Highlight: Great 2018 Genre Films

Great 2018 Genre Films To Watch

Here are a couple great genre films from this past year to watch. Many of these received positive reviews upon their release, however, I still feel a few of them flew under the radar a bit and so I bring them to your attention for a viewing. Coincidentally, many of these are revenge films, though each are as different from one another as they come:

Mandy - 9/10

Nic Cage... Nic Cage! A psychedelic and horrifying revenge tale. Absolutely mesmerizing cinematography, full use of the colour palette and post-effects. John Wick x Hellraiser x Enter The Void!

Overlord - 8.5/10

This, I see, is what it would look like if Wolfenstein were adapted to film. A US troop lands down in WWII France to uncover horrifying experimentation being conducted by the Nazis. War film x sci-fi film x zombie horror!

You Were Never Really Here - 9/10

Joaquin Phoenix at his best. A grounded and gritty revenge tale, here, a tormented, violent hitman haunted by the demons of his past, set to finally make amends by protecting a young girl. Deft direction by Lynne Ramsay, a film built around violence without ever explicitly showing it.

Upgrade - 7.5/10

Now, an action revenge film! Like a modern, streamlined Robocop. The action scenes are worth viewing alone, plus a strong performance by Logan Marshall-Green.

Climax - 8/10

Autuer, Gaspar Noe's, most recent. The film centres around a dance tropes' rehearsal night - the dance segments within (which take up much of the first half of the film) are worth seeing alone. Add to that a spiked punch bowl that leads to horrifying, gut-wrenching results, and you have one of the year's most unique releases.

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Review: Sound of Metal (2020)

Sound of Metal (2020) TLDR: Easily one of the best films I have seen in a long while. Grounded by an absolutely stellar performance by Riz Ahmed (and co-star, Olivia Cooke), Darius Marder's Sound of Metal is a moving and deeply-empathetic look into the journey and struggle to find peace with one's self through the lens of a musician who loses his hearing. Have no doubt, if you are not yet familiar with the names Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke you are about to be. Both actors - Ahmed in particular who leads the film - are transcendent in Darius Marder's Sound of Metal. Ahmed plays Ruben, a heavy metal drummer, in a duo group led by guitar/singer, Lou, played by Cooke. The two are as much a pair off-stage as they are on it. It is clear from early on that they are all that the other really has in life and they are content to travel across the country in their RV together playing shows and making ends meet as best they can. However, all goes awry when Ruben - who batters his eardr

Review: Soul (2020)

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Review: The Before Trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013)

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