My Top 10 Films of 2018

My Top 10 Films of 2018 

Well the blog scene for me died a little bit in these last few months. It hasn't been for want of things to write about having seen a range of flicks from Roma to Suspiria (neither of which will feature in this list). The reason I started to write the blog was to keep myself in a writing mood and to reignite my passion (bleugh I hate using that word in this context, so cliche) for creative writing. To that end I've made great headway in some short stories and a book I've been trying to write since 2010 which had previously languished in writer's block land after seeing a lot of the concepts crop up in a variety of different things (primarily Bioshock: Infinite and Black Mirror).

Anyway, in order to now get back into the blogging game here is a list of the flicks that grabbed my attention the most in 2018.







10. Avengers: Infinity War 

As noted in my actual review for this film, I'm not a huge MCU fan (when people say MCU I actually harken back to the time when MCU meant Major Crimes Unit in The Dark Knight and newly appointed Commissioner Jim Gordon bellows "He wanted us to lock him up in the MCU!" in reference to a scheming Joker).

Having said that, despite an uneven tone and a few plot strands that felt unnecessary and just there to give people something to do *cough* Thor *cough* this film somehow wrangled a vast canvass of characters spanning over a decade's worth of film making and somehow made it coherent and for the most part engaging., Plus with a click of their fingers the Marvel makers bring their A-game on the villain front with Thanos, played with quiet menace by Broilin.

I've avoided the trailer for the sequel, Endgame, (I know I'll end up seeing it as a trailer at the cinema at some point), but that film has a lot to live up to, so Marvel better snap to it.

9. Overlord 

Made by the Abrams production company Bad Robot, with rumours abound that it was another stealth Cloverfield flick (honest, it really isn't), this film directed by Julius Avery, a native of my now new home state of Western Australia, should have been a home run blast of B-movie shlock.

However, an overly long mid portion, focusing more on simmering tension between soliders and their captured Nazi shirks on the schlock and piles on the grim realities of war. Whilst not uninteresting in and of itself, considering the bombastic one shot opening salvo of a parachute jump (bettering M:I Fallout #sorrynotsorry), and the gorefest of the ending, it felt like a missed opportunity by grounding proceedings so heavily in the midsection.

Notwithstanding this uneven quality, when Overlord fires on all cylinders it is propulsive, gory, old-fashioned fun. Think Wolfenstein, crossed with Call of Duty zombies, crossed with the genre mashup of From Dusk till Dawn and you're just about there.

8. Sicario: Day of the Soldado 

Whilst the intended mood of the film was significantly diminished by the behaviour of the unruliest patrons in a cinema I've ever encountered (read the older blogs for the full saga but in one instance of the basterdry of the other cinema-goers included reaching in between the seats and clicking their fingers by my ears), much like its predecessor, Day of the Soldado managed to push the buttons of white knuckle tension like few other films. In particular the opening set piece set in a supermarket is a real knock out of violence intruding on the mundanity of life.

What was most surprising about Soldado was the quality considering the pedigree of the original. I certainly didn't expect it to remain so high, and with a clear leaping off point for a sequel, I fully welcome another deep dive into the morally murky netherworld of the Mexican drug cartel: no walls needed for me, let them in!

7. Ready Player One 


When the trailers hit for this film, despite being helmed by arguably the godfather of quality mainstream film making, Steven Spielberg, my usual cinema buddies were at best not hooked by the film, at worst said the trailer looked awful.

I, on the other hand, being a sucker for synthwave and 80s kitsch, was sucked in to seeing this. My only regret is that I didn't get to see the neon tinged sci-fi epic on the big screen. The film somehow manages the trick of making a quality video game adaption, in the same way that Scott Pilgrim vs The World did: base your film about video games and not the plot of one specific game.

Not once did it feel like a film made by a committee trying to talk down to geek culture or throwing in lazy references, it felt genuine and sincere and won me over even before it had thrown in my favourite song of all time (New Order's Blue Monday), or go to bad guy of the last few years Ben Mendelson, adding another corporate nastie to his resume, strapped on some VR gear to go war as mecha-Godzilla.

6. Solo 

I can't think of another film in the past decade which has had so much unfair baggage piled upon it prior to release, in this case by the toxic "fanboy" cohort of the Star Wars community, as Solo.

Prior to release, Solo was drowning under the weight of undue hatred for the vocal militant division of those who hated The Last Jedi; this film had more bile thrown it at than the Reagan's walls in The Exorcist.

Perhaps the lower than expected box office returns can be put down to over-saturation of the market for Star Wars media (fair but it was not box office bomb in the traditional sense, just underwhelming) or the dummy spitting of the "fanboys" but irregardless of the context, assessed on its merits I found Solo to be a runaway success, buoyed by charismatic performances all round (okay maybe Emilia Clarke is a little miscast).

Solo did what I'd wanted from Star Wars when it first returned to our screen in the lacklustre, but serviceable Force Awakens, namely explore the furthest reaches of that galaxy far, far away, and show us something away from Rebels/Resistance vs Imperials/First Order.

5. Halloween

Not going to lie, but from here on out the it is horror, horror, and more horror. Much like the last few years, there have been so many stand out horror flicks, most of them coming from the indie/art house school.

Yet here, we have a stone cold classic horror flick which grabbed mainstream moviegoers by the throat and pinned them to a wall with a kitchen knife. Laurie Strode, played by the magnetic scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis is back and this time the tables finally get turned as generations of Strodes come out guns blazing on their oppressor.

In the year of the #MeToo movement, seeing a trio of furious women taking down a male oppressor from the 70s hits home, and thankfully the film is a winner without this (un)intentional subtext, delivering on old fashioned stalk and slash thrills. Yes, it is never really scary but a fantastic score by the original's director, and pioneer of modern horror, John Carpenter, alongside his son, as well as some truly nasty set pieces sets this apart from conveyor belt horrors of the year like The Nun and Slenderman.

4. Apostle 

This Netflix bound flick grabbed my attention with blurb talk of cosmic horror and Lovecraftian undertones, as well as a lead performance Dan Stevens (next Bond?) [also check out his turn in The Guest for a Drive/Termination/Halloween crossover genre flick you didn't know you needed] I destined to like it.

However, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. Focusing on the very creepy goings on of an island bound cult lead by charismatic and the very Welsh, Michael Sheen, Stevens is there to rescue a relative from their clutches. Mobs of zealots carrying burning torches and pitchforks are to be expected but torture scenes that imply so much whilst showing very little, and claustrophobic horrors are not.

A slow burn that ignites into a whirlwind of madness and blood, a real winner and like the next entrant on this list, a shame to be confined to the small screen of Netflix but kudos for them for picking up the bill.

3. Annihilation 

As said above, this twisty sci-fi horror also got nabbed by Netflix (a poor negative test screening [fuck those people] and the financier from Paramount saying that the film was "too intellectual" and "too complicated" [fuck that guy] led to Netflix taking control of distribution outside of the UK) and again it is a shame that this vibrant yet dark, expansive yet claustrophobic, masterpiece of sci-fi horror didn't get the big screen treatment.

Loosely based off the first book in the sinister Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, this disconcerting and discombobulating flick follows an all-female team of different professionals setting out to conquer the uncanny Shimmer, an area of land where the laws of physics and nature have been turned upside down.

Suffice to say things do not go to plan and director Alex Garland (watch his Ex Machina), gives us visceral horror (that "bear" scene) as well as psychological creeping fear (waking up to lost time) before capping the whole thing with a trippy and unsettling denouement of dread. A real winner.

2. A Quiet Place 

Such a simple concept: the monsters can hear you. Yet such fantastic results .

Seeing this in the cinema was a real treat, with every new threat of noise the audience audibly gasped. A nail. The arrival of a newborn. A simple walk. All heralded potential disaster for the characters in this masterclass in suspense.

Written and directed by that guy off the inferior version of The Office (the American one of course, again #sorrynotsorry), John Kransinski brings skill and talent to the genre that you'd think he'd been honing his horror craft for decades.

Whilst a likely unnecessary sequel is in production, if it makes as much noise and fanfare as the original has it will be a winner.

1. Hereditary 


When it comes to horror, and just generally film making this year, there was really only once choice for the number one spot.

From the numerous online forums and debates about this film, it is either the worst film ever made (if so, you've lived a sheltered life) or a modern horror classic. I'm going to happily plump for the latter.

I've never seen a horror film so masterfully slowly crank up the horror scene by scene, confidentially wringing the tension and upping the terror before arriving at a conclusion that whilst out there, is the only logical conclusion to a series of ever increasing parade of nightmarish events.

The director, Ari Aster, in his film debut (?!?!) manages to meld the otherworldly with the domestic in staging the macabre around the horribly real disintegration of the family unit. At the centre of it all is a powerhouse performance by Toni Collette, who swings wildly from cold indifference to grief incarnate to mania at the drop of a hat.

If the Oscar's want to stay relevant, they only need to place those golden statuettes at the feet of this demonic film, and worship.