The Movies of 2022

Monday is about movies. And sometimes TV. Here with the first one for 2023, I look back at my favourite films of 2022.

I enjoyed a lot of films in 2022 – and even if I didn’t enjoy the actual movie, I loved the experience of seeing it, of sitting down to watch. I saw over 400 films in 2022 – which is utterly grotesque, absolutely. But it was pure escapist magic a lot of the time. I rewatched several old favourites. I went to The Room TWICE ON THE BIG SCREEN. And both times it was amazing. I saw First Blood for the first time in a cinema, and felt it was better than ever.

It was also all about supporting The Aro Video Store, which is conveniently located just around the corner from my house. I bought up loads of DVDs from their ongoing sale, I started a collection all over again. And I rented several movies each week, digging down deeply into Giallo and other Italian horrors, in fact it’s very clear that my main focus this year was horror. I went to movie premieres, watched old classics for the first time and we had our regular Fright Knightz movie nights at home where we pile up three disparate horror films and load up on chips and drinks. Good, good times.

Movies were my fun throughout 2022. But it was also a deep assignment. I hit down hard. And probably in 2023 I will need to ease up, I’ll refine my technique somewhat I think.

But anyway, I didn’t review every great new film I saw, but I covered a few of them. Some of them I already wrote about right here, so I won’t just link to previous film newsletters, but I might link to a few of the reviews I wrote.

My first favourite film of 2022 and though it’s not technically a horror – it’s not actually a horror at all, it was House of Gucci. So many people moaned and complained about that movie, but I loved it. Ate it all up. Considering going back in for another binge on it now that a year has passed, had to hold myself back from gorging in on it again all last year. Wonderfully absurd film that really is some kind of horror actually.

The first true horror film I dug in 2022 was the Scream reboot. First off, it worked! I was just pleased it worked. It didn’t need to be amazing, it just needed to not be embarrassing. And it was super fun attending its Wellington premiere, seeing it in a packed cinema in the summer, fans amped just to be there. Solid vibes. I rewatched it several months later on DVD, and it held up. Not sure many of these modern horrors hold up that well to repeat screenings though. Scream (5) was decent enough to watch for a second time, but the cat’s well out of the bag. And I’m now worried that they’ll fuck it all up with the swift arrival this year of Scream 6.

I was also a big, big fan of X. I had a few conversations with people that were less than impressed with it, but I loved the 70s vibe, and also thought that Martin Henderson was superb; the first half of the film had some major Tarantino vibes for me. It was just a joyride of a film, even without the horror – which, when it arrived, took the film up a gear. I haven’t yet seen its prequel, Pearl. Nor watched X a second time. To be honest, I probably won’t repeat-screen X, but it was a sumptuous film-watching experience at the time. And I was into it. Total immersion, just unscrew your brain and enjoy the film.

There were super-smart, and really deep horror films in 2022 as well. In fact, many horror hounds were howling throughout 2022 about what a marquee year it was for the genre. And the range of styles on display was part of the big treat.

Nope might be more sci-fi than horror, but certainly contained enough of the elements. I loved it a lot in the cinema, but found it a little boring to repeat-screen at home. That said, it had something of an old M. Night film feel about it; cat’s out of the bag on first view, the build-up is what it’s all about. Smart film though, some really deep stuff in there, as is the way with Jordan Peele. (Side note, I rewatched Us twice in 2022 and loved it so much). Nope also had one of the very best scores of any of the 2022 horror films I saw.

If not the smartest, then certainly the loveliest (and yes, that’s a weird word to use) horror film I saw in 2022 was The Black Phone. This film was deep for me. I found it uplifting, profound, and beautiful. I also just soaked into its mood, its look and feel.

And then the most horrifying, electrically charged, and sublime horror film watch of 2022 was Barbarian. About which, the less said the better – and my review in the link there is 100% spoiler-free. Promise.

This movie sits with me still. And I probably won’t ever rewatch it – even though a big part of me would love to. I’m taking the experience of rewatching Nope, and figuring it will be the same with Barbarian. I hadn’t been as buzzed by a film, while watching it, since Promising Young Woman.

So it was horror almost all the way in 2022.

But I did love Top Gun: Maverick more than I could have ever predicted. It seems weird to call it the unlikely hit of the year, given the money piled into it. But I think perhaps it was an unlikely critical hit. I really felt the influence of Cobra Kai on its production. I believe Cruise and his co-conspirators sat taking notes on how to revive hero characters and show growth through examining their flaws. That might be affording it far too much kudos, but it’s just the way I felt. And when on holiday in the middle of the year, I ended up in a cinema watching it for a second time and it was just as much fun. Go figure.

I also loved the experience of seeing Halloween Ends in the cinema while on a break, and thought it a fine wrap up to an enduring saga. It is one of only two or three films in the long winded franchise that I’ve seen in a cinema. And for that alone it was worth it. But I thought it had heart and smarts. And I always applaud those things being attempted in any horror film.

Honourable mentions: Fresh (a fun, smart, sick comedy-horror you can stream on the Disney channel), and Smile (best cinema jump scares, several audience members shrieking then laughing straight after as they caught themselves).

Overhyped Disappointment: The Northman – not a patch on his previous films, and really just gruelling and unnecessary. Almost a throwback to the torture-porn strain of horror from the early/mid 00s (my least favourite sub genre).

Of course I wrote throughout 2022 telling you about all the trash I was watching on Tubi and Shudder and Amazon Prime and YouTube. I piled in a few TV series’ too. And I have started rewatching a lot of films from the 80s and 90s that I haven’t thought about since I first saw them. Examples include: Body Heat, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Fatal Attraction. Okay, so that was entirely due to listening to the You Must Remember This podcast – which I used to love and hadn’t tuned into for a couple of years. I’m looking forward to going through more on the list from its current series in 2023.

That’s the main movies I buzzed out on in 2022. I’m sure there’s loads more. But that’ll do for today as I ease into Substack newsletter writing for a new year.

How about you? What as your film of the year in 2022? What new movie watching habits did you notice about yourself? What classics – or duds – did you rewatch? And what sort of movie-coverage/chats are you hoping for here this year?