"With all of the horrors Americans are facing daily — a gun crisis, attacks on women's rights, a Supreme Court hell-bent on legislating back to the olden days — it can be a difficult to engage with the artificial terror of scary movies.
Fittingly, many of the year's best titles tapped into this anger and fear. Themes of environmental decay ("Crimes of the Future"), the oppression of women ("Men"), toxic internet culture ("Scream"), surveillance ("Watcher") and sexual repression ("X") loomed large, linking fantastical scares to very real fright."