“The Guest” (2014)
Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett found moderate mainstream success with the twisty, darkly-comic inverse-home-invasion film “You’re Next,” but barely edging out that very good film is their follow-up effort about an Iraq War veteran named David (Dan Stevens), who comes to visit the family of a fallen team member and a series of strange events begin to occur after his arrival. Essentially two films mashed together (a drama about a soldier returning home with PTSD and an unstoppable killer horror film a la “The Terminator” or “Halloween”), “The Guest” is a tricky tightrope that Wingard, Barrett, and a focused, steel-eyed Stevens – who has never been better before or since – walk effortlessly, as does “It Follows” breakout Maika Monroe, who matches Stevens beat-for-beat. The film is often laugh-out-loud funny, and because of that, the various twists and turns are genuinely shocking where they could have felt predictable. Also, “The Guest” gets bonus points for being set around Halloween time and leaning heavily into those vibes. – RO
“In Fabric” (2019)
You’ll never look at a Goodwill purchase the same way again. No, that’s not the tagline for Peter Strickland’s (“Berberian Sound Studio,” “The Duke of Burgundy”) latest, but it should be. On paper, the idea of a killer dress passing from owner to owner sounds like a supremely silly one-note premise that even Quentin Dupieux would reject. Instead, it’s partially a thoughtful examination on consumerism and how we often believe it will feel the void that is missing in our lives, and partially a surrealist, pitch-black deadpan comedy on the subject, all captured through the beautiful Technicolor canvas that evokes the Mario Bava and Dario Argento giallos of yesteryear. The MVP – besides a completely fire score by Cavern of Anti-Matter – is hands down Strickland regular Fatma Mohamed as the head sales associate at the Macy’s from Hell that the killer dress originates from. Every single-pointed, deliberate line of dialogue about the dress fulfilling the consumerist need is at once uncomfortable and outright hilarious. This film is perfect for anyone who wished that Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” was more literal (and would make a killer double-feature with it, too). – RO
“The Invitation” (2016)
If you dubbed Karyn Kusama as the queen of overlooked cinematic gems, you would not encounter much resistance within the film community. While “Jennifer’s Body” gradually cultivated a following over the course of the decade (one can only pray that “Destroyer” will not be lost to time), “The Invitation” slipped away into the night before anyone could bestow it with the praise that it rightfully deserves. As a pitch-perfect fusion between a grief-stricken psychodrama and a paranoia-fueled cult thriller, the director dials in on dissecting complex characters until she decides to drop you into the midst of the world’s least hospitable dinner party. On a technical level, Kusama’s vision flawlessly coalesces with the screenplay credited to Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, and both elements elevate Logan Marshall-Green’s already enrapturing performance. In short, “The Invitation” is an understated opus that thrives on social anxiety, passive-aggressive banter, and startlingly raw violence. — JC
“The Killing Of A Sacred Deer” (2017)
Forgive us for being mushy for just a second, but Greek hellraiser Yorgos Lanthimos has been a favorite amongst The Playlist for a very long time, and what a treat it has been this decade to see him crossover into mainstream appeal with films like “The Lobster” and “The Favourite” without losing even an ounce of his voice. That being said, without question, his weirdest, darkest outlier in that timeframe has been his one foray into straight horror, or at least as much as a Lanthimos film could be put into one specific genre box. Colin Farrell’s “middle-aged dad” acting phase has proven to be the best of his career thus far, matching Lanthimos’ morose sense of humor with deadpan accuracy. He portrays a brilliant surgeon who is cursed by a young man (Barry Keoghan, a breakout performance) to make an unthinkable choice to save his family (Nicole Kidman, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic) after failing to save his father during surgery, and the “sins of our fathers” motif that is so common to horror is done so in a unique manner thanks to Lanthimos’ hallmarks of beautifully-composed tracking shots, punctuating dourness with gallows humor, and clinical, unsexy handjobs, amongst others. It’s devilish fun for most of it, but by the end, it’ll make your skin crawl. – RO
“Don’t Breathe” (2016)
Although the 2010s birthed the resurgence of arthouse horror into the mainstream, Fede Alvarez’s elevated shlock piece “Don’t Breathe” defiantly ventures away from the pack. Akin to a low-budget jewel that you would discover among bargain bin DVDs in the late 2000s, “Don’t Breathe” forsakes surrealistic metaphors and philosophical questions for an old-fashioned gimmick and hard-boiled aggression—but it’s really fun. If you were tasked with retitling the film, “Don’t Think Too Hard” would probably be your safest bet especially when one takes the time to analyze the movie’s logic (or lack thereof) regarding its blind antagonist. To be fair, “Don’t Breathe” strays into silly territory fairly early into its runtime, but anyone in search of sharp-edged entertainment will enjoy Alvarez’s enjoyably sleazy B movie. Pre-packaged with inventive set-pieces (the basement sequence is debatably one of the decade’s best regardless of genre) and a hysterically bizarre third-act twist, Stephen Lang and Jane Levy contribute commendable performances to a claustrophobic, endlessly rewatchable subversion of the home invasion subgenre. — JC
“Spring” (2014)
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have risen quickly this decade as filmmakers to look out for, and they have not disappointed with unique, idiosyncratic approaches to genre like “Resolution,” “The Endless,” and the upcoming “Synchronic.” Any could have made the cut, but there’s a lingering, intoxicating beauty that has stayed with “Spring” since its release. Horror films about grief have been commonplace as of late, but few take a realistic approach to that process, where there are bright spots and moments of levity between the dark clouds. Essentially “Before Sunrise” as a creature feature, “Spring” is about Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) who travels to Italy after the death of his mother and strikes up a relationship with Louise (Nadia Hilker) who is harboring her own dark past. If “Spring” is guilty of anything, it’s that the metaphor for grief might be a bit too on-the-nose (and even mentioning one of the subgenres may be a spoiler), but everything else about it clicks together so beautifully – the gorgeous cinematography, terrific performances from Pucci and Hilker as broken individuals looking for a connection, and a hypnotic, yearning score by Jimmy LaValle – it can’t be knocked at all for that. – RO