Media Diet 2017: Movies

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As noted in the companion post about books, I’ll be keeping track of every movie I watch this year, with particular attention to the ones that move me in some serious way, positive or negative. Hopefully I can turn you onto some things you might not have otherwise found.

I’ll update this periodically.

Media Diet 2017: Movies

  1. The Secret Life of Pets
  2. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
  3. Joshy
  4. Danny Says
  5. XX
  6. Lavender
  7. Phantasm III
  8. Oklahoma City-Informative, disturbing documentary of Timothy McVeigh and far-right domestic terrorism
  9. Carnival of Souls—One of my all-time favorites, watched for the 4th or 5th time.
  10. Beyond the Gates
  11. Tropic Thunder
  12. Exorcist III
  13. A Dark Song
  14. Batman and Bill
  15. Krisha
  16. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
  17. Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th
  18. Country: Portraits of an American Sound
  19. Big Trouble in Little China
  20. Prince of Darkness—Strangely, perhaps my favorite John Carpenter movie
  21. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
  22. Sicario—Is there a better working director than Denis Villeneuve? I say no.
  23. The Blackcoat’s Daughter—So good. You should see this.
  24. Nocturnal Animals
  25. The Void
  26. The Conjuring 2
  27. Blood on Satan’s Claw—A key, founding document of folk horror, and with good reason. While a little slack in places, a strong, engaging bit of British horror.
  28. Mad Max, with an awesome original score performed live by Morricone Youth
  29. Witchfinder General
  30. The Devil’s Candy—Despiute strong buzz, found this so generic and boring that I didn’t make it to the end.
  31. The Alchemist Cookbook—Didn’t totally hold my attention, but I’m a sucker for these ultra-low-budget horror movies that use sound and atmosphere and repetition to create their effects. If you like low-key, mumblecore-type horror, check this one out.
  32. Lego Batman Movie
  33. Follow
  34. The Gift
  35. The Secret in Their Eyes—Entertaining, but not amazing. Felt like it wanted to be Villeneuve’s Prisoners.
  36. Shin Godzilla—Damn, that was a lot of fun.
  37. Talladega Nights
  38. Frailty—Didn’t love this the first time I watched it. Now? I get why people love it so much. What a fun movie.
  39. Buster’s Mal Heart—Director Sarah Adina Smith is one to watch. Between this, The Midnight Swim, and her two episodes of Room 104, especially “The Knockadoo,” she’s going to have a long and awesome career making darkly imaginative film and TV.
  40. Fright Night (the original)
  41. Logan Lucky—A fun caper movie with a sweeter heart and sharper eye than you might expect.
  42. The Quatermass Experiment
  43. A Nightmare on Elm Street—The original. Is this the best horror movie of the 1980s, both in terms of its actual quality, but also in terms of its thematic elements and influence? It might be. I’d take other suggestions, of course, but I feel like this gets consistently short shrift.
  44. Masterminds—An interesting companion to Logan Lucky, though not as good.
  45. IT—Liked IT, didn’t love IT.
  46. Quatermass 2
  47. It Comes at Night—At least as good as everyone tells you, maybe better. Trey Edward Shults is one to watch, and has a really deep understanding of the power of audio in horror/suspense film.
  48. Gerald’s Game—Mike Flanagan is unbeatable. Every one os his movies is essential viewing.
  49. Pumpkinhead
  50. Unfriended
  51. Super Dark Times—Boy, this was good. Not strictly horror, but adjacent enough that horror fans should enjoy this terrific movie.
  52. The Ring—The U.S. remake is still the best version.
  53. Cold Moon
  54. Halloween III
  55. The Blob (’88)
  56. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (’78)—Unquestionably my favorite version of this story. Love the 70s setting, so impressed by Donald Sutherland every time.
  57. The Strangers
  58. Blair Witch
  59. Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2
  60. Girls Trip—Hilarious
  61. Flowers in the Attic
  62. The Untamed
  63. Texas Chain Saw Massacre
  64. The Invitation—A nearly perfect exercise in tension. 
  65. Lovely Molly—The best movie of its year.
  66. Quatermass and the Pit
  67. Split
  68. The Mummy (Karloff version)
  69. Lace Crater
  70. Der Nachtmahr
  71. Hot Fuzz—1000% funnier this time around than when I saw it originally. Missed the folk-horror elements entirely the first time around.
  72. Wind River—Taylor Sheridan is one of the most interesting movie creators going. Such a strong point of view.
  73. The Fog
  74. Boys in the Trees
  75. Jim and Andy
  76. Too Funny To Fail
  77. The Passion of Darkly Noon
  78. Lords of Salem
  79. Bushwick
  80. Logan—Beyond being as good as promised, this was unexpectedly emotional. Among the best super-hero films.
  81. Atomic Blonde

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