2021—what a mixed year for horror! Oddly, I couldn't remember several, and that made me inclined to rank them lower, because if a year later the film doesn't stand out in my memory, does it matter how much I enjoyed it at the time? What sticks with you is good—or terrible, I suppose.
The first twelve on this list are pretty close and in the same bracket. I like all of them enough that the rank there doesn't really matter. The top six are nearly a coin flip. I have some trouble as it goes on, however. Double Walker stands out in my memory, but is it just because the ghost is a babe or was it actually as good…
2021—what a mixed year for horror! Oddly, I couldn't remember several, and that made me inclined to rank them lower, because if a year later the film doesn't stand out in my memory, does it matter how much I enjoyed it at the time? What sticks with you is good—or terrible, I suppose.
The first twelve on this list are pretty close and in the same bracket. I like all of them enough that the rank there doesn't really matter. The top six are nearly a coin flip. I have some trouble as it goes on, however. Double Walker stands out in my memory, but is it just because the ghost is a babe or was it actually as good as I thought? Then we have Dashcam and World's Fair, both films people are mixed on. Dashcam I find extremely fun and just out of control in the best/worst way possible. Annie Hardy just doesn't bug me that much. World's Fair has one of the most chilling and haunting lines, and it's brilliant. But it's also weird and slow and the brilliance is episodic. But it's a creative and well made film.
Placing Pig is a challenge, because it's such a good film and yet I'm not exactly feeling it a month or two after watching it. Who knows why. It's a great one.
As we go down the list, When I consume you is a very charming indie brother/sister vs demon bonding story with great character development. Medusa—strong innovative story, well filmed, maybe slightly disappointing compared to her first film but maybe I was in a mood. Cursed is way stronger than people say, and much more disturbing; I think it's an attention span versus runtime issue there. It's actually a very good film.
Further down, weird standouts are Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, which is disproportionately awesome for that franchise. Censor worked for me very well upon watching it but it's not aged as well in my memory, so it needs a rewatch, It really is probably too low. Both are worth watching.
As we go down, there are two films that I watched apparently while I was tripping or something. I thought were my nightmares but actually the nightmare bits were from horror films. A Classic Horror Story isn't that great, but I spent a month or two convinced I'd dreamed the plot. I'm glad I didn't decide to write it. Also I definitely had multiple dreams where I was in The Retreat. That is a bit abnormal, especially because they are sort of middling to good.
