Best and Worst Films of 2022

2022 YEAR IN REVIEW

Movies I didn’t dislike in 2022:

Beast

Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe

The Black Phone

Blood Relatives

Bones and All

Bros

The Cellar

Christmas Bloody Christmas

Clerks III

Deadstream

Glorious

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

The Harbinger (dir. Andy Mitton)

The House

The Long Night

Men

Metal Lords

Nanny

The Retaliators

Significant Other

Slash/Back

Snapper:  The Man-Eating Turtle Movie That Never Got Made

Speak No Evil*

Spirit Halloween:  The Movie

Terrifier 2

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

They/Them

Torn Hearts

V/H/S/99

Violent Night

Wendell & Wild

What Josiah Saw

Movies I disliked in 2022:

Allegoria

Ambulance

The Batman

Bodies Bodies Bodies

Cosmic Dawn

The Cottage

Croc!

Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2

Dig

Firestarter

The Friendship Game

The Good Nurse

Hatching

Hellraiser

Incantation

Jeepers Creepers:  Reborn

The Killing Tree

The Last Thing Mary Saw

Lightyear

Mickey Saves Christmas

Mid-Century

Mistletoe Time Machine

The Munsters

Mystery Spot

Resurrection

Sin Eater

Spooky+

The Stepmother

Stoker Hills

Tár

Tow

Where the Scary Things Are

TV Shows I didn’t dislike in 2022:

The Bear (Season One) (Hulu)

Dahmer – Monster:  The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)

High School (Season One) (Freevee)*

Reservation Dogs (Season Two) (Hulu)

Stranger Things (Season Four) (Netflix)

Wednesday (Season One) (Netflix)*

The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (Netflix)

TV Shows I disliked in 2022:

Are You Afraid of the Dark?:  Ghost Island

Dark Winds (Season One) (AMC)

Jurassic World:  Camp Cretaceous (Season Five) (Netflix)

Pieces of Her (Season One) (Netflix)

The Resort (Season One) (Peacock)

Other superlatives:

Coolest Title(s):  Nutcracker Massacre; Studio 666

Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype:  Nope; Pearl; Watcher

Not-as-bad-as-they-said:  Halloween Ends

Biggest Disappointment(s):  Crabs!; The Innocents; Jurassic World: Dominion; My Best Friend’s Exorcism

Movies-that-were-better-the-second-time:  The Black Phone; X

Most Disappointing TV Show(s):  Paper Girls (Season One)

Most Overrated:  Barbarian; Sissy; Smile; Tár

Most Unnecessary Sequels/Prequels:  Bring It On: Cheer or Die; Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2; Jeepers Creepers: Reborn; Orphan: First Kill; Terror Train 2; Wyrmwood: Apocalypse

Worthy Sequels/Prequels:  Clerks III; Jackass Forever; The Reef: Stalked; Terrifier 2; Texas Chainsaw Massacre; V/H/S/99

Most Unnecessary Remakes/Re-imaginings/Spinoffs: The Batman; Firestarter; Goodnight Mommy; Hellraiser; Lightyear; The Munsters; Terror Train

Worthy Remakes/Re-imaginings/Spinoffs:  Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Wednesday (Season One)

Best Anthology Film:  V/H/S/99

Worst Anthology Film:  Spooky+

Best Documentary:  Snapper:  The Man-Eating Turtle Movie That Never Got Made

Most Disappointing Documentary:  Pennywise: The Story of IT

Best Fan Film:  The Sawyer Massacre

Best Concert Film:  South Park: The 25^th Anniversary Concert

Best Performance:  Jenna Ortega (Wednesday)

Best Comebacks:  Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe; Kevin Smith (Clerks III); Tim Burton (Wednesday)

Most Anticipated in 2023:  Dark Harvest

Commentary:  Another year, another not-so-great year of movies.  I don’t know.  Maybe I’ve just seen too many movies and it’s hard to be original anymore?  I know, I know, as I always say, and needless to say, criticism is subjective and everyone is their own critic.  I never fully agreed with the Oscars (case in point:  Tár is up for six nominations and it made my dislike list).  As much as I always complain about how modern movies suck, I’m still going to watch them, review them, and rate them as long as they keep being made.  Needless to say, you never know your opinion until you check it out, right?  Sometimes it’s just as enjoyable penning a negative review as a positive one.  Perhaps I might like more movies if I learned to lower expectations as much as I anticipate a title?  And, like I said in past commentaries, sometimes movies are better the second time, or just over time period.  I made a new category for that under the superlatives.  Yes, X was much better the second time I revisited it not long after watching its prequel, Pearl (you’ll see I didn’t give it too good of a review here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2022/05/x.html).  Pearl, on the other hand, was still just okay when I watched it a second time (I do think they make good companion pieces though).  Now, it may appear I liked a lot of movies this year based on my list, but it simply states ‘Movies I didn’t dislike in 2022.’  If I like a modern movie even just a little bit, I’m sort of going to praise it.  If I had to pick though, I will have to say the best of 2022 for me was probably Speak No Evil, a foreign movie with a title as generic as they come.  As for the worst?  Any title making that list deserves the dishonor!  In my year-end review of 2019, I stated three of my favorite filmmakers (Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino) needed comebacks, and at least two of them accomplished that this year (your turn, Mr. Tarantino!).  Here’s to 2023, good or bad…I guess.  I am the most curious to see the adaptation of Dark Harvest (a book I enjoyed) which is supposed to come out this year, but Evil Dead Rise was supposed to come out last year instead of this one.  Sure, there are other releases planned for 2023 I’m curious about, such as Cocaine Bear, 65, that Winnie the Pooh horror flick (Blood and Honey), and the King adaptations/updates of The Boogeyman and Salem’s Lot, but I’m not super excited for any of them.  Whatever...1/30/2023

---Sean O.

2/15/2023