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By: Myriam Akbar Presence is a 2024 supernatural horror/drama film, following the lives of an American family navigating life with primarily relatable issues. However, it was released in theaters this year. Straying away from jump-scares and scary visual imagery, the tension is created through conceptual interpretations of fear. Artistically demonstrating Athazagoraphobia (the fear of being forgotten or ignored), the ghost takes the audience on a touching and intense journey as they search for purpose. While this film is receiving mixed reviews, I was impressed by the innovative nature of it and look forward to what else the year brings. In my opinion, it’s the most inventive and introspective ghost story since His House (2020) which is criminally underrated.  Spoilers ahead.. Although we see the characters interact in present time, the film is shot from the POV of the ghost and explores different realms of time. One way I can describe it is that the viewer feels like a camera in...

By: Myriam Akbar  In the summer of 2022, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin was released on HBO Max. Based on the book series Pretty Little Liars and early 2000s show, the project was the bloodiest in the franchise. Having been a fan since the publishing of the first novel in 2006, I was shocked to see it find its way into the slasher genre. ABC Family initially wanted the original series to be a teenage, slasher version of Desperate Housewives. Author Sara Shepard, had been working with a similar concept for her novels and that’s how the show came to life. While it had many aspects of a classic slasher film (group of teenagers, violence, masked killers, stalking etc.), it never went full-on slasher in terms of gore, stakes, and on screen kills. Although there were deaths and the main characters were targeted for years, they all remained alive after seven seasons. Think of it as I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) versus Hatchet (2006) or Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003). I’d say ...

By: Myriam Akbar I’d be lying if I said that I was anticipating this year’s Wolf Man remake and that’s not due to a dislike of remakes. Despite mostly being excited for new projects and unique concepts, I’m quite the fan of them. It’s like being transported to a parallel universe within the plot lore of a film and when it’s something I’m already a fan of, this is an exciting experience. I’m drawn to the level of creativity that is used in revision when altering the genres, character personalities, plot points, moods, tones etc. However because creature features are one of my least preferred sub-genres, I wasn’t planning on watching. Desperately needing a theater outing, I decided to give it a chance anyway because compared to other monsters – I like werewolves. While I’m not personally a fan of the Universal Picture Monster Franchise (I have nothing negative to say — just not for me), I understand and respect its historical impact on the horror genre. Because this revisits a beloved 19...

By: Myriam Akbar A horror film from 2024 that found its way on many fans’ top ten lists yet also confused most, is Cuckoo which stars Hunter Schafer as the protagonist. It follows a teenager who goes to live with her father after losing her mother. Strange occurrences take place and she is targeted by a hooded woman. Until the explanation is given, I’m not even going to pretend that I understood what was going on. I was intrigued and entertained by the imagery associated with the hooded woman and vibrating screeches. Despite not being essential for me in a horror film, those were the most “scary” aspects. The acting and cinematography were great, but my main issue with Cuckoo is that I had to research afterwards to understand it. I like a film that is thought-provoking, but here the unfamiliarity factor made the film less effective than it could have been with more world-building and foreshadowing.  While rewatching, I decided to research an explanation of how the cuckoo bird rel...

By: Myriam Akbar I most definitely saw the poster for Nefarious floating around, but it stayed under the radar for me. It wasn’t until recently that I decided to give it a try. Although a few aspects threw me off, I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. The religious horror film follows a psychiatrist who sets out to prove that a death row inmate is faking his possession.  For the most part, I’m a fan of dialogue-heavy storytelling. I feel when the pacing and runtime is right, it can be an effective technique. Nefarious does a good job of this, considering the protagonist’s career involves interviewing. The back and forth kept my interest and wasn’t so complex that I needed to decipher the language. Although a few lines were thought provoking, the subject matter isn’t necessarily new but entertaining.  The antagonist didn’t bring the fear factor for me and that’s my biggest issue. The actor’s performance was underwhelming and strange in the way that I viewed Nicholas Cage...

By: Myriam Akbar Murmur is a 2024 multi-genre film, following a group of friends who go into the woods to explore a new augmented reality device. As someone with slight technophobia and very little technological hubris, the trippy nature of the visuals freaked me out! However, I will say I find instant relief knowing I’m not interested in fooling around with such a thing. The main genre present is sci-fi/horror, as the characters are experimenting with a horror themed game that distorts reality. Like with any film in my fuck-around-and-find-out category, the characters assume nothing could go wrong. What sets this film apart from others I’ve put under that label, is how it cleverly uses social criticism of technology while mocking horror tropes. For example, the classic: inconveniently tripping over something. But here, the reason for tripping is because there was a projected image that got in the way.  It also calls out the dangers of social media challenges and trends (like the ...

By: Myriam Akbar Oddity is a 2024 supernatural horror film that fulfilled my wish for more films involving object sentience in the genre. Within it we’ve seen: talking dolls, personified hotels, killer mirrors, and even deadly vehicles. Most times the origin of sentience is explained through means of possession (Child’s Play, for example) or other times through means of technology (Megan).  The plot follows a clairvoyant cabinet of curiosities shopkeeper, investigating the murder of her twin sister. Offering a new take on object sentience, Darcy (the protagonist) uses information gathered from the psychic readings of her shop items to get revenge. Well received and praised, this is a must-watch horror film of the year.  Much of the story acts as a psychological thriller, shrouded in suspicion as the murder mystery unfolds. There’s a constant dreadful mood and dark atmosphere. The jump scares pair well with the terrifying appearance of the entities. The chilling visual imagery ...

By: Myriam Akbar During my process of building any film list, I try to balance what I enjoyed and what I believe was executed well. In most ways cinematic commentary is subjective, but there can be useful critiques given (for a script writer like me) by discussing objective narrative strategies and directing techniques. More than anything, I ask myself: Did the film surpass my expectations, by lingering in my mind for days — weeks even? Did it offer something new? Does it feel like it was made with a passion for cinema? In this piece, I’ll highlight ten films from 2024 that: provide refreshing ways to experience horror, explore unique concepts, and balance the intertwining of multiple genres. To make the most sense of my perspective on what qualifies as horror and its sub-genres, I want to highlight an interpretation of the Oxford English Dictionary definition from the novel Scream Writing (2019 ): “Alright, so a horror film would be a film that endeavored to provoke fear, shock, ...