I guess this is what they call the nitty gritty. Let's get to it.
10. Abigail
The child ballerina of a wealthy businessman is kidnapped by a motley band of professionals who each have their own reasons for participation. Then things go horribly astray. Blood, guts, and everything in between laid out before you. A very wild night. A very wild movie. Darkly comic. Ample bloodletting. Gotta love it. At least I did.
9. Juror #2
This Clint Eastwood-directed court drama does something I like a great deal. It makes you think. You're presented a dilemma where there is no clear correct path. Every point of view is valid to some degree. What is your choice? It can be right and wrong at the same time. I love movies that do that.
8. Inside Out 2
The continuing story of what's in the head of Riley Andersen. Now 13, she has a new array of issues along with a new array of emotions that have some difficulty interacting with her old ones. It's a delightful and sometimes intense romp through the tribulations of a teenage girl brought to you by Pixar.
7. The Wild Robot
DreamWorks punches into this year's list with a film that shocked me with how fun it actually was. Nothing in any trailer I saw made me remotely interested in this. I almost let this one pass. I'm so glad I didn't. Heartfelt, amusing, and relatively fast paced, who knew a tale of a robot becoming the de facto mom of a gosling could be this entertaining?
6. Alien: Romulus
The ninth installment of the sci-fi horror franchise is one of the better ones. In that tier just after the classics that are Alien and Aliens. The story? Well, why fix what isn't broken? Taking place sometime between those two classic films, it's the story of another hapless band of humans that have the unfortunate circumstance of encountering the meanest killing machines ever conceived on the big screen on an abandoned space station. Director Fede Alvarez has a knack for getting down to the visceral core of what terrifies you (see his remake of Evil Dead). And believe it or not, he actually makes the facehuggers more terrifying than the fully developed Xenomorphs. This may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you felt about Alien Resurrection, but he does borrow a concept from it. You'll know it. This franchise still has juice.
5. The Substance
Without a doubt, this was the strangest movie of 2024. A darkly comic body horror film that was as gross as it was captivating. Or maybe it was captivating because it was gross. Whatever the case, the movie has a lot to say about the trappings of being an aging celebrity. Particularly if you're female. Fighting your inner demons has never been so peculiar. Neither is the ultimate price you can pay for vanity. Two very solid performances from both female leads.
4. Nosferatu
I lost count of how many remakes there have been of the 1920s silent movie. This one was expertly done by Robert Eggers who has become one of the younger guns in the horror genre. The story is pretty much a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker's vampire classic with Count Orlok replacing Dracula. But where Dracula could be elegant, Orlok is a straight up monster. Someone you would cross the road to avoid. While not a true splatterfest, the kills are brutal, and the mood is chilling. This is gothic horror done well.
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