Editorials
This Year’s 10 Best Horror Films You Might Have Missed
*Keep up with our ongoing end of the year coverage here*
In terms of box office numbers, 2017 has been a landmark year for horror. Starting off in January, a wasteland for theatrical releases, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split raked in over $100 million in domestic grosses by February. Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out charmed both audiences and critics alike, earning a massive profit and award nominations. Blumhouse further proved their knack for low budget horror with October’s release of Happy Death Day recently passing the $100 million mark worldwide on a $5 million production budget. Annabelle: Creation also made a strong showing in theaters. Yet, none of these films hold a candle to the juggernaut of the R-rated It, shattering records and raking in impressive numbers.
All of this to say that while sales have been declining in the film industry, horror seems to be as strong as ever, keeping the flame burning brightly at the box office. But it’s not just the box office where horror continues to prove its mettle. There’s been a wave of excellent genre films quietly released onto VOD and streaming services throughout the year.
If you’re looking to catch up on great horror from 2017 that you might have missed, these are the ten best that should be watched immediately…
Better Watch Out
Released in limited theaters and VOD on October 6th, before arriving on Blu-ray December 5th, this yuletide terror gives a darkly refreshing twist on the home-invasion sub-genre. For Ashley (The Visit’s Olivia DeJonge), a night of babysitting in the quiet suburbs turns dangerous when intruders break in and terrorize her and Luke (Levi Miller), the twelve-year-old boy she’s babysitting. That’s all you need to know going in. Don’t read anything else about this movie. Trust me. It’s intense, suspenseful, extremely demented, and DeJonge and Miller deliver incredible performances. Better Watch Out will not only become a holiday classic for horror fans, but it will also make you seek out director Chris Peckover’s other work.
Tragedy Girls
After premiering at this year’s SXSW Film Festival in March, co-writer/director Tyler MacIntyre’s comedic spin on the slasher film became a huge crowd favorite during the festival run before slipping into limited release in October. Starring Brianna Hildebrand (The Exorcist TV series, Deadpool) and Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse) as two social media obsessed teens with an ambition to achieve modern horror legend fame, Tragedy Girls brings equal parts biting wit and a delightfully large, violent body count. MacIntyre does a great job playing with the tropes of slashers while taking it in twisted, new directions, making this one destined for cult classic status. A lighthearted horror comedy that succeeds at its goal to entertain makes this a rare gem amidst the current trend of super serious genre films.
The Bar
Without any fanfare, Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia’s latest dropped onto Netflix this September. Unlike his previous film, the fun horror-comedy Witching & Bitching, The Bar is an uncomfortable watch. What begins as a sort of quirky comedy, in which a group of people become trapped inside a Madrid café thanks to a sniper gunning down anyone who dares step outside, becomes a psychological thriller that coils tighter and tighter as it casts an unflinching eye on the darkness of humanity. Not only can the characters be brutal, but there are serious moments of gross squeamishness that I’ll leave for you to discover for yourselves. If you’re a fan of Iglesia’s work, or just want something particularly dark, this one shouldn’t be overlooked.
The Transfiguration
Writer/Director Michael O’Shea’s horror drama reads like a modern telling of George A. Romero’s Martin, in that it revolves around a young man that believes himself to be a vampire. Young Milo is obsessed with vampires, and studies vampire movies religiously. Living in a housing project with no parental figure save for a mostly absent older brother in New York City, the narrative keeps it mostly ambiguous as to whether Milo uses vampirism as escapism or if he really is a member of the blood-sucking undead. Everything changes when he meets Sophie, though, setting Milo on a confrontational collision path with his relationship to vampires. It’s eerily quiet, and dramatically paced. It’s also as uncomfortable as it is heartbreaking. The Transfiguration quietly made its way to Netflix this year.
The Girl with All the Gifts
Based on a novel of the same name by M.R. Carey, this post-apocalyptic zombie film made its way onto digital during the first quarter of 2017, and still remains largely unnoticed. While it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, it does a lot of things well; centering the plot around Melanie, one of a group of hybrid zombie children after a fungal outbreak decimated most of the population, and her bond with her human teacher, Helen, gives an emotional core that endears the audience. Sennia Nanua is amazing as Melanie, but Glenn Close as the ice cold scientist Caroline Caldwell isn’t to be missed. If you’re a fan of The Last of Us video games, or just a fan of unique zombie films, this one is for you.
Boys in the Trees
More dark fantasy with horror elements than outright horror, Nicholas Verso’s coming-of-age, ‘90s set tale is a modern Halloween classic deserving of more love. Set on Halloween in 1997, two estranged skater friends take a haunting, surreal journey through their fears, dreams, and their memories as they walk home. Tales of werewolves, evil spirits, and death himself against a super catchy ‘90s soundtrack and the stunning cinematography by Marden Dean makes this worth watching; but it’s the devastating friendship between teens Corey and Jonah that will give you the feels. The best part of all is that Boys in the Trees is hiding in plain sight on Netflix.
Thelma
Joachim Trier’s supernatural thriller, released in limited theaters earlier in November, was Norway’s official submission for the Oscar Foreign Language race, which is every bit indicative of how good the film really is. Sharing similarities with Carrie, the plot sees sheltered Thelma going away from home for the first time for college, only to discover she has strange powers as she falls in love for the first time. Trier asks thought-provoking questions on morality while parceling out the mystery of Thelma’s childhood, all while making you really feel for her struggle with self-discovery. Beautifully shot with a haunting score, Thelma deserves a spot in the Oscar race.
Seoul Station
One of 2016’s surprise hits was the Korean zombie feature Train to Busan, by writer/director Yeon Sang-ho. So perhaps it’s no surprise that one of 2017’s best is the animated prequel by the same director, Seoul Station. Yeon Sang-ho plays with social commentary on Seoul’s homeless population at the train station, which is ground zero for the zombie outbreak. The animated feature follows a runaway, her boyfriend, and her father as they all struggle to reunite amidst the chaos of the outbreak. The director lulls the viewer with well-worn tropes before delivering the emotional gut punch viewers have come to expect with Train to Busan. Who knew one of horror’s best in 2017 would be animated? Yeon Sang-ho, of course. You can catch this one on Shudder.
The Lure
What if the original Hans Christian Andersen version of The Little Mermaid, in its bloody glory, was set in the 1980s in a Polish cabaret? Oh yeah, and it’s a musical. That’s the concept behind Agnieszka Smoczynska’s stunning film featuring mermaid sisters Golden and Silver, who come ashore and wind up getting adopted by a local nightclub band. One seeks love and the other seeks to devour human flesh. Smoczynska’s narrative isn’t always the most coherent, but it’s so visually arresting that it makes up for that. Besides, pointy-toothed flesh eating mermaids who always sing catchy disco songs is a thing you didn’t know you needed to see. But you do. Even Criterion thinks so, as The Lure was released as part of the Criterion Collection in October.
Hounds of Love
Writer/Director Ben Young makes one doozy of a debut feature with his fictional story loosely based on multiple true crimes. Set in the 1980s in Perth, Australia, John and Evelyn White are one demented couple with a penchant of luring then kidnapping teen girls so they can be viciously assaulted and tortured before John disposes of their bodies in the woods. Their latest victim, Vicki, must drive a wedge between the couple if she has any hope to survive. By no means is this an easy watch, as the subject matter is harrowing and intense, but that’s also precisely why it’s a must-see. Young also frames his feature through both women’s perspectives, as both women are polarizing victims of John’s abuse. Stephen Curry is downright frightening as John, but it’s Emma Booth’s portrayal of the broken Evelyn that makes this as gripping as it is. Released in May, and still awaiting a Blu ray release, Hounds of Love delivers the year’s most uncomfortable, breathtaking and nail-biting, yet rewarding watch.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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