Wow, I have to disagree with pretty much all of those assessments! (Excluding Bird Box, Ghost Stories and Halloween - I assume the recent one? - as I’ve not seen them.) The one of those that most underwhelmed me was probably actually It Follows, which had a lot of hype behind it and was certainly stylishly done, but felt lacking to me both in substance and in scares.
Hereditary (which, following a listener comment on the Kermode and Mayo show, will forever be Her Head Hit a Tree to me) was such a great debut film from a director that it instantly put Ari Aster into the category of watch whatever he does. I can’t deny that it is occasionally inconsistent (although the ending sequence worked for me and freaked the fuck out of me in the cinema, I can understand why others didn’t go with it), but its core exploration of grief was so effecting and unique that I found it such a beautifully sad piece. The flaws were more evident going back to it after seeing Aster’s follow up, Midsommer (which, judging by the rest of your list, I would say you would hate), which is definitely the superior work, but I still felt it deserved the strong hype it got.
Similarly, Get Out was another one that shot Jordan Peel into my keep an eye on pile. It was just such a fun ride and had something relevent to say, putting a really unique spin on some old tropes. Unlike Aster, I wouldn’t say Peel’s follow up, Us, was an improvement on his debut, which tries to go too large scale on the themes it explores and ends up being a bit of a mess in parts. The sharp focus with Get Out really works. The only downside is that it isn’t particularly scary, but it is still really engaging and the comedy roots of Peel regularly shine. Also has Bradley Whitford in it, which instantly makes it worth watching.
A Quiet Place was definitely very well put together and a good film, but it didn’t feel like anything massively special to me. It also has some plot holes that are glaring, such as them not using the waterfall area as their home and the birth scene seemingly not being as disastrous as it surely should have been. Best use of the Psycho strings sound though!
The VVitch is all about atmosphere. Honestly, it is tough to really categorise it as a horror film. I really liked it, though I can understand others finding it pretentious. I would rate The Lighthouse higher, but I would probably have to rewatch The VVitch again to real say.
Don’t Breath, yeah, it isn’t great, but I found it to be a by the numbers horror that was fun while it lasted. I wouldn’t say rubbish, but certainly not something I would recommend to others unless they were horror fans.
