With Halloween over with, many people are wanting to stay in this spooky season. One way to keep our bones rattling is a good horror movie, and 2019 has got a lot of them. While we will always have the classics, like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween,there are also some really good horror movies that have come about in the year 2019.
Needing a good scare, but want to see some newer movies? Well, I, self-proclaimed horror aficionado Dane, am here to walk you through some of my favorite horror movies of 2019. But be warned, this list is not for the faint of heart. Some of these movies are graphic in nature, so if you don’t have the stomach for it, you might want to not watch these. The list is also in no particular order, it is just simpler to have these numbered. Anyway, onto the list!
- Midsommar
The first on my list in my Halloween extravaganza is Midsommar. With the troubles she has had, Dani (Florence Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) head to Sweden with their friends to learn about the midsummer traditions of a small village of people. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when these traditions becoming severe and a little out of the ordinary for our crew.
The first thing you’ll notice about this movie is how visually beautiful this movie is. With the over-contrasted colors of the village and bright colors, this movie makes Sweden a much more beautiful. The second thing you’ll notice is that this movie is brutal and full of gore. I don’t want to go into full detail about the gore due to spoilers, but it has everything a horror movie seeker wants. Director Ari Aster, known for 2018’s Hereditary, another horror classic of the decade, he is firmly stamping himself in this new world of horror.
- Child’s Play (2019)
The next on my list is a bit of surprise, but I decided to go with the 2019 remake of Child’s Play. In this movie, child Andy Barclay (Gabriel Bateman) moves to a new city. Having trouble making friends, his mother (Aubrey Plaza) gives him the hottest new toys on the market, a Buddi doll! But after some faulty wiring and some reprogramming, the doll Chucky (Mark Hamill) goes on an evil spree, leading to Andy to have to do something before Chucky goes too far.
Now, why did I say this was a surprise? Well, because many people and critics thought this movie was going to flop. While the original movie from 1988 is a bit of a weird movie, it held such a nostalgic hold on people from the era. However, this movie is not that bad. While the premise and plot of this movie is pretty dumb, you begin to care a lot between the relationship between Andy and Chucky. It’s quite beautiful. Also, this movie gets to be pretty gory, which was something that I didn’t expect from this movie. Overall, if you don’t think about the plot of this movie, it’s pretty good.
- Us
The third on my list is probably the best horror movie of 2019, Us. After many years, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o), with her family, head for their family beach house for some summer fun. However, when a family clothed in red shows up in the middle of the night standing in their driveway, Adelaide and her family have to fend themselves from these predators.
I kind of forgot that this movie came out this year, and I’m glad I remembered. Being Jordan Peele’s second movie, it puts him up there for one of the best directors and writers of the decade. This movie has everything a movie-goer is looking for. Amazing characters, a fantastic plot, and enough violence for the horror movie-goer is looking for. If you haven’t seen this movie, please watch it, and if you have, watch it again!
- Brightburn
Last on my list of horror movies to watch is Brightburn. In this extraterrestrial movie, Tori Beyer (Elizabeth Banks) dreams of being a mother, but struggles with fertility. But, in the middle of the night, a ship crashes down to earth, where Tori finds a beautiful baby boy. Now that the boy is growing, he becomes curious of where he came from, and these mysterious powers he has. Once learning, he then chooses to get revenge on the people that have picked on him and his life, and showing the world who he is.
I talked a bit about this movie when the trailer first dropped, and I think it delivered everything I was expecting. A twist on the Superman story, we see the darker side to the superhero genre, questioning if having superpowered beings in these times is a good choice. Along with that, this movie delivers some very good scares, a nice bit of gore, and overall a fun ride.
Well, that’s the end of my list. I know not everyone is looking for gory, overly dramatic Halloween movies, but this is the best time of the year to talk about my love for the horror genre. If you do get a chance to see any of these movies, it helps keep this genre alive, and in general makes a lot of people happy.
–Dane Shaull