10 Best Films 2022: Sam Sewell-Peterson
8. Barbarian
The most twisted and thrilling horror movie of the year constantly subverts your expectations and prompts gasps, groans and shrieks of laughter throughout.
After checking in to an Air BnB in a run-down neighbourhood of Detroit, Tess (Georgina Campbell) finds it has been double-booked by Keith (Bill Skarsgård) and subsequently discovers decades of dark secrets in the vast basement below the house.
If you’re a horror nut you might think you know what direction Barbarian is heading in from its tense opening act, but you’re unlikely to guess just how far writer-director Zach Cregger will take you with his film’s mischievously horrific visuals, unexpected heart and surprisingly layered thematic subtext.
7. Ali & Ava
Clio Barnard’s ode to lost souls in Bradford manages to be both grounded and achingly romantic in equal measure.
A passionate relationship unexpectedly blossoms between a DJ (Adeel Akhtar) and a school assistant (Claire Rushbrook) from very different working-class backgrounds, their need to connect with a kindred spirit having a massive impact on their complicated family lives.
Barnard doesn’t do poverty porn; she carefully develops her socially-grounded stories with the participation of the communities she is representing. The result here, like always with her films, feels genuine and is poignant, funny and emotionally honest.
Recommended for you: Clio Barnard Films Ranked
6. The House
2022 was a pretty stellar year for animation and it’s the twisted individualism and nightmare fuel imagery of this disturbing stop-motion anthology that pips Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio to the post.
The House is three twisted folk stories told by a writer (Enda Walsh) and four talented animation directors (Emma de Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Paloma Baeza) to create a wonderfully weird chronicle of one strange and ever-changing dwelling across the centuries.
You might find yourself a little creeped-out by the opening chapter of this film, a Gothic fable inhabited by knitted doll people, but that’s just the beginning. Still to come is a mouse estate agent vs invasive, hedonistic beetles disguised as wrongly-proportioned rodents, and a third chapter following human-cats looking for purpose at the flooded end of the world. There’s nothing quite as memorable in animation in 2022.
