DEoL Top 10 Films of 2024

As usual it's been a funny old year. Along the way I've seen a few films; 368 at the time of writing, to be precise, although some have been rewatches, largely those that were covered in one of the ten recorded episodes of the podcast I co-host with friend Larry Brookes, Larry and David's Film Salon (and look out for my own DEoL podcast early next year). Also many thanks to the people at 'We Belong Dead' magazine for giving me the opportunity to contribute to some of their many fine and informative publications (including an extended essay on Japanese film director Nobuo Nakagawa, which I think might be the first ever English language coverage of his 'fantastic' films output, and which you can buy here). Also as ever my thanks to Paul Downey from Bloody Flicks for putting many opportunities my way to be first in line for new releases and the chance to cover some film festivals; I've provided 40 reviews for that site during the year.

In terms of film viewing, it's been the usual combination of new films and retro treats. A couple of specific mentions. It was great to see Curt McDowell's Thundercrack! on the big screen again, as part of the BFI's celebration of the release of Jane Giles and Ali Catterall's splendid Scala documentary (which I covered here); the last time I'd seen it was indeed at the Scala, back in 1989.

London's newest Grindhouse project project kicked into gear this year, with a successful crowdfunder to allow 'The Nickel' to establish a permanent (or as permanent as anything is these days) base in the capital. Along the way I caught one of their fundraisers at The Cinema Museum, the rarely seen  Gyakufunsha kazoku (The Crazy Family) from 1984, which was enormous fun.

But back to 2024. At the same time as drawing up my own 'Best of' list, I've been monitoring the choices from other critics/outlets, and one thing that's apparent is that, apart from a few commonly agreed titles, nearly every one of the 24 critics' sites I looked at has chosen at least one movie ignored by the others; as a result an astonishing 214 different films have been mentioned.

Anyway here's my Top 10, in no particular order, followed by some honourable mentions, nearly all of which could have inched in to the Top 10. Words where I haven't reviewed so far, links where I have):

Poor Things (Ireland, UK, USA, Hungary: Dir Yorgos Lanthimos) Lanthimos's films have, up to The Favourite, left me rather cold, but Poor Things was a bizarrely eroticised Frankenstein re-telling filtered through the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Emma Stone's performance was extraordinary, a coming of age film like no other, with a sumptuous design and a superb wonky soundtrack by Jerskin Fendrix. 

The End We Start From (UK, USA: Dir Mahalia Belo) Belo's TV background stood her in good stead for this intimate disaster movie about a new mother escaping from a Ballardian submerged London and trying to find sanctuary out of the city. A low budget actually helped the paucity of 'disaster' scenes (more effective when they were shown as a result), with a convincing Jodie Comer travelling the UK and discovering, Children of Men style, how communities respond to crisis.

The Holdovers (USA: Dir Alexander Payne) A film which made few of the 'Best of ' lists for 2024 having been included in many 2023 round ups (despite only being released in UK cinemas in January of this year), The Holdovers, from its 1970s title font (the movie is set in that decade) to its brown academic schematic, is a beautifully played movie about a teacher at a New England school (Paul Giamatti) forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to look after awkward student (Dominic Sessa), with only the school cook (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) for company. I love Payne's films and this three hander is both funny, sad and uplifting. 

The Zone of Interest (UK, Poland, USA: Dir Jonathan Glazer) The 'banality of evil' line may have been a bit overused in relation to Glazer's loose adaptation of Martin Amis's holocaust novel, but it's still a perfect description for a film where the subject matter - Auschwitz - is barely glimpsed but constantly heard. Told as a bizarre domestic drama centred on camp commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), the spectre of the camp is moved stage right in order to depict the mundane lives of the Höss family, whose whole existence is maintained in service of the death factory next door. Glazer's subtle approach to the subject matter cannot disguise his polemicism, nor should it.

La Chimera (Italy, France, Switzerland, Turkey: Dir Alice Rohrwacher)

Longlegs (Canada, USA: Dir Osgood Perkins)

Kneecap (Ireland, UK: Dir Rich Peppiatt)

Sleep (South Korea: Dir Jason Yu)

All of Us Strangers (UK, USA: Dir Andrew Haigh) Haigh's latest drama, a masterclass in tragedy, draws on elements of two of his earlier films, 45 Years (2015) and Weekend (2011) in its story of Adam, a lonely screenwriter (a tour de force performance from Andrew Scott), connecting with a near neighbour in his otherwise empty apartment block, and vividly reconnecting with his parents who died when Adam was a young boy. Both a ghost story of sorts and an extended meditation on grief, memory and nostalgia, All of Us Strangers hit all the right notes without being manipulative. A coruscating viewing experience that I nevertheless wanted to rewatch as soon as the end credits rolled, it's a hugely affecting piece, intimately delivered with enormous power.

Love Lies Bleeding (UK, USA: Dir Rose Glass) Remarkably this is only Glass's second feature. Following on from 2019's fabulous (literally) Saint Maud, Love Lies Bleeding blows the cobwebs away from the seaside town domestic drama of her debut to deliver something quite different and extraordinary; an unapologetically stylised neo noir movie. Channeling the hardboiled writings of Jim Thompson and set in 1989, it's the story of an edgy gym manager (Kristen Stewart) whose increasingly obsessive relationship with one of her customers, the buff (and then some) Jackie (Katy O’Brian), leads to a spiraling body count as Jackie makes her way from New Mexico to Las Vegas to participate in a Body Building championship. One of those movies where you're better off knowing as little as possible about it before viewing, I was blown away by Glass's audacity; the visual splendour, the astonishing levels of violence and the magic realist elements (possibly the only thing that ties this one to Saint Maud) would be nothing without Stewart and O'Brian's sensational performances). It's also probably the only film I've ever seen which includes 'Hamburger Lady' by Throbbing Gristle on the soundtrack. Twice.

Honorable mentions: Juror #8; Immaculate; Blink Twice; Io Capitano; Dagr; Late Night With the Devil; Civil War; Never Let Go; Smile 2; Heretic; Your Monster; The Contestant; Hit Man; Good One; Timestalker

Scary Christmas Round up of New Holiday themed Horror Movies 2024: Reviews of You Are Not Me (Spain 2023), Carnage for Christmas (Australia 2024), He Sees You When You're Sleeping (UK 2024), Santastein (USA 2023), Silent Bite (USA 2024) and Granny Krampus (UK 2024)

Apart from 2022, DEoL has been bringing you a round up of scary Christmas movies every year since 2018 (links to all the posts are at the bottom of this one). So here's my 2024 Christmas present to you. 

You are Not Me aka Tú no eres yo (Spain 2023: Dir Marisa Crespo, Moisés Romera) Christmas is a time for families, so what better thing for Aitana (Roser Tapias), her wife Gabi (Yapoena Silva) and their adopted son to do on Christmas Eve than play surprise visit to Aitana’s parents.

But when the family arrive, they don’t quite get the welcome Aitana was hoping for. Apart from her brother Saúl (Jorge Motos), who is disabled due to a degenerative muscular disease, the rest of her folks give them a rather cool reception. This might have something to do with their having taken in a Romanian refugee, Nadia (Anna Kurikka) to whom mum and dad have transferred their attentions.

Relegated to a dismal tower bedroom because Nadia has been given Aitana’s room (and clothes), the new arrivals try as best they can to enjoy the pre Christmas celebrations. But Aitana is right not to trust the family cuckoo in the nest; there’s something sinister behind Nadia’s presence.

Seasoned horror fans will have guessed where this one’s heading the moment the rather overfamiliar friends of Aitana’s parents show up, but the pleasure of You Are Not Me is the slow slide from wonky domestic drama to something way darker.

This is Crespo and Romera’s first foray into horror and they’ve handled it really well. While events might take a familiar turn, the whole thing is well acted to the point that you can kind of overlook when characters do daft things in the name of plot progression. Silva’s role – and her overall passivity – remain decidedly undercooked, but this is a minor grumble. You Are Not Me is a competent, well put together horror/drama. 

Carnage for Christmas (Australia 2024: Dir Alice Maio Mackay) Small town Australian life generally gets short shrift when depicted in movies. And Carnage for Christmas, described as a 'Transgender Holiday Film', is no exception. Trans woman Lola (Jeremy Moineau) has acquired a reputation running a popular true crime podcast, her interest in the subject stemming from some expert sleuthing in her home town which resulted in the discovery of the last victim of a killer dubbed The Toy Maker.

Lola's return to the small town of Purdan for Christmas brings little joy; the townspeople were hostile to her coming out, and Lola's reception among the menfolk of the place suggests that nothing has changed.

She is therefore shocked to find that her real friends have remained supportive and, between them, formed a solid community of tolerance; there's even a gay bar, whose customers include a former teacher of Lola's, now a drag queen.

But something else is going on in Purdan. A killer is stalking the streets, their modus operandi seeming to revive memories of The Toy Maker. And the authorities, investigating the crimes, can only wonder whether these murders and the arrival of Lola are connected.

While there's nothing ostensibly new in this small town slasher, MacKay's zippy direction and some great ensemble playing keep it cliche free. Yes the cops are useless, and the ocker townsmen uniformly atrocious, but it's the crowd around Lola that make the movie, together with a literate script that keeps it camp but not over the top, and a dayglo production that gives the whole thing a Christmassy feel (much needed in the arid Australian climate of the season).

He Sees You When You're Sleeping (UK 2024: Dir Charlie Steeds) In the past Charlie Steeds has been vocal about being influenced by horror movies from the 1980s, particularly US slashers, so it's perhaps only fitting that he should one day film his own locationally authentic homage. In partnership with Tom Molloy's Trick Candle Productions (Molloy has a small part in the movie) and some other business concerns, Steeds has managed to mount a production that, like his previous film Night Harvest, was filmed entirely in the US, eschewing the usual problems with UK projects pretending (and usually failing) to convince audiences that they were filmed Stateside, when in reality being located in Blighty.

Steeds regular David Lenik, who also wrote the script for this, plays Chester Van Buren, returning to his childhood home of Copper Grove 17 years after a killer in a Santa Claus outfit broke into the place and murdered his parents back in 1963, Chester being a young boy at the time.

He's accompanied by his not-all-that-she-seems girlfriend Afton (Nellie Spackman) and his anxiety on returning to the place that he inherited is not helped by it now being occupied by sitting tenants Aunt Marion (Caroline Williams), sarcastic Burke (Cedric Gegel) and his partner Melody (Natalie Veater). There's some comfort in knowing that his parents' killer, one Henry Bates, has been captured and locked up for life (and also that his childhood sweetheart Eden (Peyton Michelle Edwards) still lives in the area) but if Chester felt that all he had to contend with over the holidays was bickering relatives, he didn't count on the bodies piling up once again while the rest of the family hatch a plan to deprive him of his true inheritance.

Steeds is perhaps a better creator of mood than sharp characterisation, hence his reliance on things being rather bitchy and over the top. As Melody at one point exclaims, the year being 1980 means that JR's just been shot in Dallas, the world has lost a Beatle and an ex actor has been elected as President; crazy times indeed, matched by the soap operaesque infighting and plot hatching of the house's occupants.

A mix of US talent (Williams as the mouthy Marion is probably the best thing in this) mixes with a smattering of UK cast members including Lenik and Nicholas Vince as his psychiatrist, making the project feel US authentic. Steeds as ever makes a great DoP and if the pacing sometimes slows a little, there's a cracking axe wielding final reel in true slasher stylee.

Santastein (USA 2023: Dir Manuel Camilion, Benjamin Edelman) As a young inquisitive boy Max Causey and his geeky friend Paige are keen to solve the mystery of Santa Claus by trapping him in the act of leaving presents and photographing him. The problem is, the plan backfires and Mr Claus ends up dead - by accident.

The death has huge ramifications; basically Christmas is cancelled, misery abounds and the joy of the holiday fades into memory. But 12 years later Max (Jared Korotkin) and Paige (Ophelia Rivera) are now precocious science students; Paige has found a way to bring life to a formerly dead rat and, unbeknownst to her, Max has nicked the principle and is stealing bodies from the local morgues - the portlier the better - to assemble...Santastein! But the resurrected corpse shares little of Mr Claus's bonhomie and before long is leaving a trail of death and destruction across town.

There's a lot of different themes milling about in this one and none of them really come off. The whole 'Christmas is cancelled' idea remains largely unexplored, and there's rather more time than necessary devoted to a party held by unpopular student Mikayla (Kaylie Heyner) which is an excuse for 'comedy' hi jinks. The directors do manage a more exciting final reel (pretty good for an obviously small budget) and the resurrection sequence conjures up a definite 1980s vibe (complemented by a great retro score by Austin Hammonds). It's ok but arguably needed to be a little more manic and tightened up, a great idea that somewhat fails in execution.

Advent aka The Krampus Calendar (UK 2024: Dir Airell Anthony Hayes) Hayes has clearly got a bit of a thing about Christmas; his last completed feature was Werewolf Santa (2023) and titles 'Satan's Grotto', 'Vampire Santa' and 'Zombie Santa' are coming down the production chute as I type.

The resolutely low budget/DIY Advent 'stars' Bulgarian Rasina Pavlova as American Hayley, whose interests and academic background have concentrated on urban legends. Hayley becomes fixated on the Krampus Calendar, a fiendish version of the traditional one where each of the December windows offers up a challenge, the 'prize' being that once completed the devil takes your soul.

Now you and I would politely refuse the challenge, but curious Hayley pays five hundred smackers for such a calendar and, via her YouTube channel, documents the opening of the calendar one day and one challenge at a time, the camera being wielded by friend Charlie (Cian Lorcan) while her drunk father Joe (Corey Peterson), still in mourning following the death of Hayley's mother, casts a doleful figure. The resultant footage, beginning rather benignly but building to successively sinister challenges as the Calendar doors are opened, is commented on by an acquaintance of Hayley and fellow academic Richard Hill (Nicholas Vince again); Hill gets to fill in the blanks on the history of the Calendar, while in true M R James style, the curious Hayley pays the price for her dabbling.

Advent is very rough around the edges; there are spelling mistakes in the captions and the 'mixed media' approach of animation and 'found footage' camerawork doesn't really work. But it's good to see a movie maintaining its dystopian chops right through to the end, and the gloomy suburban backdrop makes a satisfyingly prosaic setting for the weird events onscreen.

Silent Bite (Canada 2024: Dir Taylor Martin) Martin's debut feature, following a string of inventive short films, pulls bits from 30 Days of Night, From Dusk Till Dawn and Near Dark, but still manages to be sprightly and watchable.

The 'Santa Hat' gang, so named because they're all dressed up in (oh you fill in the blanks) have liberated a cool $1 million in a bank heist, and are now laying low at a motel. The obliging manager, Colin (Paul Whitney) keeps mum about them hiding out, but he's got his own problems; namely his ability to repay a gambling debt to the local heavies. Oh and he's also shielding a nest of female vampires elsewhere in the establishment.

The bank robbers, all using seasonal aliases, are headed by a pair of Brits; Father Christmas (Simon Phillips) and his sidekick Snowman, so named because of his chemical obsessions rather than his love of the season (Michael Swatton). In true Die Hard heist tradition, the gang includes a young tech wizard, Prancer (Luke Avoledo), whose function is to set up surveillance to help them remain undetected until their wing man, Rudolph (Dan Molson), turns up with the getaway car.

But the vampire girls. a 'family' under the tutelage of Mother (Sayla de Goede) become restless. Fed up with teasing a captive local, Genie (Camille Blott) who they plan on turning, they venture out to meet the boys. A showdown is inevitable, but will the 'Santa Hat' gang be able to escape?

As mentioned, Silent Bite doesn't have much original going on, but it has the advantage of real snow, a cosy provincial location (the Jolly Roger Inn outside Toronto which, the credits inform us, also provided the cast and crew catering) and some lively characterisation. It plays a bit fast and loose with the mythology (vampire death by silver spoon anyone?) but the comic book approach works well and it has a less tacked on holiday feel than some other seasonal fright flicks I could mention.

Granny Krampus (UK 2024: Dir Jack E. Bell) "This what Christmas is all about - one big happy family!" says Granny Carla (Adie Mueller) in a statement which couldn't be further from the truth. The family in question - or what's left of them - comprise orphaned sisters Lea (Jodie Bennet) and Ashley (Poppy Castleton) who pay a Christmas visit to Gran, who lives in a big house with only her mute, zombie like brother Robert (Peter Trott) for company.

The girls know little about Carla, who seemed estranged from their late parents, and the unhappy air is made worse with the arrival of Carla's son Charlie (Mark Rush) and his socially awkward son Daniel (Tom Marchant). Cousin Charlotte (Claudia Adlam) was also due to attend, but decided to stay away; permanently, as it happens, as she's the first victim of Krampus aka Frau Perchta (Jeanne de Rougemont), a creature who haunts the family, picking them off one by one to fulfill an ancient curse.

This is the second 'Krampus' film funded by Rebecca Matthews's company Proportion Productions, which she started back in 2017 with the equally prolific Scott Jeffrey; it's a creature that seems to obsess low budget filmmakers, which is possibly down to the fact that you only need a fright mask and a Santa suit to create your monster. In Granny Krampus we don't get a full view of the creature until the movie's last half hour; director Bell teases with a full hour of drawn out chat which only emphasises the poor script and indifferent acting (although Marchant's grumpy teen is rather authentic). The Christmas mood is limited to a few bits of tinsel (the exterior scenes look like they were shot in summer; one cast member even wears shorts) and the whole thing is pretty awful until the last twenty minutes or so when the horror elements are (finally) introduced.

2023 Christmas round up

2021 Christmas round up

2020 Christmas round up

2019 Christmas round up

2018 Christmas round up