The end of December is not only a time for counting down to the start of the New Year, but also for looking back at the best the horror genre had to offer over the preceding twelve months. Here’s a list of some year-end reviews worth checking out:
*The Lineup: 11 Best Horror Books of 2019
*Thrillist: The Best Horror Movies of 2019
*Entertainment Weekly: The 10 Best Horror Films of 2019
*Watch Mojo: Top 10 Best Horror Movies of 2019
*Watch Mojo: Top 10 Scariest Movie Scenes of 2019
*Bloody Disgusting: The 10 Most Disturbing Horror Movie Moments of 2019
*The Hollywood Reporter: Hollywood’s Best 2019 Halloween Costumes
*Dread Central: Alyse Wax’s Top 10 TV Shows of 2019
*The Lineup: The 13 Best Scary TV Shows of 2019
Finally, here are some of my own choices for this year’s superlatives:
*Favorite Film of the Year: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (read my review here)
*Most Enjoyable Series of the Year: Stranger Things 3 (read my review here)
*Greatest Podcast Episode of the Year: This is Horror #300 (Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella celebrate their three-hundredth episode with a four-hour extravaganza featuring interviews with Adam Nevill, Joe R. Lansdale, Josh Malerman, Alma Katsu, Damien Angelica Walters, Stephen Graham Jones, Jon Padgett, and Kathe Koja)
*Favorite Documentary of the Year: Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini (this wonderful film, which I just watched a few nights back, provides a candid look at the life and career of one of horror’s most talented–and affable–figures)
*Biggest Disappointment of the Year: Netflix goes off of its Santa Clarita Diet (this gonzo zom-com still had a lot of meat left on the bone after three seasons. Not since the cancellation of Carnivale–for which I still haven’t forgiven HBO–have I been so bummed about the premature termination of a series)
*Best Acting Performance of the Year: Lizzy Caplan in Castle Rock (Caplan’s portrayal of a young Annie Wilkes is, hands down, the most impressive effort in the horror genre this year. Her incredibly nuanced performance manifests all the complexity of a character at once frightening and sympathetic, transgressive and tragic)
*Most Arachnophobic Moment of the Year: The spider breakout scene in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (absolutely harrowing; the most horrifying bodily eruption I’ve encountered onscreen since the cockroach explosion in Creepshow)
*Favorite Read of the Year: Full Throttle by Joe Hill (I will be posting a full review in the coming days)
*Favorite Dispatch from the Macabre Republic This Year: Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow: A Twentieth Anniversary Retrospective