2020 YEAR IN REVIEW
Movies I liked in 2020:
Alien Xmas
The Beach House*
Books of Blood
Color Out of Space
The Hunt
Sea Fever
Soul
Spontaneous
Vampires vs. the Bronx
The Vast of Night
The Wolf of Snow Hollow
You Don’t Nomi
Movies I disliked in 2020:
The Amityville Harvest
Amulet
The Bay of Silence
The Binding
Carrion
Clownface
Evil Eye
Greener Grass
The Grudge
The Haunting of Margam Castle
The Night Clerk
Nocturne
Outback
Parallel
Retaliation
Scoob!
She Dies Tomorrow*
Souvenirs
The Turning
Underwater
0.0 MHz
Other Superlatives:
Coolest Title(s): Alien Xmas
Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype: Wolfwalkers
Not-as-bad-as-they-said: Antebellum; Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island
Biggest Disappointment(s): Koko-di Koko-da; The Lodge; VFW; Welcome to
the Blumhouse
(series)
Most Unnecessary Sequel(s): The Babysitter: Killer Queen; Black Water:
Abyss; Deep Blue Sea 3; Train to Busan
Presents: Peninsula
Actually Worthy Sequel(s): Bill & Ted Face the Music; Tremors:
Shrieker Island
Most Unnecessary Remake(s): The Grudge; The Invisible Man; The Turning;
The Witches
Actually Worthy Remake(s): Color Out of Space
Most Overrated: His House; Host (Shudder)
Best Documentary: You Don’t Nomi
Best TV Show(s): The Haunting of Bly Manor; Jurassic World:
Camp Cretaceous (season one);
The Woods (season one)
Most Disappointing TV Show(s): The Outsider (season one)
Worst TV Show(s): Ju-On: Origins (season one)
Most Overrated TV Show(s): Outer Banks (season one)
Best Comeback: Bill & Ted Face the Music
Needs a Comeback: Good movies!
Most Anticipated in 2021: Fear Street Trilogy
Commentary: Well, another
year down and another shitty year for movies.
2020 was not a good year for a lot of things, good movies being one,
although an abundance of good movies hasn’t existed for years now. Bad movies, on the other hand, will always be
in abundance, or even movies that are just okay. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,
Roger Ebert (R.I.P.) once said that “life is too short to see movies that are
just okay.” As you can see, I didn’t
make a top ten list for best and worst films like I also did last year for the
first time. There just aren’t enough good
movies to compile from greatest to least greatest, and even though there will
always be much more on the worst list (unfortunately), sometimes it’s hard even
determining which of those to list in order.
Therefore, I simply listed which movies I liked and disliked in
alphabetical order again. If I had to
pick from each list though, I would say The
Beach House, originally a Shudder exclusive (you can purchase the DVD now),
was the best movie I saw last year, and She
Dies Tomorrow would have to win for the worst (it was also one of the worst
movies I’ve ever seen!). I only included
The Wolf of Snow Hollow and Vampires vs. the Bronx on my best list,
because the former was a different kind of werewolf film, even though, SPOILER,
it wasn’t really a werewolf film at all, and the latter because it contained
vampires of the more traditional variety, which proves I didn’t have much to
include on my “best list” this year. I
included Books of Blood because it
was an anthology movie containing segments that were all worthy enough
(something rare for such films). I
always wait until around this time to compile and post this list just so I can
watch more films that are released on video (a.k.a. DVD/Blu-ray/streaming/etc.)
in January or early February. Plus, the
Oscars and Golden Globes and whatever other award shows aren’t aired until
around this time either! Unfortunately,
I’ll likely see films released from here on out that I wish could’ve been
included on at least the best list, but, I know, I can always come back and
make adjustments. Superlatives were
added again because they’re always fun to make and read and include films that
might not have made either list; plus TV shows are included (I don’t watch
enough TV shows during the year to make a separate list for that). Well, I would say let’s hope for a good year
in film for 2021, but the last couple years haven’t been giving me much
hope. I always say I should just
re-watch movies I know I like instead of most new ones, but there’s always that
undeniable thrill of watching a movie for the first time and possibly
discovering a premature classic (subjective or otherwise). So, I’ll keep watching new movies (hopefully
I’ll see some on the big screen again too after the spread of certain viruses
completely dissipates), but won’t expect much good to be released. Prove me wrong filmmakers…2/14/2021
---Sean O.
2/16/2021
