Best Movies I Saw in 2015

John Everson's shelf of horror movies on DVDSO, A LOT OF authors this week have been posting their Top 10 lists of Best Books Read in 2015 and I feel like I should follow suit, but honestly… I haven’t read 10 books in the past year. If I posted a Top 5 list, that would probably encompass almost everything I read — kind of pointless to post that. But I do watch a lot of movies. For many years now, every weekend, on Friday and/or Saturday night, I disappear into the basement around 11 p.m. to watch a DVD on the big-screen TV (and yes, always a DVD. I’m a hard-media fan, and I don’t subscribe to any streaming services. If I watch a movie, I have a copy that I can return to. I’m the same way with books, really, not that I’ve been reading much lately.)

So this year I thought… what if I put together a list of my favorite movies watched over the past year? Well… first I’d have to figure out what I watched. I scoured my Amazon and eBay Order lists for purchase dates, as well as skimmed emails to a couple friends that I tend to chat about movies with to see what I’d talked about DVD-wise this year, and I looked at my DVD rack for things I know I watched/filed in the past few months. Anything that was at all questionable didn’t make my list — so I know there were some more movies that I saw this year. I just don’t have a good record.  Then I looked up the directors, year released, and assigned off-the-cuff star ratings (questionable, since my memory sucks and many of these were watched months ago). The end result?

I saw at least 78 movies this year, about 10 of them “re-watches” (I just rewatched the whole Star Wars series, so that covers much of that list!) I tend to focus on directors; I was discovering Alejandro Jodorowsky at the beginning of the year, and Radley Metzger more recently, so there are several from each on this list.  It was interesting to see how my list divided by genre, and while you could argue with my categorization on some (I don’t see World War Z as a horror film so much as an Action film), by my counts, I watched 23 horror movies and 18 Science Fiction films. Then a half dozen each of Arthouse, Kids, Comedy and Action.  It was a little surprising that horror didn’t dominate the list more, but I was even more surprised to find that none of my 5-star ratings this year went to horror films. Go figure.

My list of movies

Anyway… here’s my list of what I watched and what my favorites were this year. I think I’ll actually keep this spreadsheet going so I have really accurate tracking next year!

Title Director Released Genre Stars
The Holy Mountain Alejandro Jodorowsky 1973 Arthouse 5
Ex Machina Alex Garland 2015 SF 5
Camille 2000 Radley Metzger 1969 Arthouse 5
Pitch Perfect Jason Moore 2012 Comedy 5
Birdman Alejandro Inarritu 2014 Drama 5
Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki 2001 Kids 5
Mad Max: Fury Road George Miller 2015 SF 5
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Francis Lawrence 2015 SF 5
Firefly: The Complete Series Joss Whedon 2002 SF 5
A Fistful of Dollars Serio Leone 1964 Western 5
Spectre Sam Mendes 2015 Action 4
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Guy Ritchie 2015 Action 4
World War Z Marc Foster 2013 Action / Horror 4
Iron Man 3 Shane Black 2013 Action 4
Santa Sangre Alejandro Jodorowsky 1989 Arthouse 4
El Topo Alejandro Jodorowsky 1970 Arthouse 4
Score Radley Metzger 1974 Arthouse 4
The Licorice Quartet Radley Metzger 1970 Arthouse 4
St. Vincent Theodore Melfi 2014 Comedy 4
Borat Larry Charles 2006 Comedy 4
The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson 2014 Comedy 4
The Theory of Everything James Marsh 2014 Drama 4
Big Eyes Tim Burton 2014 Drama 4
Sugar Cookies Theodore Gershuny 1973 Erotic Thriller 4
Lady in the Water Ron Howard 2006 Fantasy 4
100 Bloody Acres Cameron Cairnes 2012 Horror 4
Deadheads Brett and Drew Pierce 2011 Horror 4
Rubber Quentin Dupieux 2010 Horror 4
Botched Kit Ryan 2007 Horror 4
Cemetery Man Michele Soavi 1994 Horror 4
Antichrist Lars Von Trier 2009 Horror/Drama 4
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water Paul Tibbitt 2015 Kids 4
Ponyo Hayao Miyazaki 2008 Kids 4
Star Wars: The Force Awakens J.J. Abrams 2015 SF 4
Avengers: Age of Ultron Joss Whedon 2015 SF 4
Tomorrowland Brad Bird 2015 SF 4
Looper Rian Johnson 2012 SF 4
Lucy Luc Besson 2014 SF 4
Melancholia Lars Von Trier 2011 SF/Drama 4
The Dance of Reality Alejandro Jodorowsky 2013 Arthouse 3.5
We Are What We Are Jim Mickle 2013 Horror 3.5
Maniac William Lustig 1980 Horror 3.5
The Girl in Room 2A William L. Rose 1974 Horror 3.5
Four Flies on Grey Velvet Dario Argento 1971 Horror 3.5
Ilsa: She Wolf of the S.S. Don Edmonds 1975 Horror 3.5
Prey (Alien Prey) Norman J. Warren 1981 Horror/SF 3.5
Hotel Transylvania 2 Genndy Tartakovsky 2015 Kids 3.5
Ender’s Game Gavin Hood 2013 SF 3.5
Jodorowsky’s Dune Frank Pavich 2013 SF 3.5
Pixels Chris Columbus 2015 SF/Comedy 3.5
Sin City: A Dame to Kill for Frank Miller / Robert Rodriguez 2014 Action / Noir 3.5
Get Smart Peter Segal 2008 Comedy 3
Boyhood Richard Linklater 2014 Drama 3
Nekromantik Jorg Buttgereit 1987 Erotic Horror 3
Exotic Malice Joe D’Amato 1980 Erotic Horror 3
Sex and Black Magic Joe D’Amato 1980 Erotic Horror 3
The Awful Dr. Orlof Jess Franco 1962 Horror 3
The Playgirls and the Vampire Piero Regnoli 1960 Horror 3
Inside Out Pete Docter 2015 Kids 3
The Peanuts Movie Steve Martino 2015 Kids 3
Under the Skin Jonathan Glazer 2013 SF 3
The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein Jess Franco 1973 Erotic Horror 2.5
Paranormal Activity 3 Heynry Joost, Ariel Schulman 2011 Horror 2.5
Nothing Vincenzo Natali 2003 Comedy 2
Nympha Ivan Zuccon 2007 Erotic Horror 2
Paranormal Activity 2 Tod Williams 2010 Horror 2
Moriturus Raffaele Picchio 2011 Horror 1
REWATCHED
Star Wars 1-6 George Lucas 1977 SF 4
Gremlins Joe Dante 1984 Horror/Comedy 4
Serenity Joss Whedon 2002 SF 4
Mad Max George Miller 1980 SF 4
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior George Miller 1981 SF 4

About John Everson

John Everson is a Bram Stoker Award-winning horror author with more than 100 published short stories and 14 novels of horror and dark fantasy currently in print. His first novel, Covenant, won the Bram Stoker Award for a First Novel in 2005. His sixth novel, NightWhere, was a Bram Stoker Finalist in 2013. Its sequel, The Night Mother, was released in June 2023.

One Comment

  1. Pingback: Hey, it’s 2015. Nevermind… now it’s gone! ~ John Everson

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