FinalGirlGrace’s 2022 Top Ten
#10 - A WOUNDED FAWN
Travis Stevens’ hallucinatory, shot-on-film, serial killer-flick A WOUNDED FAWN is undoubtedly this year’s low-budget hidden gem. The latest in a stellar series of Shudder original content, Stevens’ film threads together greek mythology, psychedelic imagery, and the art dealing world.
#9 - FRESH
2022 was a good year for cannibal flicks as well, one of the best being Mimi Cave’s FRESH. A pitch-black horror/comedy starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, FRESH stylishly critiques the modern dating scene, setting its sights on power dynamics related to both gender and class.
#8 - THE BLACK PHONE
Based on a novella by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King), Scott Derrickson directs this slick yet gritty film, equal parts coming-of-age thriller and supernatural slasher. Ethan Hawke as the Grabber comes in at a close second behind Mia Goth’s Pearl as this year’s horror villain of the year.
#7 - X
Ti West finds his muse in newly-made horror icon Mia Goth in this year’s most and least traditional slasher. Superior to its technicolor prequel PEARL, X is a love letter to both the horror genre and, oddly enough, the porn industry. Aiding in the ascension of scream queen Jenna Ortega, X is a demented film with a red beating heart at its core.
#6 - BARBARIAN
Horror newcomer Zach Cregger directed 2022’s Movie Of The Year, in terms of sheer cultural impact. The true must-see of the year, BARBARIAN subverts expectations in the most delicious of ways, tackling generational trauma, class, and gender-based violence all while staying true to its own innate nastiness.
#5 - BONES AND ALL
Another adaptation of horror literature, Luca Guadagnino’s BONES AND ALL - based on the novel by Camille DeAngelis - takes cannibalism and young love on the road. Following young “eaters” Maren and Lee as they meet, fall in love, and try to find themselves in a harsh and violent world, BONES AND ALL is a harrowing watch that is both deeply tender and deeply uncomfortable.
#4 - HATCHING
Feral-girl summer comes to Finland in Hanna Bergholm’s nerve-tearing tale of childhood emotional abuse, HATCHING. 12-year-old gymnast Tinja brings home and hatches a mysterious egg, and what emerges proves to be a nightmare disguised as a dream come true as Tinja begins to strike back at her overbearing mother.
#3 - NOPE
Bonafide horror-auteur Jordan Peele returned this year with his third and most ambitious feature, NOPE, a dazzling western that explores alien invasion, human-animal relations, Black film history, and the nature of spectacle. NOPE is an epic achievement for Peele: both an original blockbuster and a sci-fi/horror masterpiece.
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#2 - BODIES BODIES BODIES
Directed by Halina Reijn, BODIES BODIES BODIES, will go down in horror history as a distinctly “2020s” film, one that encapsulates Gen-Z influencer culture in all its horrifying glory. With a soundtrack boasting Charli XCX, Slayyyter, and Shygirl, BODIES is on the pulse, ahead of its time, and a fitting update to the teen slasher formula.
#1 - MEN
Perhaps 2022’s most divisive film, genre master Alex Garland’s third feature film is a gruesome meditation on each man’s responsibility for our misogynistic world, the cyclical nature of learned woman-hating, and the trauma of domestic abuse. Starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear as the archetypal man and woman respectively, MEN features the year’s greatest moments of body horror, and some of the most beautifully haunting sequences in horror film history.
Honorable Mentions: Horror-Adjacent Films
Sci-Fi:
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (dir. David Cronenberg)
PREY (dir. Dan Trachtenberg)
DUAL (dir. Riley Stearns)
Thriller:
THE MENU (dir. Mark Mylod)
LUX AETERNA (dir. Gaspar Noé - 2019 premiere, 2022 release)
WATCHER (dir. Chloe Okuno)
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