Brent's Top Ten Horror Movies Of 2016

It’s the last week of 2016, I don’t have any reviews to write, Carrie Fisher just died, and the whole world is covered in shit. For some reason, these bleak circumstances seem a wholly appropriate place to drop a list of my top horror movies of 2016. There are certainly some grim times to be found among these titles.

Brent's Top Ten Movies Of 2016 [UPDATED]

Without fail, some people grouse about how that particular 365-day journey around the sun was a bad year for movies. 2016 is no exception, a circumstance made all the more egregious because so many giant blockbusters sucked ass or, perhaps even worse, wound up inane and tepid and unmemorable in every regard.

'Under The Shadow' Trailer: The Tense Iranian Horror Creeps Towards Release

If you’re a horror fan and Babak Anvaris’ Under the Shadow isn’t on your radar yet, that needs to change immediately. The Iranian genre offering debuted at Sundance, made waves at subsequent festivals, and garnered comparisons to recent indie horror favorites like It Follows and The Babadook. I like it at least as much as one of those, and far more than the other, but check out this new trailer and prepare to count the days until the domestic release.

Top 10 Movies Of SIFF 2016

Yesterday the Seattle International Film Festival announced its award winners, both those selected by a jury and those voted on by the audience. I’m sure they’re lovely movies, but as usual, I have little interest in watching most of them. My tastes tend to run in different directions, and with that in mind, here are my favorites of SIFF 2016, in no particular order except that in which they occurred to me. They’re all excellent and you should check out every last one when you have the chance.

SIFF 2016: 'Under The Shadow' (2016) Movie Review

As if living in a war-torn city in the aftermath of an uprising and having to regularly head to the basement because bombs are dropping all around isn’t terrifying enough, what do you do when a mysterious evil haunts you and your child? That sucks, and it’s also what happens to Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her young daughter, Dorsa (Avin Manshadi), in Babak Anvaris’ excellent new Iranian horror film Under the Shadow, which just screened at SIFF.

10 SIFF 2016 Films You Need To Check Out

The Seattle International Film Festival is once again upon us, and while many fests are like sprints, cramming a ton of movies into relatively short spans, SIFF is a damn marathon. Covering more than three weeks and 400 films (the final count in 2016 is 481), this is an endurance test. By the end I’m usually a limp pile that vaguely resembles a human being, sleep deprived and twitching in a corner.