girlboss in one of the least interesting revenge stories on screen. For a film all about fashion it had incredibly ugly and uninspired clothing- compare it to the live action 101 Dalmatians movie with the stellar costume designs of Anthony Powell (rip) to see how dire the costumes of Cruella are. The film itself is ugly too. Grey color-graded soup and cgi-laden scenes so dark you can barely understand what's happening on-screen. Everything looks like a cheap video game cut scene. Hey Disney, turn your monitor on.
2) The Suckling (1989)
Man, I really wanted to like this one and it was sort of promising, but it ultimately comes off as a really bizarre pro-life film. The makers claimed the intent was just to be controversial (which they achieved) but they failed to make their movie fun to watch. You'd think "aborted mutant fetus monster on a rampage" would be funnier but drags in places and it wastes a ton of time on a character who sucks. It's Alien but with a fetus monster in a brothel/back alley abortion clinic. You might like it and it's cool that it was restored and preserved regardless, but it really disappointed me.
3) A Quiet Place 2 (2020)
Less egregious than the first film- which I made the mistake of seeing in theaters because of the hype- but still pretty bad. Jim Office figured out how to make a more competent film but that doesn't make it particularly enjoyable.
Very funny that people who generally don't like horror lost their collective minds for A Quiet Place because apparently no one has ever seen a movie with a gimmick before.
4) Werewolves Within (2021)
An absolute test of my patience. Not funny, very twee and loaded with tired dialogue and stereotypes. A Whodunnit with zero mystery or tension.
There's also no werewolf til the absolute end and it wasn't a very inspired one. I didn't realize at the time I watched that this was based on the game. The game werewolf looks way cooler.
5) The Banana Splits Movie (2019).
Boring, dull, joyless. Doesn't do anything fun with what could have been a very funny premise.
6) Willy's Wonderland (2021)
Boring, totally wastes Nic Cage by having him be a silent protagonist who does nothing interesting. Does nothing fun with its concept. I respect that Willy's Wonderland and The Banana Splits Movie moved fast to cash in on the Five Night's at Freddy's craze, that at least is kind of funny.
7) Predator (2018)
The Monster Squad writer tried to make a confusing lore-laden movie FOR DA FANS or something. Unwatchable, not a single likeable character in the film. The predators are cool when they actually get screen time but they're utterly buried in garbage. I feel like you see more military tech than you see predators or their weird alien dogs. Cool Gun, Cool Mech, Cool Space Marine indeed.
Predator makes a "weaponized autism" punchline accidentally by trying to portray autism as the next evolutionary step that the predators want to bring back to their home planet.
8) Minutes Past Midnight (2016)
A horror anthology containing 8 unremarkable-to-dogshit shorts and 1 unbelievably good and beautiful short- The Mill at Calder's End. I sought this anthology out just for Calder's End, and I'd recommend you just seek that short out instead. You can read my breakdown of all the shorts here on my letterboxd if you're curious about the anthology.
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