While many expected sure-fire hits and anticipated sequels fell completely flat, some of the most interesting offerings didn’t do too badly for themselves. Here’s the top ten of what held my attention this past year (in alphabetical order). 💀

• Abigail – Knowing their premise wouldn’t stay a secret, the filmmakers stage their vampiric reveal like blowing up a blood bank with the donors still inside.
• A Complete Unknown – If you don’t know Bob Dylan, you’re damn well about to: a lyrical prodigy who refuses to stay in his lane and remakes musical distinctions into his own.
• Conclave – The inner workings of the Catholic church are less about God and all about alliances, but when a new Pope must be chosen, the internal machinations are cranked up to infernal.
• Heretic – Mr. Reed has spent a lifetime sorting out the one true faith in the world among religions… and he has zero qualms about spending the rest of your lifetime educating you.
• Late Night With the Devil – A talk show host in the 1970s invites occult guests and delicious controversy to claim his late-night crown and gets exactly what he wished for.
• Love Lies Bleeding – A small-town criminal enterprise is threatened by the blossoming relationship between two women determined to escape by lighting the fuse.
• Memoirs of a Snail – A stop-motion animated tale of family, fear, death, and dark humor that sneaks up and rips your still-beating heart out.
• The Substance – A Hollywood parable about what’s really important in life: narcissism, body horror, and hosting a New Year’s Eve telecast.
• Tuesday – Death comes in the guise of a parrot carrying the grief of the world on its wings before an absent mother and her dying child interrupts the status quo.
• Wicked: Part 1 – The bestselling novel turned into a hit Broadway musical is split into the first of two films for fans old and new.