You’re Next (2011)

IMDb plot summary: When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

Directed by Adam Wingard. Stars Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, and AJ Bowen.

You're Next is a horror film about a couple who are spending some time in a remote cabin with the man's family, only for things to go suddenly horribly wrong when a mysterious intruder starts to kill off the family members. One by one they disappear, and it becomes clear that the one person who might be able to stop everything is the man's girlfriend, who knows the family the least. I had high hopes for this one, and I probably should have tamped that down a little bit, because I think that let me down by the end. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun little horror movie. It's got some fun, horror-y deaths, many of which are super gross (and at least one that I will be thinking about for a long time). I also appreciate the way the story sets up its heroes and villains, both in terms of the external threat of a murderer coming after them, but also in terms of the internal dynamics throughout where everybody kind of hates each other. It's a good ride. I'm not sure it stands way above in terms of horror, which I was expected for some reason, but it's a fun little slasher film that does what it's trying to do pretty well.

🎥 You're Next (2011)

📊 Ranked #1990/4206 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 53

beat The Girl on a Motorcycle (#2134 → #2135)

lost to Till Death (held at #1091)

lost to Backbeat (held at #1610)

lost to Children of Paradise (held at #1877)

beat The Guard (#2005 → #2006)

lost to Batman (held at #1941)

lost to The Group (held at #1973)

lost to Two Weeks Notice (held at #1989)

beat Meek's Cutoff (#1997 → #1998)

beat Journey to Greenland (#1993 → #1994)

beat Sweet Dreams (#1991 → #1992)

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A jaded Japanese woman discovers a hidden copy of Fargo (1996) on VHS, believing it to be a treasure map indicating the location of a large case of money.

Directed by David Zellner. Stars Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, and Kanako Higashi.

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter is a film about a lonely Japanese woman who becomes convinced that the movie Fargo is, in fact, real life, and she sets out to travel to North Dakota to try to find the stolen money in the story. She has no money, no friends, and very little grasp of English, but is determined to make her way across the country to find the treasure she's looking for. This movie made me extremely tense as I was watching it because I just knew that this could not end in a positive way. And while the gritty reality of the story absolutely does indicate that it doesn't end positively for her -- and I don't think that's a spoiler, because as I said, you know pretty early on that this can't possibly go well -- but it does move into some magic realism that allows it to at least put a more hopeful spin on this grim story. The actress playing Kumiko is almost too good at being determinedly vulnerable, and that often makes it difficult to watch. Seeing her interact with the different people attempting to help her make her way to Fargo is a mix of heartwarming and devastating. I appreciate that the film doesn't try to lean too hard on one of those feelings, but really lets both of them exist at the same time. An interesting movie, but a sad and difficult one to watch.

🎥 Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)

📊 Ranked #1538/4205 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 63

beat The Girl on a Motorcycle (#2133 → #2134)

lost to Till Death (held at #1091)

beat Backbeat (#1609 → #1610)

lost to The Country Girl (held at #1350)

lost to True Grit (held at #1479)

beat Interiors (#1545 → #1546)

lost to North by Northwest (held at #1513)

lost to Oscar (held at #1529)

lost to His Girl Friday (held at #1537)

beat The Piano (#1541 → #1542)

beat She's Having a Baby (#1539 → #1540)

Waves (2019)

IMDb plot summary: Traces the journey of a suburban family - led by a well-intentioned but domineering father - as they navigate love, forgiveness, and coming together in the aftermath of a loss.

Directed by Trey Edward Shults. Stars Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Alexa Demie.

Waves is a 2019 drama about a family. The first half of the story follows the teenage son and the stress that he is under as he deals with losing his prospects of a career in wrestling, and then learning that his girlfriend is pregnant and planning to keep the baby, which is going to make his life even worse. The second half of the film follows primarily the daughter in the family, as she grapples with the choices that her older brother made and how it affects her life and her family's life. This is a very slow, character-heavy drama that was enjoyable moment to moment, but left almost no impact on me in the long run. I had to go read through the Wikipedia summary to remember what happened in this movie, and a lot of what I read, I genuinely don't remember. On one hand, it's good that I don't remember anything that I disliked about it, but on the other hand, it's probably not a good sign that I don't remember a single thing about it. This is a solid cast, and they bring good quality acting work to their roles. I very much see how this could be a movie that would be very affecting to someone, but it just didn't have that effect on me, unfortunately.

🎥 Waves (2019)

📊 Ranked #2262/4204 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 46

lost to The Girl on a Motorcycle (held at #2133)

beat The Deadly Affair (#3173 → #3174)

beat Jimmy the Kid (#2651 → #2652)

beat Bad Education (#2390 → #2391)

lost to Rebecca (held at #2261)

beat Pride & Prejudice (#2325 → #2326)

beat Beauty and the Beast (#2293 → #2294)

beat The Big Pond (#2277 → #2278)

beat The Truth About Youth (#2269 → #2270)

beat Cowboys & Aliens (#2265 → #2266)

beat Happy Christmas (#2263 → #2264)

Frankenstein (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and Christoph Waltz.

Frankenstein is Guillermo del Toro's take on the classic story of a man who attempts to create life by putting together corpse body parts and animating it with lightning. Here, Oscar Isaac is Dr. Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi is the creature. In many ways this is a very faithful adaptation of the original book, with one large exception that seems to alter the story not at all, and one small exception that seems to alter the story greatly. On one hand, we have the addition of Christoph Waltz's character, who is the one who encourages Frankenstein to pursue his morbid interests and helps to fund them. It is also his daughter, played by Mia Goth, who captures Frankenstein's heart. And then on the other hand, we have one tiny addition to the ending which turns the whole story into a more positive conclusion. I'm not going to explain exactly what it is here for spoiler-y reasons, but it's the kind of thing that ten years ago I would have rolled my eyes at. Here, however, I had something of a dramatic response to it. Expecting the dark, pitiless ending and getting something surprisingly warmer felt like a reminder that I don't always know how stories will end, in fiction or in life, and that we can change them if we want. An unexpected moment of empowerment from a film that most likely meant nothing of the kind, but it hit me in a very emotional way. On top of that, the movie also does, of course, look gorgeous, with the dark gothic feel that I want from both the story as a whole and Del Toro's style. If the ending hadn't moved me so much, this would just sit in the middle of my chart, but it was one of those films that I saw at just the right time and it pushed it much further up.

🎥 Frankenstein (2025)

📊 Ranked #897/4204 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 79

beat Laal Singh Chaddha (#2089 → #2090)

beat Finian's Rainbow (#1033 → #1034)

lost to Revengers Tragedy (held at #515)

lost to Muppets Most Wanted (held at #774)

beat Spellbound (#903 → #904)

lost to The Joy Luck Club (held at #838)

lost to Four Lions (held at #870)

lost to Out of Sight (held at #886)

lost to City Girl (held at #894)

beat Twister (#898 → #899)

lost to The History of Future Folk (held at #896)

Mother of Flies (2025)

IMDb plot summary: When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods - but every cure has costs.

Directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser. Stars Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, and John Adams.

Mother of Flies is a folk horror film about a young woman who travels with her father to a reclusive natural healer in the hope of treating her terminal cancer. This is a moody eerie piece that really leans into the folk horror feminism vibe, but all the pieces feel a little amateur, especially the acting and writing. There are lots of stilted readings of awkwardly expository dialogue. The big twist is largely confusing and doesn't quite connect with the rest of the story. I appreciate that there is some satisfying resolution in the final moments of the movie but it's overall very messy and doesn't live up to the very cool atmosphere it sets up. I had hoped for more.

🎥 Mother of Flies (2025)

📊 Ranked #2745/4203 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 35

lost to The Dawn Patrol (held at #2088)

beat A Man Called Peter (#3139 → #3140)

lost to X (held at #2614)

beat Choke (#2872 → #2873)

lost to The Wiz (held at #2742)

beat The Day of the Triffids (#2806 → #2807)

beat Born Reckless (#2774 → #2775)

beat Spellbound (#2758 → #2759)

beat Finding Dory (#2750 → #2751)

beat Flightplan (#2746 → #2747)

lost to Dr. Seuss on the Loose (held at #2744)

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025)

IMDb plot summary: While trying to manage her own life and career, a woman on the verge of a breakdown must cope with her daughter's illness, an absent husband, a missing person, and an unusual relationship with her therapist.

Directed by Mary Bronstein. Stars Rose Byrne, Conan O'Brien, and Danielle Macdonald.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You stars Rose Byrne as a truly overwhelmed mother. Her husband's job keeps him away from her for weeks at a time, and she's left having to care for their medically fragile daughter, and she's at the end of her rope. This film is terrifying, claustrophobic, and basically exactly what I imagine motherhood is like. I have never felt so validated in my decision to be childfree. It does a great job of showing how exhaustion and panic can start exaggerating and blurring reality in a really scary way -- there was a large portion of the movie that I was fully convinced was a dream, only for it to be revealed as reality. I also appreciate the choice to not show the daughter's face until the end. It makes it easier for us to empathize with Byrne and feel the overwhelm. The ending seems a bit abrupt and doesn't fully work for me, but I appreciate what it's trying to do. An interesting movie, albeit one I never want to watch again, and a tour de force performance from Rose Byrne.

🎥 If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025)

📊 Ranked #1840/4202 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 56

beat Happythankyoumoreplease (#2101 → #2102)

lost to Heathers: The Musical (held at #1039)

lost to Ping Pong Playa (held at #1566)

lost to Swiss Army Man (held at #1837)

beat Malcolm & Marie (#1969 → #1970)

beat My Date with Drew (#1903 → #1904)

beat The Three Musketeers (#1870 → #1871)

beat Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (#1854 → #1855)

beat Oddity (#1845 → #1846)

beat Splice (#1841 → #1842)

lost to Lord of War (held at #1839)

Dutch (1991)

IMDb plot summary: To get to know his girlfriend's son, a working-class good guy volunteers to pick him up from his prep school, only to learn that he isn't the nicest young man.

Directed by Peter Faiman. Stars Ed O'Neill, Ethan Embry, and JoBeth Williams.

Dutch stars Ed O'Neill as a man dating a divorced woman, and he offers to drive her spoiled son (played by Ethan Randall) home from boarding school for break, to let the two of them bond. Road trip hijinks ensue as the two constantly try to gain the upper hand over the other. This film is written by John Hughes, and when his films work, it's because he engenders empathy for his characters and helps us root for them, but that's nowhere to be found here. I suspect I'm meant to feel a stronger sense of karma as the spoiled kid gets what he "deserves," but he's just a hurting kid, not villainous enough for me to get a kick out of his comeuppance. There aren't a lot of laughs here and even less heart. This is one of the lower points in my Hughes filmography challenge. It's not a particularly long movie, but I felt like I was watching it for decades, because it was so unenjoyable.

🎥 Dutch (1991)

📊 Ranked #3596/4201 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 14

lost to How I Live Now (held at #2099)

lost to The Disappearance of Alice Creed (held at #3153)

beat Father Brown (#3679 → #3680)

lost to Pinocchio (held at #3415)

lost to Freaky Friday (held at #3549)

beat You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (#3614 → #3615)

lost to The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (held at #3581)

beat Premonition (#3597 → #3598)

lost to Robin Hood: Men in Tights (held at #3589)

lost to Weekend (held at #3593)

lost to The Formula (held at #3595)