8. The Girl With All the Gifts
Director: Colm McCarthy
Writer: Mike Carey
Zombie fatigue is real, as anyone still trudging through The Walking Dead can tell you, but there are still unique spins on the genre. The Girl With All the Gifts, for example, is postapocalyptic zombie horror that also incorporates the very YA premise of one girl with special powers. Melanie (Sennia Nanua) is from the second generation of “hungries” (the movie’s term for zombies), which means she retains her humanity along with a desire for human flesh. At least, that’s what her teacher Helen (Gemma Arterton) thinks, pitting her against Dr. Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close), who is experimenting on children like Melanie in the hope of finding a cure for the fungal infection that has already wiped out most of the world. The Girl With All the Gifts takes narrative turns that distinguish it from the typical zombie film and from the YA movies that share some of its DNA, culminating in a devastating ending that few will see coming.
7. Better Watch Out
Director: Chris Peckover
Writers: Zack Kahn and Chris Peckover
Better Watch Out is not the movie you think it is: Few films are this able to completely shift course, but the major redirect that occurs a third of the way into the movie is just part of what makes it such a thrillingly subversive take on the Christmas slasher. On the surface, at least, this is your standard holiday horror: 12-year-old Luke (Levi Miller) and his babysitter, Ashley (Olivia DeJonge), are forced to defend themselves when home invaders descend on the house. There’s a lot more to the story, however, and with one big reveal, Better Watch Out transforms from a reasonably competent slasher to a truly terrifying horror film about toxic masculinity and male entitlement. Sure, it’s still a lot of fun at times — there’s one brilliant set piece that may ruin Home Alone forever — but the strength of Better Watch Out lies in its willingness to engage with horror’s beloved babysitter trope and the uncomfortable misogyny that comes with it.
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