January 2022 Review: The Best Movies I Saw Last Month

Originally published February 3, 2022

Kickstarting 2022, this January I spent a lot of time watching horror. Thanks to the weather and a wonderful case of COVID-19, I was practically chained to my screen. Needless to say it was a bit rough and unfortunately I did pick quite a few bad movies to watch. Thankfully, there are plenty of gems worth recommending and I hope you seek them out. My New Year’s horror resolution is to re-watch more movies and I’m excited that I have started strong. After watching 49 first time watches and re-watched 7 movies. Here are the three best and worst first-time watches in the month of January!

BEST #3) As the Gods Will (2014); Director: Takashi Miike; Japan

Shun Takahata longs for his life to be less boring and today at school he gets his wish. Instead of his usual lessons, he and his classmates find themselves in a bizarre series of games conducted by supernatural creatures that hold deadly consequences for losing. After winning the first game, he is reunited with his friend Ichika Akimoto and the pair vows to work together to save as many people as they can. As the games progress, they understand that not all of the players have the same motivations in mind. A shocking and incredibly fun movie, As the Gods Will provides a great balance of the bizarre, the fantastic, the gory, and the reflective. What works as a metaphor for innocence lost in a life focused on competition and anxieties about navigating complex systems, As the Gods Will doubles as a coming-of-age nightmare while still working as a cartoonishly violent horror flick. The actors give solid performances, the production design is immersive and captivating to watch, and overall the film is excellently paced despite its lengthy runtime. With a little creativity and luck, should you find this Japanese gem, be sure to give it a go and press play.

Overall Score? 8/10

BEST #2) The Last Matinee (2020); Director: Maximiliano Contenti; Uruguay

A quaint theater is showing a gruesome horror flick as their final showing for the day. Before the showing, a concerned daughter begs her projectionist father to go home and rest so she can take the job from there. Reluctantly he agrees, and soon enough only two staff members remain to keep the operation going. Both the pouring rain and the obscure splatter flick are likely keeping the majority of the public away. Alas, a hodgepodge group of people wander in after paying for the experience of a midnight movie. Their loud conversations, sexual activities, and endless candy consumption will be cut short by one particularly mysterious patron in their presence. One by one, the moviegoers will meet a terrible fate, and with no way out of the theater, this may be the last film they watch. The Last Matinee is a deliciously gory and relentlessly tense neo-giallo slasher hybrid. Strong set pieces and bold visual choices abound in this Urugayan schlock fest making its production values match the boastful kills that pepper the tight script. Horror fans will delight in the gleeful mayhem that takes place within the walls of the wonderfully designed metroplex. What you see is what you get with The Last Matinee, thankfully you get more than enough of an eyeful of this indie gem.

Overall Score? 8/10 

BEST #1) Scream (2022); Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillet; United States

Please check out the full review here.

Overall Score? 8/10