Episode 227 Top 10 Horror Movies of 2023

Hi and welcome back to Horror Movie Podcast where we're dead serious about horror movies. I'm one of your co-hosts Nathan Barrowball and I'm joined tonight by my co-host Victor Rodriguez. Victor, how are you doing tonight? Doing great Nathan. I am very excited to have our guest on the show and I'm very excited to talk about movies with you guys like always. I am very excited as well and we also have with us our third co-host

Trey Wetzdon, Trey How are you tonight? I'm doing great Nathan ready to talk our topic here. Yeah, yeah so this I'm very excited about this last time we did the Christmas episode and as I was putting those show notes together I realized oh well you know what this is the first time the three of us of HMP you know 2.0. Got a chance to do a Christmas episode and that's actually going to be true of the episode that's going to be true of the episode we're doing right now which is our best movies of 2023.

This is the first time we're doing a best of show on horror movie podcast and we mentioned this a little bit at the end of the last episode but we tried to record this we're on to record this early so that we could get it out before the end of the year or right with flush with the end of the year and still have time for everyone to put in their top 10 list which if you go over to Facebook. You can you can go in and Trey there's a link right that we can go in and people can fit in.

We can fill out their top 10s of 2023. Yeah it should be saved up there in the featured should be pinned up there in the featured and also they pinned tweet on Twitter last time I checked I don't know if that's been changed not since new episodes have come out but it's in there amongst the tweets. Yeah and you can go right in there and submit your top 10 and so we wanted to give people a little bit of extra time until the first January 1st to put their top 10s in and so we're going to come back with a second episode where we talk

more about our honorable mentions about movies it didn't make the list and the year in general and we'll have a few of our thoughts tonight about that and then we will focus on the listener top 10s we'll read all of those and delve into the year itself a little bit more maybe talk about things

that are interested in that are coming in 2024 but tonight we are going to do our top 10 10 to number one and focus right there and we did want to bring in a special guest to join us tonight and and give him an opportunity to share his top 10 with us as well and this is a good friend of the show good friend of a lot of shows podcast and horror podcast

and a good personal friend I'm going to bring in Brian Scott Brian how are you doing man hey Nathan Tre and Victor what an honor to join horror movie podcast 2.0 like you said I'm really excited about the the new show you guys put on you've done a terrific job and I'm just so happy to be here and so honored yet

beyond for the best of 2023 we're going to have a lot of fun to make us yeah I'm I'm pretty excited about this what I what we're going to do is go round robin and share top 10s I mentioned the we were talking before this and you know the truth is I don't know that there are any ties or

anything like that but we don't really have any rules regarding that I you know I tried to just for Bill Van Veigel's sake find a way to get a six way tie in but I couldn't do it so but you know who knows what you'll see I tried I tried to be myself but there are no basic rules we're going to go around robin until we get to the the top and our number one movies so before that though I thought we could talk a little bit about

the year itself just again just each person's individual feelings on it and then we'll do a deeper dive next time have a good actual full blown discussion but Brian I'm going to throw it over to you first what were your overall feelings about horror movies in 2023 I think it was a good year I don't think it was a great year like the last two or three years were but hey I had no problem full not a top 10 there was many movies I liked I I think we

talked earlier that you know I think I've seen like about 40 something from this year and numbers 10 through 30 could have been you know in my 10 through 6 and a lot of interchangeable movies there but there's an upper echelon of four or five movies that I really really liked I'm talking to nine even 10 out of 10 on a few of them but just still a solid year I think it was a little different than last year last year we had a lot of heavy hitters you know a lot of

franchise movies like chainsaw Halloween you know hell razor you know all the biggies came up last year this year we didn't really get that as much but that's fine because I like a lot of original content and you'll see at least in my top five or they're not really franchise movies I don't think they are I don't know I have to look at my list again but just it's a real it was a unique year just a unique year in my

opinion a lot of original stuff and I'm always down for that yeah I hear you on that and I think you made a good point that as I think back to 2022 wasn't just that there were great movies there were definitely a lot of love of my hate them movies that were parts of franchises that people were excited about but you know it's always down to the individual of what you get

excited by it there were some franchise big excitements for me this year but we'll talk a little bit more about that tray how about you what were your thoughts on the year 2023 and horror movies good not great I think it was a solid year I think there were plenty of good films and honestly I think it was better from top to bottom on the whole they give you averaged out the movies of the year because I feel like some years I have a lot of high highs but we

also have a lot of low lows and I didn't see a lot of that this year at least I haven't watched those movies but it's still better than what we were we had before maybe like a decade ago or a little less than that I feel like I feel like that's still deep there's still a ton of horror now the back half of my top 10 I think was going to be a little little stronger but I had a movie that I had to take off there because didn't officially release yet but I think it's going to be interesting to see

the back half of these lists like Brian said I don't think there's many consensus number ones or number two's or anything like that but it's going to be very interesting to see the variety I think especially at the bottom half of these lists. Yeah I agree and I definitely did a lot of shuffling I could be shuffling right now you wouldn't even know it.

Victor how about you your thoughts on 2023 in horror same same man like I was I reorganized my bottom four one minute before we started recording so hopefully when the time comes my list will make sense but yeah I felt like this was the year of 2B now unfortunately none of the 2B movies that I saw showed up in my top 10 some were very close though and that's another reason I can't wait for the honorable mentions episode so we can go into those because I mean like to be original

yes I was wondering to be original is just horror films on to be no I think these are 2023 films that to be either helped distribute or they just licensed for their channel. But 2023 is the first year where that's happened I think maybe in past past couple years one movie I might have seen on to be or something like that but I think that they're they're getting better like they have a better A in our department whatever you call it in film choosing land.

Yeah and I agree with what you guys said yeah they're one or two super strong movies and then a lot of movies that I think could be in any place between for me between 10 and 7 but we'll get into that as we go.

So I'm not going to be able to read about the 7 movies I won't correct myself because it'll all be about the same in down in like the 10 you know 9 and 10 but I do want to go back to something Brian you said you know and I think we're all we're also good not great I think that's definitely true when you said that about the 40 horror movies you know I did think you know this year had a lot of horror movies release I did feel

like there were times when there were like three brand new releases on streaming alone that we have the options of on any given weekend.

Yeah I'm a little ashamed only watch 40 because I was actually low for what I would try to watch in a new horror year but I should have prepped more for this episode but I agree with Victor that I was frankly reorganized like just to pull back the curtain you guys just asked me today to join the episode I would have prepared more I'm sorry but I was like shuffling my

hours we asked you hours before this happened to worry about it. I would I'm like Victor I was like switching on my 7 through 10 almost completely from yesterday to today that that's how much you could swap out like the bomb half of my list because there there was a lot of good movies that felt it was hard figure out which ones put in there you know I dropped blood and honey out of it to Nathan's surprise you know that will not be in my top 10 but I still like that maybe

the light is for your looking for not. Yeah you don't have to talk about that one. Yeah my 7 through 10 really flopped around at the last second. Yeah there's not much difference between my number 7 and my number 30 I feel like him. Yeah exactly.

And in a way though that's that is a different kind of positive for the year because it shows that there were a lot of because I will be honest in most years even last year after about 15 it dropped off a bit like you know I definitely there's movies there where I might not even want to talk about anything past the 20 you know there's no steep cliff this year so it can't drop off right exactly and I mean that is I think I felt like I was

inconsistently solid movies but I do agree there were only a handful of times when I felt really like surprised or you know like this stands out and this is going to be something that I'm going to look to to watch again and again or or that just has that kind of impact that okay this can't be ignored this year and those are the movies we're talking about tonight really and then next week we'll have or you know on the next

episode we'll be able to talk in more detail about you know all of those other movies because I do think it's worthwhile you know at least mentioning some of these titles and the movies that that were out there as options that were solid entertainment if not you know the best of the best so but here tonight we're here to talk about the best of the best so

Brian do you want to give us your number 10 movie sure thank you Nathan I'd love to and to start my number 10 it's it's just a couple days after Christmas here and you know I love my Christmas horror so I had to squeeze one into my list and I won't be picking bills review from last episode Christmas craft there master Bill convinced me to skip that one yeah Bill was like this is in the bottom of the air going I want out of 10 that's enough

Bill I trust your opinion so I'll skip that one on 2b but I'm gonna go with a movie that wasn't well received but I watched it twice and it was as good the second time as the first one it's a wonderful knife a play on obviously it's a wonderful life directed by Tyler McKendry and I really like the cast in this one the lead girl Jane Whittrup I think her name is played it great and Cassandra of mod you know

she's a one with that birthmark on her face from a that great movie influencer which was at this year was that last year yeah that was a year oh this year yeah and I love to her influencer too and just what a good cast that movie had even Catherine Isabelle from Ginger snaps she played the ant and it was just a fun take on you know it's a wonderful life and I love these type of movies I love a slasher and I love like a time travel type slasher

you know we got that happy death day and maybe another movie this year and I like that type of a theme in a movie it's something refreshing interesting so it's a wonderful knife was my number 10 this year yeah and if you listened to our last episode I think I was the high man on that one but I I liked a lot of things about it too Brian it just didn't kind of come together as a complete picture but I thought the leads were great and I thought

Catherine Isabelle when she wasn't screen was great as well yep yep that's mine God squeeze a Christmas horror in there somewhere it's very cool so we went from someone giving it a one last last time to a to a 10 spot in the top 10 so very cool Brian thank you okay tray have a sure number 10 yeah my number 10 is one within what is quickly becoming one of my new favorite sub sub genres which is screen life

and that is the film resurrected or was that yeah just resurrected not the resurrected but one that has to do with you know a lot of religious themes a lot of a really cool concept honestly because it's something happens and we're made aware of something and the church actually gains kind of complete power which is almost the opposite of what happens a lot of times yeah I thought it was just really cool I liked the the idea of these people I don't like the idea but I like the

the core concept of these people they go in and basically can scrub you out of existence if they find that you're doing stuff that's inappropriate and all this other stuff so it's going to keep you from getting resurrected so you know when there is something that's been discovered and you can come back from the dead it kind of shakes up the world as you would assume

and we follow this father who is really trying to get his life back together he is now working for the church and I won't get into too many more details but I thought this was effective again I really do like the screen life sub genre of like the

found footage horror and yeah that is my number 10 very cool I haven't seen that yet yeah Victor yeah you really should this one just fell out of my top 10 Victor that movie is fantastic I really liked it it like you said it's not really found footage it's more like what did you call it like screen screen life yeah yeah something like unfriended or exactly it's really well done that it follows the storyline of the father and his issues and his personal life just really a

really solid movie or basically watch resurrected yeah and I I want to shout out here Amanda Lee Amanda was the person who told me about this movie first I think track I can't I know we throw titles back and forth I can't remember it may have been a man to you to me or something who knows it was some kind of pipe I do think Amanda was the first person I heard talking about this movie and then I did check it out and I agree I it didn't quite make the top 10 but it's right like outside there

and the thing that I like the screen life description you gave tray I appreciate because this movie is almost deals on the the fringes of science fiction because it is very much speculative in in thinking how our current modern world would react to the idea that not only can people be resurrected but guess what the church has the power over that and that I think is where it became very fascinating and it went into like the virtual reality they're having virtual reality like church

sessions where you come in and the church will tell you about the resurrected and of course it does develop into a horror film but I think that is an excellent example of people taking a limited amount of resources they had to make this film and heading down that found footage screen life road and still being ambitious about it I mean this is a big ambitious story this is like Da Vinci code level you know conspiracy stuff going on and it's it's pretty interesting.

Yeah and if you want something with a similar premise but kind of on the other end of the spectrum that leans more into the sci-fi drama on a horror film something called next exit dealt with a very similar you know after life sci-fi premise so yeah that is my number 10. Very cool and Victor how about your number 10 movie of 2023.

My number 10 is a movie we've already covered on the podcast it's evil dead rise I guess the thing that if I didn't mention in the in the episode where we covered that movie and the entire franchise in depth.

That needs to be said is that this is the one horror franchise that never made a misstep like I think that they may not all be fantastic but they're all pretty damn good and I think that they they never made a film or or or an episode of Ash versus evil dead where you're like they jump the shark that's that hasn't happened yet and that's amazing because it's been in play since whatever 1980 or 81 and I'm very proud of those guys I feel like I've

grown up with them and I they didn't disappoint me this time either I'm glad I saw this in the theater and yeah highly highly recommended it's I guess it's it's evil dead but it's in a disused about to be demolished apartment building so you pretty much know what's going to happen.

Yeah I enjoyed this one as well Victor as they believe we talked about on our earlier episode that you referenced and yet slipped outside of my top 10 but I thought the stuff especially early on in the film was just really creepy and intense and yeah I thoroughly enjoyed it and I agree that there hasn't been a misstep in the series yet at least for the films concerned.

Well well said because I'm a big evil dead fan and the remake was fantastic in this movie just like you trade just fell on my top 10 but it could easily be on there it's a really good movie. Oh yeah and just one more thing I wanted to mention the the director has a short film that's available on either to be your YouTube I forget which one but it's called ghost train and I recommend it's pretty creepy and it's very cool yeah it's neat and I love evil dead rise as well a

similar situation just fell outside of the top 10 but it's really right there and the other thing Victor about it is you're right you've had all these entries you've had four movies or five movies now and you've had the TV series and consistent quality amongst all of them

but I'd also say that in in in their own way each one is a little different like they're not there's no movie that completely regurgitates the movie that came before it and Alyssa Sutherland was the MVP for me in this like this is the first but thing and unique about this is the first

time for me where it's interesting as the family members were the deadite was sometimes the most charismatic person on the screen which doesn't usually happen maybe back in the bad ash days but you know yes indeed yeah I find it flabbergasting that she's not the first one listed

in the IMDB starring lineup yeah exactly but I have a feeling after this film she will be very cool yes I like that movie quite a bit and I'm I'm all for more evil dead and I think that evil dead and I think that evil dead rise did a nice mixture of having the all the wall same

ramy stuff with more of that kind of stuff that Betty Elvarez did and so I think that was interesting to watch the movie actually do a shift like that scene in the hallway and just go for it like oh now we're we're back in Sam Ramy territory now yeah so my number 10 is a

movie that actually quite surprised me it I had an opportunity to go to the theater to see it was playing one night only I'm glad I did get out to see it it's in a genre a sub genre that I love when it's done right but it's so rarely done right that I think we could probably count

in the 20s the movies in the sub genre that actually work even though it's a pretty prolific one and that is a sub genre of anthology horror films and so the movie that I'm my number 10 is a movie directed by not one person but five different people the segments are directed by people five different

people those people being Edwardo Sanchez Mike Mendes Alejandro Gruest Demi Rugna and Gigi Saul Guerrero and they are the satanic Hispanics of the digital satanic Hispanics that's the name of the film it is an anthology with a wrap around story that then intercuts for other installments

and here's the thing about it this is one of the few cases where first off the question is always which stories work to some extent every single story in this anthology works and the wrap around story is most of the time so interesting that you never think once you go from one segment

you're ready to see more of the of the interstituting and that's pretty unusual and at the end of the day there's a satisfying conclusion to the wrap around story which features this character that they call the traveler and he's he's played by Ephraim Ramirez that most

people probably would recognize playing Pedro and Napoleon Dynamite I would think you know probably that's going to be the touchstone for a lot of people here he's a man who survived a massacre a shootout with this left a ton of people dead and he's the only survivor and they bring him

into the police station and as they're talking to him he's trying to convince them that something bad is coming for him and he needs to stay on the move and then he tells them four stories that share only the connection that supernatural happenings are occurring out there in the world and that they may be tied in some way to the traveler and to whatever's chasing him. This movie though is it has a great diversity to it it has a lot of fun the segments go

from anywhere from being extremely creepy. Now we like we're going to for example had just did who just released where evil lurks that movie is similar to what he's doing in this small segment and he also did the movie terrified a few years earlier that there's some

of that about a man who's using who who's a genius at Rubik's cubes and he's using mathematical equations to potentially speak to the ghosts in his apartment that's a neat idea there's a whole segment that's done almost like something halfway between Robert Rodriguez and say Buffy

the Vampire Slayer that as Jonah Joel no excuse me that Jonah Ray Rodriguez in it and he has a higher musical number where he's fighting fighting a monster there's a lot of good stuff in here there are Guerrero segment is maybe the one that I connected with the least but it's so dense

with mythology that it's almost impossible not to appreciate it there's so much going on that I feel like there's a mini series buried behind the eight or nine minutes of of short that I saw and just some really good stuff and I thought Sanchez's segment which involves a

vampire and a funny little conceit that I won't get into handled it wonderfully but this movie looks great it sounds great this is a great example of what these artists can do I enjoy taking these these disparate voices and connecting them this under the banner of a cultural you know connection

it really works I think we all knew that these directors were turning out good work already this is the sampler platter in essence but it's a really good fun movie I highly recommend it yep I loved it as well I had a lot of fun with it especially the the hammer of Zanzibar

that was a I was one I didn't expect to like but I did so I like you said Nathan I liked every piece of that anthology even though you know the rap round took a little bit to get there but it did get there in the end yeah I enjoyed it very much too and it's absolutely wonderful to see my

people thrive and yeah the segment you describe Nathan that was my favorite the creepy one the director of Idemian Rugna yes yes it is great idea yeah and they don't over add to me none of them overstayed their welcome they all had something to offer in some way yeah so yeah so that's my

number 10 which brings us to Brian your number nine my number nine is another one that I don't think of me on your guys list maybe it is I hope it is but it's something that I never thought would make my top 10 because the first movie of this two-part series so far I did like I liked it

but this one I loved and that's Rath of Becky and the reason I liked Rath of Becky so much was Lulu Wilson this girl the lead character Becky is so charismatic and she was in the first one but in this one she takes it up a notch it's almost a one-location setting movie where she gets her

revenge at the kind of in the same theme as the first one they invade her house and this one she invades their house for revenge and Lulu Wilson really takes the reins on this movie delivering a fantastic performance I mean she steals the show for me great cast throughout and that's my number

nine Rath of Becky I really really liked this movie I think it really topped the first one Becky now Brian I've got a problem with what you just said because Rath of Becky is on my list and fact is my number nine oh yes nice so this was one going into the year that I didn't feel like

would ever make my list because I think I was I liked the original Becky but I didn't have any really positive feelings like you know one way or the other but I think this one really exceeded that first one in my estimation and yeah it was just a lot of fun and this is probably the only fun

movie I have on my top 10 unfortunately but the else is kind of like dour but yeah I agree with you Brian I really like this one I'm so glad you had it in your list because I just love how she flips a script from the first one she's on the defense of this one she's so confident in what she

does her quip one liners the confidence she has setting traps it's like home alone outside of the bad guys house so I'm so glad you have that your number nine as well yeah yeah especially I like to relationship with her kind of caretaker the the woman she lived with only and I thought

that was they're back and forth was really good as well yeah that was good and what's funny about these movies is you know part one had Kevin James you know from Kenna Queens and they turn him into a villainous character which is outside of anything he's ever done and they kind of do the same thing

with Sean William Scott's Diffler from American Pie and he's kind of a different you know character than he's ever played as well since kind of what these movies do they have a comedic character playing the horror straight with them and I thought Diffler did a great job as like the lead bad guy

he really did he was more convincing to me than the Kevin James performance in the other movie and I agree with that and that's another reason why I like this one better I really like this better than the first movie I I agree and I think a lot that is down to what you said Lulu Wilson it

it didn't quite make my list but I did enjoy it to me it felt like a similar deal with you know there's orphan and that's fine and then there's orphan two and like hey this is pretty good and it's it was a similar situation with Becky I don't think for the wrath of Becky I enjoyed as much as

I enjoyed orphan first kill but I do think that they both they actually give the franchise a reason to be yeah that's a great point because when I saw orphan first kill I'm thinking how are they gonna how are they gonna do a part two to this movie I know that's a prequel but kind of with Becky I'm

like really they're gonna make her kill a bunch of people again but they did it they did it in the right way because in this one she's more on the offensive not the defensive yeah like she has nothing to lose at this point and she goes just crazy on them I loved it yeah the wrath of Becky

didn't quite make my top 10 list but I really really liked it it's definitely gonna be in my honorable mentions it's more of a comedy than horror film but it mixes the two genres very well I agree that stifler was awesome I also love that guy in goon and the goon that sequel but yeah

what's interesting what I found interesting about the wrath of Becky and I'm sure there's gonna be two of you out there that care about this but it follows almost exact same structure as one of my favorite pulp novels by Elmore Leonard called Valdez is coming oh yeah you

did and what I what absolutely thrilled me about Valdez is coming what is that exactly halfway through the book he says that line like he goes just tell him Valdez is coming and it's like oh man there's gonna be trouble and that's exactly what happens in the wrath of Becky that's when they

get the message saying this is from Becky it's exactly halfway through the film and I was like oh these guys are Elmore Leonard fans but of course you know this movie's totally different then Valdez is coming it's not a western but it is a highly energized thoroughly enjoyable bloody comedy

and I don't know they could have gotten away with it with anyone other than Lulu Wilson she hits like she perfectly walks that tight-rope walk of we're taking it seriously but there there's the tongue and cheek aspect too like she's got that fun but you also have to believe she could kill

these people yep she was excellent yeah so that awesome great choice so and your number nine is the same is that right Trey yep okay so Victor your number nine coming into waffle iron it's Thanksgiving yeah we covered this on another show so I'll be brief I think the one thing I didn't

say before was Eli Roth I think I know that some super fans of the trailer were disappointed by what the film became after the trailer but I think that he made all the right choices if he wanted to make money on this movie and possibly engender a sequel which I think he has I think it's been

greenlit so we can look for that and it's a it's a legitimate franchise there there is if this were in 1980s movie there would be like any one of three spectacular kills that are in Thanksgiving would be enough to distinguish this movie and make it an 80s classic so you're getting three 80s

movies in one and I I really hope this franchise thrives it's it's great it's definitely my favorite Thanksgiving horror movie well so we're having this repeat itself because my number nine also Thanksgiving and I have to be honest I enjoyed that grind house trailer way back in the day but

when I saw it the moment it was over I thought the missile there's no way he's ever going to be able to make that movie right I believe that that wisdom still bears out but no one has made that movie he made a completely different movie and I not completely different but he made a different

movie and I am actually surprised this is one of the films there were a couple others that ended up not quite making the list but I thought man I'm actually surprised that these movies are even content from my list that's that's a really good thing about this year is that a movie like Thanksgiving

that had so much build up and could have really gotten out of Eli Ross control he shows a surprising amount of control in the movie he put together because as we discussed on the show in the last show you know in my mind he took 90 slasers which became tired very quickly after screen and some people

would say they didn't even quite get out of the gate and then but you know there are a lot of ones I have there are a lot of those 90 slasers I have a very fond memory of and so he takes the 90 slasers and the 80 slasers which I think we would all agree that's where most of the fondness for

slasers lie in the in those outrageousness of the 1980s the outrageousness of the kills in Thanksgiving mixed with the more mystery element and there's more character focus that was a hallmark of the 90s and sort of weird plotting like the who done it taken to ridiculous extremes you get all that

in Thanksgiving you have those wonderful prior evil that Victor alluded to with the waffle lions and this great you know people I was watching crampus with my kids recently and there's a great black Friday opening but that has nothing on the black Friday sequence in this movie and you know

the chase scenes and the kill scenes are handled here in a way they show a little bit of restraint on his part that might sound weird when we think of what happens in some of those scenes but there's certainly restrained from the trailer you know the fake trailer they're also more restrained in a

sense that Eli Roth doesn't feel like every single sequence has to be undercut with like a fat boy joke and I think that worked in his favor there are extended chase scenes here well we're invested in what's happening to the characters almost just because they're fighting for their

survival and we know what they're up against is so horrible and I really like that it's one of the first slasher's in a while that I felt very invested in and I would argue though that this is a fun movie that this you can have like you're saying Victor this what's happening in the movie

wouldn't be fun if it was happening to me but it's got a very sort of gleeful fun tone to the film mixed with some actual suspense and some actual thrills yeah I totally agree Nathan I yeah I have not a big fan of 90s slasher's but I do sorry but I do agree that this movie takes the best

aspects of the 90 slasher's I've seen and and combines it with 80s splash I guess at regiastness no no I'm just messing with you Victor but that's a it's a great pick guys yeah yeah I really enjoyed it and I highly recommend and people can see it they yet to pay a little bit but

it is on streaming right now you can rent or buy it I believe okay so let's move on then to our number eight Brian what is your number eight film of 2023 my number eight is an a 24 movie talk to me it's a movie that got a lot of hype early then I had people say it was all right then I

watched I'm like what are you guys talking about this is one of the this is why I was talking about one of the most original plots of the year I love when somebody brings something original and this was it for me directed by the flippu brothers I'm assuming their brothers Danny and Michael you know

I don't know what else they've done but they had a home run it with this one for me and what a what a genius plot this one has where there's a severed genie hand encased in a I guess stone and right from the beginning they do a say on and you're thinking oh this is gonna work but no it works

and how freaked out would you be if you were at that party and somebody becomes possessed for 30 30 or what under 60 seconds yeah I cut off 60 seconds or whatever it is 45 seconds and man this one really surprised me so much so that you know I rented this movie side up for two days

the next day I turned it on again I'm like you know I'm gonna watch that again and it even went up even more for me the second day I watched it really good one talk to me that's right we were texting about this one and you were talking about and I'm just like watch it again yeah yeah

yeah yeah I was a little underwhelmed the first time maybe I was half asleep the next day I turn it on like man this is a genius this is a genius yeah I think it's a two I think it's it it takes two viewings at the very least I think to fully appreciate what they were trying to do because I had

a similar experience but uh yeah it's it's really good and this is their first feature film the stuff they've done is like YouTube stuff right pretty messed up stuff the one I watched had a guy dressed like Ronald McDonald killing people in a fast food chicken franchise

but I had to bring that up again have I talked about it before you sent me the link okay I watched it and I was and I forgot about it and I was fine but they have a they have a lot of ideas and they put a lot of ideas in that film and it it works out pretty well talk to me yeah it's

really one of the best first features I can think of and um yeah I totally agree with what the guy said it is on my top 10 list um a little further up the ladder but yeah I absolutely loved it and I'm pretty sure that when I got COVID during the summer it was watching this movie um

but worth it hear that that's a rave of the year it gave me COVID but it was worth it it was worth it can you imagine now that would be something right like if you knew a movie would give you a disease would you watch it anyway but anyway oh that's that's a brand and Kroneberg movie yeah

that is really yeah oh well I'd like to think it was original but um good good good good pick bride tre your number eight yeah my number eight is a blum house film and um this one um I thought was just very tense as I think the word to describe it and that is the passenger

oh yeah and this is something that's very different from um the other Carter Smith film that I'd seen uh the ruins which I liked as well but I just felt like that was the name of the game was the tension and the you know you you never feel like you're allowed to you can breathe for a minute

but then you know another situation is gonna come up and it's kind of just hit after hit of this thing um I don't want to spoil too much for this because I feel like if you go into this pretty blind the opening of the film's pretty uh pretty cool pretty it'll get you but yeah I just found as these

two main characters and as mainly these two characters there are other cast members just keep going and the stakes keep getting higher and higher until we're led down to the the ending where I think is probably one of the best parts of movies and that's pretty rare for

2023 as we've talked about before yeah I just loved the passenger I thought it was great film this is good and it is very tension-filled like you said it it has some of the kind of tension and it is kind of like as the title implies like a little bit of a road movie so some of that same

tension that exists in a movie like duel exists in this movie but there's a back and forth here that's real like those the leads in this are pretty strong nice yeah I haven't seen that one yet either but I it's on my list now this is one that I didn't catch yet and my heart sunk when

you said it because Nathan had suggested this to me a few weeks ago and god I forgot about it and streaming right now in mgm and dang it I'm gonna watch that tomorrow because this looks really really good I'm so bummed I did not get to see it for this episode yeah I think you'll like it

yeah it was just outside it really was just outside my top 10 okay and victor your number eight my number eight is birth rebirth I take it by your reactions me too maybe on one of the oralists well let's take this one together then yeah let's see what IMDv says

a morgue technician successfully reanimates the body of a little girl but to keep her breathing she will need to harvest some biological materials from pregnant women okay so yeah it's a familiar story but I think I really like the way they cover this one and focused on the types of horror

that a mother will go to to fix her child like that I really haven't seen that before in a movie done so well as this and you know I liked everything about it I didn't think there were any missteps I thought that the performances were all great and it's mostly these two women taking the whole

show but they're a few supporting actors they're all good to a nice atmosphere yeah I liked everything about it how to do how did you like it yeah I I agree everything you said is true victor the thing about this is the quotient of horror to drama in this one is such that the drama I think is first

at the forefront of the film and because of that it's absolutely imperative that these two leads that are doing this together like this is there's elements of a Frankenstein story here but it goes so realistically I think in the way to fix the people involved yeah and you did to show

you each side of what they're thinking and why they're trying to do this and it takes it out of the sort of grand gothic abstraction and it makes it so real that man I felt kind of bummed out that this thing was finally over because of how real these people seemed and what they were

willing to do to arrive at this point it's fascinating it's tensioned filled in a sort of different way from the passenger where it's not necessarily white knuckle but it's just sinking kind of feeling in the pit of your chest as you watch these things unfold it there's an inevitability

and there's also a certain amount of shock to see as these two progress but it couldn't be done without these two leads with Jody Reyes and Marin Ireland they're awesome yeah that one's excellent unfortunately I feel bad it got kind of lost in the shuffle of those you know three and a half

star films that I had so many of this year but I thought it was excellent I thought there was a really good kind of a unique premise that I feel like we don't see something like that very often and you write it does air on the side of drama but I think there's enough whore there to definitely

justify that being oh it's a horror for me yeah I just think here they do deal with the emotions of the characters in a really unique way yeah that's great pick yeah yeah and we we should also mention one of the characters is neuro atypical like they they kind of just they don't really mention

it by name in the in the movie but she has some kind of autistic spectrum thing going on and I that made the interplay between the two main women really interesting yes and they don't beat you over the head with that either Victor which is like it's just a character trait right

it's just a asset and that was lovely writing and directing I think and Laura Laura Moss is the director of this and I think I'm very excited to see what she's gonna do that okay so so that was also I was pointed out my number eight so your number seven Brian my number seven dark harvest

directed by David Slade dark harvest is it's a different type of movie for me because well first of all this maybe a shot so well it looks a beautiful it really does and when I first went into this maybe I was thinking man the sounds it doesn't sound good but as it unfolded I thought it was

gonna be like a scarecrow slash or movie it wasn't that you know the jacko character or whatever his name was I thought it was gonna be about that it wasn't as much about that as the night that they send the high school kids out to kill him to relieve a yearly curse on the night of Halloween

to save their crops in the small town it was more about it was like the purge these kids go crazy they're killing each other more of the violence and horror comes from how the townspeople treat each other in this movie but the the jacko character I keep calling jacko I can't remember is it

sawtooth jack sawtooth jack that's the name yeah you know there's a scene in this in a spoiler it's just one kill there's a scene that shows them from a distance he opens up a seller door these French doors to a seller and it shows them from the back walking down and it looks amazing as he

walks down there and blood just shoots out kind of like Johnny Dup in Nightmare Nome Street out of the bed just a fury of blood like the shining out of the elevator and there's so many good shots in this movie it's so well done it looks amazing a lot of tension a lot of storyline between the

characters in the town and I just really like dark harvests it's snuck up on me and I thought it was really good movie yeah yep we touched on this one what a couple months ago yeah we got a chance to see a screener of it and right before it came out and I you know Brian you're right it loves

look great and I think we we all enjoyed it there for me I had read the book which is is a thin little book but it was so evocative that I had a hard time separating the movie which is everything the same from the book but Brian you're absolutely right for people who are listening this and they

haven't seen it the movie that does detour from what you're expecting in terms of like a slasher there's a lot of elements of like a ray Bradbury or a tale from the crypts sort of vibe to the store it to the story and that even verges on like science fiction you know that there's an

element of the the dystopia sort of thing or like Shirley Jackson's the lottery there's elements of that in the underneath of this movie that are pretty pretty neat that that you would need to include but they did yeah it had a great underlying storyline between the characters in this town

the lore it's dark there it's it's violent it I almost thought going in the movie is this going to be like a scary story is it home the dark maybe like a almost like a gateway horror no this isn't like it's dark it has some horrific elements to this movie I highly suggest

saying big one and see it it's worth a watch for sure good design on that central character that saw tooth jack you're talking about too yeah he's creepy no doubt okay so tray your number seven yeah my number seven which was is one that came out earlier in the year and just stuck with me

and stuck on this list and that is influencer Brian I think you mentioned this earlier on but I just really like this one I you know the social media influencer stuff is hit or miss I feel like in horror films sometimes it's done really well sometimes not so well but I think it was really

done really well here and I think there's a real life situational horror here it's not something too far fetched to think of and I really gets into how social media affects us and I don't think in a heavy handed way I just thought it was a fun little ride and yeah I really enjoyed influencer

tray I love this movie I thought it was fantastic I I have some reason I thought it was last year because like you said we saw this very early on in the year yes maybe that it could have contended in my top 10 so that's my fault that I I thought it was earlier in the year and that

that lead character that I had mentioned earlier from it's a wonderful knife she's really good in the movie this movie takes a lot of twists and turns and yeah kind of shows a different way of social media not in the way that these movies kind of play out always so it was a really fun one

yeah I'm glad you got a chance to talk about it then Brian since it slipped your list very cool yeah I like this one a lot it was very twisty tourney that central performance there that we're talking about is really good good in a lot of ways that you don't notice like right off

the bat but I thought definitely gave the movie a dimension beyond just the tension because there's a point when it's twisting and turning back and forth and it'd be easy to lose you in those moments and I think because of the the central characters that it does and particularly that one

performance okay Victor how about your number seven yeah number seven won't you guys know I'm a big fan of Edgar Allen Poe and in January Netflix released the Pale Blue Eye which is well the summary is a world weary detective is hired to investigate the murder of a West Point

cadet but what they don't tell you is that the world with the world weary detective is played by Christian Bale and the help that he gets from within the cadets school is by young cadet named Edgar Allen Poe and these two guys play these characters very very well it's a period piece and

I know this is a horror podcast so I would say that there are horror elements in there but they're pretty strong and there are it's mostly a thriller like a who-done-it type thriller but it's so creepy and atmospheric and the fact that it's it's mostly done by candlelight makes it

enhances it more as sort of a ghost story almost but anyway I really really like this yeah I highly recommend it yeah this is a good one I like it a lot too and I think that I had forgotten actually that it because it was at the very beginning of last year and the tone and the atmosphere are

almost what I like you you talk about wanting to feel cold and in the damp and the like the chill and that kind of gothic feel that it's all there and that actor playing oh it took me a little bit to realize that he's the same actor who played you know Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films you

know really is a noxious is a noxious little cousin you know and he's he's he's he's slimmed down quite a bit and he's also he's got he's got some chops on him too so interesting yeah I wouldn't you know this maybe it's on my watch list I wanted to see it but I wasn't sure if it was quite

enough horror kind of like you had mentioned but I was really intrigued because I believe the guy that made this made antlers which was in my top 10 from the year prior I was a big fan of the ant of antlers so I need to watch this one yeah yeah yeah it's if memory service a little on the

long side but I think it's worth it you know it's well I got the running time right here it's uh and you can't go wrong with Christian Bell I mean he's greeting everything he does so yeah he has a couple of really good scenes in this yeah it's a little over two hours long and I mean frankly

I mean I have pdhd but it does feel that way it feels like it's yeah I it feels like a short story sort of expanded and just a little bit beyond where it should be you know right but it's still it's still worth seeing for sure yes okay so my number seven is another film that if you

were to couple it with my number eight film of birth rebirth looks at motherhood and those things from a slightly different angle there you're looking at it from a more scientific angle of what can we do to change this and this is more of the new mother and there's that potential

for that's excitement there's helplessness there's fear and this is Hussara the bone woman it you know in on a letterbox it list is this 2022 but for I believe in the states it was released here in the spring I think try February I believe February okay so it's again close to the spring

so February but this is directed by Michelle Garza Savaera and it is to me it starts as a very basic horror I'll read what letterbox says because I don't want to get too into the weeds on the plot Valeria's joy becoming a first-time mother is quickly taken away when she's cursed by a sinister

entity and really I'm just gonna leave it at that line the next line you know starts to go into the plot more than I'd like to but this again starts very slowly it begins to gather with the dread and the sort of things feelings and things left unsaid lurking at the kind of frame and then

as we start to get into the supernatural usually this is where these movies lose me because we've seen so many of the undefined entity that has a mythical background and that slowly the cursed person realizes that all of their trouble and misfortune are generated by this thing and that

does happen here but I think what lifts this movie a little bit above the others is a couple things one is the direction I think the direction when it matters is very tight while still allowing feelings to linger I think this is ultimately an existential horror movie about a woman struggling

with the idea of being a mother and with motherhood in general there are some creepy notes and sort of paranoid thoughts that come up in this film that aren't necessarily that different from the paranoid weird thoughts that come up in a movie like a racer head albeit in a totally different

setting and a totally different style but I started to feel some anxiety in this film I do not like it when a movie uses children sort of to kind of drum up false tension if you will or false fear something is going to happen to the child but as you might have heard on the 100th or

not 100th excuse me on the 10th anniversary episode I talked about my feelings for the Boba Duck and how much that movie affected me when it's done right when it's done and it taps into the fear and it plays fair I think a movie like this can be very effective it makes us think

about our own reactions of things and our own thoughts about things and how we view certain things and I think in that regard if you're looking for a movie that's smart about being a parent smarting about motherhood and smart about just the whole idea of what it takes to commit to raising

a person and all the fears that come with that this is a pretty good movie and I think it works as a horror film too so he's here the bone woman is my number six nice yeah Nathan I agree it's it's very chilling in the spot that you're mentioning the senior mentioning I can't remember I

think I heard either John Carpenter or George or Marrow say there's a certain point you can take an audience to before you lose them and I think they rode that line yes and they almost lost me but they they didn't quite I won't get it anymore but I really love this one I and this was a big year

for pregnancy horror I feel like or in just dealing with children in general even if it's not the main theme I feel like there was a lot of that this year but yeah I thought you said it very well great little Mexican film and I really appreciated it and it's my number six very cool yeah it's a

it's a really good one yeah I liked it a lot as well it didn't quite make my top 10 but I really appreciated I know I think Trey you may have mentioned this and and that's why I watched it earlier in the year and I thought it was very rewarding really really enjoyed it and yeah

totally different setting than what I was used to which is the idea of enjoying foreign films but yeah recommended yeah and I do think Trey you were the one that recommended this one to me as well and was very pleasantly surprised by it Brian how about your number six well guys this is where we

get in the heavy hitters a movie that I just watched today for the first time and it's shot to my number six right away and I think on a rewatch could even shoot to my top three because it's a movie that after you watch it you sit back and you think I got a pros I need a week to process this

and that's that's our reasters bow is afraid yes I mean when I went into this movie I didn't I don't watch trailers I don't watch anything I thought okay this is gonna be Joaquin Phoenix Descent and the madness like Christmas evil maybe snaps and kills everybody that's not what this is this

is a character study on somebody who has anxiety maybe schizophrenia some type of you know obviously disorder and everything around him how he processes his surroundings his guilt everything that happens to him is a journey and I think you guys talked about this once before it's almost a

movie of a series of vignettes I think when you said and that describes it perfectly and you know it's a three hour movie and an hour and a half in I'm still like what the hell is going on here but by the end of it you're like I just sat back in my chair and like I'm just stunned I'm like

is this a masterpiece I think it is I need to watch it again I need to like I said process this yeah I'm only coming off like six hours ago seeing this movie and it's all I've thought about all day is this movie is amazing I mean are you asked her to mean is a fantastic director you know hereditary

I mean it's a 9.5 mid summer in my opinion was a little bit of a step down but then he came right back with Bose afraid I can't wait to see what this guy does next you know he's a real eye for cinema cinematography storytelling just the weirdness of this movie the performance by

walking Phoenix is incredible I mean walking Phoenix in this movie today after after this movie ended I looked up who are the favorites for Oscar nominations as a lead actor he wasn't on the list I'm thinking this guy better go on the list he really should I mean he deserves it just a fantastic

movie from the first minute to the final crazy minute of this movie that's my number six Bose afraid and like I said it after I process it more and make it could move up even farther on my list they're really good yeah I get it I didn't like it quite as much as you did but I really

love R.A. Astor's work and yeah I totally agree with you Brian that the walking Phoenix gave such a performance in this movie like it's the type of performance where you know the actor aged a couple of years just give him a moment like like Tony Collette in her editary I you know

she wasn't on the Oscar list either so and she should have been she should have been for that she should have been yeah and yeah he definitely should be for this but I think that the the first act is an absolute masterpiece of this movie again you guys know I don't like super long movies

and this was really hard for me to get through and I know we we don't spoil stuff on the show but let's just say I was very disappointed by the ending see I thought the third act brought it back home it kind of a little bit brought it back to reality because that second act went really

fantastical and where I was like what is going on here but then in the third act kind of brought it back together like okay I get it now I get it now the final scene I'm like well you know what did okay I don't want to spoil anything here but I thought the third act brought it together

I really I really did but I could see why people may look at this movie and I'm just to tell you it's now my wife was watched with me 20 minutes and she's like I'm out she didn't even finish it with me but I stood I hung in there and I just love this movie I really don't it's so

funny you know I totally don't blame your wife for ducking out and I totally don't blame you for having this so high on your list I get both points of viewings there is definitely stuff to absolutely love about this movie and for me there was also stuff to hate so yeah that's great

I mean I think that's that's the job of of a cutting edge director is to create controversy in what they choose to do as projects and it really seems from this movie that a24 just said Mr. Aster do whatever you want and we'll pay for it and I it's a unique unique movie great

unreliable narrator narrative and yeah yeah he's kind of like Scorsese with that flowers to the moon three and a half hour movie some of these guys get the full rain from the studio hey we're not gonna overlook it we're not gonna edit it we trust in your vision and that's what they gave Aster

full control here and he did what he has always wanted to do for 10 years now after his short his bow short or whatever a long time ago he brought brought that to vision and I was a fan I was a fan man I'm happy to see you have this on the on the list Brian and I have it this high after

just seeing it because I and you can hear Jackson and I talk about it a few episodes back and I had not fully processed the movie it's a challenging movie I know people throw that term around a lot of times I usually don't use challenging describe too many movies unless they're challenged to

sit through because you know they're just not good but it is challenging because to me this is like panic attack the movie like it's it is long it is unrelenting and it bangs on the same note for a very long time but it albeit in a lot of different ways and the first time I saw it it really

like I had no idea what to make of it you can hear me trying to slowly digest what's happening you know what I mean to slowly digest what's actually going on in the film you can hear that happening as Jackson I were talking about and I think we even say hey I'm gonna have to see this again

I have seen it again and I do think that the movie starts to take a certain shape on a second viewing but I had to really convince myself to have that second viewing because the movie kind of warm me out in a way that doesn't always happen I do think there is something there though with this one but yeah good pick thank you it was it was a very bold movie try did you see it?

no unfortunately I've only seen about an hour of it I think I told Nathan I don't know if I've got to be in the right mood but I was it was stressing me out I was having a minute bit of a panic attack myself so I was right on the verge there so I I had to turn this one off because it was

affecting me a little too much which I think is a credit to the director honestly yeah but yeah I might I might have to be in the right mood for that one but I think I've tried a couple times now it's just rough to get through and not in a sense that the movie's bad it's just hard to get

through yeah totally understand that tray there there are some sequences in the first act that are right out of a nightmare like it's just so yeah and I have some of those nightmares over and over again oh yeah I'm sure a lot of a lot of people who watch the movie do and I think that that's

intentional I think that's that's part of the ride that Esther wants to take us on but yeah yeah very cool so all right your number six tray is you say are the bone woman right yep so that victor your number six is oh yeah Brooklyn 45 oh good choice yeah it's a micro budget movie

that is sort of a ghost story and it's also a very revealing narrative about what happens to the human mind in times of war especially after war and I thought it was an absolutely brilliant script it it takes place in 1945 like the title says and it's just a group of friends that get together in

this Brooklyn brownstone to support one of their members who quickly tells them that his wife has died and can they please agree to a say on so we can contact her and it goes from there and there's some really interesting twists and I really really dug it it's basically a play like you know it's

it's one room maybe a couple of exterior establishing shots to set the place but yeah it's a it's a post-World War II narrative and man it it was riveting to me I just I just thought it was absolutely brilliant I love the twists I love the performances I mean Larry Fesenden is in it

one of my favorite indie personalities director and actor of many talents and yeah I I loved it did you guys see this yeah I did and if I'm not mistaken I because I saw it in the summer or over the summer this as of right now to pull the curtain back we're recording this on December 26 I

think the movie takes place on December 26 oh yeah like a day or so like after Christmas I believe but yeah I liked it a lot it has a lot of great interplay it really has that stage play sort of feel to it but there's a there's a great element of like here's what's going on on the supernatural level

which is interesting but what's going on at a more like metaphorical like what each of these people represents sort of way I really liked the way that was dubbed tailed into the narrative yeah Victor great pick one location setting all within basically one room a great cast Larry Fesenden

amazing as always Brooklyn 45 was a great movie air basically go watch it like Victor set a period piece set in 1945 so right to tail end of World War II and a couple of them I think the guy was a decorated you know general in the war and that's kind of a little bit of speaking point in the movie

is about who these characters it's kind of a character study within that room as well and Brooklyn 45 everybody should go out and watch I think it's on shutter if I remember that's where I saw it yeah great great pick Victor thanks man yep I liked it as well thought it was pretty solid

yeah good choice my number six I suspect is probably higher on a lot of other lists but this is where like you're saying Brian this is when the heavy hitters come in for me this is where you jump up into a range of like okay these are in my opinion some really good horror movies and this is

a Damien Ruegnus when evil lurks from this year and I know that it it had a showing a few times before it was released here so I'd heard a little bit of buzz about it but when I finally got around the seeing it wow this is a movie that delivers darkness and gore and some things and honestly I was

sitting there watching the movie thinking well I'm not gonna see that I know at least that my nope nevermind there it is and it's happening and it's still happening and set against this you know takes place in this small town there's this supernatural festering if you will that's almost

about to break out into like a contamination and then what's interesting I think what works about this this director and it was on display in the satanic of spanic segment it's on display and terrified is he has a great sense of building mundanity what it is to just be in your in your

regular everyday life and things you know are going about just as you planned and then suddenly boom he will just like throw the supernatural in this case like a ball of like crap against your windshield you know just like wham he slides slaps you right in the face with it and you're just taking

it back and it's because we feel there's these characters that are brought in to deal with this supernatural menace and you know instead of it being this big vaunted sort of like you're watching the exorcists and ex you know the exorcist these guys are just tired they are tired they don't

like doing this work there you know there's a bureaucratic element to the fact that it wasn't dealt with timely and now they just got to clean up a mess like that that mundane day-to-day blue collars stuff that they deal with against such frightening and horrific imagery is really it's

it creates such a like almost divisive feeling within you watching it I mean it there are moments when this movie goes beyond oh that's some fun gore to like this you know is really intense it's an experience again it kind of war me out I don't know how many times I want to have that experience

but horror movies are meant to horrify you then when evil lurks succeeded and not just with the shock of its imagery it's the way the entire movie is put together that does that I totally agree and that is also on my top 10 lists a little further down so thanks yeah I think that Nathan speaks

for both of us yeah good pick okay so Brian that we're moving into the top five what's your number five well here we go with my number five it's Hell House colon origins colon the Carmichael Mannor colon at the part four colon you forgot now I'll see and I'll say colon

directed by directed by Stephen Cognetti who did all four the Hell House movies and I think he had a home run with this fourth one how often and maybe I'm the minority here I don't know but how often does a part four top the first three well for me this was it and I really like part one

part two was good part three was good but then part four was great I like how it tied into the lore of the first three and when you hear the word origins you think is this a prequel but it wasn't really a prequel it was more of a it was more of a prequel to the lore but it I believe it

took place after the events of Hell House so am I right in saying that I think I remember that right and those clowns were stored in the closet in this Carmichael manner which were so creepy as creepy as that first Hall House movie I think this movie did it like the first one as good as

ever with the scares but what I liked about this was in the other ones they were in like a you know I guess like a haunted house setting this one was an isolated and that comes into play when a couple you know one the characters try to leave the place and they just can't they're in isolated

place 30 miles off the beaten path so you have this really feel of isolation there's a point where they're like I'm not staying in this house they go sitting their car and that's still not even good enough to get that far away and this movie delivered a lot of scares for me and movies don't

scare me often but this one did you know I turned the lights off I watched it this movie had a lot of scares to it and really built upon the lore of the first Hell House movie and and the things they uncover and like the antique shop things that tie back to the first three movies I think it

was just really well done by Steven Cognetti I think he tied it together with a bow in this one with origins and it's my number five and it could even be higher there's other movies are like better but man this one this one just really got me this year in fact it's probably the movie that that scared me the one movie that scared me this year was Hall House origins what do you guys think of it wow you know Brian I haven't seen it yet but I've only seen the first one but I'm very much

looking forward to this now and you could probably you could skip part two and three it just go straight to this and it wasn't spoil anything from two and three so I'm going to see that first one and kind of know the lore of those clowns and the in the original Hall House that's all you really need to see just go straight to this one and watch it cool yeah I'm a big fan of the Hell House series in fact I usually watch it about every other Halloween the complete trilogy now I'm going to have to

see this one again to see where it stacks up because so far I don't think it is as good as the first in my opinion but again I've seen that one several times I will second that it did scare me and I really did enjoy it just as much as some of the other ones but yeah yeah that's a good pick run yeah

I quite enjoy this too and it does work at exactly the level it's supposed to I didn't care much for the second and third movies honestly in the in the series and there's a sense when this movie starts that we're just going to sort of get the basic plot dragged out but it doesn't go that way

it really is you know you're there in the moment and they're trying to freak you out it's mostly of the jump scare or slowly mounting dread you know it's that's the mechanism of the scares in this movie but they do work and I am kind of like you Brian I think I like this one the best out

of the series I think it's the one that's most overall effective to me moment to moment yay I like to hear that so your number five try yeah I think this is where we start stepping on toes or whatever Brandon's into but my number five is Infinity pull and this is one that I you know I didn't know

going in because possessor I really liked but that is such a cold and strange movie and while I like it and I think Infinity pull is much the same to me I like both of those films but it's like I really shouldn't and this is just a cool sci-fi premise honestly for my money I

think this is maybe me a Goth's best performance or the one that I enjoyed her the most in but I just like this movie from from start to finish I was just glued to the screen thinking about what's gonna happen next and where are they gonna take this and where they gonna go and I think it

ends you know in such a place where it's just it's not satisfying at all but I found myself just constantly thinking about this film so yeah that is my number five is Infinity pull yeah it's it's on my list it's a little further down I'm feeling yeah yeah no I agree and I yeah the

coldness of the movie that's yes that's definitely an aspect the chili cronenberg aspect and his first movie antiviral even more so I think like the characters are almost a machine like but man I loved possessor for the ideas in it I think that we are if not secretly already at that

point of corporate espionage yeah yeah or right around the corner but yeah Infinity pull okay I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote the script earlier than possessor because it seems like it's a it's a writer's block movie you know if you're if you're you have a success as a writer and artist

and trying to follow that up with something at least as good can be a huge amount of pressure for somebody to get in that creative space and pull that out of them again and essentially what you have to do as a creator is not I mean you have to kill yourself sort so to speak not not commit suicide but figuratively kill yourself you have to take yourself down to the studs and then rebuild yourself as a creative person that's how that's how the creative process works and this movie

is a perfect metaphor for that for how James goes through that journey and I I actually thought that the end was a little positive in that he made that journey and survived and I think a lot of artists don't so I I was very moved by it and on a literal level like if you're just watching the movie as

I think it's a really cool concept that I'd never heard of or seen before and man it's one of the only times in my life where I didn't feel safe about what he was going to show me next like it was just like uh Texas Chainsaw Massacre the 74 one I saw that the first time I was like I don't know

if I should be seeing this with the Infinity Pool it was a little dialed down like I never felt like I maybe I should get up and leave but I was like whoa I can't believe that scene is in the movie like that made it into an R-rated movie but you have to see it to know what I'm talking about but

yeah I loved it me a goth is on screen from was everyone of those moments you just mentioned yes all right yeah this one oh this one of all I'll speak to it now then too because like Victor said it's lower down on my list as well and you you mentioned the pressure that he had

coming up with the movie talk about the pressure of heaven David Kronenberg is his dad he probably feels a lot of pressure you know following in his father's footsteps and he hit a home run with this movie it was such an original concept it may have been something he did right a long time ago

like you mentioned and finally brought it to the screen and what an original idea it is and it makes you think about things too like is he who he is is he not who he is is you know I don't want to give anything away but it begs a lot of questions about you know his reincarnation there are so much

shocking moments in this movie me a goth amazing in this she was great and ex and Pearl and then I think me and Nathan and talked about before the scene where she's on the hood of the car with the gun just taunting him there's nobody I haven't talked about that scene I mean so so creepy such an

iconic scene what an amazing movie so I'll just be calling it now it's lower on my list but infinity pool is almost a masterpiece to me yeah you talk about the pressure being David Kronenberg Sun man David might need to feel some pressure now because I mean infinity pool is pretty good

he's getting he's getting into like Kronenberg level quality you know I I did last year my list did have crimes of the future on it but you know I think infinity pool tackles some similar subject matter in for me even more visceral way and does it better in my opinion yeah yeah

I agree yeah and by the way crimes of the future was on my list too last year yeah infinity pool rocks victor your number five it's Godzilla minus one yeah in the same year that man Hollywood produced some bloated supposed blockbusters like Indiana Jones in the

dial of destiny Takashi Yamazaki decided to make Godzilla movie for 15 one five million dollars and it's amazing and if you hear him on like like his responses on like Twitter and stuff he's like I wish it was that much that's what he said right he's like well we're gonna we're gonna

have to need some of this money for marketing yeah no apparently he has a special effects background I didn't think all the CG was spot on but and weirdly I think the the CG that you see with Godzilla and the first act was the weakest and then it just gets better and better and better and

better but you know when Godzilla hits land man it looks great and that dramatic battle at the end is amazing it's it's my favorite Godzilla movie since the first Godzilla movie and I think I gave me the exact same rating so congratulations to Yamazaki son well done yeah man we're living

you're living at a time when there's a Godzilla TV show it is an awful on on streaming right now you've got another wild looking is crazy is any of those 70s air Godzilla movies coming up in Godzilla and Kong and who our role is gonna be in that one then you have this movie I mean

I'll be talking about this later so my number five is a movie that Brian already mentioned and that is the Philippines talk to me man another one that took what could be in explaining the plot very conventional and buy the numbers and made it very terrifying and and riveting and again I really appreciate when a horror movie shows you something visceral and buys you completely into it supernatural world but it's also commenting on something else at the same time and that element of what it has

to say about addiction and and sort of uh it's tipping your toes into things that that are a thrill at the start and then a drag on you later like they really do that without it being a preaching and just making it a very effective scary horror movie this is one that really there were scenes

in there that that the tension was high but I was really concerned for the characters in that scenario it wasn't just oh I'm feeling uneasy what's gonna have an ex it was real concern for the people in this film so there's a credit to that and how well they're created and then this universe that they're put through I mean it's intense so that's my number five Brian what's your

number four? My number four trade nason and victor is totally killer totally killer caught me by surprised this year you know I'm a slasher fan and I said that on my number 10 wonderful knife that I love slasher's the deal with time travel type segment you know stuff like final girls or

you know the fear street trilogy where it shows different sectors of a time period or you know happy death day I just love these type of movies where a slasher movie goes into time travel elements and like I said about Lulu Wilson I'm gonna say it about this actress Kiernan Shipka playing the

lead role here she was fantastic in this movie as she goes back in time to solve the mystery of the murders and they really did it well in this movie you have to suspend some disbelief of course on how the killers go back in time you know a high school girl builds a time machine but it kind

of came together well I love the storyline where she meets her mother when she's younger and her mother is a bully when you go back to 1987 and I think was a year and the the girl that she became friends with that made the time machine was really really fun friendship and it was almost like a

mean girl's aspect where when she went back her mom and the friends were just bullies to everybody but it turned it around had a happy feel good ending this lead actress really carried the movie had a lot of good jokes a good slasher movie a good reveal with the killer I think and a good payoff in

the end and a heartwarming ending so totally killer did any of you guys like this one yeah yeah I thought it was great Brian didn't make my list but Kiernan Shipka was incredible as you said I thought it was but you know we could have gone a lot of different ways with the humor and who it

was making fun of but I think it kind of made fun of almost everybody and I appreciated that about the film and seen those worlds collide as great as somebody in the middle of those worlds not having anything to do with either one of them oh Trey I'm so glad you like this Trey because

yeah it was it was just a really fun movie it was yeah it was yep it is fun and I agree everything you said about Kiernan Shipka she really sells it she makes it like plausible in a way that a lot of it's not like you said it's like it's almost silly to go the the time machine route when they

could have picked like a magical realism because then it's like yeah you you're not even supposed to question these kids just built a time machine they're like so much a lot about it yeah that's why I said you have to suspend disbelief it was like a the craft fair at a craft fair she makes a time

machine only but and I'm able to fix it and repair it and everything else yeah at least they point out that Doc Brown has to get a hold of some you know weapons grade plutonium to do anything did did you guys think you know the killer in this movie wears a mask to conceal their identity and

did you guys think that the mask resembled Max headroom or Billy idle more I thought it was Max headroom is what I thought it was supposed to be but yeah yeah I see the Max headroom look big time with a slick back blonde hair and the robotic face to him it was a

unique it was a definitely unique I didn't ever think about that way yeah that's funny yeah and either way 80s icons but yep who did love those Max headroom was it Pepsi Coke commercials yeah yes I think they featured it in back to the future actually so kind of a tie in with a time travel

yeah that is cool back to the future too that was Matt Fruer right that was the Max headroom yeah and I remember the show was very ambitious it was like ambitious it was trying to be like the level of like blade runner almost but it wasn't quite there okay so let's see your number four try

yeah my number four has already been mentioned it is by far the darkest film on my list and probably the darkest one we've seen this year and that is Winnie will lurks yeah you know I think it's an incredibly crafted film I think the thing that keeps it from going any higher for me is just how

dark and depressing and unrelenting there's no warmth there's no bright spot there's no point where you feel good about anything in this film but the world they created was so interesting intriguing and they don't weigh you down with exposition you're kind of just thrown into it and

you have to make sense of it as you go along you're not going to get all the answers you want but yeah just a brutal film and it is my number four very cool try that's my number three so I'll just talk about what a fantastic film directed by Damien Ruggers or whatever the I think you mentioned

earlier from Argentina did terrified yeah man what a dark really dark movie this is and that's right up my alley this movie is unforgiving it's it's so demented everything that bad that can happen happens I mean that jump scare with the dog wow and then the just when you think somebody

safe nope they die I mean this movie this movie is depressing it's it's just a really dark depressing movie and I'm there for it man that's my number three so I'm right there with you Trey I can't wait to see what this guy does next I mean terrified was great and Winneval Larkes

was even better so wow what's this guy going to do next satanic Hispanics yeah there you go you haven't seen that yet yeah get it yeah you should check that one out Brian I need you yeah I need to I heard you guys talk about a couple episodes ago and I do need to watch that you're right yeah

he he did the segment called I also saw it yeah it's it's the creepiest segment in the whole movie in terms of horror it's the one in my opinion with the most horror in it yeah I wouldn't put a past him I mean he doesn't make happy movies let's put it that way yeah it that segment kind of

reminded me of Aterados or terrified yeah he's more like terrified than yeah yeah it just super creepy terrified is super creepy movie but yeah it's it's also my number four Winneval Larks so nice how a bunched up there we're all there I love it that might be the one movie we all agree

on the most there great yeah I was at number six so we're yeah so there there you go we're all right there yeah so well my number four is not Winneval Larks this is though it's a very visual movie it's a very odd movie it's a movie that Trey I believe it was you told me about it and I

it didn't quite register with me it's not okay I looked it up I thought all right and I probably forgot about it but you are right in suspecting that it is very much a Nathan movie if you will and there will be probably a limit to how much everybody once they see it loves this movie but it

drew me in it did for me what I want movies to do which is use all those elements the visual elements the oral elements and to tell a story that can be done and almost like no other medium and this movie is called Moon Garden it's directed by Ryan Stevens Harris it is very much a sort of

surrealistic dream trip which we had a few of those this year this one definitely leans into the dream aspect leans into the abstractness and it's interesting because it is done all within the mind of a five-year-old child who's in a coma and is making her way through these

almost it's a mix between the Terry Gilliam and David Lynchy and sort of like industrial nightmare scape I don't know if that's accurate tray but it feels like if you took elements of like pans labra that mixed them together with mad god and two or three other kinds of things and just

got this very strange visceral and yet dream-like experience that is kind of dealing with the emotions of child might feel when they are confronted with things they don't understand with fighting between parents when tension arises in the family due to other things and watching a child's mind

process all these things in a nightmarish way it's really interesting because a lot of times I find these movies fall apart for me they start out with some great visuals and then they get into sort of what I like to call the let's see how how good a music video I can make for 90 minutes

and a movie like Tarsim Singh's The Cell comes to mind and maybe I thought started brilliantly at a great idea and then after a while I felt like I was just being thrown a lot of random images that would look really good in someone's portfolio later on and I think that Moon Garden has those

and if you were to glance at the trailer you might think all this is going to be one of those very superficial films and yet I think through the performance of Little Girl here it's still you know the acting is not the high mark of this film but it's plausible and the way that she makes

her way through the dreamscape reminding me much more of a movie of Bernard Rose movie called Paperhouse from the late 80s and if you've seen Paperhouse I think Moon Garden has the drama has the horror and the creepiness it's maybe a little bit more fantasy but I think it definitely qualifies as a horror film it's a nightmare ride I loved it it was it was emotional it was interesting it was exciting and it never lost its way through its own dreamscape which it didn't feel like a bunch

of random images it felt like a well-tolled fairy tale yeah I'm glad you finally check that one out because I did say you know this is an eighth in movie through and yeah you're heavy tagged on that one you're right yeah and yeah we've seen it a lot like you mentioned Paperhouse I think

is a good point of comparison and we've seen it a lot more recently I feel like in recent years people are trying to hit that mark and I really enjoyed Moon Garden I didn't know if it would be my kind of movie going in but you want to talk about music video it did feel especially first off like a

music video when she first gets that in that dream world but there are some really creepy images and it's it's very unsettling and they make sense in her mind that's I think the difference they high into the tail that's being told yeah and it captures the fears of like what a you know

a little girl would think of in their mind you know children have such active imaginations and you know what they're seeing is a lot more terrifying than sometimes what we're thinking and it does the the dreams all play in to you know everything that's going on there's good use of like

dietic sound and this to get a crossover between the worlds and I yeah I really did enjoy it I thought it was a pretty solid film that's a good point to try about the the tie between the two worlds like she can hear her mother's voice on the transistor radio and I think that's what's

different than Paperhouse the parents get involved in a sense in the story here and it's almost one of the themes of the story is as apparent you know you're there to protect you know the do know harm the thing you as a me as a parent I was worried about is I don't want to do undue harm to

someone who's in my you know custody of my care and that's kind of built into the plot here in an interesting way yeah this is the first time here this I believe and I'm looking forward to seeing that too yeah it's it's good I can't remember I think I bought this one but I think it may be

I'm not sure it's streaming anywhere for free right now I'm stuck you know it was on prime but I couldn't be mistaken it may be on prime now I'm I'm not entirely sure but it is it's highly recommended by me I really loved it that's my number four and Brian your number three was what

evil lurks right yep so we got skipped right over I think I said all needs to be said when evil lurks mine okay so your number three try yeah it's when we've talked about when we did an entire segment along the previous episode and that is talked to me nice this was my number one for the

longest time and I didn't think anything was going to top it but eventually it did land at my number three I think it was very simple and it's premise it's not breaking the moon necessarily but I think it did what it did so well and maybe better than a lot of similar films that we've seen in

previous years and I thought the actors were all really good even though they were kids you know sometimes they were insufferable but I feel like that's how teenagers are sometimes so I think they did such a good job of getting that feeling and just a well-written film that really did get to

me sometimes so my number three is talked to me yeah excellent choice very cool love it okay and let's see so Victor your number three oh my number three um yeah it's called sick of myself and it is a dark comedy with some strong horror elements and it's directed

by Christopher Borgley and I think this is Norwegian yeah yeah they're Norwegian Mac and it's fantastic I've never really seen I mean everybody knows you know that you you have to look out for narcissistic personalities and usually these are like at least the ones I look out for like the

megalomaniacal ones that are like promise you the world and you know they're like almost psychotic in the way they see the world but most likely I think I will run into narcissists like these that are the two there are these this man and woman the young man and woman that are living together in this

movie and they are both kind of low-key at the beginning of the movie but the man has a success in the art world and he starts becoming famous and this triggers the the woman to take it upon herself to get attention to rival the boyfriend's rising attention in the art world and she decides

to go about that by researching drugs that have been linked to a horrific skin disease and she starts abusing that drug the results are memorable but yeah it's I sense a lot of the same sense of humor in this movie that that my favorite score stays in movie after hours there's there's

even a like a montage like you know characters are afraid of certain types of illnesses and there's a very similar montage to what Paul goes through in after hours when he sees that burn victim falter even the weird element of how the sculptures are made out of like furniture that they steal

like it just feels like he would run into these people at some point right yeah um yeah so it's a cautionary tale but uh it's really really fresh and original and uh yeah we were talking about social media earlier maybe before we hit record and I think this movie plays into that very nicely but yeah highly recommended I think I had to rent it but it wasn't very expensive no it's a really good one I for some reason I guess my my sense of humor so dark and messed up that I just took it a hundred

percent comedy and didn't even think of it being a horror but it pretty much is and it's um it had it is very much like that after hours where it's like it's so straight laser focused right down the middle of like of just eviscerating these people in a sense and yet you still feel a certain amount

of sympathy for them is you know as this world is crashing down in their heads these people bring a lot more of it on themselves that you know a Griffin Dundes character just was like overwhelmed all he did was leave his house he made the mistake of trying to have a fun Friday night

yeah that's yeah after I was more of a stranger in a strange land narrative this is more of like a just strange land narrative right this is how the natives live yeah it's a good one now I did like it okay so my number three is and it part of this is just giving it credit in my mind for where I

ultimately ended up with it but it number three for me is Bo was afraid and it took me it took a second viewing really kind of thinking about it but for me I think the thing is Victor I know what you're saying the first hour so does feel almost like this master piece of but if I think it

faded maintained itself at that level I might have had an actual like panic attack like a real one because uh it really touched on very rarely have I seen a movie where because I have dealt with anxiety and you know anxiety that's so prevalent that you know you're still like grinding your teeth

while you sleep and you're not even aware of of how on eduar sometimes this movie did every like every feeling in vibe it made me realize that hey you know the anxiety that I have isn't nearly as bad as this but I recognize the feeling and for it to go the places it did and so the second half

which is crazy and kind of a mess on one level it really feels like the length of it how it becomes sort of punishing like as you get towards the end from a conventional sense the first time I watched it I thought man this movie makes so many like narrative missteps towards the end

and now as I look back on it I feel like he is very much you so keyed into that experience of a certain kind of anxiety and a certain kind of experience that people feel that it is just all consuming it almost doesn't make sense at a point and it is like whiplash he captures it in a

way that's almost cathartic like after I finally sort of felt I was like oh it's like it doesn't feel as as dangerous because this movie was the one for me victor like you say like what am I going to see next is there is there going to be a point when there's just a little too much for me because it

was feeling like death by a thousand cuts of like I've had that feeling I've worried about that very thing and he is visualizing the extent like the furthest reaches of my fear about that particular element he is he's just you know there's a point when he's running through the streets

and they're just on fire people are like killing each other and things are going on and there's this certain head space that if you are experiencing anxiety the idea that it doesn't have to be real for it to affect me those things clicked in for me in a second viewing that you can hear me

wrestling with when I was talking about in the podcast before it did click I think he's made a masterpiece of a certain kind here I know that you're going to be people that absolutely hate it I don't know the next time when I will watch it but I recognize that he's he's made something

here it's very singular it's special in its way and I'm very glad he made it and I'm very glad I saw it even twice I'm so glad to hear that Nathan because I thought I was only weirdo that would have it on my list it kind of reminds me of a fantastical movie in a way like it is yeah

what's that movie like big fish remember that movie big fish this is like the yeah this is like the big fish for like you know for horror fans and right people with crippling anxiety disorder yeah and it was like I'll just say something real fast on it was it's an A24 movie and another

A24 movie that it's not a horror movie but gave me such anxiety like this was uncut gems oh yeah it it reaches yeah those levels a little bit yeah it gives me that anxiety of I'm on the edge of my seat and I'm just like man could this go any more wrong for this guy I'm yeah I'm glad you mentioned

that Brian because in uncut gems though there is that like it's well it's tension well and so tight but it has a clear like point when the pressure valve is going to go off because at some point you're he's either going to succeed or not succeed right like there's this clear and it's like and

after through the second part of that film keeps evading that feeling of of like release of like the tension and it becomes because for someone who's worried about everything that each you know each victory is just a new opening for failure to crash on the head like it said different viewpoint

that oh we survived it yeah it's I I pressed the hill so I can see the next awful thing rising over the next peak and this idea that there isn't a nice clean cut ending except for one for the kind of thing he's going through it is just a nightmare upon a nightmare and it isn't

rational and I think I like it ultimately even more for that but that that's a nice connecting point because it's helping me in my mind realize hey this movie's doing something that's a little different and I and it doesn't feel good right but it does it also does deliver on the

climax of the story it does yeah yeah and it took me a little while to to realize that because I think the first time I'm like really but I think it's it he he is continuing to show himself as a very distinctive kind of storyteller and for as much as his films do feel of a piece you can look at

hereditary amid some are and this one to see that they are all distinct movies they are very you know they aren't just like him banging at the same theme every time out and I I really appreciate that yeah I mean right terry and miss summer were quite different but they still the theme of a cult

kind of were this movie I'm glad it didn't go there because I was like don't make a third cult movie yeah in your series but you're right all three of his movies are so distinctly different like we got a horror movie we have a folk horror movie and now we have a I don't even know how

to describe boav is afraid like it's just it's such a unique movie set on its own I think that's part of the appeal of it is I mean it really genre hops like crazy and and it does it successfully it's it's funny when it's funny and it's horrific when it's horrific and it's mostly a drama and a lot of psychological horror thrown into it's a lot of things yeah yeah it is is definitely that so that is yeah that's my number three so number two what's your number two bride well we already

mentioned it and I mentioned earlier it's infinity pull it was a trays number five right tray I think and Brandon Kroenberg had a home run with this unique idea and I said I already said I had to say if any pull a strong number two for me I love it you this is not it oh sorry

no go ahead Victor no yes I was probably gonna say this exact same thing you were infinity pool is my number two and yeah my number two as well it is yeah really yep it's the biggest sink for a long time it was number one for a very a very long time all the way up

until early December it was my number my number one yeah the we I don't know if we've mentioned the premise of this movie in this episode but James and his wife are on vacation in this foreign country with a rather draconian law against manslaughter and James accidentally runs somebody over

and gets immediately thrown in jail where he's informed that he will receive the death penalty however the catch is in this near future world if you have enough money you can create a clone duplicate of yourself that has exactly the same memories as you and that clone can die

in your stead so we have a scenario where James is watching his own execution and it just gets crazier from there and that that seems so creepy because it freaks you out because you think he's getting killed and it pans over to him in the bleachers laughing like haha I cheated system but

did he cheat this system you don't know yeah oh this movie so deep it provoked so much thought in this movie it makes you question so many things that are going on and it almost begs the question of like in these I don't even remember what country it was said in I wanted to spare

any smaller countries but you know countries like this where you could pay off a government not that you can't in our country but I mean you pay off the government and money money talks but does it talk is it his own nightmare is he trapped there there's so many questions in this movie

it's just a fantastic movie that makes you think and I think one of the things that Brandon Krunenberg has going on and in he's proving now like three movies in that he's got at least as strong as his father and he and he may even be able to to surpass that eventually I think what's interesting is that premise you just said Victor in any other movie it would be that would be the primary dilemma and it would last the entire film the question of do I or do I not send my own clone

in to be murdered in my stat like that entire film this is just the diving board by which he leaps into so much craziness and then you realize essentially the movie is not even about that moral conundrum at

all it's about what about the people that live so far beyond that moral conundrum that it doesn't even it doesn't even register with them you know and so forth to keep going that's the end of the generosity the twisted generosity of this film is it just keeps envisioning new places for this guy

to find himself and he just keeps sort of you know it just keeps getting worse and worse in a sense and he turns he almost turns to the dark side because when he gets with this group of rich people they realize they're invincible they could do whatever they want to do because there's no consequences

or is there and then as Victor said earlier when he talked about it that this and and and Trey mentioned the same there's this there's this real element of what it is to be the creator of something and then have to wrestle with this idea that I put something out there and it

was it really successful as I thought and if I can't do it a second time was I really who I thought I was or who everyone thought I was the first time and that scene on the car where she something she says that if you're a person that's ever tried to create something

of an artistic nature and the thing she says in that car are very cutting very just that scene is so unhinged and Miyagoth hit such a level here I mean she's getting completely or you know she's deserved praise for everything she did last year in X and in Pearl but man here she just

takes it to another level and and and and it way diffuses some of the coldness because she's not a good person but there's but but but there are various degrees of warmth there's all warmth and there's hey warmth and there's a little bit of that there's there's a sole treatise to this movie

that did not exist in possessor you know even when sexuality came into the play in a movie like that it was so dark and nightmarish it's not that it's not nightmarish here but there is a certain where he's wants you to see the intoxicating nature of sort of believing that you don't need to care

about anything or think that anything has a limit that there's a point when you say oh no that's wrong I can't I can't do that yeah she just she just breaks him down mentally in this movie exactly yeah I mean the key to rebuilding yourself or one self I should say is you know you have to be

in touch with your repressed impulses and your regular impulses and I think that's exactly the journey that James goes on in this movie he doesn't know that he's capable of all these violent things or horrible thoughts but he finds that it's appealing and he can only get that when he

goes through the ordeals of you know the execution and then he meets people who have also done it and you know what are they capable of do what else have they done you know like where does this end and you know that's that's the that's the key to him understanding himself you know is he

going to survive this experience or is it going to be like black swan where she's totally repressed the whole time and just seeks to be perfect and then finally unleashes her whole dark side at once and it destroys her you know it could be either way oh no I think she proved early on in the beach

peeing scene that she wasn't very innocent yeah right there's there's an aspect of this too that it's interesting because you have all the sci-fi stuff that we've mentioned and that of course we'll put it in league with several other Cronenberg movies that you can think of but in a lot of

ways I think the Cronenberg movie it has the most in common with is Crash and which is really not you know there's no sides fiction in that film at all but I feel like you're seeing similar journeys of a sort victor between the characters in both films and there is this kind of

this world that we can't quite conceive of at a normal level and the movie is like no don't stand over there come closer put your head right up here watch this yeah well I love Crash and I loved Infinity Pool so yeah I agree with you there's there's definitely some commonality there

all right so tray your number two yeah so my number two you know all will be carved to this Thanksgiving nice I know we've talked about this adnazzy and I feel like everyone's probably seen this movie at this point but

this was a late come in the year I did not expect to even watch it in theaters let alone enjoy it but I did and it did have that 90s slasher feel and I felt like it wasn't just a bunch of dumb characters either I was very worried at the beginning and the cold open of this about some of the

teenage characters we were following and things of that regard but everything kind of was you know carved away rather quickly and what was left over was just pure enjoyment and I thought it was just such a you know I lied about I think this was a fun movie as well a tasty movie yeah exactly

definitely left it feeling full yeah enough with the puns I love Thanksgiving it's my number two very cool very cool yeah I'm happy to see it that high okay let's move on to number one number one movies of 2023 horror movies Brian your number one movie is can you guys guess

you got one double yeah trade trade my man with this number two because my number one thanksgiving of course 10 minutes 10 minutes into this movie I knew it would be Brian yeah and if you notice I kept quiet when you guys talk about yeah because I was waiting and thanksgiving was

freaking amazing I went I you know I never get to go to the theaters you guys know my situation I can't get out of the house but I made a point I got a babysitter me and my wife and our friend Ashley we went to the theater and it was a right in the theaters this is a movie you have to see in

the theaters but then I hit a VOD and we bought it right away about a week ago and I watched it again and it really solidified on the second watch this was my number one of the year I think Eli Roth did everything right in this movie I'm a big Eli Roth fan I know some people aren't I know Victor is

because I heard him talk about him on a podcast on HMP a few and when I like about Eli Roth is that you know he doesn't pigeonhole himself and do a certain genre you know hostile was a different type of movie and then he went on to cabin fever another different body horror movie

and then he went to green and furno a cannibal movie he made knock knock kind of a weird home invasion movie and then he made a slasher movie I mean it's kids movie before that also the clock in its well oh yeah yeah yeah okay and then so this guy has got a wide range

and we all know if you've listened to him on podcast this guy can talk on and on he'll pull he'll pull out deep cuts like Mother's Day pieces a happy birthday to me early 80 slasers that I love and he's just a fan of slasers so I was just waiting his whole career to make his pinnacle of

slasers going back to his 2006 or 2007 you know Grindhouse trailer which I saw that movie in the theater and Thanksgiving was a highlight of my of those trailers in between the movies and just Eli Roth really did it and mourn this movie I'm actually glad I wouldn't I didn't watch anything leading up

to this I went into a thinking he was making an 80s movie kind of like the trailer I'm kind of glad he made an updated version almost like that trailer existed as a 80s slasher and this was a remake of it kind of and he incorporated a lot of the kills from that trailer but he mixed them

up a little bit which was great like the parade be beheading the trampoline obviously the turkey scene and there's a scene where he he sits ever and I won't reveal spoilers because I know a lot people it's this is a hard movie to see because it was only at theaters and then just now hit VOD

and you have to pay 20 some dollars to see it but there is a scene where he sets everybody around the Thanksgiving table and it's a throwback to movies like happy birthday to me that I mentioned which I know he got that from or like a sleep way camp two where the bodies are all staged in the

cabin and I love those type of movies where the slasher revealed the end is where they have people around a table just kind of taunting them and the setup was great in the first five minutes he really played it off with the black friday praise I mean it was so ridiculous the scene

but it set up a good motivation for the murders a good reveal of who the killer was I mean just a fantastic movie it's my number one and it and this is a movie and he just announced and I posted this on the groups that he was greenlit just a few days ago by Sony or whoever produced this

that um that this could be a trilogy so he's right now with him and his good buddy writing the script for part two and that'll be coming out he's hoping Thanksgiving of 2024 so I'm really looking forward to it it'll be hard to top this one I really hope you know and you know this movie

does have a lot of people will compare it to like scream it does have a scream modern day sense like feel of a slasher and that's fine because I love scream and but it also has that kind of throwback 80s feel as well that he's a big fan of so I'm looking forward to what he does next

and I'm proud to say that's my number one movie yeah that's that's awesome and I what I love is it you're right it feels like scream but it has that element and that was one of the things that killed a lot of the 90 slasers was the self-awareness meta element of scream every other movie felt

like they had to have it and Roth builds that in in a different way because now he's a point when you know lots of people or fans of these movies I don't need to spell it out for you you can figure that part out for yourself focus on making this story I think he shows restraint here he hasn't

shown another movies in his career and it works I think sometimes the restraint leads to a moment that's even more wins inducing or or or scary and horrifying than if he had just gone full tilt like the way he did in the trailer that was so absurd that he kind of laughed at it and you're

right he can he talks when you hear him talk about movies you can see the passion and I will admit that I have liked some of his other movies but I'm I have never been a huge fan I've never seen the direct like correlation of the passion he has for movies when he talks with what's on screen

until this movie and I think it would be awesome I I haven't read anything about what he's gonna do for Thanksgiving too I think it would be awesome if he does for Thanksgiving what jug carpenter wanted to do with Halloween and actually makes everyone just completely different

than some of my completely different story that would be pretty neat see I don't I don't know Nathan I'm gonna discreet for one point there is he's a big fan of cannibal holocaust slave of the camel guide eating alive these type of movies and he implemented all that in green and furno

so that was one movie that did the pieces were there right yeah for me the execution was that no pun intended yeah now I was a fan of green and furno I really was and um but you're right I was too yeah I like it he put all his heart and soul into this movie and I think I think he

did a fantastic job I mean I gave it the last movie the last horror movie I gave a 10 was X and this was a 10 for me this year very cool um that's fair and a better way to say I'm glad you called me on that Brian I think a better way to say it is not that the passion's out there but

it feels like in green and furno and some of the others he kind of retreats to like make a joke out of things like oh just kidding guys and not that there aren't moments of levity and thanks giving but he sort of commits to the horror to things being scary a little bit more here than some

of those other movies I feel like hostile to is the only other movie where the the horror movie portions were exactly what they needed to be and we're not being like tripped over by like ill-placed comedy moments right yeah I'm so glad uh tray tray I think just said he had

at number two and Nathan and Victor you had to run eight and nine so I'm so happy we all have this in our top 10 that makes me so happy yes it was it definitely deserves to be in the top 10 okay so tray your number one movie of 2023 this is no surprise if you know me I feel like it is

Godzilla minus one what Takashi Yamazaki does here and I think it's interesting because this is a director who really before this did a lot of anime adaptations especially ones that were just CGI anime adaptations as well as doing the Godzilla the ride movie he kind of took this small budget and he

made something that I don't think Godzilla has hit on before and I don't think it's hit this level of character development writing caring about characters in its existence all the way back to the beginning I think this even tops the original in that regards now I did get to see this with

fellow longtime HMP listener and red I was glad to be able to get out to the theaters and see it and it is still on theaters if you haven't seen it yet but the emotional roller coaster this thing takes you on and just wear a film with Godzilla where he's kind of the taking a back seat in certain

aspects of it but he's always driving the film forward it's never it doesn't ever feel disconnected even though when you're focusing on these characters and their day to day life it's still kind of all driven by Godzilla in a sense and I think we've seen stuff with Godzilla in this film that we

haven't seen before I think it's terrifying a lot of times when he's attacking and you know typically you're not feeling that since probably the original but yeah excellent job all around Victor I think you mentioned that ending the last 20 minutes of this were some of the best pieces of

filmmaking I've ever seen something most fun I've had in a movie just tense and fun and bombastic and everything you would want so this is I wouldn't call it a perfect movie but I would say it's pretty close for me and yeah that was my favorite horror film of the year and again you know I

said talk to me was my favorite for the most part of the year and then Thanksgiving came along in November and then Godzilla minus one came along December and that was just the the chart top for me yeah yeah yeah it's the end of the year finished quite strong just like Godzilla minus one but yeah

I read that they are the movie so popular in Japan that they're re-releasing it into the theaters in black and white I guess to to drop comparisons to the first movie the 1954 yeah yeah I saw that yeah that's that's cool and yeah I felt like like one of the really cool things I haven't heard

anybody talk about in the first movie in the first Godzilla movie the 1954 one is the there's a survivor like there's a Godzilla attacks a ship and a guy survives and he is killed by Godzilla almost immediately in on in his island home like because that's that's the next thing on on

Godzilla's hit list and I thought that was so cool I saw the 54 movie right before I saw Godzilla minus one to to kind of get back in the mindset and I thought that was a that was a really cool moment that like the the doom of Godzilla is supernatural like you know once you've been

counter Godzilla that's it your toast like even if you don't die you will be destroyed in like almost immediately is almost like a ghost and I felt like the filmmakers of Godzilla minus one really glommed onto that and flipped it in this movie so that the the survivor becomes the central

protagonist of the movie although you can argue that the like you just sent Ray the the protagonist is really Godzilla because he moves the movie forward but yeah and that's great point Victor and also I think that you know what I'll just let I'll let someone else take this because I'm sure

they're I know what their number one is but tell me Victor what's your number one movie 2023 well you guys already talked to me about it yeah it's talked to me I it was Infinity Pool for the longest time but upon reflecting on these movies in the last week uh talked to me

just barely beat it out I think they're both masterpieces yeah that's a great pic Victor like that was what I think I had my six or whatever but um talked to me was so good because it was original you know there's something to be said for an original movie in 2023 because things have been done

before and I love the franchise movies I love remakes I love all that but when something comes out like Infinity Pool or talked to me originality goes a long way with me yeah you too yeah I mean there's something to be said for enjoying a storyline you've seen before but it's done in a

sort of a more exciting way or an updated way or with characters you like better or whatever and and those movies are great but I try to keep those off the top 10 list because I think it's exactly like you you just said Brian it's it's those original ideas that really drive the entire genre

forward and you know people will see these movies and go oh I want to make the next talk to me or I want to make the next Infinity Pool and that's where the next horror masters will come from and that's what made this year a little bit special like we mentioned to be in the episode a lot

of original ideas this year more more so than years in the past and one of the cool things about the originality about this film is it was it's not originality you know completely whole cloth it is taking some of those very what would be in another film tired ideas like that scene when you first

see what the hand can do what that party trick really is you're not really prepared for it you know usually we've seen so many of those scenes the sayon scene the hypnotizing scene I mean it honestly one of the creepiest scenes like that in my mind of more modern films was when they hypnotized

Kevin Bacon and Sturvekos you know the way that scene is handled this scene is like that in the sense of like you're like oh gosh like now I get the implication of what's happening here and watching it happen and seeing it through the eyes of everyone else seated around that table those

kids around around that hand and then what this person who's doing it sees man that was just kind of next level like you're there in that room watching that happen it was so well done yeah so my number one movie of 2023 is not surprisingly Godzilla minus one have been a big Godzilla fan

forever a train is this I would honestly say it's my favorite franchise even though not every movie is an automatic winner I can see these movies kind of again and again and again and so so familiar you know am I with Godzilla in general they're going into this movie I have to admit that you

know so many other fans of other franchises like this is the movie I'm most anticipating and it really wasn't until we started getting on top the release date where I finally said to try you know what this might be the movie the year for me but I would not have been expecting it otherwise

I mean I expect about a certain level from Godzilla these days and you know sometimes we hit that market sometimes we don't it's not a very high bar sometimes when you're dealing with the Godzilla films so I was really blown away ultimately when I finally saw the movie and I took my son and

a buddy of ours and we went to see the movie and how good it was how well done it was to see that movie and Victor Unite talked about how a Shirohonda who directs the original film he also worked on and had a hand in it was kind of adjacent to a Kara Kurosawa and and the films that Kurosawa

was making and honestly speaking of all the Godzilla films that exist it's this one even more so than the one from the you know the 54 Honda film and has the vibe and the feel there are moments that do feel like this is what the Kurosawa would have made and he made a Godzilla film there's a little bit of a feel of this is what Spielberg would do if he had made a Godzilla film the Godzilla's amazing when he shows when he hits that when he hits landfall about midway through the film and you

get the classic Godzilla theme which by the way was the the march into my wedding unsurprisingly but um uh not a wedding but the when you go into the the hall you know for the um perceptive reception it was that music it wasn't what we actually walked up the aisle to my wife

would never allow that but uh when that happens and you your struck eye my my son was like dad did you notice that you had you reclined your seat forward and we're now leaning in I was like no I didn't but when he's he attacks and we have a scene of what it looks like to be the person inside the boss the kind of scene you know the seeing what happens to all those passengers and the boss is not something that was typically happening in the old films and so yeah this is the best movie

since that one but let's face it realistically those scenes in the 50s movie are never going to have the same impact that they have for 50s viewers or for you you know ourselves as kids because the special effects really are a little weaker and we aren't go we just really can't have that same

reaction so to see him chomping down and people hanging out of the bus it's like this is the this is the visualization of everything they tried previously and if they're not the best a special effects you've ever seen but the way in which they're utilized gives you some of the

best action scenes that you've seen with special effects at least this year for me it was top notch because you were in it dramatically and emotionally and it is about really like I think victory hit on the head there's a survivor's guilt the original film is about the nuclear fallout

and and and what we've done and what we've brought upon the world and the metaphor of the bomb and what's interesting is this movie every other Godzilla movie ties him directly to that nuclear element and what's kind of very interesting is they don't do that here you know it's not that it's

not there or it's never commented upon but it's really about the survivor's guilt in Japan after the war already being decimated and I love that it hones in on these small characters and there's a big bombastic scene towards the end and there is this moment that they could be

corny in another movie but when you get to that moment you see it from the eyes of a totally different character and you realize how important it is to that character and that's where the pathos comes from that's where the emotion comes from not from this act of this act simply happening

but because it matters to someone somewhere in the plot and the way he builds these scenes together with the theme and you feel like you're watching jaws in some moments I really did like the level of involvement I had I mean this is a 10 out of 10 for me it's the only 10 out of 10 on this list

infinity pulls very close but it was just everything I would have wanted from a movie experience and I think I remember Roger Ebert saying when Dark Knight came out he said this is the Batman movie I'd say this is a Batman movie I always wanted but I actually didn't know I wanted these things

in a Batman movie so I could say this is the Batman movie that I hoped would be made I just didn't know what things to hope for that's kind of the way I feel with this Godzilla movie I don't know that I would have ever expected to see some of those things here or that they would work so well but I

really think they do so yeah so you guys you guys know that a Toho controlled the franchise for a while they were cranking out the Godzilla movies and then legendary picked it up with the well I mean there was the role in Emrik Godzilla and then there was the who's the guy that did

the most most recent one the one with the like the parachuters going down oh Gareth Edwards yeah Gareth Edwards yeah yeah thanks so yeah at that point legendary picked it up and and they made you know like two or three Godzilla movies and then Kong and Kong's Coll Island and

Converse's Godzilla and now this movie is so popular that it might shift back to Toho again so yeah what do you guys what do you guys think about would you would you rather see another Toho Godzilla movie or would you rather see a legendary Godzilla movie I'm so greedy I want it all

yeah at this point I think I'd be interested to see what Toho does from here and I think anything you follow this up with has to either be like a direct sequel in the same tone or it's gonna have to be very clear that this isn't that and what I don't want Victor is a follow up I don't want

another Shin Godzilla into Godzilla minus one and what I mean by that is just the Godzilla origin story over and over which I feel like Toho has done several different times in different resets yeah what I want is a progression from that wherever we go so whether that's a sequel

directly to minus one or whether that's something completely different that's building up one minus one I think I don't need a connected universe I just want something that isn't another origin story yeah and I think that's you know the interesting answer to that question is hey I

in like I really I do want both and here we're seeing that it's happening you know simultaneously like as we're getting Godzilla minus one we're getting the big candy coated crack look in Godzilla Kong movie you know it looks like it's bringing in like a baby Kong like that stuff is ridiculous

but I that is a part of Godzilla too and so is this and the follow up to this movie is got I believe now after watching it is Godzilla 1954 dawned on me to await in a certain Loki sense this is a prequel you know you could vid this in and Godzilla 1954 makes perfect sense with the continuity of

what they because they keep this so hedged into this one experience you could really this is almost a prequel to that so tell who could go wherever they want and it trays you know when they did their next series after Roland Emoryx Godzilla the next series that millennial Godzilla they were all

different movies the none of them were really a sequel to the except for I think the Godzilla versus Mecha Godzilla and then Tokyo SOS they are they form a two movie like series but in Tokyo SOS is in itself was a sequel to Mothra so yeah yeah it's very very weird but they could do whatever

they want I don't really care as long as they're but they're good yeah and I don't necessarily I kind of I don't know that I want to necessarily see a follow up to this in the same way you know I would actually you mentioned Mothra I think it would be cool to see someone take that which is a

bit of a a lighter you know Mothra to Godzilla the original film it's a great film but it is a little bit lighter it is maybe a little bit more like a kids film but I'd love to see someone take that seriously the way they took Godzilla seriously so that's almost what I want I want to see

tow how take that realistic eye and that like mainstream big adventure movie where they monsters a component but not the only component and apply that let's see some let's see what they can do with Rodan and Mothra and things like that that's I would love that yeah but instead of that you

know we get Morbius Morbius and Craven the Hunter so no I'd love that as well because they did do that in the you know that's what that was Toho's game let's create the next Godzilla so you had Rodan you had Mothra and it'd be very interesting to see them do that again yeah so yeah that

is that's our our list that's our so number one for Trai myself Godzilla and number one for Victor talk to me and number one for Brian was Thanksgiving so our list will be available in the show notes you get the top 10s counted down and I'm gonna make mine once this episode's up available on

letterbox you can go to letterbox to see my top 10 horror movies of 2023 and anyone else who has one I'll make sure the list is available there if you're listening to this and you think hey you missed a bunch of movies then please let us know but even more so than that make sure you go over

to the Facebook page or on Twitter and vote and put your give us your list of top 10s we will read those aloud on the next show and we'll discuss and we'll we'll have rankings and see where everything falls and we will in that episode Brian's gonna come back and join us and we're gonna talk

a little bit more about those movies that fall into the honorable mentions because I got to say and I think Victor you said as a beginning there are some honorable mentions that honestly blew me away to the point not not because they were like amazing movies but some of them were in in

franchises I long since given up on or a movie that just I hadn't been here much about and you know deserved to be talked about you know and and have a moment to be discussed and so we will be doing that on the next episode so before we close out completely I'm gonna let everyone go around

the horn and give anything you want you know where to find you what to look for that sort of thing but yeah we'll be having Brian back and I just want to say to everyone because this is probably the last time you will hear our voices before the end of the year or you may be hearing them just

as a year is ending have a happy safe wonderful new year we're looking forward to podcasting in 2024 and you know just taking hmp 2.0 to the next level so on behalf of everybody happy new year and let's go around tray you'll everybody know where to find you anything else final thoughts

yeah and circling back to your point Nathan I will make sure that the the link to the google form you can fill out for your top 10 is including the show notes of this as well but yeah you can find me over on screaming through the ages where I do buy on solo cast and I will be having my kind of

extended look at the year where I kind of go deeper into a lot of the you know what would be honorable mentions here give a list of that coming up very soon probably just a little bit after this one but yeah that's where you can typically find me if it's not a horror movie podcast

very cool thanks tray and Victor how about you oh yeah I yeah hope you enjoyed the show and and by all means if you if you disagree with my top 10 list just follow me on at dime store Caesar on Twitter or Instagram that's the best way to get in touch with me and yeah let's talk

about the way you thought the list should be or you know just send me a link to your list because I'll check that out and yes so many movies out there to choose from and really appreciate podcasting with you guys because every episode I learned something so thanks

yeah for sure and okay Brian how about you lots want to say thank you so much for letting me join in it's really an honor to join hmp I love all three you guys especially tray for heaven thanks to having that as number two and uh speaking back to last year's uh top 10 list I think that

Nathan and Victor had bones and all at their number one if I remember right yeah what a what a fan what a fantastic movie that was yes so you guys have a great taste in movies can't wait to join you all for the next episode and 2023 was a great year I'm really shocked I can't wait

on the next episode to talk about I have a list of five movies that I'm just surprised none of us brought up so we'll speak on those next episode yeah there's a couple there too and there were there were ones that I thought for sure would be there and I was also initially shocked and thought wow

I can't believe there was there's one movie I was shocked that I'm I'm in a position to put one of these movies on my list I didn't know the thing I thought would happen and uh so that I think proves that it was a strong year even if it didn't quite reach the heights but I mean honestly a movie

is good as God's all a minus one I uh that's as good as a movie that's been on any of my recent lists in recent years so and it's same for Infinity Pool so some really really good stuff there you of course outside of a year at HMP you know if I'm over at Phantom Galaxy we are relaunching for

the new year we have a lot of cool stuff coming out there and we will be doing top 10 there but that will be sort of all genre list and what we're just going to do one of those since I'm podcasting here doing top 10 horror and Bill does that over at land of the creeps so we will be doing

just our general movies list and you're going to see some more um more of the voices you're hearing tonight over there when we do it so you can check us out at Phantom Galaxy that's over at pod bean and you can also find it pretty much at all the pod catchers and yeah that's that's the episode but

again we will be back with the second part of this and that part's really important that get our list get excuse me get your list to us and then we will have the opportunity to talk about them next time and we will we'll go down the list we will also look at you know what the

cumulative top 10s were and things like that from the listeners and we will share your lists on the show so really looking forward to that we will also probably have just a small segment or we do talk about the movies that we're looking forward to in the horror genre in 2024 and one of the things

I love when we anytime we ever do a segment like that you know you always inevitably have these five or six movies you're looking forward to I think the sign of a good movie year is when you realize your top 10 doesn't look like those movies exclusively and there were so many little surprises along

the way you didn't anticipate I wasn't anticipating a talk to me or or to be fair even Godzilla minus one I wasn't anticipating those movies walking into the new year but last year but here here we are so I'm looking forward to that segment as well so anything else Brian thank you so much it was a

great pleasure to have you on the show and I'm looking forward for you coming back next episode anything else anybody has no no thanks them just thank you so much guys okay well happy new year everyone and this has been horror movie podcast where we're dead serious about horror movies