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2014, Best of 2014, cinema, film reviews, films, Movies, wrap-up, year in review
The lists have been published, films have been ranked and 2014 gets further in the rearview mirror by the minute…what could possibly be left to do? As it turns out, not a whole lot except for wrapping it all up and putting a bow on it.
But first, a few last-minute thoughts on this previous year. As I was preparing for my end-of-the-year viewing, I took a look around the ol’ blogosphere, just to make sure I hadn’t overlooked any potential gems at the last minute, and noticed one prevailing trend among the various horror and genre film critics: in general, the consensus seems to be that 2014 was a particularly bad year for film. Despite missing several theatrical releases that have been frequently mentioned elsewhere (Guardians of the Galaxy, Boyhood, Gone Girl, John Wick, The Lego Movie, Foxcatcher, As Above So Below), I must offer the following rebuttal: if you noticed an absence of quality horror/genre films in 2014, it was simply because you weren’t looking in the right places.
For most of my life, I’ve been an avowed lover of going out to the movies. Growing up and all the way through college, I would often see several movies at the theater every weekend, sometimes one after the other. Over time, however, I’ve found that I go out to the movies much less frequently. My patience has steadily eroded, over time, and the kind of crowd annoyances that I would normally have brushed off (talking, texting, etc…) in the past now seem like huge problems. This doesn’t even take into account the exorbitant cost of a night out at the movies, of course, which has crept up into “live show” ranges.
Since I tend to avoid the theaters nowadays, I’m almost always late to the party with new releases: I always wait until the film either goes to Netflix (DVD) or some equitable streaming service before I see it. There are always exceptions, of course (I proudly went to see Prometheus as soon as it opened and I’ll be there for the next installment, as well). Since I go to the theater so infrequently these days, I find that I rarely pay attention to what’s out, since I never see it right away anyway.
All of this, of course, is by way of saying that I didn’t notice a shortage of quality films this year. Why? Well, probably because I wasn’t focused on the box office. As an example, three of the more derided big-screen horror releases this year were Annabelle, Jessabelle and Ouija. If one were to take a look at all theatrical horror released last year, it’s undeniably grim. If one factors in all of the streaming/DTV options out there, however, the story is much, much different. On an indie/outsider level, 2014 was practically an embarrassment of riches. In fact, taking a stroll through streaming outlets like Google Play reveals the kind of “multiplex” that’s sadly lacking nowadays: it’s not so much a matter of trying to find “anything” to watch as it is trying to choose between a dizzying array of choices.
Is this the way it should be? Absolutely not: despite my general dislike of theaters these days, horror and genre films have every right to be represented on the big screen along with everything else. The crucial problem begins when critics (and regular folks) see the theater as the end-all-be-all: taking a look at the 6 or 7 clunkers that played in multiplexes has the effect of giving short shrift to the 90 films that didn’t. You can’t get a good, overall sense of how a year went unless you can take a look at the whole picture: honing in on box office takes, sales records and the like gives a good idea of the financials but does nothing whatsoever to discuss the overall quality. It may be true that some of the best, most well-received films of the year never opened in theaters (or opened so small as to be negligible) but this doesn’t impinge on them: if anything, it just means that the most interesting things are still happening on the fringes and margins, just where they always have.
And that’s enough of that. Thanks, again, to any and all who’ve taken this journey with me during 2014. In order to be complete, I’ve listed all of the films that I watched in 2014 below: save for the bottom handful, which I haven’t written up yet, details reviews of all of these can be found at The VHS Graveyard, starting all the way back on New Years Eve, 2013. I managed to watch 343 films in 2014: let’s see if we can’t do better than that in 2015. Stay tuned as we resume our daily reviews and don’t forget: we could all use a stroll through the VHS Graveyard, from time to time.
All Films Watched in 2014
| The Roost |
| Juan of the Dead |
| The Sapphires |
| Somebody Up There Likes Me |
| The Guilt Trip |
| Stitches |
| A Lonely Place to Die |
| The Tunnel |
| Drinking Buddies |
| Exiled |
| Man With a Movie Camera |
| April Fool’s Day |
| The Achievers |
| Friends With Kids |
| Redemption |
| L’Age D’or |
| Tiny Furniture |
| Journey to Planet X |
| Norwegian Ninja |
| Drew: The Man Behind the Poster |
| Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters |
| Messenger of Death |
| Freakonomics |
| Novocaine |
| The Northerners |
| Bounty Killer |
| Gallowwalker |
| Standup Guys |
| The Master |
| Funny Games (1997) |
| The Adventures of Tintin |
| The Hamiltons |
| The Butcher Boys |
| Amigo |
| Lovelace |
| Toad Road |
| This is the End |
| The Hidden Fortress |
| Big Trouble in Little China |
| Tabu |
| But I’m a Cheerleader |
| The Last Rites of Ransom Pride |
| Cutie and the Boxer |
| Stay Cool |
| All the Boys Love Mandy Lane |
| Happy People: A Year in the Taiga |
| Agora |
| Sharknado |
| The Square |
| Dirty Wars |
| Farewell to the King |
| Looper |
| The Rabbi’s Cat |
| The Naked City |
| Girl Walks Into a Bar |
| Star Trek IV |
| The Comedy |
| You’re Next |
| Curdled |
| The Girl Who Knew Too Much |
| Five Minutes of Heaven |
| The Iron Lady |
| Dark Touch |
| Blacula |
| The Castle |
| American Hustle |
| Blackenstein |
| One From the Heart |
| The Croods |
| Alois Nebel |
| Jacob’s Ladder |
| Black Moon |
| 12 Years a Slave |
| The Hunt |
| Day of the Dead |
| Seven Psychopaths |
| Captain Phillips |
| Truck Turner |
| Radio Bikini |
| A Field in England |
| Walker |
| 8 Million Ways to Die |
| To Be or Not To Be |
| Joe Gould’s Secret |
| Powwow Highway |
| The Butler |
| The Boys Next Door |
| Robot & Frank |
| Assault on Precinct 13 |
| Two-Way Stretch |
| The African Queen |
| Cockneys vs Zombies |
| Dallas Buyers Club |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey |
| Blue Jasmine |
| Gravity |
| Nebraska |
| Hondo |
| Prisoners |
| 20 Feet From Stardom |
| The Act of Killing |
| The Heat |
| We Are What We Are (2013) |
| All Is Lost |
| Love |
| Inside Llewyn Davis |
| Doghouse |
| Easy Rider |
| Bad Milo |
| Midnight Express |
| Mud |
| How to Lose Friends & Alienate People |
| Swashbuckler |
| Wishmaster |
| Signs of Life |
| The Station Agent |
| Lesser Prophets |
| The Haunting of Julia |
| Popatopolis |
| Red Obsession |
| The Last Days on Mars |
| Jobs |
| Insidious: Chapter 2 |
| Frankenstein’s Army |
| Pacific Rim |
| Philomena |
| The City Dark |
| Street People |
| A Fantastic Fear of Everything |
| Don Jon |
| Wrong Cops |
| Odd Thomas |
| Breakfast with Curtis |
| All Things to All Men |
| Strictly Ballroom |
| Silent Running |
| Rapture-palooza |
| Entity |
| Twister (1989) |
| The United States of Leland |
| Loaded |
| As I Lay Dying |
| Plus One |
| Paranoia |
| Ghost Adventures |
| The Frozen Ground |
| 100 Bloody Acres |
| Night of the Living Dead (1990) |
| Wish You Were Here |
| Short Term 12 |
| Free Birds |
| The Moleman of Belmont Avenue |
| Swerve |
| The Source Family |
| The Final Cut |
| The Kitchen |
| The Incredible Melting Man |
| Contracted |
| Here Comes the Devil |
| Big Bad Wolves |
| A Fistful of Dollars |
| For a Few Dollars More |
| Nightmare City |
| Buck Wild |
| Death Wish |
| Death Wish 3 |
| Son of a Lion |
| The Guard Post |
| Night of the Creeps |
| Maximum Overdrive |
| Wake in Fright |
| The Gray |
| Wishmaster 2 |
| Wishmaster 3 |
| Wishmaster 4 |
| Godzilla vs Mothra |
| Godzilla vs Monster Zero |
| Candyman |
| Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh |
| Dragonslayer |
| The Birth of the Living Dead |
| Nightmare Factory |
| Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon |
| The Last Rites of Joe May |
| Good Guys Wear Black |
| The Octagon |
| El Dorado |
| The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence |
| Doomsday Book |
| Someone Marry Barry |
| Escape From Tomorrow |
| Awful Nice |
| Almost Human |
| Grand Piano |
| Wolf Creek 2 |
| Sanctum |
| The Blair Witch Project |
| The Art of the Steal |
| Vampires |
| After the Dark |
| The Conspiracy |
| Lawless |
| Devil’s Knot |
| Banshee Chapter |
| Cold Feet |
| Black Rock |
| No God, No Master |
| Hatchet 3 |
| Cold Sweat |
| Homefront |
| Byzantium |
| 13 Sins |
| Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa |
| The Experiment |
| The Last Days |
| The Dark Half |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) |
| Lizzie Borden Took an Axe |
| Dead Before Dawn |
| All Cheerleaders Die |
| Better Mus’ Come |
| HairBrained |
| Out of the Furnace |
| Goodbye World |
| The Nut Job |
| Cujo |
| Sweet Evil |
| Blue Ruin |
| Go For Sisters |
| Somewhere |
| Filth |
| The Sacrament |
| Whitewash |
| The Texas Chainsaw Massacre |
| The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 |
| Halloween |
| Halloween 2 |
| Alien |
| Hellbenders |
| Some Guy Who Kills People |
| Invaders From Mars (1986) |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) |
| The World’s End |
| Friday the 13th (1980) |
| The Town That Dreaded Sundown |
| Under the Skin |
| Stoker |
| Chillerama |
| Stage Fright |
| Only Lovers Left Alive |
| Kiss of the Damned |
| The Last Winter |
| The Thing |
| Blood Glacier |
| Dead Alive |
| Undead |
| Visitors |
| Dog Soldiers |
| The Descent |
| Witching and Bitching |
| Suspiria |
| Mama |
| The Haunting |
| Dead Silence |
| Dead Birds |
| The Burrowers |
| House of 1000 Corpses |
| The Devil’s Rejects |
| The Den |
| Antisocial |
| Thale |
| Kill Zombie! |
| The Returned |
| Botched |
| Inbred |
| Outpost |
| Outpost: Black Sun |
| Omnivoros |
| Ravenous |
| Cube |
| Haunter |
| Splice |
| Under the Bed |
| The Monster Squad |
| Mr. Jones |
| Static |
| Shivers |
| The Cottage |
| No One Lives |
| Infestation |
| Big Ass Spider! |
| Beneath |
| Land of the Dead |
| Diary of the Dead |
| All Hallows’ Eve |
| Trick ‘r Treat |
| Oculus |
| The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| The Oranges |
| Locke |
| Dom Hemingway |
| The Oxford Murders |
| In A World… |
| Cuban Fury |
| Snowman’s Land |
| Snowpiercer |
| The One I Love |
| Arachnophobia |
| Knights of Badassdom |
| The Final Member |
| Mockingbird |
| The Guard |
| The Double |
| Rhymes For Young Ghouls |
| Alien Abduction |
| Willow Creek |
| Cold in July |
| Moebius |
| The Damned |
| We Are The Best! |
| The Taking of Deborah Logan |
| Borgman |
| Mercy |
| Jodorowsky’s Dune |
| Sabotage |
| The Missing Picture |
| The Interview |
| Fading Gigolo |
| Ida |
| Torment |
| Enemy |
| Doc of the Dead |
| Ragnarok |
| Bad Johnson |
| The Babadook |
| Stretch |
| The Lady in Number 6 |
| Nymphomaniac Parts 1 & 2: Director’s Cut |
| God’s Pocket |
| Coherence |
| ABCs of Death 2 |
| Housebound |
| Calvary |
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