Flickering Myth’s Tom Jolliffe ventures back a decade to look at ten essential thrillers from 2016…
Have you ever come across a film you saw recently on the big screen? Freshly released, brand spanking new, and it feels like it was only yesterday. Then you take a look at the year in parentheses and realise it has, in fact, been a full decade since said film came out. Yes, time passes pretty quickly, and more films come and go.
In the ever-increasing slew of content-driven movies, a film that will be remembered in a decade seems like a rarity, so it’s interesting to venture back to 2016 to see which ones remain as essential as they once did, and those that have also benefited from a passage of time to allow their impact to ferment and develop. 2016 had an eclectic and interesting mix of thrillers, and we’re gonna make sure, dear Flickering Myth readers, that you have ten essentials to add to your watchlist. Here they are…
Elle
Paul Verhoeven left Hollywood with a string of unsuccessful and largely critically derided films behind him. A far cry from the heady days of Total Recall and Robocop, even if the likes of Showgirls, Starship Troopers, and Hollow Man have certainly seen their cult legacy grow over the decades. His return to Europe certainly marked an uptick in critical reception, with challenging films that seemed to indulge Verhoeven’s penchant for darkly complex stories without Hollywood’s sanitisation.
One of those was Elle, a French film starring the incomparable Isabelle Huppert. It’s a creative match made in heaven, with Huppert’s magnetic presence and gift for mesmerism giving Verhoeven the perfect conduit to explore dark psycho-sexual themes, with Huppert’s protagonist dealing with the aftermath of being raped. It’s Verhoeven, so it courted some controversy, but it also garnered widespread acclaim and plenty of awards. The visionary director was back to his best, whilst Huppert was incredible.
Personal Shopper
After her promising rise as a young actress, Kristen Stewart’s first major tentpole role in Twilight seemed to mark her card through those burgeoning steps into adulthood. Alongside a handful of other blockbuster roles and further sequels, that initial promise was deemed lost by critics and internet commentators, perhaps harshly ripping apart her acting prowess. Stewart’s seeming aloofness and a feeling of indifference to her bigger movies is offset by a deeply serious approach to the indie films she started to gravitate towards, to shake off the image of Bella.
Eclectic, engaging, and coming to a head recently with her directorial debut, the very much idiosyncratic The Chronology of Water. One film which really did act as a key first step in the Kristen-aissance, was Personal Shopper, Olivier Assayas’s cerebral and esoteric psychological thriller. Stewart is allowed to play on the image of being complicated and moody, whilst quietly portraying a character dealing with loss and a need to reconnect with her late brother. It’s a slow-burning and atmospheric ghost story, anchored by Stewart’s excellent performance.
Blood Father
Whatever you might think of Mel Gibson and his partial descent into straight-to-video drudgery, his screen presence is never in doubt. Gibson’s initial casting out from the Hollywood round table took years to even get a sniff of mainstream work with bit parts or villain roles (in films like The Expendables 3). His resurfacing also pulled him fully away from the romantic image he’d cultivated in the romantic films he was afforded as a variant to his action work.
Starting with How I Spent My Summer Vacation, it was a greyer, craggier, and more weathered Gibson, but arguably as intriguing on screen as ever. Then in 2016, he starred in Blood Father as a troubled father with a string of troubles with the law and addiction, who has to step up when his daughter (Starlight herself, Erin Moriaty) finds herself under serious threat. It’s fairly standard, post-Taken fare on the surface, but it’s elevated a hell of a lot by Gibson’s intense and interesting performance.
Nocturnal Animals
The same year, she starred in the widely acclaimed and high-profile film Arrival, and Amy Adams also starred in Nocturnal Animals, which all too few people saw. Stylish, dark, and complex, with an auteur vision that divided audiences (you’d expect no less from Tom Ford), this neo-noir has plenty to unpick.
Adams stars opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, no stranger to delving into the psyche of dark characters throughout the years, and both stars are on top form here. Ford’s film drips with colours and contrast. Adams and her trademark flame-red hair pop off the screen here. Despite the killer support cast, glorious aesthetics, and compelling characters, this one feels like it didn’t quite get the dues it deserved.
The Wailing
Na Hong-jin’s procedural mystery thriller, which meets folk horror, has slowly cast a spell over Western audiences across the past decade. On initial release, it was greeted with universal acclaim, crafting a dark, disturbing, and enthralling film with the kind of unique flair that feels inherent in high-end Korean cinema. Chilling, ambiguous, and with splashes and pinches of dark comedy to break the tension, The Wailing carries some unsettling and unforgettable moments.
Like many Korean films, it benefited from the renewed interest that came in the wake of Parasite, with audiences actively seeking out other recent gems from the nation. Despite its epic length, The Wailing enraptures from the first minute to the last.
The Neon Demon
Nicolas Winding Refn hasn’t made a feature in a decade now. Having announced himself with brash confidence to the mainstream with Drive, audiences flocked to his next two to find themselves splitting into two camps, the larger of which had active hatred. In the case of Only God Forgives, the vitriol some corners have for that film has perhaps muted, with a slow-growing rise in its ardent defenders. The Neon Demon was less divisive, but still saw a split with audiences and critics who felt the text was lost to the subtext (and for some, the subtext was too on the nose).
The Neon Demon is certainly, like all of Refn’s cinema, intriguing. It’s visually glorious and backed by a great Clint Martinez score, whilst its porcelain-perfect cast of young actresses (as supermodels slowly being consumed by their vanity and profession) is excellent (particularly Elle Fanning and Jena Malone). Here’s hoping his upcoming return to feature work, Her Private Hell, is as compelling.
Split
M. Night Shyamalan had spent a few years in the wilderness after a run of films that were greeted by terrible reviews and continued a difficult career, largely trying to match his three breakout features (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs). After Earth hammered a nail in the coffin as far as big-budget work, so Shyamalan stripped everything back and went simpler with The Visit. A low-key, solid return to horror.
He sought to repeat that with Split in 2016, resulting in a film that really did feel like a triumphant return to form. Simple but assured. Carrying trademark twists but not making them the be-all and end-all, the film rested on. Then he had a secret weapon: James McAvoy, who plays a man with 23 distinct personalities, each of which McAvoy deftly manages to capture. The spinoff sequel, which returned to the Unbreakable universe, Glass was far less interesting.
Anti-Matter
Anti-Matter is a low-budget sci-fi thriller that scored great reviews when it came out of the blue back in 2016. An Oxford PHD student discovers how to make wormholes. Inevitably, so begins an engaging tale of unexpected and dangerous consequences. Whilst a low budget can hamper some film-makers in typically expansive genres like Sci-fi, director Keir Burrows’s more minimalist approach gives the audience space to fill in gaps in a way that has more benefit than just putting in a terrible visual effect here or there, or trying to show too much.
The careful rationing of the effects is sensible, and Anti-Matter builds nicely to its conclusion. It didn’t find itself the kind of cult audience a film like Primer did, but Anti-Matter is definitely worth seeking out for fans of the genre. It’s also inspiring for micro-budget filmmakers looking to make a film with very little money and capture a reasonable level of attention.
Hush
Again, a great example of low-budget filmmaking that nails what it sets out to do with aplomb, makes something with the right intentions and results, and launched very successful careers for director Mike Flanagan and star Kate Siegel. It was Flanagan’s third feature, having built himself a solid reputation among deep-cut horror aficionados. What Hush did was take a more universally alluring concept, and it was the one that put Flanagan right in the public eye. It came out the same year as Don’t Breathe, which admittedly used its impairment concept a touch more uniquely by casting the blind person as the villain.
Here, Kate Siegel is a deaf-mute writer who finds herself tormented by a masked invader. Flanagan’s film is really lithe and largely keeps things moving at a good pace, building up suitable tension in the final act. Siegel is great, and as it has been proven, she and Flanagan (since married) work very well together. This one wears its Hitchockian and King-ian heart on its sleeve.
Hell or High Water
David Mackenzie (with a Taylor Sheridan script) delivered an ace neo-Western back in 2016. Star-powered, you had a bankable Chris Pine, alongside veteran Jeff Bridges and character actor extraordinaire Ben Foster. You’ve got familial tension, high stakes, and thrills aplenty.
Hell or High Water is a propulsive, dusty, and sweaty masterclass in self-destructive behaviour and course correction. Pines gives a career-high performance, though Foster and Bridges are even better. It does feel like the film’s impact has been muted a little in recent years, but this one really does hold up well as one of the best modern westerns around.
What’s your favourite thriller from 2016? Let us know on our social channels @flickeringmyth.
Tom Jolliffe
