2018 YEAR IN REVIEW
Best of 2018:
1. Annihilation
2. Summer of ‘84
3. (tie) All the Creatures were Stirring
Ghost
Stories
4. Three Identical Strangers
5. Searching
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Honorable mentions: The Strangers: Prey at Night; The Ritual;
Love, Simon; Hold the Dark; Assassination Nation; Incident in a Ghostland;
Santa Jaws; The Terror of Hallow’s Eve
Worst of 2018:
1. House on Elm Lake
2. Western
3. The Lost Day
4. The Cloverfield Paradox
5. Sheep & Wolves
6. The Lucky Man
7. Killing Joan
8. Bus Party to Hell
9. Gray Matter
10. House of the Witch
(11.) A Wrinkle in Time
(12.) Night School
(13.) Dark River
(14.) The Little Mermaid
(15.) Mara
Dishonorable mentions: The Neighbor; Action Point; Nostalgia;
Winchester; Early Man; Acrimony; Deep Blue Sea 2; Deadpool 2; American Animals;
The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time; Hotel Artemis; Minutes to Midnight
Other Superlatives:
Coolest Title(s): Trailer Park Shark; The Devil’s Doorway
Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype: Mandy; Black Panther; Eighth Grade
Not-as-bad-as-they-said: Slender Man
Biggest Disappointment(s): The Meg, The
Meg, The Meg; Halloween (I watched
it twice and wasn’t impressed either
time)
Most Unnecessary Sequel(s): The Cloverfield Paradox; Victor Crowley; Deadpool
2 (I wasn’t even crazy about the first
one); Deep Blue Sea 2; The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time; Lake Placid: Legacy
Actually Worthy Sequel(s): The Strangers: Prey at Night; Paddington 2;
Goosebumps 2: Haunted
Halloween
Most Unnecessary Remake(s): Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle; Suspiria
Most Overrated: A Quiet Place; Hereditary; Roma
Most Unnecessary Amount of
Memes: Bird Box
Best TV Show: Castle Rock
Most Disappointing TV Show: The Haunting of Hill House
Worst TV Show: Maniac (I stopped after the first episode,
that’s how much I hated it)
Commentary: 2018, much like the last couple years, was a
shitty year for movies. At least for me;
apparently other sources, including horror publications, disagreed. I’m getting very picky as I get older. Usually I make a list of ten movies for both
best and worst of the year, but since there weren’t too many good movies but
many bad ones unfortunately, I made five for best and an extra five for worst to
still make it an even 20. Why didn’t I
just put some of the honorable mentions on my top ten you may be
wondering? While I did like those
honorable mentions, I didn’t quite think they made top ten material and didn’t
want to list titles just for the sake of completing the list. I honestly think I added titles just to make
a top five (top six since I cheated with the tie) since Annihilation was the only movie of 2018 I could say I completely
enjoyed (I even read the book afterwards and plan on reading the next two in
the series). It was the only movie that
made my top five for the halfway list (blog entry dated 7-7-18) and it made
other critics best of 2018 lists, so I feel somewhat on par with published
and/or renowned critics. Summer of ’84 was one of the better
Eighties throwbacks I’ve seen lately, so that was worthy of inclusion. I counted the two anthology films, All the Creatures were Stirring and Ghost Stories, as one since they were
both good (not great) in the sense all the segments were worthy, and it’s rare when
the good overshadows the bad in an anthology film, let alone completely. Three
Identical Strangers was the best documentary I’ve seen in a long time and
surprised me at how dark it was. Searching was a whole lot better than I
thought it would be, so I gave it some recognition. I’m not going to get into any of the worst
films; just take my word for it or recall my reviews for them, re-read them, or
read them for the first time (abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com). Unfortunately, there’s always going to be bad
movies but I would hope there’d be an equal amount of good ones which hasn’t
been the case the last couple years; for me at least. I would say, here’s to 2019 being a better
year for movies and many other things, but it’s better not to expect anything
and hope for the best…1/30/2019
---Sean O.
