Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Ma:
Fresh
Fresh is a pointed vision from a filmmaker I’m excited to see grow and develop after a few projects. I wasn’t expecting this to blow me away, but I was hoping for some neat tricks and thrilling fun, and it delivers that. Combined with its great performances, Fresh is a fun Friday night flick. It doesn’t push the boundaries of the genre, but it does fit itself nice and snug within one.
Barbarian
Zach Cregger‘s Barbarian is still refreshing and thrilling, and it’s easily one of my favorite theater experiences of 2022. Films try over and over again to use the schlocky marketing bit of audiences screaming in theaters only to be disappointing in actual terror when places in front of you – but Barbarian is genuinely jaw-dropping.
Smile
While Smile delivers on a couple creative and freaky scares, it ultimately falls apart with a prototypical first hour and a generally confusing second one. Sosie Bacon stars as a traumatized doctor looking for answers to her visions.
Night Swim
With a PG-13 rating, and a concept so thinly developed beyond “scary swimming pool,” Night Swim relies heavily on cheap scares and creepy underwater sight gags – where few of which actually earn their keep. Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon star in a sometimes silly, often underdeveloped horror movie.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie adaptation succumbs to the pitfalls of a poorly executed narrative, sidelining its potentially terrifying animatronic characters in favor of a tepid and uninspiring trauma story. Josh Hutcherson gives a commendable performance, but there’s not enough support around him to make this movie work.
The Blackening
Tim Story‘s The Blackening is a movie that doesn’t hold back any punches, offering biting commentary on pop culture and the experience of being black. The film lacks in some technical departments, but it’s still a supremely funny effort.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Stylistically and visually, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a real treat. The scenes are lush and vibrant, and the color design for this film is excellent. As all A24 horror projects go, this film finds its pocket early on and sticks to it. Even with a narrative that can feel generic at this point, Bodies Bodies Bodies excels at amplifying and hyper-intensifying the world around its main plotline.
Nanny
While it doesn’t quite come together in a package that is particularly neat and digestible, Nanny is certainly a commendable effort for its successful portrayal of emotional innerworkings for those immigrating to the United States – all played to the backdrop of American carelessness and cynicism acted out by two unpleasant and snide parents. Nanny is a lot, especially for a film barely scratching over 90 minutes, but it rewards the time and patience you give it.
Cobweb
Cobweb might be accused of adhering to some familiar horror tropes, but its commitment to its genre roots is what makes it stand out. The movie surpasses expectations with its tight narrative, commendable performances, and a commitment to delivering unadulterated horror.
Bad Things
As a representation of queer identity in horror, and an obvious homage to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Bad Things attempts to reimagine the status quo of a genre constantly trying to push boundaries and experiment in new ideas. And while that all sounds great on the surface, it takes a certain level of execution and baked-in quality from the script in order to successfully pull it off. Unfortunately for Bad Things, it succumbs to its own ideas without ever putting any substantial pen to paper.
READ MORE: Ma (2019)
