I'm not sure they had a good grasp on how best to market Black Narcissus back in the day.
I watched just under 100 films in 2024, most of them with Ashar. Movies from just about every decade and several different countries. About 10 were watched with the crowd at Terror Trader's Spook-o-Rama nights in Tempe. Following on the heels of the 2022 and 2023 lists, here are my 20 favorite first-time watches from 2024, listed chronologically by year of release:
- The Black Cat (1934, Edgar G. Ulmer)
- Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937, Sadao Yamanaka)
- The Body Snatcher (1945, Robert Wise)
- Dragonwyck (1946, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
- Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
- The White Reindeer (1952, Erik Blomberg)
- Love Letter (1953, Kinuyo Tanaka)
- Godzilla (1954 Japanese original version, Ishirō Honda)
- The Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton)
- Cash on Demand (1961, Quentin Lawrence)1
- Night Creatures (1962, Peter Graham Scott)2
- Kill, Baby, Kill (1966, Mario Bava)
- The Swimmer (1968, Frank Perry)
- The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (1968, Noriaki Yuasa)
- Kelly's Heroes (1970, Brian G. Hutton)3
- The Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy)
- The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974, Jorge Grau)4
- The Holdovers (2023, Alexander Payne)
- Past Lives (2023, Celine Song)
- I Saw the TV Glow (2024, Jane Schoenbrun)
High honorable mention: Roma (2018), The Flesh and the Fiends (1960), Vampyr (1932)
Honorable mention: Midsommar, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Rasputin the Mad Monk, Late Night with the Devil, IF (2024), Paper Man (2009), Deadpool & Wolverine, The Descent5, Mystery Train, Tower of London (1939), Shock (1946), And Now the Screaming Starts!Best movie that I did not vibe with at all: Asteroid City
Best sequel that was surprisingly fun: House II: The Second Story
Most laughed-at for its awfulness: Burial Ground (1981)6
Biggest letdowns: Infra-Man, The Keep, The Fog (1980), Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Master of the World
Best made-for-TV movies: Pray for the Wildcats7, The Night Stalker
Best TV mini-series: The Fall of the House of Usher
Best rewatches: Fargo, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, L.A. Confidential, Man on the Moon, Wonder Boys, Malice, Psycho, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Carrie, Jaws, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Capote, Chungking Express, American Movie (1999 documentary), The Lost Boys, Johnny Dangerously, Cabin in the Woods, Foul Play, Do the Right Thing, The Shining
Footnotes
1. A new Christmas classic for the list. I mentioned last month we were going to try to watch this, and we did.
2. Original UK title: Captain Clegg
3. This was our Donald Sutherland memorial film
4. When I was growing up, this was usually Let Sleeping Corpses Lie in the TV listings. It has had many other titles, including Zombi 3, Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue and Don't Open the Window.
5. This was the most uncomfortable watch of the year. Claustrophobic, dark, unrelenting and completely without cathartic moments. I praise it on technical merits, but I cannot say I enjoyed it.
6. "Mother, this cloth. It smells of death!"
7. What more could you want? It has Andy Griffith, William Shatner, Robert Reed and Marjoe Gortner.
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