A Look Back at Horror in 2022

The past year has been a fantastic one for horror movies. Not only have we had a proliferation of new, fresh takes on horror, it’s been done exceptionally well for the most part. With the slightly disappointing selection of horror during 2021, the banquet served up during 2022 was sure to satisfy the gnawing hunger of even the most critical horror fans. My craving, at least, has been well and truly slaked…for now.

While I haven’t had the time or money to enjoy every horror film offered up this year, I have seen a good number of the big box office titles. By no means am I speaking as an authority on the genre of horror here. The aim of this article is simply to celebrate what has undoubtedly been a positive year for horror — a refreshing thought when we consider how tired and clichéd the genre is in danger of becoming.

The first film I saw this year, back in January, was Scream, the fifth instalment in the franchise. While it’s certainly not my favourite of this year’s picks — the franchise is becoming far too meta and overdone for me at this point — it’s a safe bet from a line of hit-and-miss, yet familiar, movies. There were some bold choices, like the killing of Dewey, and some brilliant suspense leading up to the murder scenes, particularly of Judy and her son, Wes. But the inclusion of Billy Loomis’ spirit as some kind of guiding light for his daughter stripped away all of his original characterisation, and the main star of the show, Jenna Ortega, was laid up in the hospital for the majority of the film. Mikey Madison played a very convincing villain, but her motivations were nothing new to the franchise. While this film wasn’t awful and isn’t rated too badly on Rotten Tomatoes at 76%, it’s yet another sequel of a franchise that’s quickly becoming repetitive.

While the milking of successful films is nothing new, particularly when it comes to horror — 2022 saw sequels to Halloween, Terrifier, Orphan, and Jeepers Creepers — there were plenty of original ideas this year with which to sweeten the pot. One such example was The Black Phone, rated highly at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes and with good reason. While the plot has its share of holes and problems, it’s a genuinely eerie look at a neighbourhood in crisis as the community’s children turn up missing. Details like the black balloons, the various masks worn by The Grabber, and the terrifying game he plays known as “Naughty Boy” give the film a much sharper edge.

The film is an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story of the same name, but it almost feels like its own unique homage to the terror of the 1970s, when the term ‘serial killer’ first originated. The likes of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy were active during this decade, and it wasn’t uncommon for children and adults alike to disappear. Despite it being described as a supernatural horror, this touch of realism only serves to make the film more horrifying. Fiction, after all, is rarely scarier than fact. The film has some easy criticisms — exactly how the phone works, other than as a Deus ex Machina, is never explained, and the acting isn’t always up to par, but overall, this is a solid win for modern horror.

A more contentious mention would be Alex Garland’s latest film, Men. While I personally enjoyed the movie, it scored only semi-decently on Rotten Tomatoes at 68% and wasn’t received too well generally. The repetitive male-birthing scene perhaps had a lot to do with the lukewarm reception, the deeper themes of which would no doubt fly over many heads on first watch. Admittedly, it wasn’t until I left the cinema and did my own reading that I came to understand what Garland might have been plumbing for. Whether or not the film is clear on its themes, however, it’s undoubtedly scary. For one thing, every single one of the village’s intolerable inhabitants are terrifying in their own unique ways, and the idea of being isolated in an old house surrounded by such characters would give anyone pause.

And who could deny that men themselves are, for a large majority of the population, legitimately scary? The story may be a personal one for Harper as we follow her journey through her grief and trauma, but on a universal level, we connect with what the film is saying. It’s a great shame that the ‘weirdness’ of the film’s third act seems to have put so many people off, because the writing, the acting and production value ensure it’s well-deserving of praise.

With Jordan Peele’s Nope, we have something completely different from, well…anything. Like Men, it wasn’t received too well by audiences, though it was rated better with 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. Opinion was truly divided with the film’s release, with some considering it Peele’s best work, and some his absolute worst.

While the film could be described as a neo-Western sci-fi, the horror elements it does have are strong and keep it partly in that category. As expected from Peele the writing is excellent, the suspense almost unbearable at times, and the themes are strong, if a little too subtle. The pacing can be a little too slow at times, dragging out certain scenes longer than necessary, but the pay-off in the final showdown is incredibly worth it. Opening with one of the bloodiest, most violent scenes in the entire film ensures we stay uneasy, waiting for an explanation or something worse to come along. The depiction of an alien like the one in this film, with the ship being the alien, is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Such a fresh take on the overly tired alien trope, and on horror in general, makes this film one of my favourites of the year.

Another fresh take was Bodies Bodies Bodies, fresh because it was a black comedy as opposed to a straight horror. As much as I love horror, it was almost a breath of fresh air to watch something a little more light-hearted, yet still in keeping with all the features typical of a scary movie. Its rating on Rotten Tomatoes stands at 86%, and that number is well-earned. The suspense was fantastic, the acting from everyone — but particularly Rachel Sennott — far surpassing what I was expecting. As clichéd as the setting and the plot might have been, that all seemed to be part of the joke, one that the movie was laughing at with us. And of course, with the inclusion of Pete Davidson and the comedic reveal at the end of the film, it all started with a joke. Even with all the death, manipulation and deception, the film never forgot the comedic streak at its heart. It had me laughing and on the edge of my seat in equal measure, and doing both of those things well is no mean feat.

Colour me surprised, then, when Barbarian managed to bring its own brand of humour to the table. I was late to the party with this film and intrigued by the good reviews I’d heard for it. I wasn’t disappointed — admittedly, the film’s second half wasn’t as strong as its first, especially in terms of scares, but the building of suspense in that first half was truly masterful. Its rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes is a testament to that. The film has us guessing from the off, and takes us on what can only be described as a rollercoaster ride. First, one of the protagonists is unceremoniously killed off — even more surprising after being led to believe that he might be a villain. Then we’re abruptly taken to the perspective of a new character, and the tone shifts to that aforementioned black comedy.

That tonal shift doesn’t sit right with everyone understandably, but, for me at least, it didn’t detract from the tension that had already been built. Justin Long had a part to play that makes sense in the context of the film, and he does it well. It does slow the pace for a while, but it isn’t long before we’re back on that rollercoaster ride once he discovers the subterranean maze beneath his house. The inbred mutant mother did quickly lose her scare factor. However, she only paled in comparison to the true villain, her incestuous, rapist father — it’s incredibly subtle, but one of the scenes that sticks with me the most is his pile of homemade videotapes. The scant written descriptors of his victims include “redhead from gas station”, “Asian — biter”, and, perhaps the worst, “puker”. It’s not a jumpscare, but it’s awful and chilling all the same. It’s a quiet kind of horror, perhaps the scariest kind.

Make no mistake that Barbarian was full of jumpscares too, which may be a cheaper way of achieving scares but they still provide their own legitimate horror experience. They’re especially effective when you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. With the film Smile, I had the feeling that it would be a jumpscare-fest and I wasn’t wrong. Sometimes, as with a black comedy, it can be refreshing when a horror doesn’t try and do too much. That’s not to say that Smile doesn’t have anything important to say, because it does carry some important themes on grief and generational trauma — but it’s relatively easy watching compared to the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it plot of something like Nope.

As mentioned, jumpscares abound in this one with some great suspense. The scares are successful precisely because of the build-up spent on each one, and because, admittedly, the titular smile used in the film is actually quite effective. It’s unnerving, to say the least. Again, the film is easy to criticise — it does rely almost entirely on jumpscares and the plot has its fair share of holes, but its rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes shows that, while it’s nothing completely new to the horror genre, it’s an enjoyable flick that gains points for not being another sequel or remake. That leads me to the final film, and my other favourite of the year besides Nope — the highly-rated and unique X.

With 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, X is the highest rated film on this entire list with Barbarian a close second. It’s a score that it truly earns, with a bizarre, yet thrilling rollercoaster ride of a plot, stellar acting from the entire cast — the quality is so fantastic that there’s nobody I could pick out as the best here — and a completely fresh idea of what can be defined as scary. Sure, old people are often described as creepy, but Ti West goes all out in his depiction of the two elderly villains, making them completely murderous and psychopathic. They may seem like they have sympathetic motivations — we might even feel for Pearl and her desperate yearning for a youth long gone — but once we witness her rampage, that’s likely to shift. It’s fascinating to see violence, sex and age become tied up in a horror movie in this way. I can say with complete certainty that I wasn’t expecting to finish the film considering the implications of how we view the elderly as a society.

Not only is the film considerably smart in what it’s trying to convey, but every single seed of foreshadowing dotted throughout is paid off later. Nothing feels superfluous here. Tropes are constantly turned on their head, from the unexpected villains to the final girl defying tradition. We can also see the influences of previous classic horror movies at play here, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho. Seeing homages to such successful horrors that still prop up the genre today is a delight, especially when the line between homage and rip-off has been so carefully trodden.