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My Top 5 Favorite Films
- April 5, 2021 by John Freeman
As some of you may have noticed, I take a lot of inspiration from films into how I write and create comics. It all started growing up, I probably watched somewhere in the range of 1,500+ films. I have favorites in pretty much every film genre, whether that’s a classic black & white film, war film, musical, or horror! Here they are with a few honorable mentions to lead us off!
Honorable Mentions: La La Land, Gone Girl, Roma, Logan, The Revenant, Us
— 5. Alien: Ridley Scott created a claustrophobic, dense atmospheric masterpiece. I usually don’t jump much when it comes to horror films, but the first time I saw the chestburster scene had me in shock. One of the first times I was legit frightened watching a film. Combine the frights of the Xenomorph that continues to get horrific as time goes on and one of my all time favorite characters – – Ellen Ripley. She is a heroine who gets stronger and smarter as the story goes on. I am diving into her arc across both Alien and Aliens when I say this, but she overcomes an incredible character arc. My favorite sci-fi horror film in my eyes!
— 4. The Shape of Water: Cracking the 4th spot is the Shape of Water. This is the most recent film on here and coming from a director that you’ll see a bit further down on the list – – Guillermo Del Toro. The acting was terrific in this film and we have a Michael Shannon’s villain that he played excellently as someone who in his eyes is the hero of the tale. I didn’t see the some of the inspirations for this like Creature from the Black Lagoon, but you can definitely see that it is a homage to the old school films that Del Toro adored. The unexpected love story between the Amphibian Man and Elisa is the heart and soul that drives this film and most importantly for me, I felt attached to the characters. I even cried at the end and that’s something that I don’t do too often for films.
— 3. Halloween(2018): Boy o Boy was this a slasher film for the ages. This film erased all the other Halloween films besides the first and uniquely crafted it into the lore of the film. It was packed with unique scares and what really made this my favorite horror film of all time is the extremely tense final act. I saw this in the movie theater and everyone was on the edge of their seats during that last act. In the final act, we all know Mike Myers is coming and we still get frightened because of the atmosphere, the darkness, and that music. It all meshed together wonderfully. The 2018 Halloween film is one that I anticipated so much before watching it and it definitely delivered.
— 2. Children of Men: Talking about making a film that is simply stunning and gorgeous, this is it. To me it has the best cinematography of any film that I’ve seen. Alfonso Cuaron and Emmanuel Lubezki crafted some of the most iconic moments in recent memory. In particular, this is where I truly fell in love with the 360 degree shot(I’ll give Michael Bay some props too). It’s a film full of twists and turns and most importantly to me – – the incredible themes of overcoming infertility and hope.
— 1. Pan’s Labyrinth: This is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. This has some of the most unique and detailed creatures designs in film such as the Faun and Pale Man(Maybe one day I can cosplay this character!). The marriage between fantasy, fairy tale, and war film against the backdrop of the Spanish War was spectacular. What I found so great in this also is the intersecting two tales that sort of become one as time goes on as we reach the conclusion. The creativity in this film really inspires me to write and create, every time I see this film. It’s one of those films that you can tell everyone involved were in their bag!