1. // Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated films of the summer, for both Horror fans as well as the wider popcorn consuming movie goer. Director Fède Álvarez (Evil Dead) went someway to whetting our appetites as he promised a return to the tone and visual style of the first two groundbreaking Alien movies … and he has not disappointed! Álvarez purposely set his story in the timeline between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), and was on a mission to recreate the classic aesthetic of those two legendary films, helped by using practical F/X wherever possible to date the movie firmly in that era. While in doing so, he has created a thoroughly nostalgic trip back into that world.
The film provides a young enthusiastic cast including Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), David Jonsson (Rye Lane), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone) and Isabela Merced (Madame Web). While conveying a far more straightforward narrative than we had most recently seen with Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) – firmly with the view of also trying to capture the more intimate story-telling magic of the first two films. The movie introduces us to a group of aspiring working class space colonisers. Who embark on a mission to scavenge a derelict space station, where the inevitable soon ensues! Álvarez clearly delights in throwing everything he can think of Alien-wise into the mix, to satisfy fans of the series. While also creating a captivating and fast-paced movie experience. KZ
2. // Longlegs
A masterfully concocted marketing campaign ensured that Longlegs was on the lips of most Horror fans prior to its release in July. The 90s set Detective-Thriller was touted as being the film to remind audiences of certain classic movies from that era, such as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and David Fincher’s Seven (1995). And its reputation was further enhanced as being the latest film to be written and directed by Osgood Perkins (Gretal & Hansel) – son of Psycho legend Anthony Perkins – and with no other than Nicholas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas) producing and featuring as the mysterious serial killer, known simply as Longlegs.
Further to that, with genre actress Maika Monroe (It Follows / Watcher) starring in the lead role of fledgling FBI Agent Lee Harker, Longlegs certainly seemed to have all the necessary ingredients to be a bloody good time. And that it certainly is! A wonderfully eerie mystery wrapped up in a unique tone, that may not quite have been the film that viewers thought it was going to be. But a strangely odd, yet captivating movie nonetheless. And with a highly memorable and thoroughly over the top performance by Cage – who manages to crawl under your skin with his character, and stay there long after the credits finish rolling. KZ
3. // MaXXXine
Ti West is a genre filmmaker who carved out a fine reputation for himself with early indie Horror flicks such as The House of the Devil (2009) and The Innkeepers (2011). He spent a number of subsequent years mainly focusing on television work, before returning post-Covid with the highly rated X in 2022. The movie paid homage to backwater 70s Slashers such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as a production team set about making a pornographic movie on a Texas farm owned by a mysterious elderly couple. Mia Goth (Infinity Pool) provided a standout performance as she played both adult-actress Maxine, as well as the elderly farm proprietor Pearl.
Surprising to most, Ti West and A24 Films then announced that a prequel to X had been filmed back to back with the movie – and Pearl (2022) was released later that year. Providing the back story to Goth’s character, set when she was a young woman in 1918. Both movies provided a wonderful period aesthetic, a trait that West excels in. And with MaXXXine we pick up the tale of the actress in the events following X, jumping forward to 1985 when she heads to Hollywood with the view of making it in ‘serious’ movies – amidst a backdrop of vicious Night Stalker serial killings that are rocking the town. And MaXXXine rounds off an almost flawless Slasher-Horror trilogy, with West once again nailing visually the period he has set his story in. KZ
4. // Deadpool and Wolverine
This year the MCU well and truly put all its eggs in one basket, with the release of Deadpool & Wolverine its only new movie release of 2024. And they needed it to be hit, with Disney acquiring the rights to the two hugely successful characters and joining them together in the company’s first R-Rated comic book film. All delivered in a time period when the MCU has been struggling to reinvent itself after the spectacular end-of-an-era peak of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019). And well … it’s fair to say they have pulled it off. Providing the summer Blockbuster with over a billion dollars taken at the box office, and a renewed energy and optimism for what might come next for Marvel.
As well as integrating the established Deadpool character into the MCU and joining him with the face of the X-Men series of films, the movie also acts as the third in a trilogy of Deadpool movies. And manages to impressively spins those plates. Deadpool & Wolverine pretty much delivers everything you would want and expect it to. Leaning heavily into a story based around the multiverse, and everything we have come to experience from that particular Sci-Fi concept which has dominated Marvel’s storytelling these last few years. Now familiar tropes, which include a number of fan-favourite cameo appearances – with one or two welcome and highly unexpected surprises in that particular department. KZ
5. // A Quiet Place: Day One
A Quiet Place was the 2018 post-apocalyptic Alien/Creature-Feature, directed by and starring John Krasinski (If). Playing a father, who with his wife (Emily Blunt – The Girl on the Train) – try to navigate the survival of both them and their children, in a post-apocalyptic America. Which has been overrun by vicious but blind Alien creatures, who hunt by sound. The concept was well received and created a box office hit, with Part Two soon green lit and arriving in 2018. And with the events of the first two stories beginning 89 days after the Alien invasion and then leaping forward over a year. The series certainly leant itself to a prequel that would be able to explore the events that caused the end of the world as we know it.
And Day One (directed by Michael Sarnoski – Pig) does just that to a resounding effect. The film as well as a serving as a prequel also acts as a spin-off to the original, this time focusing on a new character Samira (Lupita Nyong’o – Black Panther) – a terminally ill woman who we follow during the initial invasion, and a number of characters she meets along the way – including poet Eric (Joseph Quinn – Stranger Things). Day One certainly manages to capture the heart of the original. Along with its ominous suspense and thrilling moments of action, as the characters fight for survival, in an ultimately desperate situation. KZ
6. // The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
After a financially disappointing American theatrical run in the Spring, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare bypassed UK cinemas completely and landed on Amazon Prime this July – ultimately proving to be a hit for the the streaming giant on this side of the pond. And rightly so, as auteur director Guy Ritchie (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels / Snatch) has created an intriguing WW2 movie, in a contemporary style that seems to take inspiration from Quentin’s Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (2009) – in the way that it blends a distinct style and tone, with a little comedy and a hell of lot of action.
There is a classic period feel to the story, which opens with a suspenseful Tarantino-esq scene set on a yacht – introducing key characters including Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill – Man of Steel), Anders Larsen (Alan Ritchson – Reacher) and Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer – Magic Mike) – all based on the real life heroes of WW2 who embarked on Operation Postmaster. An off-the-record military sabotage mission, that targeted a key Nazi supply operation on the Spanish island of Fernando Po. Eiza González (Baby Driver) also stars, and steals every scene she’s in as she plays covert ground operative Marjorie Stewart – performing a key undercover role in the success of the clandestine mission. KZ
Words by Mark Bates
kult-zilla.com 
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