| Title |
Year |
Rating |
Rank |
Review |
| American Psycho | 2000 | 100 | 1 | (full review) - It is wild, brilliant work that marked a talent preparing for big things. |
| Exorcist, The | 1973 | 100 | 1 | (full review) - For evocative, nerve jangling, demonic horror, you will not find better than The Exorcist. |
| Poor Things | 2023 | 100 | 1 | (full review) - Imagine a woman’s sense of self forming without shame, without the stifling existence of it. Lanthimos, McNamara and Gray have done just that, and the result is exhilarating. |
| A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | 2014 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - I promise the image of a vampire on a skateboard will stay with you. |
| A Tale of Two Sisters | 2003 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - A Tale of Two Sisters is saturated with bold colors and family troubles. |
| Audition | 2000 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - Nearly unwatchable and yet too compelling to turn away from, Audition is a remarkable piece of genre filmmaking. |
| Calvaire | 2004 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - His film is a profoundly uncomfortable, deeply disturbing, unsettlingly humorous freakshow that must be seen to be believed. |
| Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | 1986 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - It’s a uniquely awful, absolutely compelling piece of filmmaking. |
| Hereditary | 2018 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - Aster takes advantage of a remarkably committed cast to explore family dysfunction of the most insidious type. |
| Midsommar | 2019 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - Midsommar is a bold vision and wholly unnerving experience (emphasis on experience) |
| Night of the Living Dead | 1968 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - As the first film of its kind, the lasting impact of this picture on horror cinema is hard to overstate. |
| Nosferatu (1922) | 1922 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - Best vampire ever. |
| Robot Dreams | 2023 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - Slyly authentic in its examination of how we grow, sometimes apart, Robot Dreams honors the pain of losing the one you thought was your forever home, but it also celebrates the memories made with the one who got away. |
| The Banshees of Inisherin | 2022 | 95 | 4 | (full review) - McDonagh’s humor and insider’s perspective create something charmingly, achingly relatable. |
| 28 Days Later | 2002 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - The vision, the writing, and the performances all help him transcend genre trappings without abandoning the genre. |
| A Love Song | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/coming-of-age/#sthash.xk69Tc0r.dpbs |
| Aftersun | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - The film moves at a languid pace, but Wells repays your patience with a rich and melancholy experience. |
| All of Us Strangers | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Genre elements litter the script that, told by any other filmmaker, would run either maudlin or cheesy. But Haigh’s hypnotic touch creates a tone equally honest and obscure yet full of wonder. It’s also utterly devastating. |
| Amanda | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/liger/#sthash.BAMvPKic.dpbs |
| American Fiction | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Buoyed by a delightful ensemble and cuttingly hilarious script, he delivers one of the finest performances of his career. |
| Barbie | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Barbie, which director Gerwig co-wrote with Noah Baumbach (that slouch), delivers smart, biting, riotous comedy with more whimsy than anything this politically savvy has any right to wield. |
| C'mon C'mon | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - The blending of reality with fiction is seamless enough to buoy the sense of authenticity and heighten a mood of empathy. |
| Cabin in the Woods, The | 2011 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - As smart as Scream, as much fun as Evil Dead, this film is as thoroughly enjoyable a horror flick as anything you’ll find. |
| Candyman | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - It is a film that honors its roots but lives so vibrantly in the now that it makes you view the 1992 original from an urgent new angle. |
| Dawn of the Dead | 2004 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - His feature is gripping, breathlessly paced, well developed, and genuinely terrifying. |
| Dream Scenario | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - This is absurdist horror comedy at its best. |
| EO | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Skolimowski pieces these images together in ways to suggest constant peril as well as beauty. |
| Everything Everywhere All at Once | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - At the heart of the insanity lurks a spot-on depiction of a midlife crisis, and Michelle Yeoh’s depiction of that crisis is revelatory. |
| Funny Games | 2007 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - The bored sadism that wafts from these kids is seriously unsettling, as, in turn, is each film. |
| Funny Games | 1997 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - His teen thugs’ calm, bemused sadism leaves you both indignant and terrified as they put the family through a series of horrifying games. |
| Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga | 2024 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Again wielding his patented punch-in closeups like a heavy metal power chord, Miller keeps a palpable sense of frenzied motion. |
| Get Duked! | 2019 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - What does one homeschooled teen and three high school ne’er do wells in trouble for blowing up a lavatory have in common? Impending doom. |
| Goodnight Mommy | 2015 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - There is something eerily beautiful about Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s rural Austrian horror Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh). |
| Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Everything about the film is so tenderly del Toro, whose work mingles wonder with melancholy, historical insight with childlike playfulness as no other’s does. |
| Housebound | 2014 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - You’re nervous, you’re scared, you’re laughing, you’re hiding your face, you’re screaming – sometimes all at once. |
| I Saw The Devil (Akmareul boatda) | 2010 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - You might even notice some really fine acting and nimble storytelling lurking inside this bloodbath. |
| It Follows | 2014 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - The shape shifting entity itself appears in a variety of forms, each a more lurid image direct from some nightmare. |
| Joker | 2019 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - His presence is completely transfixing, always convincing you that he is here to fulfill this legendary character’s destiny. |
| Mad God | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - It’s like a Bosch painting and a Tool video accusing each other of being too lighthearted. |
| Martyrs | 2008 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - It holds some gruesome imagery, and though the climax may not be pleasing, it certainly doesn’t disappoint. |
| Memoria | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - If you are in the mood for something decidedly different, let Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s meditative wonder Memoria beguile you. Or bewilder you. Or both. |
| Mist, The (2007) | 2007 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Regardless, it’s the provocative ending that guarantees this one will sear itself into your memory. |
| Nightmare Alley | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - But what a vision it turns out to be – one of the year’s best and one of his best. |
| One Cut of the Dead | 2017 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - The manic comedy proves as infectious as the zombiism on the screen |
| Open Water | 2003 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Kentis boasts not just an ear for realistic dialogue and an ability to draw authentic performances. |
| Parallel Mothers | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - It’s one of Almodóvar’s most tender films, and one of Cruz’s very finest performances. |
| Passing | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Whatever the background, the result is a meticulously crafted, deeply felt gem of a film. |
| Promising Young Woman | 2020 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Fennell exposes the hideous reality of gender norms and how little it takes for a man to be considered a good dude. |
| Showing Up | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Reichardt invests her attention in the small moments rather than delivering a tidy, obvious structure. The result feels messy, like life, with lengths of anxiety and unease punctuated by small triumphs. |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - This third installment showcases the naïve optimism and youthful sweetness that has made Watt’s first two episodes such a great time |
| The Beta Test | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - It’s a deceptively layered performance at the center of a biting piece of social commentary. |
| The Bikeriders | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Weaving thematic threads from The Wild One, Goodfellas and even Shakespearean tragedy, The Bikeriders gives that search brutal beauty, and compelling life. |
| The Card Counter | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - It helps that Isaac is a profound talent and essentially flawless in this role. |
| The Green Knight | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Lutes and mead, chainmail and sorcery—director David Lowery’s Camelot is just as rockin’ as ever in his trippy coming-of-age style The Green Knight. |
| The Zone of Interest | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - He dramatizes nothing. Seeing how easily, how thoughtlessly and even eagerly human beings can benefit from incomprehensible inhumanity provides new, highly relevant perspective. |
| When Evil Lurks | 2023 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - This is a magnificently written piece of horror, and Rugna’s expansive direction gives it an otherworldly yet dirty, earthy presence. |
| Wild Indian | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - He’s a survivor bound up in his own guilt and shame, taking advantage of whatever he can and hating himself and everyone around him because of it. |
| Women Talking | 2022 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Women Talking is a quietly stunning achievement and a reminder of the power of dialog and respect. |
| Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror | 2021 | 90 | 15 | (full review) - Janisse’s film repays your undertaking with not only an incredibly informative documentary but an engaging, creepy and beautifully made film. |
| A Quiet Place | 2018 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - A Quiet Place works your nerves like few films can. |
| A Quiet Place: Day One | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Any time you can watch a film with giant extra-terrestrials bearing ear drums where a face should be and you find yourself fully believing anything, you’re watching a pretty good movie. A Quiet Place: Day One is a pretty good movie. |
| All About Evil | 2010 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s community theater bad, but in the best way. |
| American Mary | 2013 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The images are bright, crisp and classy and at the same time so very wrong – just like Mary. |
| Ashkal | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Simultaneously pessimistic and hopeful, grim and beautiful, Ashkal is a meditation on modern times. |
| Astrakan | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Astrakan is an impressive, moving slice of life that understands what turns a child into something troubling. |
| Attachment | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Attachment delivers slow-burn horror that repays close attention but never falls to gimmickry. |
| Babes | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Childhood best friendship rarely really survives adulthood. Babes wonders whether it can, with the right mix of forgiveness and need, distance and support, breast milk and feces. |
| Beau Is Afraid | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Aster generates much of the same kind of primal, ceaseless tension of the Safdies’ Uncut Gems or Aronofsky’s Mother. But he embraces the absurdity of it all in a way the others did not. |
| Belfast | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The script he penned of his memories sweeps you into an idealized, meticulously crafted yarn so lyrical it could be nothing other than Irish. |
| Bergman Island | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Bergman Island tells you a lot but leaves it to you to decide what it’s saying. |
| Bones and All | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Finding Maren’s way to that epiphany is heartbreaking and bloody but heroic, too. |
| Bottoms | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Seligman’s tone, her image of high school and high school movies, is wildly, irreverently funny and fearless. It’s hilarious, raunchy, and so much fun. |
| Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s important for women to see how the films we love betray us in large ways and small, and perhaps even more important for all of us to see that this is a structured, intentional device that we should notice and change. |
| Cassandro | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The entire ensemble shines, but Bernal owns the screen, his ever present smile a heartbreaking and beautiful image of the resilience and determination that fueled an icon of wrestling and LGBTQ culture. |
| Caveat | 2020 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The favor involves Olga, that house, and a long stretch of tightly fastened, heavyweight chain. Dude, I am in. |
| Censor | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But between Algar’s skill and Bailey-Bond’s cinematic vision, the journey toward that break is a wild ride. |
| Cha Cha Real Smooth | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - More than that, it points to a remarkable cinematic voice that’s just getting started. |
| Clara Sola | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Clara Sola is an utterly gorgeous film unlike any other. It moves at its own pace, unnerves as it goes, and leaves you shaken but hopeful. |
| Cocaine Bear | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - For a very dark comedy, Cocaine Bear is light entertainment. It’s hard to imagine expecting anything more. |
| Coming Home in the Dark | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Coming Home in the Dark offers a spare but unblinking span of gritty, punishing thrills. |
| Conjuring, The | 2013 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Yes, this is an old fashioned ghost story, built from the ground up to push buttons of childhood terror. |
| Cooties | 2014 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - One: It is often laugh out loud funny. Two: It is willing to indulge the subversive fantasy of (possibly all) school teachers. |
| Crimes of the Future | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Crimes of the Future is so Cronenberg it’s almost meta. |
| Crumb Catcher | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Skotchdopole’s managed a tightwire of tones, delivering a tense and compelling thriller that turns banality into a weirdly funny nightmare. |
| Cyrano | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - This new Cyrano is another hit and miss for Wright, but Peter Dinklage retains his crown as the most endlessly fascinating and watchable actor on the screen. |
| Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead | 2014 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Wirkola balances comic timing with action pacing well enough to deliver a thrill a minute gore spattered laugh riot. |
| Dinner in America | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Rarely does a film feel as genuinely subversive and darling as Dinner in America, the punk rock rom-com you never knew you needed. |
| Don't Breathe | 2016 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Alvarez makes excellent use of what little we know about the characters to keep us anxious. |
| Double Walker | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - He casts a spell with his feature debut and it’s hard not to wonder what both he and Mix might do next. |
| Dumb Money | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/chump-change/#sthash.L5bwlesg.dpbs |
| Emily | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - O’Connor breathes life with all its chaos, misery and joy into the Brontës’ 19th century. |
| Encanto | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Encanto reflects the magical realism favored in the literature of the land and that, too, makes for a unique cartoon experience. |
| Evil Dead Rise | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - In fact, he uses disorienting angels and shots throughout the film to beautifully bewildering effect. |
| Falcon Lake | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Co-writer/director Charlotte Le Bon crafts a melancholy poem to that fleeting moment of the last real summer of your childhood with her moody coming-of-age tale Falcon Lake. |
| Final Account | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - What is the difference between being complicit and being a perpetrator? |
| Final Cut | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - How charmingly insane is it that the writer/director behind the 2011 surprise Oscar winner The Artist has remade Ueda’s shoestring zombie insanity One Cut of the Dead? |
| Flux Gourmet | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Strickland wallows in his own very specific preoccupations. But he does so with such panache that it’s tough not to let him convert you. |
| Four Good Days | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Molly’s defenses and manipulations blend together so believably that when she does hit a note of emotional depth and sincerity, it’s heartbreaking. |
| Freaky | 2020 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s a bloody riot, and Vince Vaughn hasn’t been this much fun since Old School. |
| Fried Barry | 2020 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Suspend disbelief. The movie is nuts. |
| Holler | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - If you seek an antidote to Hillbilly Elegy, Riegel has what you’re looking for. |
| Huesera: The Bone Woman | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - While it toes certain familiar ground – the gaslighting of Rosemary’s Baby, for instance – what sets Huesera apart from other maternal horror is its deliberate untidiness. |
| Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The pathos in Luis-Seize’s film benefits from both a widespread undercurrent of suicidal thought—both as a parent’s nightmare and a child’s misguided salvation—and an understated theme of neurodivergent love. |
| I Carry You with Me | 2020 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - And though the film’s title aptly captures the longing between separated lovers, it carries with it a great deal more. |
| Immaculate | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Immaculate digs into the way organized religion constrains, punishes, silences, bullies, vilifies and oppresses women and then unleashes glorious fury. Fearless, cathartic, bloody, beautifully sacrilegious fury. |
| In Fabric | 2019 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Strickland’s audacious anti-consumerism fantasy must be seen to be believed. |
| Infested | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Vanicek makes excellent use of these spaces, and he shows solid instincts for creature FX—when to go practical, when to show little, when to show lots (and lots and lots). But his film succeeds on the lived-in world of these neighbors and friends. |
| Infinity Pool | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Goth proves once again to be a seductive menace and a force to be reckoned with. |
| Inside | 2007 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Holy shit. Inside is not for the squeamish. |
| Invader | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Invader delivers a spare, nasty, memorable piece of horror in just over an hour. It will stick with you a while longer. |
| It | 2017 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Muschietti’s approach to plumbing your fear has more depth than that and he manages your rising terror expertly. |
| Janet Planet | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Bittersweet, beautifully observed and honest, Janet Planet also marks an impressive transition for Baker from stage to screen. |
| John and the Hole | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - John and the Hole is a head-scratcher and a fascinating addition to the troubled adolescent subgenre. |
| John Wick: Chapter 4 | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s a love letter to a canon, a song about the entire history of onscreen assassins and their honorable, meticulous action. |
| La llorona | 2019 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Bustamante’s film is a slow boil as interested in those who’ve tacitly accepted evil as it is in those who’ve committed it. |
| Little Monsters | 2019 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But the pace is quick, the bowels are spilling, and I’ve never enjoyed Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off more. |
| Longlegs | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Perkins shines as bright as ever, too. As always, his shot selection and framing evoke dark poetry. His use of light and shadow, architecture and space is like no one else’s. |
| Lorelei | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But there’s no denying the central performances or the beautifully messy image of family the film delivers. |
| Love Lies Bleeding | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s quite something—bold, original, and wryly funny in the most unexpected moments. There’s heartbreak and horror, sex and revenge, a little magic and a lot of steroids. Glass’s juice has the goods. |
| Lovely, Dark, and Deep | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Sutherland’s film is a bit of a slow burn, but once it hits its stride, she throws an unsettling assortment of hellish visions at you. |
| Mami Wata | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Mami Wata is a spectacle of water and light. Raindrops on a forehead, seashells in a braid, sea spray as day turns to night – Obasi builds an otherworldly atmosphere from moments like these. |
| Mandy | 2018 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Mandy offers a commitment to vision above all. |
| Martyrs Lane | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Gough’s understated frailty is the unease that haunts the film from its opening, a feeling that blossoms into dread as the tale wears on. |
| May December | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s a morally ambiguous, gorgeously realized character study. It’s so good to have Todd Haynes back. |
| Memory | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Franco examines what’s true and what’s faulty in the human memory, and what he finds is sometimes harsh and unpleasant, but just often, profoundly tender. |
| Men | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - If you can make peace with ambiguity, Men is a film you will not likely forget. |
| Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The MI franchise lives and dies on two things: Ethan Hunt’s humanity and Tom Cruise’s willingness to risk his own life for thrilling stunts. Expect both – aplenty! – in Episode 7. |
| Mom and Dad | 2017 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But this may be the most amusing way to spend 90 minutes watching people try to murder their own children. |
| Mondocane | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The unnerving nearness to modern reality sets Mondocane apart from the earlier, clearly futuristic fables. |
| Moon Garden | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/sentimental-journey-home/#sthash.vZDhKVRI.dpbs |
| Mother! | 2017 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - an allegorical descent into hell, meticulously crafted and deftly told |
| My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To | 2020 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - What could easily have become its own figurative image of the masculine longing for freedom mines far deeper concerns. |
| Neptune Frost | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Rich with symbolism that brings past to present and reinterprets it for the future, the film speaks of resilience and power. And it does it like no film you’ve seen before. |
| News of the World | 2020 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Tom Hanks would inevitably be the hero in a Western because we believe he would do the right thing, however difficult that is. |
| Nitram | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But it’s Landry Jones you’ll remember. He’s terrifying but endlessly sympathetic in a bleak film that’s a tough but rewarding watch. |
| Oddity | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But there’s no denying Mc Carthy’s talent for creating an atmosphere where anything can happen. |
| One Fine Morning | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - A low-key melancholy colors this story of a woman losing pieces of herself. |
| Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Onoda becomes not just an anomaly, an oddity, but an image of a generation lost and a promise forgotten. |
| Out of the Dark | 2014 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The film expertly plays with audience expectations. A “brains trump brute force” evolution tale, a la One Million B.C.? A feminist reimagining of prehistory? A pioneering story, or one of invasion? Is it a man versus nature ordeal, or is it a horror movie? |
| Overlord | 2018 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Plus, Nazi zombies, which is never not awesome! |
| Perfect Days | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Wenders punctuates scenes with joyously on-the-nose song choices—minus the cassette hiss—and the final few singalong minutes showcase one actor’s transcendent work. |
| Perpetrator | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Perpetrator swims in blood and gore and humor and terror and feminism galore. |
| Personality Crisis: One Night Only | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Johansen’s an onstage charmer, but more than that, he’s a vibrant ghost of New York past. |
| PG (Psycho Goreman) | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - How much fun is this movie?! |
| Pig | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Sarnoski asks you to wait for it. He gives Cage time to pause, breathe, and deliver his most authentic performance in ages. |
| Poser | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Logan Floyd’s gorgeous cinematography meshes with performances and story to depict the melancholy and madness that go hand-in-hand with youth, art and punk rock. |
| Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Puss’s existential crisis drives this imaginative, often hilarious adventure, but it does more than that. It anchors all the derring-do with earnest emotion and recognizable struggle. |
| Remember This | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Hutchens’s camera is subtle but its fluidity in orchestration with lighting, Roc Lee’s sound design, and Strathairn’s movement keep the film from ever feeling stagnant or stage bound. |
| Resurrection | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The fact that both Hall and Roth take the story seriously, never play it for laughs, and remain so understated in their performances creates a diabolical atmosphere. You’re as unmoored as Margaret. |
| Saloum | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - There is no denying the stylistic mastery of Jean Luc Herbulot’s Senegalese horror Saloum. |
| Saltburn | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s tough to watch a film that asks you to empathize with, much less pity, the grotesquely wealthy. Luckily, Fennell doesn’t. |
| Saltburn | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s tough to watch a film that asks you to empathize with, much less pity, the grotesquely wealthy. Luckily, Fennell doesn’t. |
| Sam & Kate | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Le Gallo’s first feature delivers grace and goodwill in ways that are genuinely uncommon. |
| Satanic Hispanics | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But the collection absolutely boasts some inspired talent having a blast, and when is that ever a bad thing to witness? |
| Scream | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s a standalone blast. But if you grew up on these movies, this film is like a bloody message of love for you. |
| Shortcomings | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s smart humor, one that recognizes the defensiveness and fear at the heart of Ben’s disdain for anything that swings for the fences, and for anyone who puts themselves in the vulnerable position to try and fail. |
| Sissy | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Dee works wonders as a woman trying to practice what she preaches, earn from what she practices, and find fulfillment in online followers when friends IRL are less welcoming. |
| Speak No Evil | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Speak No Evil is a grim trip, but there is no question that it’s well made. |
| Stopmotion | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The dual storylines—live action and animation—are both well told, but the real pleasure is in the gruesomely tactile movie Ella is making. |
| Strawberry Mansion | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Smart, whimsical and decidedly analog, Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney’s Strawberry Mansion turns dystopian dreamscape into retro children’s television. |
| Suitable Flesh | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - A game cast and a bit of 80s inspired lunacy ensure a good time is had by all. Plus, that’s a great title. |
| Summertime | 2020 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The performers never abandon the humor, joy and hope that comes from upending conventions about who they are, where they’re from, and what they have to offer. |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Rogan and Goldberg bring the sophomoric but undeniable wit they always do, and Lowe channels that into something inventive, giddy and family-friendly. |
| The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But there’s no denying the power he wrung from the source material. |
| The Attachment Diaries | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The Attachment Diaries is a dark, bizarre mystery thriller that flirts with B-movie status in a way that somehow makes the experience richer than it had any real right to be. |
| The Eternal Daughter | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - But none of it feels gimmicky. Rather, it all creates the space for Hogg to rework facts in order to tell difficult, universal truths. |
| The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Arnow’s film is an acquired taste— defiantly so. But like most good comedies, it’s saying something incredibly honest and more than a little bit sad. |
| The Five Devils | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - This is an unusual film, generous with its characters even as it looks at the selfishness of love, the neediness within family, and the strange battles we fight. |
| The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Davis and Dinklage are characteristically wonderful, Davis a particular delight in a weirdly sinister role while Dinklage offers a mournful, broken soul for the film. |
| The Innocents | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The Innocents is a film that sneaks up on you, rattles you, and sticks around for a while after the credits roll. |
| The Inspection | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The Inspection is a showcase for the idea that resilience comes from a balance of strength and forgiveness. French finds ways to forgive what to most would be unforgivable. |
| The Justice of Bunny King | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Davis is a force of nature, delivering authenticity flavored with spirit and spite. |
| The Last Stop in Yuma County | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The Last Stop in Yuma County is a single-location film done extremely well, mining visual details in place of exposition, relying on character to enrich its slight premise, and delivering giddy tension. It’s full of fun, blood and surprises. |
| The Lost Daughter | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Unnerving intimacy marks Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut as a feature director, The Lost Daughter. |
| The Matrix Resurrections | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The strange synergy between the logical evolution of Anderson/Neo’s story and Wachowski’s rage is what makes The Matrix Resurrection strangely satisfying. |
| The Meaning of Hitler | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Their central problem is how to expose a fascist’s need to be mythologized without mythologizing the fascist. |
| The Northman | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - As is the case with Eggers, expect a fair amount of the supernatural and surreal to seep in here and there, but not enough to outweigh the meticulously crafted period realism. |
| The Outside Story | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The film Nozkowski builds around him feels like Sesame Street for adults. |
| The People's Joker | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Her film is wildly imaginative but devastatingly personal at the same time. |
| The Sacrifice Game | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The film looks fantastic, and though the storyline itself is clearly familiar, Wexler’s script, co-written with Sean Redlitz, feels consistently clever. |
| The Settlers | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - What Gálvez Haberle does so effectively is take it to the next step, where a nation’s brutally criminal past becomes its sanctified, sanitized history. |
| The Tragedy of Macbeth | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Coen brother Joel delivers a vision that’s both decidedly theatrical and profoundly cinematic with his solo directorial effort, The Tragedy of Macbeth. |
| The Vourdalak | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Beau’s film delivers stagy fun that’s utterly hypnotic, using dance, melodrama, even puppets as well as more traditional genre imagery to spin a bizarre and captivating horror. |
| The White Tiger | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The White Tiger offers a blistering class consciousness that makes the filmmaker’s 2014 film 99 Homes feel positively cozy with the effects of capitalism. |
| Theater Camp | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - This is the film’s real magic, something the cast and filmmakers – including Gordon’s co-writer and co-director, Nick Lieberman – convey with mockery borne of familiarity and love. |
| They Shot the Piano Player | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The way Mariscal and Trueba couch the heartbreaking loss of one life within the larger artistic loss of an entire art form is melancholy magic. |
| They/Them/Us | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - They/Them/Us takes the tried-and-true tumult of family dynamics and blends it with a sex romp to create an unexpected take on modern parenting. |
| Utama | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Beautiful beyond measure but never showy, deliberate, and set among elderly people of a tiny community high in the hills of Bolivia, a film like Utama feels impossible. |
| Val | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The result oscillates between self-indulgence and raw nerve, but it’s never less than intriguing. |
| Werewolves Within | 2021 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - Mishna Wolff displays a flair for whodunnit fun that elevates the film high above 90% of the video game movies that have been made. |
| Where the Devil Roams | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - It’s a gorgeous movie, the filmmakers creating the beautifully seedy atmosphere ideal to the era and setting. |
| You Hurt My Feelings | 2023 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/truth-hurts/#sthash.3PrljeG8.dpbs |
| You Won't Be Alone | 2022 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - His fractured storytelling suits his purposes of exploring gender identity and the nature of humanity. |
| You'll Never Find Me | 2024 | 85 | 60 | (full review) - The third act doesn’t entirely deliver on the promise made earlier in the film, but Bell and Allen have crafted an unsettling and spooky feast for the senses. |
| 15 Cameras | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - There’s nothing groundbreaking about 15 Cameras, but what it does, it does well. |
| 8 Found Dead | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - 8 Found Dead, the Airbnb etiquette horror from Travis Greene, brings the goods when it comes to villains. |
| A Banquet | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - For all it has going for it, A Banquet answers none of the questions it asks and leaves you wanting. |
| A Mouthful of Air | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - For all its flaws, A Mouthful of Air is a film you’ll be thinking about long after the credits roll. |
| A Wounded Fawn | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The final image – unblinking, lengthy, horrible and fantastic – cements A Wounded Fawn as an audacious success. |
| Abigail | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It’s fun, though. And when it decides to finally get bloody, it may not leave a lasting impression, but it definitely makes a mess. |
| Achoura | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Children in peril, cool creature design and a monster that still feels new, even though it’s centuries old. |
| Alone with You | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - But the reason it works as well as it does is because Alone with You becomes a cagey allegory. |
| Amigo | 2019 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Martín rushes nothing, and though he leaves breadcrumbs, you’ll never know for sure where he’s leading you. |
| Antebellum | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - There are stumbles getting to the fireworks, but for sheer heroic tit for tat, Antebellum delivers the goods. |
| Antiviral | 2012 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Visually chilly – all washed out whites with splashes of blood red – and emotionally distant, the world of Antiviral is as antiseptic as a hospital ward. |
| Anything's Possible | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Porter and García Lecuona turn our attention to the universal dramas of being a teenager in Pittsburgh. That may not feel groundbreaking or even necessary, but it absolutely is. |
| Becky | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The film is bloody, angry and, even for its fairly formulaic premise, unpredictable. |
| Being the Ricardos | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Their on-screen personas meet their off-screen realities in a way that allows a firmly remarkable cast to deliver twice the goods. |
| Birth/Rebirth | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - All of it pulls the psychological scabs of exhausted parenting. |
| Blood Relatives | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The entertaining Blood Relatives delivers a savvy family comedy. |
| Blue Beetle | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The plot may not break new ground, but the film itself feels revolutionary. Like Nana. |
| Boys from County Hell | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The new mythology is a little muddier and more monstrous than Dracula, but never less than fun. |
| Breaking | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - For a film trapped primarily in a single space, Breaking creates something tragically universal, but it never betrays its hard-won intimacy. |
| Brooklyn 45 | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Goeghegan delivers some jump scares and some gore, but what his film finds scariest is what lies in a beating human heart. |
| Bruised | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - But every so often, Berry gives us something raw and surprising. |
| Burial | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It’s an understated effort more interested in kicking around how toxic hateful leaders can be once they strike a chord with like-minded populations. |
| Candy Land | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Candy Land is a tough film to recommend for a number of reasons, but it’s worthwhile viewing if only because Swab upends every expectation, instead taking us inside a horror grounded in something surprisingly human. |
| Clerks III | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The whole movie’s an inside joke, but if you’re on the inside, it’s bound to draw a smile. |
| Club Zero | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - In Club Zero, luxury and loneliness meet a culture of competition to create an environment ripe for radicalization. |
| Corsage | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - In the end, it’s the film’s and Krieps’s humanity that make the final moment of freedom feel earned and victorious rather than fraught with compromise. |
| Dandelion | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Riegel’s depiction of intimacy, in the core relationship as well as the act of creation, is tactile: fingertips, chords, a rock’s surface, veins throbbing in a throat. |
| Dawn Raid | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - “Delightful†is a word I wouldn’t expect to use to describe a documentary about the rise and fall of a hip-hop empire. And yet, there you have it. |
| Devil's Workshop | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - That demonologist is played by Radha Mitchell, who’s both wonderful and evidence that von Hoffman has something unusual up his sleeve. |
| Downton Abbey: A New Era | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Droll dialog, stunning locales and exquisite costuming elevate each scene to something more than a guilty pleasure, but the film’s sites never veer from its target audience. |
| Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - There’s a weird charm to it that might particularly delight those who like their scary movies not too scary. |
| Encounter | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The filmmaker and his game lead challenge expectations both in theme and in genre, and while their gamble doesn’t entirely pay off, it’s often riveting stuff. |
| Faceless After Dark | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - But as a showcase for Kanell’s charisma, and an often satisfying reaction to the rampant misogyny in cinema and particularly in fan culture, it’s fun. |
| False Positive | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - There really is something subversive, honest, and horrifying worth witnessing in this movie. |
| Fast X | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Dumb as hell. Thumbs up all around. |
| Good Madam | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It’s a savvy, satisfying subversion of history and horror. |
| Goodbye Honey | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Strand’s nimble screenplay, co-written with Todd Rawiszer, twists and turns in ways that are both unexpected and fully reasonable. |
| Happy Death Day | 2017 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Rothe boasts strong comic timing and a gift for physical comedy, a skill that transitions nicely to the demands of being repeatedly victimized by a slasher. |
| Hellbender | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - These people are the real deal and I look forward to their next effort. |
| Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - What starts off as a bit of fun at commodified religion’s expense turns into a surprisingly layered and cynical investigation into the damage organized religion of any kind can have, especially on those who believe. |
| Horror Noire | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Taken as a whole, there’s variety enough in style and substance to promise something for everyone. |
| Hudson | 2019 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The thing is, Hudson is pretty great. |
| Humane | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - An intriguing premise buoyed with darkly comedic performances, plus a brisk 90 minute runtime keep Humane entertaining, but it’s hard not to feel a bit disappointed. |
| In the Earth | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - In the Earth blends ecological terror, pagan ritual horror and Lovecraftian SciFi into a dreamlike episode |
| It Chapter Two | 2019 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Does Chapter Two improve the finales of the novel and TV version? Most definitely. |
| It's a Wonderful Knife | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It’s not as raucous as Kennedy’s Freaky nor as badass as MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls, but it is a bloody slice of Christmas fun. |
| Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - That very intimacy likely helps Weide and co-director Don Argott (Last Days Here, Believer) uncover a rarely captured side of the famously acerbic and funny author. |
| Leave | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Herron’s atmosphere makes the safe look seedy and the dangerous appear benign, but there is more depth to the tale than that. |
| Legions | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - At its core, Legions is a fantasy about regaining the respect of your adult children, and because of that, it’s both relatable and touching. |
| Luca | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The message – embrace who you are – is worthy, but there’s just not much in the delivery for the film to call its own. |
| Maggie | 2015 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It’s a small film that explores something relatable and intimate, even if it chooses an unusual setting to do it. |
| Malum | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Equal parts Assault on Precinct 13 and The Shining by way of Charles Manson, Anthony DiBlasi’s Malum is a quick, mean, mad look into the abyss. |
| Mandrake | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The two performers play on their opposing look and vibe not to illustrate differences but to unveil sympathies. |
| Master | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - While her story tells of a history of racism that’s clearly alive and well, the filmmaker’s comment on institutional and historical contempt for women is more sly but ever-present. |
| Master Gardener | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - But forgiveness comes too easy for this damaged antihero, and Master Gardener feels too much like Schrader light. |
| Moloch | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Close attention to detail allows a rich understanding of the story Moloch tells. Whether you devote that kind of attention to the film or not, Moloch gets its point across. |
| Monuments | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - If this irony led to some kind of absurdist “What’s really the point of it all?†theme, maybe it would have been worth it. |
| Mosquito State | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - But for a wild combination of revulsion and beauty, Mosquito State is worth a look. |
| Mother, May I? | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Writer/director Laurence Bannicelli’s thriller feels like a premise born of either a therapy session or a bad relationship – or, more likely, a bad relationship born of group counseling. |
| Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Had Fabian been able to trim about 20 minutes from Mrs. Harris’s adventure, the result might have been pure pleasure. Instead, it’s a sometimes tedious but just as often delightful way to window shop. |
| My Donkey, My Lover & I | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Rather than judge or deny or even truly mock a middle-aged romantic’s starry-eyed quest for love, My Lover, My Donkey & I sees value in it. |
| My Father's Dragon | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - While it’s not the unassailable success of their previous films, it’s a joyous, beautiful film. |
| Nanny | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - But, even for its diabolical sirens and eight-legged tricksters, it’s Nanny’s naked honesty that makes it so scary. |
| Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - If you loved the original (or ‘97s solid remake with Ewan McGregor), Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever delivers bittersweet closure. But it’s an entertaining if not fantastic watch for thriller fans new to the franchise as well. |
| Nobody | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - And by that, I mean exclusively the perfection of Bob Odenkirk in this role. |
| Nude Tuesday | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Clement’s simpleton narcissism delivers the most consistent laughter in a film that’s cleverly delightful if not bust-a-gut funny. |
| Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It’s campy fun, but your enjoyment 100% depends on how long you can find Bowser’s character funny. |
| Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - They build a picture of a humble, kind man driven to exercise his imagination. And, as the film rightly points out, there are times when that imagination delivered amazing product. |
| Orphan: First Kill | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Orphan: First Kill goes in unexpected places, many of them an absolute hoot. |
| Pandemonium | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Quarxx is bound to hit on at least one tale that will appeal to every horror fan. It’s not a seamless approach, but it’s never less than compelling. |
| Prisoners of the Ghostland | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Prisoners of the Ghostland delivers a samurai cyberpunk musical Western dystopian neo-noir with flourishes reminiscent of Mad Max and Mulan Rouge. |
| Remembering Gene Wilder | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Though Frank doesn’t break any new ground cinematically—talking head interviews flank home movies, film clips surround family photos—the mellow approach belies a deep emotional connection. |
| Rosaline | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/rr4e/#sthash.SZQygLvv.dpbs |
| Satan's Slaves 2: Communion | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Yes, the ideas and even some images are pulled from other films, but the final concoction is utterly Anwar. |
| Sing 2 | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Not one memorable thing happens. Not one. But Sing 2 is light-hearted, good-natured fun while it lasts. |
| Slash/Back | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Innuksuk has a lot of fun reconsidering John Carpenter’s The Thing – the tale of an invasive species and the terrifying havoc it can wreak – from the perspective of four indigenous teens. |
| Smile | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Smile an easily recognizable marriage of It Follows and The Ring. |
| Sometimes I Think About Dying | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It sneaks up on you, like death or like love. And it shows an impressive, introspective side of Ridley. |
| Stillwater | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The film works against your expectations brilliantly to deliver a film that refuses to satisfy. |
| Sting | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Here he channels affection for a wide range of creature features (he really loves Alien) but still manages to create something decidedly his own. |
| Swan Song | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) |
| Take Back the Night | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Fitzpatrick delivers something raw and believable, anchoring the fable with realism. |
| Teddy | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Thanks to Bajon and a strong ensemble around him, the film makes you feel something for an enemy you might rather just hate. |
| The Advent Calendar | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - It’s a clever sleight of hand, Ridremont taking advantage of our familiarity with his subgenre when he needs to, while still leaving behind the tangy taste of mystery. |
| The Black Phone | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - He’s about eight different kinds of creepy, every one of them aided immeasurably by its variation on that mask. |
| The Blazing World | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Creepy twin stuff, Udo Kier, alternate realities—yes, The Blazing World. I am in. |
| The Boy Behind the Door | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/shudder-premiere/somebodys-knocking/#sthash.hlr34yLq.dpbs |
| The Burning Sea | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - But in dialing down the bombast, Anderson’s film creates a level of authenticity that’s much scarier. |
| The Devil's Bath | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The Devil’s Bath opens provocatively, leaving you with a question. The ensuing two hours pointedly answers that question, and then asks: Are you sure you would do it differently? |
| The Djinn | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/wishful-thinking/#sthash.gmQtu8RU.dpbs |
| The Fall Guy | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The Fall Guy is not the most memorable way to spend two hours and 9 minutes (you will want to stick it out through the credits, BTW), but it is mindless—if overlong—fun. |
| The Harbinger | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - What he sees is the way lockdown, hivemind, misinformation and isolation made people forget who they were. |
| The Marsh King's Daughter | 2023 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Burger remembers the strength of his opening when father and daughter return to the woods in the last third, and it’s worth the wait. |
| The Oak Room | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - There is something hypnotic in the way the night progresses, and in the way phrases and ideas repeat across different decades and different tales. |
| The Seeding | 2024 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Clay reexamines an existential nightmare addressed many times (I’m Not Scared, John and the Hole) and turns to a mixed bag of horror tropes to limit its impact. |
| Those Who Wish Me Dead | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/fire-starter/#sthash.veW5TuZN.dpbs |
| Unhuman | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - There’s real cynicism lying under the viscera, although the surface-level laughs and shocks help Unhuman masquerade as simple bloody levity. |
| V/H/S/99 | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - A new crop of filmmakers seems to channel their own childhoods for five short films capturing the era. |
| Venom: Let There Be Carnage | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The result is a mish-mash of messy, frenetic fun with a higher body count than you might expect. |
| Vicious Fun | 2020 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Hats off to Callahan for not only finding a unique and fun premise in an overcrowded genre but for appreciating the precious jewel that is the nice guy. |
| We Need to Do Something | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Healy, in particular, delivers a characteristically unpleasant performances, feeling very much like a trapped rat. |
| What Josiah Saw | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Just when you think you know where director Vincent Grashaw’s Southern Gothic What Josiah Saw is going, you meet Eli. |
| When I Consume You | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - This mostly works, creating a film that echoes with haunting attempts to break a cycle. |
| Who Invited Them | 2022 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - Who Invited Them isn’t flawless, but it is an anxious bit of fun. |
| Woe | 2021 | 80 | 195 | (full review) - The three performances sell the story, the Twilight Zone weirdness, and the human pathos that underly everything. |
| 65 | 2023 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - The Magician’s Elephant pulls plenty from its crowded hat, but has trouble conjuring anything that is truly magical. |
| Abandoned | 2022 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Sadly, Abandoned quickly reestablishes itself as the predictably middling supernatural thriller you knew it was from its opening minutes. |
| Army of the Dead | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - It still delivers the goods here and there, but it won’t stick with you. |
| Barbarians | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - The fact that the invasion itself never matches the tension of the simple dinner —what with its evasions, lies, manipulations — becomes Dormfan’s biggest problem. |
| Benny Loves You | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Benny Loves You offers forgettable, bloody fun. |
| Bingo Hell | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - With characters to root for, violence to spare, and a healthy acceptance of chaos, Bingo Hell is pretty fun. |
| Bloody Hell | 2020 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - It’s mean funny, sometimes tone-deaf mean and not so funny, but the often joyously dark humor almost makes up for that. |
| Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - a pleasant enough chance for Karloff fans to soak up like-minded love of one of cinema’s greatest genre performers |
| Color Out of Space | 2020 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Lovecraft fans, though, have reason to be excited. |
| Dark Glasses | 2022 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Everyone yells when they shouldn’t yell, everyone pauses when they shouldn’t pause, everyone talks when they shouldn’t talk, but who cares when the blood is this red and free-flowing? |
| Despicable Me 4 | 2024 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Together the writers find a nice balance of nuttiness for characters—legacy and new—to continue to make this franchise a fun one. |
| Destroy All Neighbors | 2024 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - It’s definitely not a great horror movie. But it’s a light, weird, gentle reminder that you may be all that’s holding you back. (And also, loud neighbors kind of suck.) |
| Dune | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - It’s a lot of very attractive waiting for something to happen, which is maybe the best Dune synopsis I can think of. |
| Hocus Pocus 2 | 2022 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - But mainly it offers campy, scrappy, bland but amiable fun. |
| Joe Bell | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Joe Bell does break through the contrivance of familiar storytelling because this story doesn’t fit neatly or cheerily into that package. |
| John Dies At The End | 2013 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - “You don’t choose the soy sauce. The soy sauce chooses you.†|
| Lady of the Manor | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Lady of the Manor often plays like an extended episode of Drunk History, only maybe not quite as funny. |
| Leo | 2023 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Sandler’s soft-hearted comedic presence feels perfectly at home in the classroom, while Burr’s patented “get off my lawn” crankiness offsets things nicely. |
| MaXXXine | 2024 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - On its own, the film fits nicely into the role of a competent urban thriller. But when cast as the final piece of a potentially iconic horror trilogy, MaXXXine ends up limping to the finish. |
| Mind Body Spirit | 2023 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Bartholomew shoulders what is at least 75% one-person-show and does it with enough tenderness that Mind Body Spirit never loses your attention. |
| Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre | | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Everything feels more like a brainstorming session than a finished film. |
| Peter Pan & Wendy | 2023 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Lowery loses his footing when he focuses on Peter, and though his adventure is truly beautiful, it feels a little unfocused and possibly unnecessary. |
| Saw X | 2023 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - It’s not the reawakening it may want to be, but for fans of the franchise, it’s finally an installment worth watching. |
| Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge | 2022 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Being in on the joke, as always, makes the gag more satisfying. But that’s the basic premise of every story told in this collection. |
| Space Jam: A New Legacy | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - By the time the buckets and anvils start dropping, A New Legacy finds its own fun and satisfying groove. |
| Spoiler Alert | 2022 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Rather than creating a narrative thread or even an interesting gimmick, the TV angle distracts – sometimes quite frustratingly – from what otherwise feels like a very honest and necessary look at love. |
| The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It takes on the legal system but unfortunately abides by the law of diminishing returns. |
| The Infernal Machine | 2022 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Still, it’s great to see Pearce making an effort in a film worthy of his time. |
| The Lost City | 2022 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - The Lost City offers pretty, lightweight fun, not unlike a romance novel. |
| The Paper Tigers | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - This is a hard film to root against. |
| The Scary of Sixty-First | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - The Scary of Sixty-First will not land with most audiences. But it’s a wild vision and I’m not sorry I caught it. |
| The Seed | 2021 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Walker wades into dark comedy/satire territory for the first two acts, then abandons it entirely for a dusty, predictable, humorless finale. |
| What You Wish For | 2023 | 75 | 300 | (full review) - Stahl continues to be the weak spot, although his flat affect almost works with the new characters to give the film a bit of levity. |
| Alice | 2022 | 70 | 333 | (full review) |
| Crimson Peak | 2015 | 70 | 333 | (full review) - Gorgeous period pieces drip with symbolism and menace, creating an environment ideal for the old fashioned ghost story unspooling. |
| Dachra | 2019 | 70 | 333 | (full review) - Bouchnak, on the other hand, pieces together every cliché he can think of, winding up with a film both clumsily familiar and unpleasant. |
| I.S.S. | 2024 | 70 | 333 | (full review) - The danger never feels real, and the pointlessness of success is never even addressed. It’s a misfire from a reliable filmmaker and a middling effort in the “terror in space” subgenre. |
| Latency | 2024 | 70 | 333 | (full review) - The scares aren’t especially scary, either, but the narrative’s game like quality does build a sense of existential horror. |
| Marry Me | 2022 | 70 | 333 | (full review) - Harper Dill and John Rogers’s screenplay, based on Bobby Crosby’s graphic novel, pulls you in by treading on Lopez’s public persona. |
| Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank | 2022 | 70 | 333 | (full review) - dozen or so jokes littered throughout the film might have been funny 60 or so years before the target audience was born. |
| The Starling | 2021 | 70 | 333 | (full review) - Moments of genuine emotion punctuate the film and, while welcome, they mainly serve as a reminder of what The Starling had the potential to become. |
| The Suicide Squad | 2021 | 70 | 333 | (full review) |
| Virus :32 | 2022 | 70 | 333 | (full review) |
| You Are Not My Mother | 2022 | 70 | 333 | (full review) |
| House of Darkness | 2022 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - Worse, the point rings hollow, like a disingenuous, cash-grab reversal of In the Company of Men. |
| Minions: The Rise of Gru | 2022 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - They’re wildly, suffocatingly popular, yes, but they can’t really carry a film. They’re a hell of a waste of a good cast, though. |
| Nocebo | 2022 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - It’s not the body horror promised by the catalyst, either. Instead, it’s a muddled if well-performed tale that leans heavily on an idea that needs to die. |
| Ouija: Origin of Evil | 2016 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - He lets the appealing performances and family dynamic do most of the heavy lifting. |
| Revealer | 2022 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - It could have been a really fun short. |
| The Nun II | 2023 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - It’s fine. It’s rated R, so that’s a start, although I’m not certain how it was deemed so problematic as to deserve the “keep the kids away” rating. There are a few creative deaths, almost elegantly macabre. |
| Thor: Love and Thunder | 2022 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - Crushing on his ex while protecting his own skin feels pretty superficial. It’s a slight premise with weak stakes. |
| Wyrmwood: Apocalypse | 2022 | 65 | 344 | (full review) - The inspired lunacy of Roache-Turner’s original is gone, replaced with entertaining if forgettable fun. |
| 47 Meters Down | 2017 | 60 | 352 | (full review) - For a mindless, squirmy summer shark fest, though, it’s a fun time-waster. |
| Annabelle: Creation | 2017 | 60 | 352 | (full review) - But there are jumps aplenty and a couple of very freaky images in the third act. |
| Antlers | 2021 | 60 | 352 | (full review) |
| Marathon | 2021 | 60 | 352 | (full review) |
| Annabelle | 2014 | 55 | 356 | (full review) - Annabelle never comes close to the near-classic status The Conjuring reached, but it’s a fun seasonal flick. |
| Black Christmas | 2019 | 55 | 356 | (full review) - Takal threads some audacious take downs of bro culture throughout a film with a lot of insight. It’s just not a very good movie. |
| Horns | 2013 | 55 | 356 | (full review) - It’s a fascinating mess. |
| No Man of God | 2021 | 55 | 356 | (full review) - There are flashes in Sealy’s film where she nearly punctures her rote though well-acted tale with genuine insight about misogyny. |
| The Forever Purge | 2021 | 55 | 356 | (full review) - The Forever Purge is essentially an action thriller with a social conscience (and about as much subtlety as you’ve come to expect from the franchise). |
| Above Suspicion | 2019 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - The film’s overall entire tone lacks conviction. |
| As Above, So Below | 2014 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Dowdle and crew can’t quite piece together enough quality moments to deliver a memorable chiller. |
| Baghead | 2023 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - The plot—co-written by Christina Pamies, Bryce McGuire and the short film’s writer, Lorcan Reilly—becomes needlessly complicated. Worse, Corredor undermines the excellent production value of his locations with gimmicky and weak VFX. |
| Benedetta | 2021 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Verhoeven takes another shot at ogling the female form inside a context that suggests that ogling is really empowering. |
| Cruella | 2021 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - My God does this movie need trimming. |
| Dario Argento Panico | 2023 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - But if you’re going to tease us with actual information, choosing not to address any of that information makes for a very frustrating viewing experience. |
| Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | 2024 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - And don’t even compare it to Minus One, that just wouldn’t be fair. But for a greenscreenapalooza of dumb monster action, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is adequate. |
| Mortal Kombat | 2021 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - This third attempt to bring the notorious Midway video game to the big screen is Aussie Rules R-rated. |
| Night of the Hunted | 2023 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - just another horror movie made by men in which the female lead has no purpose or value until she finds her maternal instinct |
| Oculus | 2014 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Flanagan has some real skill weaving the rational world with one full of madness |
| Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones | 2014 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Slow in spots and hardly groundbreaking, The Marked Ones still manages to entertain and startle. |
| Seance | 2021 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Barrett generates no dread and no sense of connection to any of the characters. |
| Skull: The Mask | 2020 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Practical effects, hallucinatory sequences and a throwback exploitation vibe keep Skull: The Mask interesting enough to watch. |
| The Contractor | 2022 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Rather than elevate a bland picture, the performances feel wasted in this derivative and formulaic thriller. |
| The First Omen | 2024 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - And yet, for all the Omen specificity Stevenson sews into her antichrist apocalypse tapestry, the movie still feels for all the world like a neutered Immaculate. |
| The Inventor | 2023 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - The Inventor, a beautifully animated lesson on the life and times of Leonardo da Vinci (voiced by Stephen Fry), offers a lot to digest, and I’m not sure who they think is eating. |
| The Miracle Club | 2023 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Wasting an exceptional if oddly miscast ensemble, Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The Miracle Club has something important on its mind. It just can’t quite articulate it. |
| The Protégé | 2021 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - The Protégé is not a terrible film. At worst it’s just a waste of your time. |
| The Son | 2022 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Its insights are stale, its twists manipulative. The film delivers a classy melodrama, but nothing more. |
| The Watchers | 2024 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - But it doesn’t hold up to the great Irish horror that came before it. |
| The Wrath of Becky | 2023 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - In fact, every character makes a series of choices that defy the very storyline the film itself is trying to establish. Once or twice is forgivable, but eventually this lapse in internal logic becomes a real burden. |
| Tom Clancy's Without Remorse | 2021 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - The thrills are mediocre, the shootouts and fights are middling, and the only thing more obvious than the plot points are the performances. |
| Wish | 2023 | 50 | 361 | (full review) - Unfortunately, the balance doesn’t emphasize storytelling and the result is middling. |
| Dangerous | 2021 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - Beyond that, the mystery is convoluted beyond measure, Tyrese Gibson and Famke Janssen are pointless, performances are forgettable. |
| Dark Phoenix | 2019 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - Okay, some of the mutant vs. alien throwdown on a moving train has zip, but it’s too little, too late. |
| Dead & Beautiful | 2021 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - Verbeek lenses a gorgeous late-night cityscape — never sinister, never forbidding, just pretty and mainly empty. Like his film. |
| Dog | 2022 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - It’s a worthy message trapped in a sincere, tonally chaotic, humorless, lazily constructed mess of a movie. |
| Great White | 2021 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - Wilson serves up a beautiful movie, beautiful people, gorgeous scenery, Hallmark-channel writing, and a Hallmark-channel score. |
| Haunted Mansion | 2023 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - If Justin Simien can’t do it and the Muppets can’t do it, it’s probably time to give up. |
| Jurassic World | 2015 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - It’s basically The Lost World with more volcano and less Vince Vaughn. |
| Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension | 2015 | 45 | 384 | (full review) - Let’s hope this really is their final effort. |
| A Cure for Wellness | 2017 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - A Cure for Wellness slides images at you, but it never lays out any cohesive narrative to bring them together. |
| Escape Room | 2019 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - The film’s predictable climax and disappointing waning moments are bound to leave you feeling that this movie could have been better. |
| Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore | 2022 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - No idea what’s to blame here, but these movies are not getting any better. |
| Habit | 2021 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - The result is a mishmash of borrowed ideas, none of them interesting enough to merit the label subversive. |
| JeruZalem | 2016 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - It’s just a waste of a great idea. |
| Spiral: From the Book of Saw | 2021 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - And it isn’t clever, it isn’t fun, it isn’t gory, it isn’t scary. |
| Strays | 2023 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - There’s a Point A (the scary city block where Doug abandoned his dog) and Point B (Doug’s penis), but those steps in between are random skits about red rockets and chew toys. And those moments are just not funny enough to merit a full feature. |
| Zone 414 | 2021 | 40 | 392 | (full review) - Zone 414 tries really hard. It often fails. |
| American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally | 2021 | 35 | 400 | (full review) - Every moment he is off-screen is unendurable. |
| Brahms: The Boy II | 2020 | 35 | 400 | (full review) - Who would have guessed that director William Brent Bell could drive his lackluster 2016 scary doll flick The Boy to a sequel? |
| Cabin Fever | 2016 | 35 | 400 | (full review) - Cabin Fever is an adequate remake of a perfectly serviceable horror film, but there’s something to be said about beating a dead horse here. |
| Dracula Untold | 2014 | 35 | 400 | (full review) - For anyone interested in a lucid film, first time screenwriters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless leave you with more questions than answers. |
| Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey | 2023 | 35 | 400 | (full review) - Whatever the film’s many – almost countless – flaws, Frake-Waterfield deserves tremendous credit for seeing an opportunity and seizing it. |
| Wrath of Man | 2021 | 35 | 400 | (full review) - No thank you. |
| Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders | 2022 | 25 | 406 | (full review) - Cardboard performances and silly writing veer toward the ludicrous and the film is never able to recover. Or capitalize. |
| Devil's Due | 2014 | 25 | 406 | (full review) - https://maddwolf.com/new-in-theaters/werent-we-due-a-little-something/#sthash.8Mlz1tEc.dpbs |
| A Haunting in Venice | 2023 | 5 | 408 | (full review) - Careful writing, some fine genre direction and misdirection, and these compelling performances help Starve Acre rise above its spooky familiarity. |
| She Will | 2022 | 5 | 408 | (full review) - She seamlessly blends styles and ideas into a singular vision – no minor feat for a first-time director. |
| The Strangers: Chapter 1 | 2024 | 5 | 408 | (full review) - So, if you have not seen the 2008 treasure that grounds this franchise, then Harlin’s Chapter 1 is sure to please. It’s an extremely conventional, competent horror movie. As if that’s enough. |
| V/H/S/85 | 2023 | 5 | 408 | (full review) - This is the strongest set of shorts in a V/H/S installment in a while. It’s fun, gory, creepy and bite sized – ideal for the season. |
