Bottom 10 Movies of 2018
2018 had some excellent high points, but it also had some abysmal lows. Multiple series that I love released sequels that were by far the worst of the series. There were plenty of movies that had potential, but the execution was severely lacking. There were also several films that made me ask, "Why was this even made?" And so, let us sift through the trash that this year gave us and take a look at the worst 10 movies of 2018.
#10. The House with a Clock in Its Walls
This strange children's movie, made by horror director Eli Roth, follows a young boy (Owen Vaccaro), who is sent to live with his uncle (Jack Black) who happens to be a warlock. While both Black and Cate Blanchette nail their performances and parts of the film work just fine, the protagonist of this film is terrible. He's extremely irritating and I couldn't connect with him at all. A lot of the humor misfires with an abundance of poop jokes, Kyle MacLachlan is criminally given nothing to do as the villain, and the surprise revelations weren't surprising at all. The House with a Clock in Its Walls had potential, but Eli Roth squandered it.
#9. The Strangers: Prey at Night
I had high hopes for this sequel as I am a big fan of the original film. The family dynamic in the first act is interesting and the pool sequence is very well done, but mostly this movie is just dumb and doesn't feel like a Strangers film. The family makes terrible decisions, the deaths are unmemorable, and most of it is just rip-offs from better horror films. The script is thoroughly unoriginal and wastes what could have been an awesome setting: a trailer park. The cinematography is also obnoxious and overuses the zoom.
#8. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
This is, without a doubt, the worst film in the Harry Potter/Wizarding World series. While Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne are both solid and Queenie's (Alison Sudol) story had an interesting turn of events, most of this film is just filler for the 3rd movie. There are way too many characters and most of them could have been completely cut out and nothing would have changed. Most of the supporting characters are underdeveloped and I didn't care about them at all, the film tries to force unnecessary relationship problems on the main characters for no discernible reason, and I spent the entire runtime trying to figure out what was happening and why. Credence (Ezra Miller) is a wholly uninteresting character and the twist about his identity is unfathomably stupid.
#7. Breaking In
This film follows a mom (Gabrielle Union) who gets locked out of a house while her kids are trapped inside with a group of thieves. The pacing for Breaking In is all out of whack. Events happen so quickly they feel inconsequential. This is a short film, but it feels very long, especially because the 3rd act is so drawn out. The writing is awful with the dialogue being both generic and cringe-inducing with some bad acting thrown in for good measure. Plus it doesn't actually take very long for Union to get back into the house and how she does it isn't even clever. The film abandons its premise remarkably quickly. The villains are mostly fine and there are a couple of decent sequences, but nothing to write home about.
These final six films are where we get into the truly awful. Brace yourself.
#6. The Predator
The most disappointing movie of the year considering the talent that worked on this. The Predator has a few funny moments and a handful of decent kills, but every single character in this film is comic-relief, which throws the tone completely out of whack. Most of the one-liners felt like they were written by a 12-year old. The Predator isn't actually in very much of the movie, so we're forced to spend time with these crappy, undeveloped characters instead, the CGI seems like it was intentionally bad, and the motivation for why the Predators hunt on Earth is incredibly stupid and actually tarnishes the rest of the series.
#5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Far and away the worst film in the series, Fallen Kingdom has a couple of decent sequences on the island and one excellent shot of a dinosaur being left behind, but the rest of this film was miserable to sit through. The plot is so stupid and the set-up so unbelievable that I had a hard time getting into the film. The choice made by Maisie (Isabella Sermon) at the end of the film was so horrendously idiotic it made me want to throw myself into a volcano. In fact, the entire Maisie subplot is completely unnecessary. Finally, all of the new characters are very one-dimensional and add nothing of interest. This movie is so bad it's insulting.
#4. Mute
This pseudo-sequel to the very good film, Moon, is beautiful with some outstanding visuals and effects as well as a decent performance form Alexander Skarsgård. Unfortunately, I needed to take a shower after I watched Mute. It's sleazy and disgusting and not in a fun way. Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux's characters are utterly unlikable and repulsive, which is fine if they are antagonists, but they're the secondary protagonists and we have to spend half the movie with them. These guys are gross, not fun to watch at all, and bring the movie to a screeching halt whenever they are on screen. The story isn't very interesting and all the references to Moon just made me want to go watch that far superior movie instead.
#3. Traffik
Traffik is basically a home-invasion movies where a group of friends face off against a gang of human-traffickers. The story itself is fine and had the potential to be very frightening, but the filmmakers did basically everything wrong. The protagonist is played by Paula Patton who is terrible in the role. Her acting is bad, her decisions don't make sense, and she did nothing to make me care about her. The rest of the cast ranges from bland to insufferable and I don't know what they were thinking in casting Missy Pyle as the sheriff. I've seen all of these actors give good performances before, so I have to blame director Deon Taylor. The movie comes off as incredibly low-budget with some bizarre editing choices that usually don't work. The cinematography is rough and it feels like some important shots were left on the cutting room floor for some reason.
#2. Slender Man
I will give Joey King credit for acting the hell out of this movie and there are exactly three mildly creepy sequences, but, dang, this movie is trash. All of characters suck (besides Joey King's Wren). They have no personality and could not possibly be less interesting. The protagonist, played by Julia Goldani Telles, is boring for the first half of the film and unlikable for the second. The story is incredibly dull and I've always liked the Slender Man stories. There are many subplots that never get resolved and some are completely abandoned. Finally, it's simply difficult to see what is happening at some points in the film. I could make a better Slender Man movie in my sleep.
And now for some dishonorable mentions. These are bad movies that weren't quite bad enough to make the list.
Venom
The Happytime Murders
The First Purge
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
And now for the worst film of 2018...
#1. The Open House
This Netflix films follows a woman (Piercey Dalton) and her son (Dylan Minnette) who move into a mountain home where strange things start to happen. The acting from the two leads and the chilly, mountain setting work just fine, but the rest of the film...not so much. It's incredibly f***ing boring. Absolutely nothing of interest happens until about 75 minutes into the film. And everything that does happen we've seen before in other movies and it was done better in those other movies. The Open House is one giant cliché and a bad one at that. Finally, the ending is straight-up insulting. Not only is the movie boring, but the ending is so totally unsatisfying that the whole thing was a massive waste of time. The final resolution of the film is so frustrating it made me want to delete Netflix.
So that's my list of the 10 worst films of 2018. What do you think?
#10. The House with a Clock in Its Walls
This strange children's movie, made by horror director Eli Roth, follows a young boy (Owen Vaccaro), who is sent to live with his uncle (Jack Black) who happens to be a warlock. While both Black and Cate Blanchette nail their performances and parts of the film work just fine, the protagonist of this film is terrible. He's extremely irritating and I couldn't connect with him at all. A lot of the humor misfires with an abundance of poop jokes, Kyle MacLachlan is criminally given nothing to do as the villain, and the surprise revelations weren't surprising at all. The House with a Clock in Its Walls had potential, but Eli Roth squandered it.
#9. The Strangers: Prey at Night
I had high hopes for this sequel as I am a big fan of the original film. The family dynamic in the first act is interesting and the pool sequence is very well done, but mostly this movie is just dumb and doesn't feel like a Strangers film. The family makes terrible decisions, the deaths are unmemorable, and most of it is just rip-offs from better horror films. The script is thoroughly unoriginal and wastes what could have been an awesome setting: a trailer park. The cinematography is also obnoxious and overuses the zoom.
#8. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
This is, without a doubt, the worst film in the Harry Potter/Wizarding World series. While Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne are both solid and Queenie's (Alison Sudol) story had an interesting turn of events, most of this film is just filler for the 3rd movie. There are way too many characters and most of them could have been completely cut out and nothing would have changed. Most of the supporting characters are underdeveloped and I didn't care about them at all, the film tries to force unnecessary relationship problems on the main characters for no discernible reason, and I spent the entire runtime trying to figure out what was happening and why. Credence (Ezra Miller) is a wholly uninteresting character and the twist about his identity is unfathomably stupid.
#7. Breaking In
This film follows a mom (Gabrielle Union) who gets locked out of a house while her kids are trapped inside with a group of thieves. The pacing for Breaking In is all out of whack. Events happen so quickly they feel inconsequential. This is a short film, but it feels very long, especially because the 3rd act is so drawn out. The writing is awful with the dialogue being both generic and cringe-inducing with some bad acting thrown in for good measure. Plus it doesn't actually take very long for Union to get back into the house and how she does it isn't even clever. The film abandons its premise remarkably quickly. The villains are mostly fine and there are a couple of decent sequences, but nothing to write home about.
These final six films are where we get into the truly awful. Brace yourself.
#6. The Predator
The most disappointing movie of the year considering the talent that worked on this. The Predator has a few funny moments and a handful of decent kills, but every single character in this film is comic-relief, which throws the tone completely out of whack. Most of the one-liners felt like they were written by a 12-year old. The Predator isn't actually in very much of the movie, so we're forced to spend time with these crappy, undeveloped characters instead, the CGI seems like it was intentionally bad, and the motivation for why the Predators hunt on Earth is incredibly stupid and actually tarnishes the rest of the series.
#5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Far and away the worst film in the series, Fallen Kingdom has a couple of decent sequences on the island and one excellent shot of a dinosaur being left behind, but the rest of this film was miserable to sit through. The plot is so stupid and the set-up so unbelievable that I had a hard time getting into the film. The choice made by Maisie (Isabella Sermon) at the end of the film was so horrendously idiotic it made me want to throw myself into a volcano. In fact, the entire Maisie subplot is completely unnecessary. Finally, all of the new characters are very one-dimensional and add nothing of interest. This movie is so bad it's insulting.
#4. Mute
This pseudo-sequel to the very good film, Moon, is beautiful with some outstanding visuals and effects as well as a decent performance form Alexander Skarsgård. Unfortunately, I needed to take a shower after I watched Mute. It's sleazy and disgusting and not in a fun way. Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux's characters are utterly unlikable and repulsive, which is fine if they are antagonists, but they're the secondary protagonists and we have to spend half the movie with them. These guys are gross, not fun to watch at all, and bring the movie to a screeching halt whenever they are on screen. The story isn't very interesting and all the references to Moon just made me want to go watch that far superior movie instead.
#3. Traffik
Traffik is basically a home-invasion movies where a group of friends face off against a gang of human-traffickers. The story itself is fine and had the potential to be very frightening, but the filmmakers did basically everything wrong. The protagonist is played by Paula Patton who is terrible in the role. Her acting is bad, her decisions don't make sense, and she did nothing to make me care about her. The rest of the cast ranges from bland to insufferable and I don't know what they were thinking in casting Missy Pyle as the sheriff. I've seen all of these actors give good performances before, so I have to blame director Deon Taylor. The movie comes off as incredibly low-budget with some bizarre editing choices that usually don't work. The cinematography is rough and it feels like some important shots were left on the cutting room floor for some reason.
#2. Slender Man
I will give Joey King credit for acting the hell out of this movie and there are exactly three mildly creepy sequences, but, dang, this movie is trash. All of characters suck (besides Joey King's Wren). They have no personality and could not possibly be less interesting. The protagonist, played by Julia Goldani Telles, is boring for the first half of the film and unlikable for the second. The story is incredibly dull and I've always liked the Slender Man stories. There are many subplots that never get resolved and some are completely abandoned. Finally, it's simply difficult to see what is happening at some points in the film. I could make a better Slender Man movie in my sleep.
And now for some dishonorable mentions. These are bad movies that weren't quite bad enough to make the list.
Venom
The Happytime Murders
The First Purge
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
And now for the worst film of 2018...
#1. The Open House
This Netflix films follows a woman (Piercey Dalton) and her son (Dylan Minnette) who move into a mountain home where strange things start to happen. The acting from the two leads and the chilly, mountain setting work just fine, but the rest of the film...not so much. It's incredibly f***ing boring. Absolutely nothing of interest happens until about 75 minutes into the film. And everything that does happen we've seen before in other movies and it was done better in those other movies. The Open House is one giant cliché and a bad one at that. Finally, the ending is straight-up insulting. Not only is the movie boring, but the ending is so totally unsatisfying that the whole thing was a massive waste of time. The final resolution of the film is so frustrating it made me want to delete Netflix.
So that's my list of the 10 worst films of 2018. What do you think?
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