{"id":15695,"date":"2020-01-06T09:14:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T14:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/?p=15695"},"modified":"2023-07-07T22:43:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T02:43:27","slug":"best-horror-movies-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/2020\/01\/06\/best-horror-movies-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Horror Movies 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"First of all, you’ve got to love a list that features an above-the-headline image of the Mashit demon from Nightmare Cinema<\/em>.<\/a> But beyond that (and the fact that NC<\/em> comes in ranked among the top 20), the year’s-best-horror list at Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> confirms that 2019 was a banner year for the genre.<\/p>\n

For the record, here are RT’s top 20 horror titles, based on reviews from the website’s top critics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID (VUELVEN) directed by Issa L\u00f3pez<\/li>\n
  2. HARPOON directed by Rob Grant<\/li>\n
  3. HAGAZUSSA: A HEATHEN’S CURSE (HAGAZUSSA) directed by Lukas Feigelfeld<\/li>\n
  4. US directed by Jordan Peele<\/li>\n
  5. THE LIGHTHOUSE directed by Robert Eggers<\/li>\n
  6. BLISS directed by Joe Begos<\/li>\n
  7. READY OR NOT directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett<\/li>\n
  8. THE GOLEM directed by Doron Paz, Yoav Paz<\/li>\n
  9. DEPRAVED directed by Larry Fessenden<\/li>\n
  10. EVER AFTER (ENDZEIT) directed by Carolina Hellsg\u00e5rd<\/li>\n
  11. BRAID directed by Mitzi Peirone<\/li>\n
  12. THE HOLE IN THE GROUND directed by Mitzi Peirone<\/li>\n
  13. LUZ directed by Tilman Singer<\/li>\n
  14. MIDSOMMAR directed by Ari Aster<\/li>\n
  15. CRAWL directed by Alex Aja<\/li>\n
  16. THE WIND directed by Emma Tammi<\/li>\n
  17. GIRL ON THE THIRD FLOOR directed by Travis Stevens<\/li>\n
  18. SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK directed by Andr\u00e9 \u00d8vredal<\/li>\n
  19. NIGHTMARE CINEMA directed by Alejandro Brugu\u00e9s, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, Ryuhei Kitamura, David Slade<\/li>\n
  20. DOCTOR SLEEP directed by Mike Flanagan<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That’s quite a list, and it includes a number of titles that I consider some of the best horror films that I have seen in recent years.<\/p>\n

    One of those is the list-topper Tigers are Not Afraid<\/em><\/a>, which though not released in the States until 2019 has been wowing audiences on the festival circuit since 2017. I caught it in 2018 at Grimmfest<\/a> in Manchester, UK, where it stunned a packed theatre with its timely blend of magic realism social commentary.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Directed by Mexican filmmaker\u00a0Issa L\u00f3pez<\/a>, Tigers<\/em> tells the story of a band of homeless children forced to survive on the mean streets of an unnamed Mexican town. Though not professionally trained, the young actors deliver riveting performances, with Juan Ram\u00f3n L\u00f3pez winning an Ariel (Mexico’s equivalent to the Academy Award) for his performance as El Shine.<\/p>\n

    The thing that impresses most about the film is the way it blends magic realism with social commentary. It’s a combination that gives fantastic cinema an edge over other genres, and one I have written about in a previous review<\/a> of Rusty Cundieff and Darrin Scott’s Tales from the Hood 2<\/em><\/a> (2018).<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Another film that blends horror and social commentary is\u00a0Us<\/em><\/a>, Jordan Peele’s multi-layered followup to his critically acclaimed debut Get Out<\/em><\/a>. Here, Peele expands on the concept of the “sunken place” that he introduced in his first film, and along the way engages in ambitious world-building that gives the movie a freshness not found in the trope-laden plots of less successful horror stories.<\/p>\n

    You have to pay attention to this one, as incidents and images that seem random at first come together in a subtext that rewards re-watching. US<\/em> is one of those movies that fuels conversation about the plot as well as the issues it raises.<\/p>\n

    A recent article in IndieWire<\/a> calls horror “the most profitable genre [and] one of the most exciting vessels for filmmaking talent, a means of entertaining and terrifying audiences while tricking them into thinking deeply about the world around them.” The list above certainly supports that claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    First of all, you’ve got to love a list that features an above-the-headline image of the Mashit demon from Nightmare Cinema. But beyond that (and the fact that NC comes in ranked among the top 20), the year’s-best-horror list at Rotten Tomatoes confirms that 2019 was a banner year for the genre. For the record, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-cat-21st-centuryscop","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-centuryscop"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t