Here are the ten best horror movies of 2021 released by MovieWeb.
Fear is expressed through a language that is older than language, but has the same communicative effect. Now, this language is fully used in the film.
The horror genre has produced some of the most visionary artists in the film industry.
Director Robert Eggers, Nia DaCosta, Ari Aster and many others have proven that horror films can bring out some of the grander metaphors of human society vividly and richly.
Horror fans, even those older and more immune to horror’s scary tricks, will admit that horror movies are experiencing some sort of renaissance.
Filmmakers are finding scarier and deeper ways than ever to connect with audiences.
In 2021, many horror movies have received critical acclaim and box office success, and some have even become the subject of Internet buzz. Here are the top 10 horror movies of 2021.
10 ,Slumber Party Massacre
Danishka Esterhazy’s remake, “Slumber Party Massacre”, is slowly showing its own style after spending some time refurbishing the old story.
With its subtext and director’s choices, “Slumber Party Massacre” is a completely different film.
The film retains the familiar B-horror routine: a group of girls arrive at a remote cabin to relax and meet the same killer who had chased down the protagonist’s mother 30 years earlier.
The film knows its place very well, subtly recreating those sleazy, exploitative shots of the male gaze used to scare people in older films.
Close-up shots of women’s bodies from the killer’s point of view were a popular trend in the 1980s, and Esterhatch used a lot of clever irony on the issue to move the story forward.
Fresh kills and plenty of comedy make “Slumber Party Massacre” a top 2021 slasher movie.
9 ,Fear Street 3
“Fear Street 3” is based on the “Fear Street” series of novels, divided into three parts and released through Netflix, and the original author R.L. Stine also greatly praised it.
“Fear Street 3” presents the same aesthetic as a series of highly sought-after Stephen King-inspired film and television productions (such as “Stranger Things”, “It”, etc.) over the past decade.
In a small town, because of an ancient curse, a group of cold-blooded killers who have been resurrected from the dead pursued endlessly, making the protagonists exhausted.
The core love plot ties the three films together, and is invested with enough emotion to keep you interested in the fate of these characters.
While the three films lack character depth and subtext, they make up for it with great action scenes and intriguing mysteries that are subtly interwoven throughout the three films.
In the process of uncovering the mystery of the suspenseful event, a series of unexpected twists and turns are subtly scattered over a duration of about 7 hours.
8 ,Titane
“Titane” is very grotesque. A girl who had a metal plate attached to her head in a car accident as a child grew up to be a car-loving murderer.
She was also pregnant, and the father of the child was a car.
Even stranger than these unique elements is the message behind them: a profound sadness about the decaying process of the body and its imperfection as a vehicle for personal imagery.
This lurid subject matter isn’t for everyone, but in its eerie presentation, the film does speak for itself.
In director Julia Ducournau’s world, where bodies, genders and sexuality are as unpredictable as the weather, “Titane” simply brings the world to life in a terrifying form.
7 , V/H/S 94
The revival of the “V/H/S” series, “V/H/S 94” fully exploits the characteristics of a pseudo-documentary horror movie: combining clever live special effects with a low-definition lens style.
The film is divided into five stories, four of which are stand-alone and the fifth is the “frame” story, or the main story that ties them together.
The frame story is relatively simple, a SWAT team breaks into a compound occupied by a group of dead cultists.
The four vignettes interspersed are all built on top of the framed story, giving us unique thrills and horrors crafted by different creators.
The combination of these short films is impressive enough to prove that the creativity of the genre is still laudable.
6 ,Censor
During the “Video Nasty” period, the British government passed legislation to control the content of violent films, and the protagonist Enid Baines was responsible for reviewing films for the British Film Classification Board.
Conservative and well-dressed, she likes to appear objective and competent.
These qualities of her disintegrate when one sees a film whose plot details are eerily similar to her sister’s disappearance.
While watching “Censor,” once you sense where her obsession might be leading her, you can’t wait to see the rest of the film.
And the real fun is watching her prudish, disciplined philosophy of life crumble as her sanity spins out of control.
“Censor” captivatingly reminds viewers that the line between justice and depravity is narrow.
5 , Werewolves Within
“Werewolves Within” has almost nothing in common with the video game it’s based on, and ironically, it’s one of the most popular game adaptations of all time.
Ranger Finn Wheeler, played by Sam Richardson, is trapped in a hotel by a blizzard along with a group of small-town residents, played by a group of talented comedians, and soon everyone begins to suspect that one of them is a werewolf.
Unfortunately, this horror comedy seems to be too restrained in its handling of comedy elements, and does not give full play to the comedy style of the film.
Still, it’s a witty, classic-style detective movie, full of laughs and frights to keep audiences entertained.
4 ,Nightmare Alley
“Nightmare Alley” is the latest work from renowned director Guillermo del Toro, and one of his most twisted stories to date.
A con man named Stan joins a circus and quickly learns to manipulate people through various circus tricks.
Soon after, he hooked up with a woman who was equally manipulative, only to be discredited by blind confidence.
The film is beautifully pictured, elegantly shot, and classically styled, and it’s hard to tell which aspect of its neo-noir aesthetic contributed most to the film’s success.
The most crucial part is probably Cate Blanchett’s sly, mean femme fatale, who perfectly complements Bradley Cooper’s brash Stan.
This movie is like a process of falling slowly. As time goes on, the sense of doomed tragedy becomes more and more obvious, until finally it falls into the abyss of doom.
3, Lamb
“Lamb” is perhaps the weirdest of the A24 films, and it’s not easy to categorize it clearly into a genre, making it difficult to articulate the style of the film.
Storytelling: A sheep-human lamb is born in the sheepfold of a lonely Icelandic couple, and they start raising it like a human child.
Paranoid and intimately introspective, paired with slow and evocative cinematography, “Lamb” is reminiscent of other A24 horror films at least.
The two protagonists have enough space to empathize with their children and the audience, and every scene feels emotionally charged.
The film’s ending was bizarre and confusing, and it was met with mixed reviews from audiences.
Reflections on the relationship between man and nature run through the film, and for those who marvel at the director’s bizarre thoughts, the film presents a somber but real portrait of the human experience.
2 ,Candyman
Director Nia DaCosta draws on the legacy of the old “Candyman” to deepen the myth behind the monster and explore the legacy of gentrification and institutional violence.
The legend of Candyman is related to his name – say his name five times and he will appear and kill the summoner.
The crux of the new “Candyman” is to attribute the revival of the tragic legend to several racially motivated murders of black men.
Some people felt the film’s message was too heavy, but the idea put forward by Nia DaCosta undoubtedly has sharp practical significance.
1,Malignant
“Malignant” may seem like a typical possessive thriller, but when the killer and his relationship to the protagonist Madison are revealed, the film enters even more horrific territory.
The killing scenes in “Malignant” were so exaggerated that several scenes went viral on the Internet.
Critics found the style of the film both frightening and unconvincing.
While some of the characterizations are drab, the action and gore make the film shine, such as the creative mix of dancing and CGI that is both hilarious and scary.
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