To simply rattle off the movies I enjoyed, and the reasons why, would be too safe and too shallow. What follows is not a list of my favorite movies this year but rather an examination of one obvious, omnipresent theme: desperation.

There are scores of horror movies that follow formulas, rules, and tropes to the bitter end. Even with the 2018 glut of art house horror, plenty of familiar aspects linger. To really see beyond the rainbow on this one, we need to look to experimental horror.