As 2016 comes to close and we settling into the first few weeks into 2017, it’s time to go through my list of movies I saw in 2016 and pick the ten best titles. This year’s total was 69 new movies, and for those new to my lists, that includes all new movies, no matter when they came out. So the easiest step in the process is weeding out the older movies, but then comes the hard part. It took a few passes, but I finally have my top ten, so sit back and grab some popcorn, because here comes my top ten movies of 2016…

As a bonafide horror supergeek, 2016 was a phenomenal year. Aside from a collection of great films, horror has dominated TV and pop culture as well, with hit shows like The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Scream Queens and Black Mirror. While horror fans are usually passionate about their genre, sometimes to a fault, a shocking thing happened this year. More than a few mainstream horror films received critical acclaim. Plus, between the countless streaming services out there, horror films are now more readily accessible than ever before. I was also privileged to attend two horror film festivals in New York, FEARnyc and the New York City Horror Film Festival, where I took in countless new independent feature-length and short horror films.

So, without further ado, I present my list of the Top 10 Horror Movies of 2016 (and some honorable mentions) below.

The Neon Demon
Blu-ray l DVD
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Written by: Mary Laws, Nicolas Winding Refn, Polly Stenham
Starring: Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves
Distributor: Broad Green Pictures
Rated R | 117 Minutes
Release Date: September 27, 2016

“Beauty isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

In The Neon Demon, the latest film from writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives), Elle Fanning (Maleficent, Super 8) stars as Jesse, a teenage orphan who moves to Los Angeles to pursue a modeling career. After her first photoshoot, she meets makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone, The Hunger Games series), who takes her to a party at a club where she is introduced to fellow models Sarah (Abbey Lee, Mad Max: Fury Road) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).

It’s that time once again folks, as we have officially come to the close of the summer movie season and get ready for Oscar season and the winter holiday films. I’ve been looking over my list of new movies I have seen this year — and yes this includes older movies as well, but also movies that I have seen for the first time – to pick my favorites so far. So the easiest step of my process for this post is to first go through and get rid of the older movies and then get into the nitty gritty of compiling my top ten movies of 2016…so far.

So here we go….