Top 10 BEST Top 10 Hit Songs of 2016

I don't need no stinking introduction. But here, click on this link and you can see my top 10 WORST of the year.



#10. Panda - Desiigner

Top 10 WORST Top 10 Hit Songs of 2016

I've never really tried my hand at writing about music, and while I would normally try to learn a little more about how I should go about trying this out, I actually know about as much about music and I do movies. In fact, in the years leading up to me getting really into movie watching/reviewing, I mostly spent my time listening to tons of music and have continued exploring various genres and expanding my knowledge ever since -- though I admit that has definitely slowed down. So, I've decided to go through the list of Bilboard's top 10 hits of the year and talk a little about the biggest duds (and later, successes) of 2016.

I don't have any specific criteria or rating system in place to rank these songs, all I have is a fairly basic knowledge of musical composition, lyricism, and just a general ear for music in my own subjective way. The songs featured on this list won't necessarily be "bad" in all of these ways, and I can't really expect most people to agree with me on these picks. Obviously, these songs were hits, which means I'm basically just going to be crapping all over nearly a dozen songs that a ton of people enjoyed. Also, I don't listen to pop radip, so something being overplayed isn't going to factor into my opinions on the songs. So there you have it. Let's get this started, I guess.

Starting out 2017 the right way

As the few of you who read this blog already know, I posted a pretty gigantic piece on Hammer's Frankenstein movies from the '50s, '60s, and '70s, and after that I found myself slightly sad. I loved watching through those movies, thinking about them and doing some light research to learn some background on the development of them. It was an enlightening experience that I would love to recreate fairly soon. So, I'm announcing my plans to do this same thing (with a few minor alterations, of course) again with the Universal series. But there are a few things I might need to do first.

The Frankenstein series starting back in the 1930s eventually blended in with Wolf Man and Dracula once they released Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man and the follow-ups. While I don't see much of a connection to the Dracula series, especially considering the casting of John Carradine as opposed to bringing back Bela Lugosi for the part, I feel I need to flesh this whole series out with a bit of a background on each of these serieses. Frankenstein went 4 movies before entering into crossover territory, Wolf Man only 1, and the first Dracula was followed up with 2 semi-sequels and a Spanish alternate version (I'll go into that later), so I'll probably cover everything over several posts something like this:

Adventure Time (S01E01)

Episode #001
'Slumber Party Panic'
Season 1, Episode 1

Princess Bubblegum's disastrous science experiment in a graveyard brings candy people back from the dead -- with a hunger for candy people's flesh. She and Finn proceed to rally the town into her castle to protect everyone under the guise of a massive slumber party while she works on a serum to get everything back to normal.

Top 10 Favorite Christmas Movies

Between Halloween and Christmas, the kind of movies I find myself wanting to watch for the weeks (or month) surrounding them become dominated by the holidays. I love movies so much, and there are certain times of the year that become all the more full for me thanks to them. I dropped the ball with making a favorite movies to watch around Halloween list, so I'm not making that mistake again this year. Here are my favorite movies to watch around Christmas.

First, let me include a few disclaimers. For one, I don't necessarily watch any of these *on* Christmas, because I'm usually far too busy making snow angels out of shredded wrapping paper to think about watching movies, so these aren't ones I have a tradition of watching every single Christmas day itself. Does that matter? Not really, I just wanted to add a little bit about how I love Christmas so much that I don't generally even watch movies during that day. Yeah. It's serious business. Also, these are mostly movies I only watch around Christmas time, which mostly excludes movies I could watch any time of the year. There are movies set around Christmas that just don't make me *feel* the holiday spirit, so these are mostly just the ones I associate with the time of the year, with a few relative exceptions. And finally, this list does not include short films. The Grinch, Rankin/Bass stuff, Charlie Brown...I like those, but that's a list for another time.

So here we go, my 10 most favoritest Christmastime movies!

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#1)

#1
'Rick Potion #9'
Season 1, Episode 6

Morty's crush on his classmate Jessica leads to him asking Rick for a love potion that will make her love him back. Not knowing that it's flu season and the effects of this potion will infect everyone else, Rick mixes up a serum that winds up making everyone fall in love with Morty. He attempts to cure this by making more potions that turn everyone into monsters. Meanwhile, Beth is working late at the hospital and Jerry gets nervous that she might cheat on him with her attractive co-worker.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#2)

#2
'Total Rickall'
Season 2, Episode 4

One day while sitting at the kitchen table with their beloved Uncle Steve, the family are horrified when Rick blasts Steve with a gun, revealing he was actually a parasite who wormed his way into their minds to convince them he was always part of the family. Rick believes someone must have brought the parasite with them on their shoe, as a whole series of other wacky characters begin to emerge and have the family questioning who is actually real and who is a parasite.

The Art of Recommendation: A Beginner's Guide to Being a Useful Movie Know-It-All

Most movie fanatics seem to operate on the thought process that what they like is the best, and in order to further educate their family and friends, they must force their own favorites on everyone else in an effort to expand their horizons. It's a natural response, but ultimately a fruitless one. Granted, you may turn some heads and generate a new fanbase for the art you admire, but for every recruit there are equally as many detractors; the punchline being the latter category won't be able to fully trust your recommendation ever again. There is a time and place for passion and forcefulness, and getting people to watch the things you like because you like them is most definitely not that time and/or place. At least, not if you really care about or respect the artform -- not to mention your friends.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#3)

#3
'The Wedding Squanchers'
Season 2, Episode 10

Rick receives an invitation to the wedding of his best friend Bird Person and Summer's friend from school, which he is apprehensive to accept. The whole family wind up going, where it is then revealed to have been a huge set-up to a mass arrest of Bird Person, Rick and a variety of other criminals who would be in attendance. This leads to the family narrowly escaping and needing to find a new planet to live on while the galactic authorities hunt for Rick.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#4)

#4
'Rixty Minutes'
Season 1, Episode 8

Tired of watching inane Earth television with the family, Rick installs an interdimensional cable box (with crystals!) that allows them to watch channels from an infinite number of realities. Jerry appears as a movie star on several of the channels they're watching, which leads to Rick giving Jerry, Beth, and Summer a headset that allows them to look through the eyes of different versions of themselves in alternate realities. Familial issues arise.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#5)

#5
'Close Rick-counters Of The Rick Kind'
Season 1, Episode 10

Rick is taken captive by alternate versions of himself and brought in front of a tribunal headed by the supreme council of Ricks. They believe he's responsible for the murders of other Ricks and for kidnapping multiple copies of Morty. He escapes from the Ricks with Morty in tow, as they attempt to find the true culprit. Meanwhile back on Earth, Jerry befriends a "doofus" version of Rick, all the while being taunted by more regular copies of Rick who have taken the house over as a base of operations for their manhunt.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#6)

#6
'A Rickle In Time'
Season 2, Episode 1

Following the 6-month time freeze at the end of the first season, Rick, Morty, and Summer restart time, which makes time itself unstable. Sending Jerry and Beth to get ice cream and allow time to stabilize, Morty and Summer have a small fight that results in a time-split. As time keeps fracturing, they have less and less time to restore it before they all cease to exist. Meanwhile, Jerry and Beth hit a deer with the car and Beth attempts to operate and save its life.

2016 in film (Part X)

I have decided to pass on putting reviews of these ones on the list, seeing as how close we're getting to me needing to rewrite a crap ton of tidbits about the 25 best movies, 10 best performances, 10 most UGH movies, and any other countdowns, so you'll just have to deal with seeing a flat list this time around. Too many other projects and CHRISTMAS(!!!) going on for me to want to write more right now.

So here's my incredibly lazy listing of the 91st-100th movies I've seen from 2016.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#7)

#7
'Pilot'
Season 1, Episode 1

Rick, an alcoholic supergenius scientist inventor, moves in with his estranged daughter and her family, constantly taking his grandson Morty with him on sci-fi escapades to other planets and dimensions. This is effecting Morty's grades and attendance at school, which causes conflict between Morty's parents - Jerry and Beth - and Rick.

The Hammer Frankenstein series (1957 - 1974)

Back in the mid-'50s, Hammer Film Productions (a company founded in 1934) transitioned from largely producing mystery films and noirs to focusing more heavily on reimagining the gothic horror stories brought to life by Universal Studios starting several decades earlier. While it took a few films for Hammer to make this step, starting it's official horror catalog with black and white sci/fi movies like 'X The Unknown' and 'The Quatermass Xperiment' (and no, that's not a typo) that were at worst passably entertaining, in 1957 everything changed with the release of 'The Curse of Frankenstein', their first color horror movie and a massively influential gothic milestone.

In spite of not being their first foray into the horror genre, Hammer's first entry in their Frankenstein series was perhaps the most important film they ever produced. This movie, which was a distinct departure from the source material had an instant impact on their company, ushering in sequels and several other horror films that would become series' of their own. The use of gothic sets, brightly colored blood, and theatrical performances became staples of the company, and as Hammer's first color horror film, this one pretty much set the standard. Following the exploits of Dr. Frankenstein, this series immediately separated itself from the Universal films, which focused more on the Monster instead. It was a different approach that paid off in the end, as this allowed them to create new monsters with each movie and still have the series tie in together through a single lead performance.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#8)

#8
'Auto-Erotic Assimilation'
Season 2, Episode 3

Rick, Morty, and Summer follow a distress beacon on a planet where they encounter Unity, an ex-lover of Rick's. Unity takes the three to a planet which is inhabited by people possessed and controlled though its hive mind. Unity and Rick rekindle their romantic relationship much to the chagrin of Summer, who seeks to free the minds of the individuals under Unity's control. Back on Earth, Jerry and Beth discover a hatch under the garage where Rick has a dangerous looking alien held captive.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#9)

#9
'Look Who's Purging Now'
Season 2, Episode 9

Rick and Morty stop off at a planet real quick to grab some windshield wiper fluid, only to discover that planet is having a "purge night" like the popular movie series. Rick is intrigued by this and decides to stick around to watch it, only to wind up being drug into it. Back on Earth, Jerry tries to bond with Summer.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#10)

#10
'M. Night Shaym-Aliens!'
Season 1, Episode 4

Rick wakes up one day and realizes something is slightly off. He and Morty are actually in a giant Earth simulation created by aliens who intend on tricking Rick into revealing his recipe for a special kind of fuel intended for high-speed space travel. Meanwhile Jerry, who is also in this simulation, doesn't notice anything is off (in spite of a plethora of obvious clues) and winds up having the best day of his life in this very fake and lazily robotic simulation of a normal and mundane day.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#11)

#11
'Lawnmower Dog'
Season 1, Episode 2

Jerry is sick of their dog Snuffles being so dumb, so Rick gives the dog a helmet to increase his brain power, which ultimately backfires when the dog becomes too smart and builds robot bodies for he and his canine brethren with plans for world domination. Meanwhile, Rick takes Morty to his teacher's house with a device meant for going into his dreams to "incept" him into giving Morty better grades in math. This also gets out of hand as they're forced to keep going deeper and deeper inside the dreams to avoid being killed.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#12)

#12
'The Ricks Must Be Crazy'
Season 2, Episode 6

On his way to an ice cream place in a different dimension with Morty and Summer, Rick's spacecraft won't start up and he and Morty have to shrink down and go inside it's microverse battery to discover why it isn't working. They leave Summer behind in the car with the instruction to keep her safe while they're gone. Inside the battery is a universe which is meant to power Rick's car, but that universe's scientists are finding new ways of generating their own power.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#13)

#13
'Big Trouble In Little Sanchez'
Season 2, Episode 7

Rick takes Jerry and Beth to intergalactic couples therapy where they're shown what they really think of each other in a very literal sense. Meanwhile, Rick transfers his mind into the body of a child the age of Morty so he can find and kill a vampire at his grandkids' school. He then decides to stay young a little while longer, gaining popularity at school, but there's some changes going on with him that aren't quite normal.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#14)

#14
'Meeseeks And Destroy'
Season 1, Episode 5

Rick lets Jerry, Beth, and Summer use a Meeseeks box (which generates a temporary alien helper named Mr. Meeseeks to perform simple tasks before disintegrating) to get them off of his back so he can take Morty along for another adventure. Morty tires of only ever doing what Rick wants to do, so they make a deal, giving Morty an opportunity to choose their next mission, which doesn't necessarily go as planned. Meanwhile, Jerry has issues with his Meeseeks.

I just watched a video game called 'Hardcore Henry'

I honestly knew exactly what I was getting into with this one, having seen the trailers several times and being warned by multiple people that the trailers really didn't lie (and honestly, how could they?) but I braved the storm anyway and walk away feeling about as indifferent as I always imagined.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#15)

#15
'Ricksy Business'
Season 1, Episode 11

Jerry and Beth leave for a romantic Titanic-themed evening, giving Rick a chance to prove how effective he can be as a babysitter. So, naturally, they throw a massive party inviting all of Summer's school friends and Rick's alien buddies, who proceed to trash the house and transport themselves to a different planet/dimension. Morty has to brave the new environment to find crystals that will send them back to Earth.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#16)

#16
'Anatomy Park'
Season 1, Episode 3

Rick takes Morty into the garage to be shrunk down to see what's going on inside a homeless man's body, where Rick along with a business partner have created an amusement park for human diseases. On Christmas, Jerry demands the family put away their electronics in the hopes of experiencing a "human holiday" for when his parents come to visit. They bring along a special friend whose presence shocks and disturbs Jerry.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#17)

#17
'Something Ricked This Way Comes'
Season 1, Episode 9

Summer gets a part-time job working for the Devil in a Needful Things-inspired shop that gives cursed items away to unsuspecting customers. Rick catches wind of this, and chooses to deliberately irritate the Devil by de-cursing the items through science. Meanwhile, Jerry and Morty work on a science project together and get transported to Pluto over a debate on whether or not Pluto is actually a planet.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#18)

#18
'Raising Gazorpazorp'
Season 1, Episode 7

Rick buys Morty a sex robot at a pawn shop, which turns out to be a robot designed to give birth as well. Morty decides to raise the child himself, which is a violent alien that grows up incredibly fast. Summer gets herself involved in Rick's exploits, as they venture to the robot's planet of origin and discover the true reason behind the existence of this breeder-bot.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#19)

#19
'Mortynight Run'
Season 2, Episode 2

Rick and Morty drop Jerry off at a daycare center made by an alternate Rick specifically for Jerrys, and proceed to sell an alien assassin a weapon in order to afford a day of fun at a space arcade. Morty intervenes, and drags Rick along to protect the life of the assassin's intended target, which turns out to be a gaseous entity that may or may not have dark intentions. Jerry kind of attempts to break out of the daycare, but doesn't really know what to do if he does.

Well, at least 'Ouija: Origin Of Evil' was better than the first one

I, like everyone I've ever met who has actually watched the first Ouija movie, was not a fan. It was one of the weakest attempts by Blumhouse, a company that has made its name off of cheap popcorn horror movies, and that's not even taking into consideration the blatant product placement featured throughout. So when I saw of a sequel, "skeptical" certainly wouldn't have been the last word to come to mind when hearing about it. And then the trailers came out, and I still wasn't convinced it would be good. But then I watched the movie. And I'm still not convinced.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#20)

#20
'Interdimensional Cable 2:
Tempting Fate'
Season 2, Episode 8

Jerry is sent to an alien hospital after being infected by a dangerous space virus. Rick and the rest of the family watch infinite-reality TV in the waiting room (all of which improvised by Roiland) while Jerry is treated and asked by the doctors to donate his penis to be repurposed as a heart to save the life of a hugely influential galactic civil rights activist who's in critical condition.

Oscar predictions 2017

Best Actor

---

Michael Keaton - The Founder
Casey Affleck - Manchester By The Sea
Denzel Washington - Fences
Ryan Gosling - La La Land
Joel Edgerton - Loving

---

Best Actress

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (#21)

#21
'Get Schwifty'
Season 2, Episode 5

Giant disembodied heads from space come to Earth and demand Earthlings "show them what they got" by creating a new pop song for a massive, intergalactic reality singing show. Rick and Morty attempt to write a hit song with the aid of the US government in an attempt to save the planet. The presence of the heads prompts several of the Smith family and townsfolk to have a shift in religion, as they misinterpret the reality of what's going on.

Best Episodes of Rick And Morty (introduction)

Rick And Morty is currently sitting in IMDb's top 10 user-rated TV shows of all-time. Co-created by Dan Harmon, the man behind the extremely popular cult show Community (which has always been a personal favorite of mine), Rick And Morty matches the meta humor and self-awareness of Community and pairs it with enough science fiction theory and narrative experimentation to satisfy even the most hardcore sci-fi nerds. Throw in the hefty contributions from Justin Roiland, co-creator and voice actor for both Rick and Morty (as well as dozens of other characters throughout the show), who handles much more of the comedic side and you've got yourself a well-balanced, intelligent, and hilarious show. Roiland, known for his screechy voice acting as the Earl of Lemongrab from Adventure Time, is able to convey a lot with his idiosyncratic performance(s) in both of the titular roles, creating some very iconic characters while also generating a good deal of laughs with his improvised dialogue and childish sense of humor. Listening to Dan Harmon's podcast Harmontown shows that he and Roiland very much share this sense of humor, which really helps make this show work; there doesn't appear to be a conflict or struggle between the two main minds behind this show, and the results are terrific.

Witchfinder General (The Conqueror Worm) - 1968

As much as I would love to call this a masterpiece, there are quite simply too many things that are weird and off about it to declare it more than just a really interestingly flawed film -- one that I enjoyed immensely.

Didn't love it, but 'Deepwater Horizon' was pretty intense

I love watching incredibly original movies as much as the next guy. When something comes out of nowhere and blows me away with how completely unique it is, I'm likely to praise it more than something that doesn't break any new ground at all. When I watch a movie that feels very unoriginal, I'm likely to point out how it never tries anything different at all, but as long as it's done well that doesn't keep me from enjoying it. This is that last kind of movie: A tragic retelling of the disastrous BP oil spill.

'Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders' was an odd experience

I've always loved watching the old Batman show. The 1966 film is one of my favorite movies of the entire decade, Adam West and Burt Ward will always be the ultimate Batman and Robin in my eyes, and the fun and kooky villains are always a joy to watch in action. This was my favorite incarnation of Batman, so when I saw that this new animated movie was coming out featuring the voices of West and Ward, I was pretty excited to see how it might turn out. Ultimately, I was pretty disappointed.

'Loving' just didn't work for me

Jeff Nichols is one of the best contemporary American filmmakers, releasing success after success that each stand on their own as individual and fully realized works of art. From Shotgun Stories through Midnight Special, he hasn't made a movie I didn't enjoy until now. Loving is essentially a hollow shell of a great movie, never fully equipped to handle the emotional subject matter or present it in a way that hits home. This is a good story that could have made for an exceptional film, but it just fell flat.

Top 10 Horror Movies of 1964

I'm probably going to forego the part 2 on this one, as I don't really have much to say about a lot of the other movies that missed the countdown, but that doesn't mean I don't genuinely like every movie on this list. It just means my top 10 definitely stand out better than the ones that didn't make it. So, take that as you will. These are my top 10 favorite horror movies of 1964 -- and a pretty solid year for horror it was.



10. Strait-Jacket

'Sharkenstein' is about what you'd expect

My third shark movie of the year and for its sheer craziness, this might be my favorite. The effects in this movie are beyond incredible. Usually, a movie with bad effects would simply be unconvincing but still make sense within the confines of reality. Nope, not here. This movie utilizes effects that are baffling in every sense of the word. It sounds like a cop out, but they really need to be seen to be understood -- note my use of the word "understood" as opposed to "believed". Because trust me, you won't be given the opportunity to believe it. Off the top of my head, I cannot name a single other movie with more confusing and outright nonsensical effects than Sharkenstein. I'm still in awe of it.

2016 in film (Part IX)

I'm going to start posting my mini reviews directly on this blog after this point, but still plan on compiling these every 10 new movies I see, because I love countdowns. Only a couple more months of this before my top 25 (not doing a top 50 again, that was torture) and a while series of other countdowns. I'm excited!

10. The Ones Below
Directed by David Farr

Horrors of 1959, Part II

For my 1959 top 10, I had to include far more corny movies than I thought would be the case. And honestly, that because most of the horror movies from 1959 were either about giant monsters, or knew to have a sense of humor about themselves. Welcome to my honorable mentions post following my jovial romp into the horrors of 1959. A much different countdown from my 1960 post, this one is all about making special note of some other movies from the year that either barely missed the list, or are otherwise noteworthy. It's not orderedmore organized, just a list of a few movies I wanted to bring up.


The Bat

A review of 'Happiness' I had forgotten to post

I first saw this movie several years back and was left feeling...well, more than a little odd. It was bizarre and creepy and made me feel gross and dirty. But it stuck with me somehow, and so I felt the need to check it out again. I wrote the following review almost exactly 2 months ago and simply forgot to post it. So here it is:

A great American farce, Todd Solonz's twisted comic masterpiece about the search for happiness (often through sex) is that particular brand of comedy that's nearly impossible to laugh at, but rather cringe at while uneasily letting out a muted chuckle.

Top 10 Horror Movies of 1959

1959 was a year dominated by giant killer monsters, science experiments gone horribly wrong, murder mysteries, and lots of Vincent Price. There were 5 films made in 1959 between the directors William Castle and Terence Fisher, with a total of 5 movies starring Vincent Price as well. That's a lot of awesome stuff to watch. And I did, along with plenty of other things as well. 1960 was a much creepier year in movies, with most of the top group there standing out as particularly disturbing in many ways, but it seems '59 was a lot sillier, which you'll probably see for yourself throughout this post.

As always with my lists, reviews, or anything else, this is entirely based on my own opinion, and I fully embrace the fact that most people probably won't agree with me on a lot of these. Also due to lack of availability, several movies I really wanted to see from this year just weren't watchable. That's a shame, but I'm not gonna cry about it. Again, what I classify as horror may be a little different than other people, but I'm not going to be as picky with this year as I was in 1960, since the genre was a little odd in '59...you'll see here in a minute.

Now, before I continue with this list, I'm going to shamelessly plug my 1960 posts again, because this is my blog and I can do what I want.

- Top 10 Horror Movies of 1960
- Horrors of 1960, Part II

Theeeeere we go. That feels a lot better, I think I'm ready to move forward with the list now. And what better way to start this off than with...


10. "Attack of the..."
Attack Of The Giant Leeches, The Killer Shrews, The Giant Gila Monster

Five Favorite Films of 1964

1964 is not one of the best years of the '60s, but that doesn't mean some of the greatest films aren't truly amazing. 1965 is probably worse, too, so don't expect much from my next list either (whenever I get around to it, that is). Anyway, here are my favorites from 1964, one, two, three, GO!


5. The Masque Of The Red Death
Directed by Roger Corman

Horrors of 1960, Part II

For my top 10 favorite horror movies of 1960, please visit the link provided: Top 10 Horror Movies of 1960.

Just the other day, I posted my top 10 favorite horror movies of 1960. It took me a while to watch all the movies I wanted in order to make that list, so naturally there were several other films that sadly did not quite make the cut. So, before moving on to the next horror list, I've decided to pay tribute to a few other films that I feel deserve mention, despite not cracking my top 10. These are movies that are notable for any number of reasons, but we'll get into that with each individual entry. Here we go.


Village Of The Damned

I just saw a pretty great movie called 'Moonlight'

There is not a speck of desire for me to be seen as a politically-correct speaker on the behalf of social issues. I have no desire to spend my time arguing moot points with people who disagree with me on a fundamental level, as I also have no desire to praise films due to their subject matter as opposed to how well these subjects are handled. I don't care much for these things: I care about my family/loved ones, and great movies. Moonlight - contrary to my fears that it would not fall into the latter category - is something worth caring about.

Top 10 Horror Movies of 1960

I have been wanting to dig deeper into more classic horror for a while now, and what better way than to watch a bunch of horror movies from each year? So I thought to myself, "what would be the best place to start on a journey like this? And how shall I chronicle my findings in a way that will keep a solid record of my excursions?" And this is what I came to. I loooooove making lists, and once I've seen all the movies I want from a year, I see no reason why I shouldn't list them immediately after, with a few notable honorable mentions at the end.

1960 is possibly the best year for the horror genre, at least based on the top grouping of films that came from it. So I doubt I'll be turning any heads with this list, because I'll basically just be repeating what everyone already knows about what movies stand out the most. But whatever, I enjoy making lists too much to care if nobody reads what I'm writing. The show must go on!

I know that's a massive intro, but I have a few additional notes to get out of the way before I proceed. The definition of horror is a fairly loose one, and this particular era makes that definition even foggier. Sci-fi and horror bleed together, and thrillers and violent dramas also blurred those lines. So I'm going by what movies fit the vague bill as horror in my eyes, and more importantly, how well they work within the genre. This is a list of the best "horror movies", not just the best "movies that are also partly horror". So movies I like better than others might be lower due to how well they work as horror films, not just how much I like them regardless of genre. Hopefully that was clear, because I'm not proofreading this. So let's begin.


10. Eyes Without A Face

Five Favorite Films of 1963

I've said it in my past 3 countdown posts, and it applies again here: this was a really hard list for me to narrow down to 5. Like, damn. I know this is why I chose to do top 5 lists instead of top 10s, but still, this is really hard for me to do. But that means you should know that I recommend these 5 very strongly. Because these are absolutely great movies.


5. Hud
Directed by Martin Ritt

Five Favorite Films of 1962

As tough as the last two posts were, 1962 is the one I've had the most difficulty making. There were 9 movies I wanted to put in my top 5, so I'm going to just say this isn't an official list by any means. I'll toss out the names of the ones that barely missed it near the end of the post because there is one in particular that I think might be expected to be on here, but didn't quite cut it. You ready? Let's get this thing started!


5. Cape Fear
Directed by J. Lee Thompson

Five Favorite Films of 1961

As a whole, I preferred 1960 over '61. The very best movies were better, and the movies that barely missed out on that list were probably better than the ones that missed it this time. That being said, I actually probably had a harder time narrowing this list down to 5 than I did last time around. This was another good year for movies, though I didn't have many horrors make this list. Unless you count...


5. Hercules In The Haunted World
Directed by Mario Bava

2016 in film (Part VIII)

Another largely forgettable batch of movies with a few gems finding their way up to the top. Hopefully with November we'll see some more strong releases.



For more content not yet posted in this blog, visit my letterboxd page here: http://letterboxd.com/Jeff_SC/

10. Cafe Society
Directed by Woody Allen

Five Favorite Films of 1960

I always, always, always overdo it with massive countdowns, so instead of making a billion top 10 and top 25 lists (as tempting as that may be) I've decided to make some challenging top 5 lists. Why challenging? Well, it was hard enough for me to even narrow this down to 10, let alone 5. So I might include some honorable mentions at the end, but this is still just a top 5. So here we go, let's talk about my favorite movies of 1960.


5. Peeping Tom
Directed by Michael Powell

Best of Halloween 2016

I missed my intended Halloween release date, but I also forgot I was going to make this countdown, so I guess that makes it okay. Here are my 10 favorite movies I watched this October.



10. Poltergeist

The first movie we did this Halloween was Wes Craven's The Serpent And The Rainbow, which I had never seen before. This one is one I have seen at least 2 or 3 times, and is often considered something of a horror classic. Does it hold up? It's not one of the most amazing horror movies out there, but in a lot of ways, yes, it really does. One of Tobe Hooper's most popular movies, this isn't as unsettling as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, or as fun as its sequel (which is probably my favorite Hooper movie), but the effects and visuals still make it a very memorable experience that is still charming and exciting.

Halloween playlist #39 - Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1931)

I first watched this movie years ago (I would say it's been over a decade), and I wasn't a huge fan of it at the time. I always have been a fan of the old Universal monster movies, so I can't say it's because I was too young to appreciate it, but I honestly found the Spencer Tracy movie more interesting, and the silent version far creepier. But while I haven't rewatched either of those versions in a while, I will say my opinion of the movie has much improved.