Oscar Predictions 2015

BEST PICTURE

The Best Picture category, more often than not, tends to be a two horse race. Last year was the throw up between special effects epic Gravity, or slave drama 12 Years a Slave. The year before, Argo and Lincoln. The support in this year’s nominations is solid, The Grand Budapest Hotel rewarding Wes Anderson’s strong contribution to cinema in the past 15 years, and Whiplash a much deserved nod for a standout of last year’s independent cinema. But the ‘two-horse race’, here, belongs to two of the more unique films of the past decade. Both tremendously ambitious in the own way, and both distinctly memorable in their own way. The stronger of the two, I believe, is Inarritu’s Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), an immensely enjoyable effort with the hands-down best ensemble cast of the year: Inarritu’s dissection of fame in the film industry is equally hilarious and uncomfortable, an all too real inside scoop on the mechanisms of a Broadway production. The equally deserving winner, however, is most likely to be Boyhood, which you’ll, unless you’ve been under a rock the last few months, has been hoovering up just about any award it can get its hands on. Hollywood just can’t resist Linklater’s monumental feat of cinema, truly the only of its kind.

Should Win: Birdman

Will Win: Boyhood

BEST DIRECTOR

Unsurprisingly, the praise for the Best Picture generally falls quite neatly into the lap of the respective Director, who’s most likely to scoop the double. That said, the last two ceremonies have seen unexpected imbalance in this respect, last year’s ceremony honouring Alfonso Cuaron’s technical wizardry over Best Picture winner Steve McQueen’s unflinching storytelling, while 2013 forgot Ben Affleck altogether from the directing category, awarding Ang Lee for his sublime effort on Life of Pi. No such mismatch should occur here: Linklater, forever a darling of the independent cinema, has stepped up to the challenge and taken an indie experiment to blockbusting and mainsteam award success, and deserves every bit of the praise he gets. Boyhood reads not only as a fascinating mapping of the last 12 years, or as an intriguing coming-of-age story, but as a loving anecdote of Linklater’s film history, combining the best elements of his Before Sunrise trilogy amongst others. Linklater, once too cool for the Oscars, has really come into his own here.

Should Win: Richard Linklater

Will Win: Richard Linklater

BEST ACTOR

Considerably harder to predict than in recent years, the Best Actor category is not only hotly contested but extremely varied in its offerings. Once a front runner, Benedict Cumberbatch’s superb performance as Alan Turing has been somewhat forgotten, perhaps over shadowed by his English counterpart Redmayne. Bradley Cooper, despite picking up some flak for the questionable motivations of American Sniper, puts in an unrecognizable stint, the weight gain an Academy favourite and one which might ordinarily end in awards. Steve Carrell, in any other year, would have been a stand out favourite in a Supporting Actor field (which his performance certainly ought to be placed in), for one of the more chilling roles of the year. The two heavyweights, however, are separated by barely anything, and thus makes this a considerably harder category to predict. Redmayne has, up until now, received the bulk of the awards for an unforgettable performance as genius ALS sufferer Stephen Hawking, Michael Keaton, however, is a seasoned favourite, making a comeback in spectacular fashion, in a role that’s comedy and tragedy in equal measure, with Keaton not only striking the balance, but knocking it out the park. Redmayne, it seems, would just clinch it.

Should Win: Michael Keaton (Birdman)

Will Win: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

BEST ACTRESS

Strangely, the Best Actress category this year hasn’t been talked about much, considering the hype surrounding the past few superb winners (Blanchett, Lawrence, Streep, Portman, etc.). What is notable, meanwhile, is all are very clearly the star of the film for which they are nominated, as opposed to being a successful product of the film. Reese Witherspoon, winner for Walk the Line, is outstanding in what first seemed to be remarkably similar to Into the Wild, but is in fact a considerable effort in it’s own right. Julianne Moore has been singled out as the clear favourite, her distinctly calm and collected acceptance speech at the Baftas showing victory is all too expected for her. Rosamund Pike, meanwhile, gives the stand-out performance, not only of the category but perhaps of the year: as the eponymous Gone Girl, her manipulative, mysterious, and all-over conceited performances was disturbing in every sense of the word, standing out in, in my opinion, 2014’s best film.

Should Win: Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Will Win: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Bar Robert Duvall’s not entirely deserved nomination for The Judge, this is perhaps the strongest category of the year. Edward Norton, whose outstanding commitment to the method has made him one of the most sought after actors of decade, is on stunning form as a semi-caricature of himself – a screen-to-stage actor who takes himself just that bit too seriously – and provides some of the year’s best deadpan in his onscreen rivalry with Keaton. Mark Ruffalo’s wonderfully understated role in Foxcatcher plays perfectly off the surreal characters of Channing Tatum and Steve Carrell, but isn’t quite enough to make him the bride rather than the bridesmaid. The ever impressive Ethan Hawke, the perfect counterpart to Linklater as we’ve come to learn, in any other year a sure winner, is charming, loveable, and despicable as the rarely present father in Boyhood. None match up to J.K. Simmons, in a role tailor-made for his ability to effuse anger in every way possible, gives what might be the performance of the year: so wonderfully hateable you miss him every time he’s not on screen, his jazz afficianado in Whiplash is the aggressive PE coach or pushy music teacher we all had at some point in our lives. Simmons is truly one of the greatest character actors of our generation, and this is an Oscar hard-earned.

Should Win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Will Win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

The obvious talking point of this category is, as it always has been, Meryl Streep: receiving her 19^th nomination for Into the Woods is an unimaginable feat, and one which perhaps daunts the other nominees. She’ll most likely, however, have to save it for lucky number 20, since unusually she is a clear outsider in a highly commendable category. Clear favourite is Patricia Arquette, the mother to Ethan Hawke’s father in Boyhood, and a role which sees her character arc through the most fantastic yet tragic process possible: motherhood comes so naturally to Arquette that her on-screen relationship with son Coltrane is never unconvincing. An outside shout has to go to Emma Stone, meanwhile, in a performance which has perhaps redefined her career: steering worryingly close to the romcom ‘girl-next-door’, Stone has taken the wheel of her own career, to incredible effect. Her recovering drug-addict in Birdman is powerfully destructive both to herself and to those around her, a real force to be reckoned with in the midst of her overbearing father Keaton and aspiring alpha Norton.

Should Win: Emma Stone (Birdman)

Will Win: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

BEST OF THE REST

Original Screenplay – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Adapted Screenplay – Whiplash

Cinematography - Birdman

Costume – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Editing - Whiplash

Documentary Feature - CitizenFour

Animated Feature – Big Hero 6

Foreign Language - Ida

Music – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Top 5: Biggest Snubs

5. The Lego Movie (Best Animated Feature/Best Picture)

Certainly the most surprisingly brilliant film of the year, displaying extraordinarily clever themes for an animated film, it’s a travesty this masterpiece didn’t make it onto the Best Animated Feature list, let alone the Best Picture category.

4. Gillian Flynn/Gone Girl (Best Adapted Screenplay)

A bestseller in novel form, Flynn provided the exhilarating screenplay for last year’s tensest plotline, magnificently transforming her own book into on-screen gold.

3. Scarlett Johansson/Under the Skin (Best Actress)

A performance that unfortunately disappeared off the radar, Johansson’s extraterrestrial portrayal redefined onscreen aliens, in seductive and chilling in equal measure.

2. Jake Gyllenhaal/Nightcrawler (Best Actor)

Hands down Gyllenhaal’s finest performance, and easily more exciting and watchable than some of the more, say, formulaic nominations in this category.

1. Gone Girl/David Fincher (Best Picture/Best Director)

Fincher’s a genius, and this was the film of the year. Enough said.

Film 2015

THE AWARD-WINNER

Birdman, or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (January 1^st)

Ever hear that one about the former superhero actor now washed up and trying to climb back to the top? Birdman, given its shorter title, narrates a story remarkably close to that of its leading man Michael Keaton: washed-up superhero actor attempts to restore his fame by writing/starring/appearing in an ill-fated Raymond Carver adaptation for Broadway.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s fifth feature is looking likely to be his most award-baiting, a meta-comedy epic shot (almost) in one long tracking shot, with outstanding, playing-against-type performances from Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts. And Michael Keaton finally plays what seems to be the role of his career: to say he was born to play this is perhaps pathetically romantic, but it could be said his whole career his built up to his point. And boy does it fly high. (SPOILER: Expect a review very soon.)

THE CULT

Inherent Vice (January 30^th)

The Big Lebowski is hands-down the best film of all time, and so when the trailer for P.T. Anderson’s Inherent Vice landed in my lap, depicting (according to IMDb) ‘drug-fueled Los Angeles detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend’, the comparison had to be made. And to see P.T. Anderson, one of the great auteurs of our generation, reunited with Joaquin Phoenix, legendary character actor, after their sterling collaboration on The Master, is nothing short of a cinematic blessing. Anderson returns to his comedy bones, a la Punch Drunk Love, following the brief albeit fantastic hiatus that brought us There Will Be Blood and The Master, and I simply cannot wait.

THE BLOCKBUSTER

Avengers: Age of Ultron (April 24^th)

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight franchise taught us that to make a good superhero film, you need to emphasise the humanity behind the mask: Joss Whedon, meanwhile, taught us that you need to make it funny. Perhaps the best ensemble superhero film of all time, 2012’s Avengers Assemble packed action and laughs in equal measure, and miraculously gave equal screen time to several of the biggest actors in Hollywood. Now eleven (yes, eleven) films into the franchise, Whedon reassembles 2012’s cast with star-children Aaron Johnston and Elizabeth Olsen, plus James Spader voicing big bad Ultron. Undoubtedly an absolute thrill ride – Whedon doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘disappointment’.

THE CONNOISSEUR'S CHOICE

Knight of Cups (2015, date unannounced)

Considering in the first 40 years of his career, Terrence Malick released only five films, his current rate of production is reaching terminal velocity: 2011’s The Tree of Life was quickly followed by To The Wonder, while an unexpected three films have been slated for a 2015/early 2016 release. One of these is the aforementioned Knight of Cups, about which we know little other than its almighty cast including Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Natalie Portman, and a typically Malickian enigmatic trailer. With Malick, however, to know little about a project is not necessarily a bad thing: with a track record this good, we can know we’re expecting stunning visuals, a mystical screenplay, and the poetic quality attached to all of his films. This, combined with Blanchett straight off the back of an all-time great Oscar win, and Bale at the top of his game, is sure to be a formula for success.

THE REBOOT

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (December 18^th)

With a franchise this big, and a mythology this mighty, there really was only ever one man for the job: cue J.J. Abrams. Earning a name for himself as the greatest science-fiction director since Spielberg, Abrams career reads like sci-fi geeks dream: his Star Trek reboot truly reached new found territory, embracing old fans and new discoverers alike, while his original works, including Lost, Cloverfield, and Super 8, have all been met with great acclaim. As a self-professed Star Wars fanboy, the next stage of the franchise (following a somewhat questionable phase) will be sure to recreate the magic of the original, while bringing Abrams own unique charms to proceedings. Indeed, the fist-pumping reappearance of the Millenium Falcon in November’s trailer and the reunion of Hamill, Fisher, and Ford ensures some of Lucas’ original charm. With shaky-cam and lens-flare galore, this is sure to be, fingers-crossed, the much needed shot-in-the-arm of the sci-fi bible.

THE BEST-TIL-LAST 

The Hateful Eight (2015, date unannounced)

Never someone to be fucked with, Tarantino decidedly and whole-heartedly announced that, following the leak of his latest script, he would refuse to produce his next planned endeavor, The Hateful Eight. A somewhat legendary script reading, however, let forth a tidal wave of persuasion, and one which has led him to backtrack, and subsequently begin production on his 9^th feature film, a revenge western (as hinted by its title) in the vein of The Magnificent Seven. The Western has been a tried, tested, and proven formula for Quentin: pseudo-western Kill Bill enraptured audiences, while the somewhat controversial Django Unchained lovingly homaged Leone et al. And, out of the blue, Tarantino announced recently this was to be his penultimate film: so enjoy them while they last, there’s nothing quite like a Tarantino film.

2014: Year of the #Bandwagon

What a year it has been. The inevitable death of English football, the long-awaited War of Independence up north, and not to mention enough #neknominations, #nomakeupselfies and #icebucketchallenges to keep our over occupied social-media lives filled to the brim. Film-wise, it hasn’t been a bad one either: turns out Matthew McConnaughey, despite his best wishes 5 years ago, is going to go down as one of the acting greats, and that someone can make a good animation outside of Studios Pixar and Ghibli (see The Lego Movie if you haven’t already). So here I present to you, my hotly-anticipated, critically-definitive, and massively oversold Review of the Year (the film year, here, starting post-Oscar frenzy). Devour.

Male Performance of the Year: Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)

Considering his glorious career of star-making performances, from Donnie Darko to Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain, Jake Gyllenhaal might just be earning a name for himself as the next DiCaprio: all applause and no awards. Gyllenhaal might just be breaking that curse here, with a character that’s equal parts petty thief as it is Patrick Bateman. Slightly autistic and near psychotic amateur cameraman Louis Bloom dominates the screen in this morally troubling neo-noir, spouting out regurgitated online business hints as he happily films families being murdered and car crash victims bleeding out. Mixing Gyllenhaal’s everyman charm with a chilling air of insanity, here we have perhaps the earliest frontrunner for the Oscars.

Runner Up: Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Wes Anderson is known for, among many other things, his ability to assemble casts of acting royalty, both a blessing and a curse: the curse being that impressive performances can often get lost in the mix. Here, Fiennes, as the flamboyant and sharp-tongued M Gustave, consistently steals the show, quite a feat when coming up against Bill Murray, Adrian Brody, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, et al. A wonderful mix of charm and scheming, Fiennes gives an outstandingly understated comic performance, perhaps the most memorable in all of Anderson’s backlog. 

Female Performance of the Year: Scarlett Johansson (Under The Skin)

Back in March, my excruciatingly over-excited piece on Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin tipped Scarlett Johansson’s central performance as an all time great, and nine months later I still stand by my brash statement. Johansson’s unnamed extra-terrestrial communicates an emptiness and coldness beyond human conception, one who unflinchingly seduces members of the public into her fatal ‘den’: as a character which speaks minimally throughout the film, Johansson’s predatorial eyes and steely expression consistently convinces as a hunter stalking the hunted.

Runner Up: Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Poor poor Rosamund Pike, for after this film undoubtedly any family or friends, were I in their shoes, ought to run for the hills. As the so-called ‘Amazing Amy’, the thrilling rollercoaster ride of the film is all pinned on the conniving and manipulative performance of Pike as the eponymous ‘gone girl’. Shout out for perhaps the most white-knuckle scene of the year as Amy appears to, er, change her mind about a possessive ex-boyfriend, played by Neil Patrick Harris.

Most Overrated: Locke

Tom Hardy seems hardly able to put a foot wrong these days, in a spate of films that has seen him in a scene-stealing role in Inception to full on supervillain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Here, unfortunately, he has been plonked in what might be considered the most boring film of the decade so far. The quantity of reviews along the line of ‘See how good Tom Hardy is when its just Tom Hardy being Tom Hardy in a car’, oh and ‘how good is his welsh accent?’. Well, Locke is a film which becomes increasingly claustrophobic, not on account of its thrilling suspense or superb cinematography, but simply because you are wondering how long of your life you have wasted this completely yawn-fest. Oh, and Hardy’s accent isn’t even that fantastic.

Most Underrated: Cheap Thrills

Sold as a cheap horror comedy and slipped under the radar in the early months of the year, this outstanding horror-comedy presents what is perhaps the most spot-on social commentary in years, to both hilarious and horrific results. Two out-of-work losers bump into each other after a number of years apart: their evening turns sour as David Koechner’s eccentric playboy propositions them with what seems like an easy money-making exercise, which quickly twists into possibly the worst evening of their lives. A spot-on commentary of consumerism and the extent one would go for money, especially at our lowest moments.

Top Five Films:

5) Frank (Lenny Abrahamson)

Possibly the weirdest film of the year, we follow experimental band Soronprfbs based loosely on Jon Ronson’s account of his time with Chris Sievey’s Oh Blimey Big Band on tour. Michael Fassbender excels as the half-genius half-mentally deranged Frank, despite being masked by an enormous papier-mache head for the majority. 

4) Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)

Christopher Nolan’s long awaited arrival in the science-fiction genre left heads itching for weeks to come. A space epic with stunning visuals, a mindblowing score, and a script that just might be too clever for its own good. Given all this, plus top-flight performances from Matthew McConnaughey and Anne Hathaway, this did by no means disappoint.

3) Boyhood (Richard Linklater)

To the hordes of critics saying Interstellar was the most ambitious film of the year, look no further: Boyhood, if you haven’t heard already, was filmed over the space of 12 years! 12 years! Passion projects don’t come bigger than this, as Richard Linklater not only pours vats-full of emotion into this, but in a beautiful way sums up his illustrious film career so far. Cameos of contemporary references, including the Gameboy, US elections, and a plethora of music which wonderfully encompass the year, make this particularly pleasing to an adolescent who has practically undergone the same thing.

2) Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)

Still the most thrilling alien invasion film in years, Jonathan Glazer strikes a chord that’s less Steven Spielberg and more The Old Firm. Glazer and Johansson plucked unknowing strangers off the streets of Glasgow, both fictionally and real life, to be devoured by unseen force. Mica Levi’s score echoes Close Encounter with heaps more suspense, a fantastic work of art in its own right. Prize for the most spine-chilling scene of the year, involving a trusting surfer, a baby, and the relentless power of the ocean.

1) Gone Girl (David Fincher)

Never before has a film left me unable to walk, let alone speak. David Fincher’s dissection of marriage twists, turns, and crashes like a rollercoaster that has fallen off its tracks. An analysis of the media, a redefinition of trust, a fresh perspective on love, and an incredibly unreliable narrator, Fincher leaves no ground untrodden. Gillian Flynn’s outstanding script is brought to life by Fincher’s characteristically shadowy cinematography, and at the centre a career-high performance from Ben Affleck, notable considering his recent directorial rebirth. Most certainly not for the faint hearted, and hard to describe as ‘enjoyment’, this is truly the full package, and certainly the most ‘on-the-money’ film of the year. Viewing compulsory, caution advised.

Best of the Rest

Album of the Year – Alt-J, This is All Yours

Song of the Year – Jungle, The Heat

TV Show of the Year – True Detective

Hero of the Year – Pope Francis

Villain of the Year – Nigel Farage/Russell Brand (joint winners)

To The Stars and Beyond

Particularly fitting for a film which turns over themes of exploration, unearthing untrodden ground, and pushing the boundaries of human expectation, Christopher Nolan’s ninth film Interstellar goes where no brave soul has gone before. Nolan and ‘ambition’ go hand in hand, and this is certainly his most ambitious film to date: and maybe, just maybe, he’s gone too far this time.

Nolan, better than almost anyone still in the business, knows how to bring it when it comes to the blockbuster game: he does ‘big’ in his own very unique, hand-crafted way. In short, you never really know what you’re getting yourself in for, but boy do you know its going to be good. Memento combined gritty film–making with mind-numbing twists, Inception practically defined the word 'mindfuck', and his Dark Knight Trilogy rewrote the rule book on how to make a superhero film. Sci-fi, therefore, was the next obvious choice for the man who’s done everything.

Interstellar has science fiction stamped all over it: set up by a well-established background of a dying earth desperately reaching out for salvation, Nolan marvels in the majesty and ambition gifted by his deep space locations, both inside and outside of the spaceship. What is more, the Nolan brothers writing team have clearly invested a considerable amount of time in analyzing the science and physics behind the possibilities of space travel between dimensions, and are more than happy to show this off in the actual film. Nolan revisits themes of time which appeared at the forefront of Inception:  without giving much away, we learn that, due to the way a black hole can sap energy, time on one planet could be vastly different to that in reality. It is for this reason that the urgency of the mission feels so pressing, especially in the one instance when 1 hour is equivalent to about 7 years on earth. While competently introducing new themes, it is very clear where Nolan takes inspiration for a considerable chunk of the film: while 2001 is an obvious reference point, I’d like to see it as a loving homage rather than idea theft, successfully capturing the brilliance of Kubrick’s film while arguably achieving the depth which Kubrick perhaps lost in style.

What is worrying about a film on this scale, meanwhile, is that style overcompensates for a lack of substance, and that the characters can get flushed out into the voids of deep space. Not true here, however, since Nolan is a director who knows how to get actors at their very best. Channeling some of the desperation of DiCaprio’s Cobb in Inception, and the blind compulsion of Guy Pearce in Memento, Matthew McConnaughey, as we have become accustomed to, brings his absolute A-game. His likeable albeit pretty flawed protagonist Cooper channels all of the energy of a man who is grounded on earth but who’s head is up among the stars. An immensely powerful father-daughter story replaces what could easily have been a simple romance dynamic, and we are all the more grateful for it. Not only this, but Cooper’s relationship with his daughter (played with equal charm by Mackenzie Foy and Jessica Chastain) becomes integral to the actual physics of the mission. Love, as we are often reminded, is the one dimension which physics can’t understand or evaluate.

But this is not just the Nolan and McConnaughey show: on the contrary, Interstellar, just like the Endurance space shuttle, is packed full of the brightest minds in the business. Anne Hathaway brings genuine spark and drive to the on screen action, without any of the underlying sexualisation of Alien’s Ripley, and is offered am intriguing plot-thread separate to that of McConnaughey’s, albeit cleverly intertwined. Visually, the film is perfected by first time collaborator Hoyte van Hoytema, whose visions of deep space are terrifying and beautiful in equal measure, while the acid-trippy journey through the black hole channels 2001’s final sequence while becoming increasingly disturbing. The film, meanwhile, would be incomplete without Han Zimmer’s ever-ingenious score, a perfectly symphonic piece which includes a chillingly eerie organ, and the majestic strings reminiscent of Wagner’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. 

On a project of this scale, there are inevitably going to be some cracks in the vessel. The influence of Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece were always going to, and inevitably do, overshadow the critical achievement of the film: the humanised robots, the string instrument score, and the cold white spaceship is almost too much for a devoted Kubrick fan. When it comes to the science, meanwhile, it may seem that the Nolans have bitten off slightly more than they can chew: the science of blackholes and wormholes is immensely complicated, and it at times felt like the effort of the audience was focused too hard on understanding these mindfucks rather than enjoying what was an exquisitely created production.

  

But with Nolan, of all people, we cannot condemn for being too ambitious. Indeed, it is for this very reason that we anticipate his films with such intrigue, and know that the price of the ticket is not going to be for something of the ordinary: with the science, it might sometimes be better to sit back and accept that you won’t understand everything. And with Interstellar, the perfection of every other element outweighs this prospect of misunderstanding in every way. It seems that, despite being flawed just as Kubrick’s was, Nolan’s Interstellar may just be the true successor to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and has perhaps even surpassed it.

Trick or Treat

Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain, call it what you want. Its that time of year again. That time of year when it seems half the female population seem to lose all sense of creativity and just go as cats. When it seems acceptable to walk out in a ‘Slutty (insert profession here)’ and still pretend it’s a children’s festival. When clubs in every direction try to flog you their ‘Halloween extravaganza’, and it suddenly seems fine to walk around with a fake axe in hand and covered in corn syrup without anyone calling the police. This year, in my 20^th year, it finally seems that maybe Halloween is losing its magic, and instead seeming like a bizarre celebration of serial killers, borderline racism, and pumpkins. So this year, I propose something different: watch a movie. So here I present to you, not cheap sweets and blood-splattered t-shirts, but the five horror films which redefined the genre. Convention was so last year.

1.    The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Before A Nightmare on Elm Street there was Friday the 13^th , before that there was Halloween, and before that there was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Voted the scariest film of all time by Empire Magazine, Tobe Hooper’s 1974 low budget slasher entered realms where no film had gone before: filmed for less than $300,000, Hooper used gritty realism and cutting-edge camerawork to make up for lack of effects and flare. By no means was this the first slasher film, considering its predecessors Psycho and Peeping Tom, but set out what can now be considered an almost iconic formula for any slasher film: group of harmless youths enter house, discover maniac, maniac kills all but the main protagonist, main protagonist barely escapes, inevitably to meet the same maniac some time soon (usually in the prequel). Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kreuger, Michael Myers all owe a huge amount to Tobe Hooper.

2.    Alien (1979)

What Ridley Scott did in his 1974 breakthrough feature was nothing short of revolutionary: he made what might be conceived as the world’s first sci-fi horror film. Not just a sci-fi film with scary elements, nor a horror film with a extraterrestrial twist, a true sci-fi horror film. See, what Scott did was take the killer/maniac/monster on the loose plot which we know and love so well, and do something which no one would expect – put it in space. Here, the spaceship is the haunted house, the astronauts the helpless youths, and the eponymous Xenomorph the killer on the loose. Not only does he grasp the sci-fi genre with such intensity and intrigue, the film is truly terrifying. The formula works: John Carpenter followed it just years later with cult classic The Thing, as did the near knock-off Predator in 1987. This is convention, don’t get me wrong, but with an unbelievable twist and spot-on execution.

3.    The Scream Quadrilogy (1996-2011)

For some, sitting back and watching a film isn’t really enough: for Wes Craven, it clearly wasn’t. Evidently inspired/overwhelmed/unsatisfied by the classic conventions of horror films, he decided to make a horror film about horror films. Scream reads the rule book aloud, staring down the camera and nodding approvingly: it follows a group of horror movie fans very aware of the horror genre, and how this helps/definitely doesn’t help when dealing with a ghost-faced serial killer on their hands. Scream II lovingly acknowledges the one-up man ship of sequels, while Scream III goes full out meta, following the disastrous film production of the fictionalized account of the events of the previous films. Can’t help but feel the Scary Movie gang slightly missed the point when spoofing a spoof itself.

4.    The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Ever waited for a film reveal for so long and then suddenly realize there isn’t one? 1999 The Blair Witch Project really changed the game when it came to film marketing: shrouded in mystery upon mystery, it began with a report of a supposed lost film crew, gradually building momentum and ending with the resulting 90 minutes of truly terrifying and gripping found-footage. Adhering to the age-old film trope that ‘more is less’, we never see the titular ‘witch’, and are all the more relieved for it. For without the appearance of a CGI nightmare, the true terror lies in what is unseen, guided along only by some spine-tingling sequences involving wooden sculptures, not to mention the bone-chilling finale. Everywhere you look now, found-footage is all the rage: Paranormal Activity, V/H/S, Cloverfield, but none have managed to recreate the first-person thrills injected by this horror masterpiece for the ages.

5.    Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Truly the horror film to end all horror films. If Scream reads out the rulebook, Cabin in the Woods grabs the rulebook by the shoulders, tears out its pages, and sets them on fire while cramming them down the audience’s throats. To say that it’s a rollercoaster is an under exaggeration, and to say it’s a horror film is perhaps in accurate. To be honest, I don’t really know what this film is, and I’m not sure writer Joss Whedon does either. Without trying to spoil anything, it spoofs horrors of the Cabin Fever and Evil Dead ilk, while adding in cheeky shout outs to just about every other horror sub-genre out there. A truly phenomenal undertaking, you may be thinking, but Drew Goddard’s horror-comedy-thriller-etc does it with such panache that you’ll come out screaming with joy about just how bloody clever this film is. Consumer warning: it may just ruin every horror movie you ever watch.