We have successfully reached 2024. Before turning the page on 2023, let’s take a look back at my personal favorite bits of media I have consumed. Please note that these are my personal favorites, so these lists are objectively correct.
Movies
Evil Dead Rise directed by Lee Cronin
Evil Dead is one of the very few horror franchises that doesn’t have a single bad film in the series. Seriously. Every entry has a “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from both fans and critics. Evil Dead Rise keeps the streak alive. It has everything I want from an Evil Dead movie: extreme gore and violence, a dark sense of humor, batshit insane Deadites (especially Alyssa Sutherland), and a kickass lead (played by Lily Sullivan). It’s an absolute blast.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline directed by Daniel Goldhaber
How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a film that I frankly can’t believe exists. It’s essentially a white knuckle heist movie except that instead of a heist, our protagonists are trying to plan and carry out a successful bombing of an oil pipeline in Texas. This is a movie that played in major cinema chains in America! As I mentioned, it’s an edge-of-your-seat thriller that will have you sweating it out until the very end. Part of that is because the phenomenal ensemble cast does a fantastic job of making you empathize with their plight. Each character comes from a different background with a different reason for why they are doing what they’re doing, and it is impossible not to cheer them on.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson
Believe it or not, but I’m a pretty big fan of Spider-Man. I know. This is shocking news. My favorite Spider-Man movie of all time is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, so I was pretty excited for its sequel. I am happy to say that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse managed to live up to my exceedingly high expectations. The animation itself is the most impressive I have ever seen. The look and feel of the film is a truly astounding technical achievement. Beyond that, the movie has so much heart that it’s impossible not to fall in love with these characters. I also had a chance this year to chat with comic book writer and artist Al Milgrom who created the Spot (the primary villain of the film voiced by Jason Schwartzman).
Poor Things directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
I’m glad I waited until the end of December to write this post because I didn’t see Poor Things until the last weekend of the year. Holy moly. What a film! The premise is similar to Frankenstein, and the entire first act is shot in black and white that evokes the feeling of old Universal monster movies. The “mad scientist” in this version is Dr. Godwin “God” Baxter (Willem Dafoe), and his creation is a beautiful woman named Bella Baxter (Emma Stone). Without spoiling anything, Bella is a blank slate who starts off with the intelligence of an infant and steadily learns about the world around her. Emma Stone is brilliant as Bella and deserves Oscar buzz for her performance. Beyond the acting, the cinematography and set designs are astonishing. I was totally absorbed into the world crafted by Lanthimos, and I can’t wait to see it again.
Talk to Me directed by Danny and Michael Philippou
Talk to Me is one of my favorite horror films in recent memory. If you’ve spent any amount of time reading my Substack, then you know how much I love horror. The Philippou twins got their start making over the top and ridiculous YouTube videos for their channel RackaRacka. I never would have guessed they would make the scariest and most emotionally driven horror movie of the year, but that’s exactly what they did with Talk to Me. The film is about a hand encased in ceramic that allows people to not only commune with the dead but allows them to become temporarily possessed by them as well. This is a terribly dangerous item to possess, so naturally teenagers use it to get high and make TikTok videos. You’ll be shocked to learn that things go horribly wrong. It’s an incredible film with fantastic performances (especially Sophie Wilde as Mia and Joe Bird as Riley). I’ve already watched it multiple times, and I plan to watch it many more times in the future. It’s also impossible not to be moved by the reaction from the cast and filmmakers to the reception it has received.
Television Series
Yellowjackets created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson
I love this messed up little show. Yellowjackets is ostensibly a show about how childhood trauma affects the lives of adults who have suppressed those experiences. It just happens to address those issues by following a high school girls soccer team that was forced to survive in the wilderness following a plane crash and devolved into cannibalism and occult rituals (with possible supernatural elements) while awaiting rescue. Pretty normal stuff. The show alternates between the teenagers surviving in the woods in the ‘90s and the handful of adult survivors in present day. It’s equal parts terrifying, disturbing, and hilarious. It also sports an incredible cast that includes Melanie Lynskey, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Nicole Maines, and many more. It’s available on Showtime and Paramount+.
The Curse created by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie
I’m taking a bit of a gamble by including The Curse on this list because the final two episodes haven’t aired as of this writing. It’s been so great through the first eight episodes that I just can’t imagine it fumbling the bag by the finale. Nathan Fielder (Nathan for You, The Rehearsal) and Benny Safdie (Good Time, Uncut Gems) teamed up to write, direct, and star in the most uncomfortable and cringe inducing television series ever made. It’s about a married couple (Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder) trying to make an HGTV series (directed by Safdie) about flipping houses that paints them as philanthropists. All of the primary characters are desperately trying to convince themselves and others that they are good people, but every decision they make along the way demonstrates that they are not exactly role models. It’s billed as a comedy (and it is very funny at times), but there is a surprising amount of emotional heft as well. Emma Stone in particular is great in it (2023: the Year of Stone), but Fielder and Safdie are also great in it. This show is certainly not for everyone, but those who enjoy this particular brand of storytelling will love it. It’s available on Showtime and Paramount+.
The Fall of the House of Usher created by Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan is one of the best and most prolific horror directors working today. Arguably his greatest success has been creating horror miniseries for Netflix. He has previously created The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club. All are adapted from novels except for Midnight Mass which is an original creation. They’ve been critically praised and have established Flanagan as the master of horror miniseries. The Fall of the House of Usher is his final Netflix miniseries, and there was no way he wasn’t going out with a banger. As you probably guessed by the name, this is an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation. What isn’t as clear from the title is that each episode is an adaptation of a different Poe story set in modern times with the Usher family being the connective tissue. It’s easily the most gruesome series that Flanagan has made thus far, and it absolutely rules. If you’re a fan of Flanagan, Poe, or horror in general, then you owe it to yourself to watch it. It is currently available on Netflix.
I’m a Virgo created by Boots Riley
Boots Riley is probably best known for his music, but in recent years he has established himself as one of the best new filmmakers in the industry. He made Sorry to Bother You in 2018, and he has followed it up with I’m a Virgo. This miniseries falls into the category of shows I can’t believe exist. It’s about a Black teenager (played by Jharrel Jerome) who happens to be a giant (literally thirteen feet tall) trying to find his place in the world. This world just so happens to include a fascist Iron Man parody (played by Walton Goggins) who targets the good-hearted giant as his next supervillain. The show is a biting satire of capitalist society with plenty of humor, action, and heart. It is somehow streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Fargo created by Noah Hawley
That’s right. Fargo is back, and it has reclaimed its rightful place as the best show on television. As with The Curse, this season isn’t quite over yet. That said, it has been one of the best seasons of television I’ve seen in years. Our protagonist is a woman named Dorothy Lyon (played by Juno Temple) trying to escape her abusive “Constitutional Sheriff” ex-husband (played by Jon Hamm) while simultaneously dealing with her ruthless and wealthy mother-in-law (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh). It’s been violent, harrowing, hilarious, and terrifying throughout this latest season, and I can’t wait to see how it ends. It’s currently available on FX and Hulu.
Novels
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
Mister Magic is such a clever and unnerving book. It combines the phenomenon of the Mandela Effect with the millennial obsession with nostalgia with disturbing results. The story is essentially about a woman who starred in a popular children’s show as a kid, but she has no memory of it. Conversely, the series has a cult following despite no evidence anywhere online that it ever actually existed aside from the people who claim to remember it from their childhood. Needless to say, there are sinister and supernatural reasons for both.
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
Whalefall has one of the most inspired premises in recent memory: what would happen if you were accidentally swallowed alive by a whale? Spoiler alert: it would be extremely unpleasant. Whalefall is a white knuckle thriller that also happens to be emotionally devastating as a teenager named Jay is swallowed by a sperm whale while trying to recover his father’s remains on the sea floor. He spends the novel trying to figure out how to escape before his oxygen runs out while simultaneously reminiscing about his tortured relationship with his father.
Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca
Eric LaRocca has entered must-read territory for me with anything he writes, and Everything the Darkness Eats has become my favorite novel of his thus far. This particular novel takes the kind of existential horror you might find from Clive Barker or Grant Morrison and weaves it through the small town relationships and politics reminiscent of Stephen King. The characters are flawed yet relatable, and the worst horrors are those perpetrated by human beings. All three novels discussed thus far were covered in greater detail in this piece I wrote in the summer.
Deliver Me by Elle Nash
If it isn’t clear by now, I love art that pushes boundaries and provokes intense reactions. Deliver Me is certainly a novel that does both. Nash does a brilliant job of portraying the horrors of an economically and spiritually battered rural town and the effects it has on its protagonist, Dee-Dee. There is nothing supernatural happening in this story, and that makes the resulting horrors all the more real. There are also stories of people vomiting while attending readings of the book by Nash herself. If that doesn’t convince you to read it, then I don’t know what will.
What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman
I’m sure you’re all shocked to learn that I loved the latest novel from the guy I spent two hours talking to about how much I enjoy his writing. This particular novel has a mystery element to it whose reveal is so shocking that I don’t want to get too deep into the plot so as not to spoil it. What you should know is that Clay McLeod Chapman is effectively doing for Virginia what Stephen King did for Maine. I don’t know if that will help or hurt tourism, but I’m convinced that place is filled to the brim with horrors. Much like Mr. King, this novel even has a callback to one of Chapman’s previous novels that delighted me to no end. You can find more detailed breakdowns of both this novel and Deliver Me in this piece from the fall.
Limited Comic Book Series
Sins of Sinister by Kieron Gillen, Lucas Werneck, and Bryan Valenza (plus numerous guest artists)
I really agonized over what comic to put in the fifth spot this year because there were so many great choices. I ultimately landed on Sins of Sinister despite technically only being two issues because of just how entertaining and epic in scope it was. It spun out of the first ten issues of Immortal X-Men (also from Gillen, Werneck, and Valenza) wherein the deliciously evil Mister Sinister finally executed his plan to remake the world in his image and attempt to achieve godhood in the form of a Dominion. The story unfolds over an astonishing one thousand years with some of the details on how we got to this point fleshed out by a trio of miniseries (Immoral X-Men, Nightcrawlers, and Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants). It’s a very fun event that pays homage to the “Age of Apocalypse” era of X-Men comics from 1995. It ultimately kicks off the “Fall of X” era for the X-Men that is still ongoing at this time.
Dark X-Men by Steve Foxe, Jonas Scharf, and Frank Martin
Speaking of “Fall of X,” this current era of X-Men comics kicked off with numerous limited series. One of those was Dark X-Men. This five issue series was so much fun. With the vast majority of mutants presumed dead following the events of X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1, Madelyne Pryor (the clone of Jean Grey and ruler of the demonic realm of Limbo) decides to assemble her own team of X-Men composed of various misfits and villains (and her boy toy Havok) to fight back against the fascist anti-mutant organization known as Orchis and save as many remaining mutants as possible. It’s a really fun book with some excellent art throughout that allows for the traditional bad guys to play hero for a change.
Children of the Vault by Deniz Camp, Luca Maresca, and Carlos Lopez
Sometimes an idea is so simple and brilliant that it’s shocking you haven’t already thought of it. With the mutant population on Earth dwindling to almost nothing and the threats of Orchis and the Children of the Vault basically unchecked, which mutants could possibly do something about it? How about the two battle hardened soldiers from two different dystopian futures with a seemingly limitless number of cool guns who are experts in guerrilla warfare who also coincidentally hate each other with every fiber of their being? I am of course referring to Cable and Bishop. These two paragons of the grim and gritty age of ‘90s comics were born for this moment. The series is a scant four issues, but the creators make all four count with incredible action and entertaining bickering between the two futuristic soldiers. I really hope we get to see more of them together in the future with this same creative team.
Universal Monsters: Dracula by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds
Yes, the guy who cohosts a Dracula podcast is a fan of a Dracula comic book. Technically only three of the four issues have been published at this time, but they are so outstanding that there is no way I could keep it any lower than second on this list. Tynion and Simmonds are technically adapting the classic Universal film and not the Stoker novel, but it is so stylistically different that it might as well be an original adaptation. The prose from Tynion is dark and brooding, and Simmonds’s painted artwork is some of the best I have ever seen. The entire comic feels like you have stepped into a literal nightmare. It’s surreal and terrifying in a way that no Dracula adaptation has been in years. It comes across as a perfect realization of what the creators set out to achieve.
Ultimate Invasion by Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, and Alex Sinclair
This comic was practically made exclusively for me. I was a massive fan of the “Ultimate” line of comics when they debuted in the early-‘00s. At the time, I was a huge fan of The Ultimates from Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch in particular. Hitch’s art was like nothing I had seen, and it helped popularize the “widescreen comics” craze that took over the industry. Flash forward to 2011, and Jonathan Hickman was now writing Ultimate Comics: Ultimates with artist Esad Ribic and propelling the storytelling to a level that would help him earn his reputation as one of the best writers in the industry. Hickman and Ribic would ultimately (heh) kill the Ultimate line during their Secret Wars series in 2015. Now in 2023, Hickman and Hitch have joined forces to create a brand new Ultimate Universe that is spinning out into a new line of comics in 2024. Ultimate Invasion used the villainous Maker (Reed Richards from the original Ultimate Universe) to create a brand new universe in his own image where many of the heroes we know either don’t exist or were drastically changed to better suit his aims. Despite his best efforts, someone in the future is sending back armies of superhumans to try and topple his empire. It’s a comic full of big ideas and bigger egos, and I cannot wait to see what this new line of comics gives us in 2024.
Ongoing Comic Book Series
Moon Knight by Jed MacKay, Alessandro Cappuccio, Federico Sabbatini, and Rachelle Rosenberg
MacKay’s run on Moon Knight came to an end in December after thirty issues, and it just might be the best ongoing Moon Knight series that Marvel has ever published. Every issue did a phenomenal job of further developing Marc Spector, his various identities, his supporting cast, and his villains. Moon Knight has historically been a bit of a loner who doesn’t always play well with others, but this series evolved the character in some much needed ways to the point that it was basically an ensemble cast by the end. I’m sad to see it end, but I’m sure there will be plenty more great moments in the upcoming Vengeance of the Moon Knight series debuting this week from the same creative team.
Immortal Thor by Al Ewing, Martin Coccolo, and Matthew Wilson
Remember when Al Ewing wrote Immortal Hulk for fifty issues, and it immediately became one of the best comics of the last decade? I think we could be saying the same thing about Immortal Thor one day. The series is only five issues into its run at this point, but those five issues have been magnificent. Ewing is really leaning into the mythology so far in this run as Thor is faced with a pantheon of gods that essentially serve as the gods of the gods. The artwork from Coccolo and Wilson has also been spectacular. Each page feels like you are genuinely glimpsing a different realm. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
Incredible Hulk by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, Travel Foreman, and Matthew Wilson
You never want to be the guy who follows The Guy. You want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows The Guy. I just called Ewing’s Immortal Hulk one of the best comics of the last decade, so the person following him on the Green Goliath was never going to be afforded much of a chance to succeed. Fortunately for this creative team, enough time has passed that Incredible Hulk has an opportunity to forge its own path. What a path it has been! This book is also a horror comic, but it’s in a much different vein than Immortal Hulk. This series has a much more Lovecraftian feel as the Hulk is routinely faced with Eldritch horrors and Elder Gods that would shatter the minds of weaker men. Good thing Hulk is the strongest one there is.
Immortal X-Men by Kieron Gillen, Lucas Werneck, Juan Jose Ryp, and David Curiel
I’m just going to say it: Immortal X-Men and X-Men Red are two of the greatest runs in the history of X-Men comics. I put them right up there with Chris Claremont’s first run on Uncanny X-Men and Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men along with all of the artists who contributed to those comics. This past year of Immortal X-Men saw the rise and fall of Mister Sinister, the fracturing of the Quiet Council, and Charles Xavier hitting rock bottom. It also gave X-Men fans hope for future in the form of…well…Hope and her number one fan in Exodus as they tried to lead their people through the desert in search of the Promised Land. The series just concluded in December with its eighteenth issue, but fear not! The plot threads from this series are sure to continue on in Rise of the Powers X and X-Men Forever (both written by Gillen) in 2024 as the Age of Krakoa comes to an end.
X-Men Red by Al Ewing, Stefano Caselli, Yildiray Cinar, and Federico Blee
Of all of the series that concluded in 2023, X-Men Red is the one I was the saddest to see end. Over the last two years we’ve been treated to some of the greatest moments for some of my favorite characters of all time including Magneto, Storm, Sunspot, Cable, and more. Storm in particular was given a chance to truly shine in a way we haven’t seen since the original Claremont run on Uncanny X-Men. It gave us a new mutant society and culture to explore on Arakko with plenty of new characters that quickly became fan favorites. It consistently tackled issues like colonialism, imperialism, self-determination, and what it means to be an ally. The final arc was a full blown Arakko Civil War with Storm leading one faction and Genesis (the wife of Apocalypse being influenced by the Annihilation Staff) leading the other. It all culminated in an incredible battle that not every character made it out of alive. It was an extremely satisfying finale, and it did an excellent job of tying into the “Fall of X” story while still being able to be read on its own if you weren’t reading the other books in the line. It’s really a shame that Ewing isn’t one of the main two titles (Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X) that are wrapping up this current era of X-Men comics that started in 2019. Fortunately, he will be writing one last limited series before his tenure with the X-Men has ended…
There you have some of my favorite movies, television shows, novels, and comic book series of 2023. It’s been an excellent year for great stories in many different forms. Hopefully 2024 is just as great.