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2019’s Best Horror Film and TV

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It’s that time of the year again!  The time when we google which films are the best that 2019 has brought us.

First off, I hate to be “that guy,” but I might be one of the only people that didn’t like Midsommar.  Maybe I was having an off day with my horror gene.  Maybe Jupiter was in retrograde.  Whatever the reason, it just wasn’t jelling with me.

If we all can’t agree about what is the best, at least we can agree about the disappointment in the reboots; namely Jacob’s Ladder & Grudge.

While this year has been full of great mainstream horror, and I am a sucker for the underdog horror, the horror that only us horror enthusiast know about.  These rare jems tend to be at the top of my “best” list.

There have also been some great horror series this past year.  They still appear to be dropping every month or so on streaming networks.  While I haven’t had the chance to view all of them yet, the ones I saw do feel to be on the “best of horror” list.

I don’t know if it’s because I am a comic book collector since the tender and impressionable age of 13, but I love me some Superhero cinema.  Imagine my excitement for 2019 beginning the new age of Superhero horror with films like; Brightburn, Doctor Sleep and of course Glass.

These Superhero horrors finally coming to light makes sense with this day and age of super hero blockbusters reigning at the movie theaters.  I for one am not complaining, long live Stan Lee!  I don’t want any part of a “best of” list that doesn’t mention these diamonds!

Well horror friends, here is MY top 19 best scary of 2019. Did you get to see all these on the list?  As the man himself said it best, Excelsior!

Happy Horror- Glenn Packard

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19. Haunted

 IMDb rating: 4.6

Movie Synopsis:

This reality series, which comes from the producers of “The Purge” and “Lore,” provides viewers with a chilling glimpse into first-person accounts of supernatural events. People who have witnessed horrifying, peculiar or extraordinary events tell their tales, which include how the unexplained phenomena continue to haunt them. Stories include a boy who is haunted by visions of a woman hanging in his closet and sisters who grew up in a real-life house of horrors with a sadistic father who did unspeakable things.

 

18. Annabelle Comes Home

IMDb rating: 5.9

Movie Synopsis:

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren lock the possessed doll in the artifacts room in their house. But when the doll awakens the room’s evil spirits, it soon becomes an unholy night of terror for the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, her friends and their young baby sitter.

17. Crawl

IMDb rating: 6.2

Movie Synopsis:

When a massive hurricane hits her Florida town, young Haley ignores the evacuation orders to search for her missing father, Dave. After finding him gravely injured in their family home, the two of them become trapped by the rapidly encroaching floodwaters. With the storm strengthening, Haley and Dave discover an even greater threat than the rising water level — a relentless attack from a pack of gigantic alligators.

  16. Glass

IMDb rating: 6.7

Movie Synopsis:

David Dunn tries to stay one step ahead of the law while delivering vigilante justice on the streets of Philadelphia. His special talents soon put him on a collision course with the Beast — the psychotic madman who has superhuman strength and 23 distinct personalities. Their epic showdown leads them to an encounter with the mysterious Elijah Price, the criminal mastermind who holds critical secrets for both men.

15. YOU

IMDb rating: 8.3

Movie Synopsis:

What would you do for love? For a brilliant male bookstore manager who crosses paths with an aspiring female writer, this question is put to the test. A charming yet awkward crush becomes something even more sinister when the writer becomes the manager’s obsession. Using social media and the internet, he uses every tool at his disposal to become close to her, even going so far as to remove any obstacle –including people — that stands in his way of getting to her.

14. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

IMDb rating: 6.2 

Movie Synopsis:

The shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large in the small town of Mill Valley for generations. It’s in a mansion that young Sarah Bellows turns her tortured life and horrible secrets into a series of scary stories. These terrifying tales soon have a way of becoming all too real for a group of unsuspecting teens who stumble upon Sarah’s spooky home.

13. One Cut Of The Dead

IMDb rating: 7.7

Movie Synopsis:

Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie film in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility when they are attacked by real zombies.

 

12. Godzilla: King of Monsters

IMDb rating: 6.1 

Movie Synopsis:

Members of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species-thought to be mere myths-rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.

11. Marianne

IMDb rating: 7.5

Movie Synopsis:

A famous horror writer who is lured back to her hometown discovers that the evil spirit who plagues her dreams is now wreaking havoc in the real world.

 

10. Escape Room

 

IMDb rating: 4.2

Movie Synopsis:

Six adventurous strangers travel to a mysterious building to experience the escape room — a game where players compete to solve a series of puzzles to win $10,000. What starts out as seemingly innocent fun soon turns into a living nightmare as the four men and two women discover each room is an elaborate trap that’s part of a sadistic game of life or death.

9. US

IMDb rating: 6.9

Movie Synopsis:

Accompanied by her husband, son and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.

8. The Perfection

IMDb rating: 6.1

Movie Synopsis:

A troubled musical prodigy and a new star pupil embark down a sinister path.

7. Haunt

IMDb rating: 6.3

Movie Synopsis:

On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an extreme haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realization that some nightmares are real.

 

6. Ready or Not

IMDb rating: 6.9

Movie Synopsis:

Grace couldn’t be happier after she marries the man of her dreams at his family’s luxurious estate. There’s just one catch — she must now hide from midnight until dawn while her new in-laws hunt her down with guns, crossbows and other weapons. As Grace desperately tries to survive the night, she soon finds a way to turn the tables on her not-so-lovable relatives.

5. Black Summer

IMDb rating: 6.3

Movie Synopsis:

Set in the “Z Nation” universe, this series follows a crack team of special forces as it fights for hope in the darkest hours of the zombie apocalypse.

4. Brightburn

 

IMDb rating: 6.2

Movie Synopsis:

After a difficult struggle with fertility, Tori Breyer’s dreams of motherhood come true with the arrival of a mysterious baby boy. Brandon appears to be everything Tori and her husband, Kyle, ever wanted — bright, talented and curious about the world. But as Brandon nears puberty, powerful darkness manifests within him, and Tori becomes consumed by terrible doubts about her son. Once Brandon begins to act on his twisted urges, those closest to him find themselves in grave danger.

3. IT: Chapter 2

IMDb rating: 6.7

Movie Synopsis:

Defeated by members of the Losers’ Club, the evil clown Pennywise returns 27 years later to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine, once again. Now adults, the childhood friends have long since gone their separate ways. But when people start disappearing, Mike Hanlon calls the others home for one final stand. Damaged by scars from the past, the united Losers must conquer their deepest fears to destroy the shape-shifting Pennywise — now more powerful than ever.

2. Belzebuth

 

IMDb rating: 6

Movie Synopsis:

After losing his family in an extremely tragic way, Detective Ritter must investigate a massacre at a school perpetrated by a student

1. Doctor Sleep

IMDb rating: 7.5

Movie Synopsis:

Struggling with alcoholism, Dan Torrance remains traumatized by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was a child. His hope for a peaceful existence soon becomes shattered when he meets Abra, a teen who shares his extrasensory gift of the “shine.” Together, they form an unlikely alliance to battle the True Knot, a cult whose members try to feed off the shine of innocents to become immortal.

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Honorable mention:

In Search of Darkness: A Journey into Iconic ’80s Horror

I highly recommend anybody that grew up in the 80’s or loves 80’s horror to watch this, so inspiring.

 

Read what my friend Brianna Spieldenner thinks are the best horror poster’s of 2019 here!

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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