The Best 5 and Worst 5 Movies Of 2018 so far

Rory Cashin

Six months in, time to look back on the highlights and lowlights of the year so far.

2018 has been a rollercoaster of cinematic year.

Disney continue to rule the world thanks to all of the Marvel and Star Wars and Pixar releases, while the high benchmark of quality horror set by 2017 has continued to power on through to this year too, with some of the very best and very worst releases to be found in that genre.

So without further ado, here are our top five and bottom five movies of 2018 so far…

#5 – BEST – BLOCKERS

It was a toss up between this and Game Night, but we had to give this one the edge, simply because the trailer was so horrendously awful, that the really-very-funny final product came as a total shock.

Plus, the female-centric coming-of-age sex comedy gave us a new angle on a done-to-death subgenre. Plus there was butt-chugging, and that’s never not funny.

#5 – WORST – FIFTY SHADES FREED

Much like Meryl Streep and the Oscars, you can’t have a Worst Of list and not mention a Fifty Shades movie. Worse than last year’s Darker, solely because that movie at least seemed to be aware of how bad it was and leaned heavily into it, this one went back to playing it too straight to be any fun.

Also, three movies, over $1.3 billion at the box office, and Jamie Dornan still didn’t get his wang out? For shame.

#4 – BEST – ANNIHILATION

The guy behind Ex Machina returns with a Netflix exclusive about an all-female scientist group sent into the woods to find out why every other scientist group that has gone in there have never come back. One of the most visually beautiful horrors ever made, and with the kind of IQ that is probably exactly the reason why they kept it away from the cinema in the end.

Natalie Portman delivers a brilliant performance, but really this is another feather in the cap for writer/director Alex Garland.

Clip via Netflix UK & Ireland

#4 – WORST – ANON

From one of the best sci-fis in years, to one of the worst. Clive Owen is a detective who can sort of see all the crimes, because everyone has cameras in their eyes, except for one person, and everyone who meets them ends up dead…? We think. Listen, being confusing is one thing, and being boring is another thing, but being both? That is a cardinal sin.

How did the guy who gave us The Truman Show end up here??

#3 – BEST – YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

The best movie nobody went to see. Resident cinematic oddball Joaquin Phoenix plays a .. well, a bit of a total oddball in Lynne Ramsey’s first movie since 2011’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. The writer/director of Movies With Very Long Titles gives us a super-grimy revenge story, with Phoenix playing a kind-of-assassin, who ends up diving headlong into a child sex ring and the powerful men who run it don’t want him snooping around.

This kind of film that requires a shower immediately afterwards, but also one that will have you talking about it non-stop for days.

#3 – WORST – THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT

The 2008 original was a brilliant low-key chiller that made you afraid to be home alone. This sequel just made you afraid that they might make a third one.

#2 – BEST – A QUIET PLACE

John Krasinski pulled off triple-duty here, playing writer/director/star for this minimalist horror with a face-palm’ingly obvious, why-didn’t-anyone-think-of-this-before premise. Monsters will kill you if you make any noise, so silence is your friend.

The movie forced audiences to let their popcorn go uneaten as the fear of making any noise spilled into reality, as the Krasinski and real-life wife Emily Blunt managed to get you on the family’s side almost immediately, and then follow through with some of the most insanely tense set-pieces you can imagine.

#2 – WORST – TRUTH OR DARE

Between a haunted game of truth-or-dare, because they played it in a haunted-abandoned-Mexican-church (?!), which turned everyone’s face into a shitty Snapchat filter, there was just so much wrong with this movie, it is hard to imagine there was a point during production when anyone thought “Oh yes, this is a good idea.”

By this time last year, Blumhouse had released Get Out and Split. This year, there’s this and Insidious: The Last Chapter. Despite being objectively terrible, Truth Or Dare cost $3.5 million to make, and made nearly $100 million at the box office, so there’ll probably be a sequel before long. Haunted version of Spin The Bottle, anyone?

#1 – BEST – HEREDITARY

We went into detail on the movie’s most shocking scene, but Hereditary is so much more than that. Oscar-worthy performances. Absolutely beautiful imagery. A thoughtful drama on the stresses of family and the damages passed on down from parents to their children. And then there is the horror aspect, which creeps under your skin just enough to be constantly setting off goosebumps, all the while building up a constant sense of dread.

Normal horror movies, there is a build up, and then there is a scare, and then our tension is reset to zero. In Hereditary, there is a build up, and then a scare, but there is no relief. It simply continues to build up the tension until you’re convinced you’re going to have a panic attack. More endurance test than entertainment, and all the better for it.

Clip via A24

#1 – WORST – THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX

We were as disappointed as anyone. We loved the first Cloverfield, and we really enjoyed the sharp left turn that 10 Cloverfield Lane took. The set-up for this one seemed great – what if astronauts looked down and the Earth had disappeared? – and the cast was pretty great. So what the hell went wrong?

The constant release date switcheroo, quickly followed by the sudden Beyoncé-ing release of the movie (SURPRISE, ITS OUT NOW!) probably points at a complete lack of what they actually wanted to do with it, and the weird ending accidentally reveals just how tacked on the Cloverfield stamp was to an otherwise completely unoriginal sci-fi horror. A mess that will probably end up being the reason the entire Cloverfield series was derailed.