The gang at Daily Grindhouse is coming at you with a medley of lists and year-end highlights for you. Let us know what you loved most throughout 2024! And expect that we’ll all be talking a lot more with you in 2025…

 

 

BEE DELORES’ 5 UNDERRATED, EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCES IN 2024 HORROR MOVIES

 

 

Decades from now, we will be talking about 2024 as a cinematic reference point and an undeniable banner year for horror. Box-office success stories like LONGLEGS, TERRIFIER 3, and SMILE 2 intermingled with such indie darlings as, ahem, STRANGE DARLING, LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL, and IMMACULATE to confirm the commercial viability of making horror movies. But you don’t have to tell us that; if you’re reading this, you’re already well aware of how popular the genre is, despite the many out-of-the-loop critics and executives who claim otherwise.

 

Through the decades, there have been many genre-defining years. A few come to mind: 1960, 1974, 1982, 2009, 2017, and 2022. These landmark years have seen many twists for our favorite genre, offering up genre-warping essentials that have turned horror on its head and redefined what could be scary. Whether it’s massive money blowouts or indies, there’s always been a story to tell. Everything has led to this moment in time – another defining year for horror.

 

Many of the year’s best horror movies showcase moody, bone-rattling cinematography and some of the best, most emotional acting you’ll see anywhere. While it would be easy to celebrate the excellent work of Demi Moore (THE SUBSTANCE), Nicolas Cage (LONGLEGS), Justice Smith (I SAW THE TV GLOW), and Naomi Scott (SMILE 2), among countless others, I wanted to turn attention to those performances that just haven’t gotten nearly enough attention over the last 12 months.

Jordan Doww in GANYMEDE

Co-directors Sam Probst and Colby Holt draw from their personal lives to dive deep into religious trauma and finding your voice as a queer person. Jordan Doww stars Lee Fletcher, a young teen deeply entrenched in the religious community. He must reconcile his faith with who he truly is. But his journey to self-actualization is terrifying, disturbing, and downright mean.

Melissa Barrera in YOUR MONSTER

Melissa Barrera reaches a career peak with her performance in Caroline Lindy’s YOUR MONSTER. While she has delivered strong turns in BED REST and SCREAM VI, it’s her rip-roaring take as the battered and bruised Laura Franco that stands above them all. When her boyfriend unexpectedly dumps her, she’s left to pick up the pieces and keep from drowning in all the misery.  As she works through her pain, she meets a disgruntled monster (Tommy Dewey) living in her closet. He unlocks Laura’s passion to live again, and the two fall in love – an obvious metaphor about accepting and embracing your inner rage.

Samara Weaving in AZRAEL

Samara Weaving is most known for that guttural, sky-crashing scream. It comes from somewhere unholy, and it’s hard to imagine her not using it any chance she gets. But with E.L. Katz’s AZRAEL, Weaving never speaks a word or opens those lungs. In an apocalyptic world, where human beings have adapted to silence as a way of survival, she must use every other weapon in her arsenal. Weaving’s emotive facial expressions demonstrate that she has far more to offer than that scream. She’s the kind of actor that can squeeze blood from a stone. It’s her world, and we’re just living in it.

Ignacio Diaz-Silverio & Ireon Roach in DEPARTING SENIORS

It’s hard to nail down just one performance that defines the meta-slasher DEPARTING SENIORS. So, I settled on celebrating the best friendship of the year. Javier (Diaz-Silverio) and Bianca (Roach) have a relationship to die for. Even before a masked killer pops up, they commit to one another and remain loyal in the face of a trio of bullies who make Javier’s life a living hell. They’re ride-or-die companions, and we all could use a little more of that. Not only to their quips tickle the funny bone, but they both supply true emotion performances — daring to get raw and real when it matters most.

 

David Pareja — THE COFFEE TABLE

It’s difficult to talk about THE COFFEE TABLE without getting into spoilers. But let’s just say: You are not prepared for it. David Pareja stars as Jesus — a new father and compassionate, understanding husband. When he and his wife head to a furniture store, Jesus immediately takes a likening to a garish coffee table. His wife doesn’t get the appeal and slowly concedes to buying it. It’s the worst decision of their life, as things begin to go wrong in their lives. With grounded, real human emotions, Pareja delivers one of the year’s most devastating performances that is guaranteed to tear the heart from your chest.

 

 

 

MATT KONOPKA’S TOP TEN HORROR FILMS OF 2024

 

Top ten, in this order:

1. THE SUBSTANCE

2.  I SAW THE TV GLOW

3. RED ROOMS

4. THE FIRST OMEN

5. EXHUMA

6. LONGLEGS

7. SMILE 2

8. INFESTED

9. ODDITY

10. STOPMOTION

 

 

KATELYN NELSON’S TEN FAVORITE FILMS OF 2024

 

I’m not a big believer in numerical ranking, mostly because I feel guilty for ranking something what feels lower than it should be. Couple that with the fact that 2024 has been an extraordinary year for film releases, and all I can safely name this list is ten of my favorite releases. Numbers are present, but arbitrary.

 

1. RED ROOMS, written and directed by Pedro Pascal

Pascal Plante’s dive into the seedy underbelly of true crime obsession is the most evil-feeling film to come out of this year. Equally understated and markedly in-your-face, it grows more nightmarish with repeat viewings and has one of the most sickening (complimentary) musical sting climaxes of anything I’ve seen this year. If you’ve missed it before, seek it out at the earliest opportunity.

 

2. THE FIRST OMEN, written and directed by Arkasha Stevenson, written with Tim Smith, Keith Thomas, and David Seltzer

Arkasha Stevenson’s debut faced competition in the eyes of many thanks to its release coinciding so closely with that of IMMACULATE, but it more than stands out as a visual and auditory stunner. It is no surprise we saw so many entries in horror this year dealing with the subject of autonomy and birth horror, and even though we know this OMEN prequel still ends with Damien’s arrival, the atmosphere and Nell Tiger Free’s performance solidify it as more than strong enough to stand on its own. Obligatory nod to the POSSESSION reference, which I am always delighted to see.

 

3. MONKEY MAN, written and directed by Dev Patel, written with Paul Angunawela and John Collee

Dev Patel can do no wrong as far as I am concerned, and his directorial debut shines on its promise of kicking ass and taking names. Best movie with a gang of trans warriors of 2024.

 

4. I SAW THE TV GLOW, written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun

Jane Schoenbrun’s follow up to WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR is bound to be on nearly every favorite/top list for the year, and rightly so. It is a uniquely nostalgia-soaked film, much like WORLD’S FAIR, and one of the most viscerally saddening entries to come out of the year. Anything that makes me ugly cry is bound to make it to my lists, and there are quite a few moments where this one hits harder than I ever expected. I stand by my caveat that it should not be watched when you are in a mentally vulnerable state, but it absolutely should be watched. A marvel that it exists to spark the kinds of conversations it has.

 

5. HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, written and directed by Mike Cheslik, written with Ryland Brickson Cole Tews

Speaking of things that are marvels of creation, Mike Cheslik’s independent love letter to silent era slapstick humor is the most fun you’ll have at the movies or with your own screen. I will never be able to stress enough how important silly cinema is, and HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS is an unironically perfect example.

 

6. EXHUMA, written and directed by Jang Jae-hyun

It’s been a big year, personally, for exploring foreign horror of all stripes (that more of it isn’t present has far more to do with exploring releases from prior years than anything else) and Jang Jae-Hyun’s possession thriller is a downright haunting reminder to leave pretty much every grave well enough alone. Anything that provokes its audience to do more research into the culture and customs of the culture it’s produced in is a winner in my book.

 

7. THE BOY AND THE HERON, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the world’s absolute greatest to ever do it, and every year in which we get a new film of his is in some small way the better for having it. I read the source material for this, Miyazaki’s favorite childhood book, Genzabur? Yoshino’s How Do You Live?, some months before the film’s release. The two have little in common, on the whole, except that they both feel a bit like Miyazaki’s signature mood of cozy and thought-provoking. Technically this one came to theaters and such at the end of 2023, but since I saw it for the first time this year, I’m keeping it in.

 

8. ODDITY, written and directed by Damian Mc Carthy

Damian Mc Carthy will probably have a spot on my favorites list for as long as he keeps making movies. From the cameo of my favorite little guy (CAVEAT’s spirit-detecting rabbit) to the most upsetting wooden figure to ever grace the screen, this dark little revenge gem set out to ruin all of our days and did so wonderfully. The way ODDITY is less about onscreen violence and more about the terror and dread we can make in our own imaginations when left with the results is one of my favorite bits about it, never mind centering a disabled character who gets to have some real fun with people who underestimate her for being blind. No one is doing it like Damian.

 

9. STOPMOTION, written and directed by Robert Morgan, written with Robin King

Robert Morgan’s blend of reality and stop-motion animation would be a thing of nightmares on premise alone—an artist haunted by her own creations as she struggles to keep a grip on reality — but the design really sends it over the edge.

 

10. A DIFFERENT MAN, written and directed by Aaron Schimberg

I’ve been chasing this film since its limited theatrical release, and finally caught up to it just a day before the year finished out. I’ve been keeping an eye out on Adam Pearson’s career since UNDER THE SKIN, and he steals the show here at every turn. It’s an unusual piece of work. One part body horror, one part noir drama, sprinkled with a bit of comedy; it’s one man’s journey toward self acceptance by way of jealousy. The main cast is great, and I have many deeper thoughts to stew on yet, but by far the standout that makes this whole endeavor more than worth the time is Adam Pearson’s performance as Oswald. I don’t think quite enough of us are talking about his acting chops.

 

 

 

 

JON ABRAMS’ TOP THIRTEEN OF 2024!

 

13. WEREWOLVES

You’re not going to find this one on many critics’ year-end lists, but here it is on mine, in case you’re wondering why they don’t let me anywhere near the elite “Film Twitter” cabal. But this is a movie where Frank Grillo fights werewolves. If I make a year-end list and this isn’t on it, I am not me. I also put it here because I hope to do my part to call attention to this movie, and if enough of you see it, maybe, just maybe, they can make it a franchise. We need Frank Grillo and his crew out there to fight more werewolves for us.

 

12. THELMA

What a sweet showcase for June Squibb. What a bittersweet last visit with Richard Roundtree.

 

11. THE SUBSTANCE

You’ve no doubt heard a lot about this movie for now, and you might have heard the name David Cronenberg invoked in plenty of high-faluting reviews of this movie. He’s great, but he’s not the name people should be thinking about. The name you mean to pay tribute to is Frank Henenlotter. Now, you may not know his name, but Coralie Fargeat clearly does, and that’s why her movies, and this movie in particular, fucking rule.

 

10. NEVER LET GO

This movie is probably more flawed than typical top-ten material tends to be, and it didn’t all the way work for me, but considering how highly I anticipated this one, it still had plenty to recommend it. Alexandre Aja knows how to shoot the shit out of a haunted forest, and Halle Berry is phenomenal, and the performances by those two wonderful boys were unforgettable. I’m not sure the ending hangs together, but I still really dug this one.

 

9. STOPMOTION

I adore stop-motion animation. I adore Robert Morgan’s style of stop-motion animation. If you missed this movie, fix that. I tend to find stop-motion animation heartwarming and charming, but not always. If you, like me, have been haunted by horrifying stop-motion animation such as the video for “Sober” by Tool and the terror-for-kids show Davey And Goliath, this is your unblinking soul-splitting life-interrupting horror movie to beat.

 

8. HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS

This movie makes you a promise and it keeps that promise. You are gonna see so many beavers, dude. You are gonna see like, hundreds of beavers. So many fucking hundreds of beavers.

 

7. TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS: WALLED IN

I only saw two action movies I loved more than this one this year, but in any other year, this would have been the bestest one I saw. Here is an invariable truth: Louis Koo.

 

6. JUROR #2

Of the precious few subjects upon which I can claim any degree of expertise, Clint Eastwood films are one. This is fascinating to me. Why is this his choice for his potentially last movie? Why is Clint, at this point in his life and his career, thinking so profoundly about guilt? Can there be redemption in doing the right thing, even if it only causes more pain? I am still thinking about that, and I don’t know if I will ever have an answer. If this turns out to be his last, Clint goes out on a question mark. But it’s such an engaging one. Something to wrestle with for a while.

 

5. EXHUMA

There was a lot of great horror this year, but man, this movie is probably tops in that genre for me.

 

4. REBEL RIDGE

I’ve been rocking with Jeremy Saulnier movies from the start, but he just keeps getting better and better. One of the finest young directors of hard-hitting action and big-thinking ideas out there. I hope that he keeps generating his own stuff and doesn’t get roped into Big Superhero.

 

3. THE SHADOW STRAYS

Timo Tjahjanto is maybe my favorite director working, and one of the very finest action directors in the world. Again, in any other year, this could have been my number-one favorite movie. I feel like even Timo will understand when I list the movie and filmmaker that I had to list directly ahead of him. I had to do it, bud.

 

2. FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA

George Miller is a virtuoso. I don’t want to say much about my thoughts about this movie because I am still turning them over in my head. It’s an incredible ass-kicking work of art. It’s Chris Hemsworth’s best role ever. It’s a movie that I think has more to say about where humanity is in 2024, heading into 25, than maybe any other that I saw this year. By nature, as the prequel, it’s not the uplift that FURY ROAD was. It’s still a miracle movie. There were two movies I saw in 2024 that demonstrated something true, that the small act of daring to love in a world this vicious, this certain to crush your heart and soul before it crushes you physically, is most likely an act of insanity. But we all go a little mad sometimes, of course. Two movies, I said, and…

 

1. LOVE LIES BLEEDING

…This is the other one. I watched LOVE LIES BLEEDING and then immediately watched it again. For me this is the movie of the year. Like FURIOSA, this movie carries evidence of how scary and uncertain and dangerous and insane it is to carry even a seed of love in your heart, but ultimately this movie heads in another direction and in 2024 I needed a little more hope than I was gonna get in the Wasteland, so this was my favorite. Sometimes love is your greatest vulnerability going into a fight, and every once in a while, it proves to be your greatest strength.

 

Hey Daily Grindhouse editors! What were some of your favorite things in 2024 that weren’t movies?

 

KATEY NELSON’S FAVORITE NON-FILMS OF 2024!

I haven’t gotten to spend quite as much time as I’d have liked with non-film art this year. It’s not quite as easy as I’d like — or else I just haven’t found a good enough system — for keeping track of things like TV shows and music, but there have been a few standout watches and reads. Below is a mix of television and books that have lingered with me, no matter what point of the year I encountered them in, and with no regard to the year of their original release.

 

• Christine Coulson’s ONE WOMAN SHOW. It’s been a big year for art about woman-as-object and woman-as-wild thing, and one of the most interesting examples of this phenomenon is Christine Coulson’s ONE WOMAN SHOW, a narrative of a woman’s life told entirely through the frame of art museum plates.

 

• Stephen Graham Jones’s I WAS A TEENAGE SLASHER. I’ve been following Stephen Graham Jones closely for the last few years after discovering him through the Killer Book Club, and he has yet to disappoint. TEENAGE SLASHER is the latest in a long line of empathetic protagonists, though with a new twist. Where the INDIAN LAKE trilogy framed a new kind of Final Girl, SLASHER imagines a sympathetic slasher villain. SGJ is at his best when using the trappings of his favorite genre to prove its worth to humanity, and Tolly Driver is a poignant masterclass on how to break cycles that feel destined.

 

• Josh Malerman’s INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE. This was my first exposure to Josh Malerman’s work, and it has haunted me for months on end. Told from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl, it feels like SKINAMARINK had a nightmare of its own. A haunted house, an “Other Mommy,” and a childish perspective guarantee this to be one of the most terrifying reads you may come across. It’s sinister and sad in equal measure.

 

• Jordan Shiveley’s HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA. I’m a sucker for unconventional storytelling forms, if this list has so far not made that clear. I have a longer-form review still in the works for this one, but suffice to say, if weird body horror mixed with occupational horror is your kind of vibe, Jordan Shiveley has written a riotous horror novel for you.

 

• Somebody, written by Ji Wan Han, directed by Jung Ji-woo. Over the course of the last couple years, I have spent more time exploring K-dramas as a genre. It is has been remarkably rewarding. When it dips into romantic comedy, it’s consistently comforting and warm. But it’s the thriller angle that gets the most rewarding. Somebody is a remarkably twisted piece of work that explores a range of fears: AI, stalking, psychopathic murderers who never lose sight of their goals are just a few of the nightmares at work here. What makes it extra intriguing: it centers an autistic character, at least one queer character, and is by no means afraid to get messy.

 

• Squid Game Season 2, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk. This show has a mess of controversies going on behind its scenes that should not be ignored — even creating the first season was such a hard go that the show’s creator wants to have his next project be about what an absolute mess it was. Nevertheless, as long as respect is paid to those points, its success and impact cannot be ignored either.

 

• The Trunk, written by Park Eun-young and directed by Kim Kyu-tae. Gong Yoo is a masterful actor — one of my favorites in the K-drama world — and he’s double hit for me this year thanks to his recurring role in Squid Game and his central role in Netflix’s The Trunk, a mystery thriller about a trunk that washes up and throws a wrench into the already complicated lives of a man trying — rather unconventionally — to save his marriage, his wife, and a woman who works for a temporary marriage agency in the middle of it. It’s wildly twisting and twisted, and thanks to its later-in-the-year release, largely seems to be flying under the radar.

 

• True Detective: Night Country, showrunner Issa López. There is a bit of rather distracting AI art in the background of a couple of episodes, but overall, this season of True Detective was an incredibly rich, rewarding new approach to a weaving tapestry of unreality. The couple seasons between season one and here were largely hit or miss for me, personally, so this was a welcome return.

 

 

JON ABRAMS’ FAVORITE STUFF THAT WASN’T MOVIES FROM 2024!

There was a lot of stuff I loved in 2024 that wasn’t movies! Expect a whole other post featuring my favorite books of the year. Meanwhile, here’s a couple other things that made my cursed existence a little easier.

 

pit bulls!

I’ve been walking my neighbors’ dogs for the last half of the year. They have a mutt and a pit. I spend a lot of time with dogs in general, as much as possible, but I never had much experience with pit bulls before. They’re fantastic! Well, this one is, at least. Pit bulls have a fearsome reputation, but as I’ve been told, it’s all about the owner. This guy is sweet and smart and friendly — his bark is a little scary, but he doesn’t have an ounce of bite in him. He just wants to play!

 

BABS by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows

Garth Ennis is one of my favorite writers in any medium, and with Jacen Burrows, he has found a collaborator who can reach the uncanny ability of the late Steve Dillon to make drawn, fictional characters move and slug and mug and look alive. This series is Ennis’ spin on the sword-and-sorcery genre. Instead of Conan The Barbarian, you have Babs, a belligerent lady warrior with an even more belligerent haunted sword and a loyal but embattled trusty steed. Ennis generally works in two modes: Intense splatterpunk horror and action, or full-on comedy. This series is a lot more of the latter, with Ennis training his razor-sharp satirical weapons on a subject that was a little surprising to me! His work has often taken shots at over-eager political correctness, but here it’s toxic masculinity he’s going after, in general and in fandom in particular. And it’s so fucking sweet. Look upon this caper and behold yourselves, goblins!

From the same creative team, I recommend GET FURY from Marvel, and from the same publisher, Ahoy Comics, I recommend MY BAD, which is a rare thing, an honest-to-goodness laugh-out-loud comic book, and their TOXIC AVENGER reboot. Great publisher!

 

 

Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) with motorcycle

I am trying hard to ramp down my collecting, mainly because I can’t afford it but also because of a severe lack of space. But as soon as this was announced, I knew I had to find one. And I knew it wouldn’t be easy. And it wasn’t.  But I did, and it’s beautiful. (This is Danny Ketch, the 1990s Ghost Rider, not the classic Johnny Blaze version, which I already have, naturally.)

 

here is Ghost Rider doing an AKIRA tribute!

 

And now, here is some music I loved in 2024! For relative manageability, I cut myself off at 25. The order is determined solely by the order that it all pops up on my smartphone.

 

Alan Sparhawk / White Roses, My God

 

Antoni Maoivvi / An Animal

 

Autre Ne Veut / Love, Guess Who??

 

Burial / Dreamfear/Boy Sent From Above EP

 

The Cure / Songs Of A Lost World

 

Freddie Gibbs / You Only Die 1nce

 

GWAR / Hell-O! (36th Anniversary Reissue)

 

Hermanos Gutiérrez / Sonido Cósmico

 

Jamie XX / In Waves

 

John Carpenter’s Lost Themes IV: Noir

 

Kacey Musgraves / Deeper Well

 

Kelly Moran / Moves In The Field

 

Mark Lanegan / Bubblegum XX (20th Anniversary Reissue)

 

Michael & the Mighty Midnight Revival / Songs for Sinners & Saints

 

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Wild God

 

Phonte / Pacific Time 2 EP

 

RJD2 / Visions Out Of Limelight

 

Ryuichi Sakamoto / Opus

 

Swamp Dogg / Blackgrass: From West Virginia To 125th St.

 

Xander Harris / Edgelords Of Acid (Single)

 

Xander Harris / The Edge Of Mourning (Single)

 

Umberto / Black Bile

 

Umberto / Black Bile (Variations)

 

Willie Nelson / The Border

 

Willie Nelson / Last Leaf On The Tree

 

 

BRETT GALLMAN’S FAVORITE NON-MOVIE THINGS OF 2024!

 

As 2024 draws to a close, this final Big Question forces me to realize that I didn’t do a very good job of being well-rounded this year. Despite all intentions of not fixating on movies, I still spent a majority of my free time doing just that, leaving little time for other hobbies and pursuits. That said, I did manage to read quite a bit, which is no small feat considering my very busy day job, not to mention having two small children at home. And while none of the titles I’m highlighting here are strictly from 2024, some of them are close enough — and the ones that aren’t are personally relevant enough that I’ll always associate them with this year.

 

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

At this point, J.D. Salinger’s seminal coming-of-age novel has inspired more than enough discourse, to the point where, for whatever reason, it often emerges as a subject of derision in certain circles of social media. I believe the term “red flag” is sometimes applied to it because it signals varying degrees of basicness ((confession: I am the basic English lit major who considers it among my favorite books) or toxicity depending on whoever’s looking to rack up social media clout. One particularly infuriating criticism is that THE CATCHER IN THE RYE captures the angst of an upper-middle class white teenager, which, yes, it’s of course valid to note that Holden Caulfield experiences a privilege that few of his peers ever would; however, to consider that grounds for utter dismissal misses the utter point of the novel because teenage angst knows no bounds. Having not read the book since my formative years, I admittedly went into this revisit with some degree of skepticism: could this novel about a very specific moment in time still resonate with me now that I’m twice as old as Holden? The answer was a staggering, resounding “yes.” If anything, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is even more heartbreaking as an adult because you realize just how hopeless and helpless this poor kid is, not to mention just how pure his intentions are: there are few pursuits in all of storytelling that feels as sweet and noble as Holden’s attempt to cling to not only his own short-lived childhood innocence but to preserve all childhood innocence. Unfortunately, as we all know, you can’t erase all of the “fuck yous” that have been graffitied and scrawled all over the world, and it’s one of the more heartbreaking realizations we all have to endure. It’s a terrible thing to acknowledge that you can’t fix everything, much less save everyone—but that doesn’t mean we have to stop trying. 

MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW

It’s a bit embarrassing to be late to this particular game, what with my entire identity practically being horror movies, especially slashers. But I’m so glad I finally got around to the first entry in Stephen Graham Jones’s Indian Lake trilogy because it’s easily the most vital offering to the slasher movie canon since SCREAM. The comparison is an obvious one since it, too, is a metafictional stab at the genre that involves a rash of grisly murders in a small town; however, the big departure here is that its Final Girl — well, Final Girl in Denial, really — is also the tale’s Randy Meeks. Jade Daniels is a 17-year-old horror aficionado whose obsession has made her the town pariah; however, her encyclopedic knowledge of the genre makes her the perfect expert to solve the murders plaguing her hometown. Featuring an assortment of nods — from the obvious to the obscure — MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW is an absorbing read, and, by the end, Jade emerges as one of the most endearing characters in all of horror media. Smart, resilient, and wickedly funny, she’s the perfect embodiment of a Monster Kid—one of us, indeed. 

CROOK MANIFESTO 

Colson Whitehead’s follow-up to HARLEM SHUFFLE continues the exploits of Ray Carney, a successful furniture salesman who hasn’t completely escaped the family business of crime. While he resists completely following in his father’s footsteps, he finds himself drawn into the shady exploits of former acquaintances, crooked cops, and mobsters as a side hustle that becomes all too consuming. Split into three parts that chronicle Ray’s misadventures in 1971, 1973, and 1976, CROOK MANIFESTO is just as engrossing and incendiary as its predecessor as Whitehead deftly observes the intersection of organized and political crime in a New York City whose moral rot endures beneath its shiny, modern facade. Of particular note for Daily Grindhouse readers: the 1973 stretch detours into the world of independent, Blaxploitation filmmaking as Carney finds himself a financier on a movie production that hits several snags that only Ray and one of his most trusted confidantes can untangle. 

UFO: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE US GOVERNMENT’S SEARCH FOR ALIEN LIFE HERE—AND OUT THERE

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by UFOs and the search for alien life. I used to devour books about the subject, to the point where I once seriously considered going into the field of astronomy, a pursuit I quickly abandoned when I discovered it involved a lot of math. As an adult, I strayed away from the topic a bit but was brought all the way back in by Garrett Graff’s tome chronicling the long, storied history of America’s search for UFOs. Exhaustive in its length and breadth, it details both official government and homespun programs dedicated to figuring out just what’s been haunting the skies for decades. Despite clocking in at over 500 pages, it’s a brisk, engaging read that hits the expected highlights — Roswell, Area 51, etc. — while shedding light on more obscure sightings at home and abroad. But more than that, the book also explores our own attempts at reaching lifeforms beyond our planet, solar system, and galaxy, a subject I’ve found to be even more captivating as I’ve grown older. Graff’s musings ultimately left me with an intriguing paradox: I’m convinced that alien lifeforms have likely never visited our planet; however, I’m even more convinced that there must be life somewhere out there. The universe is simply too vast to be completely devoid of other life — I want to believe we’re not alone because it seems unfathomably, existentially horrifying to consider the alternative: that we’re some cosmic anomaly, forever doomed to be sequestered to our tiny, infinitesimal corner of the cosmos. 

 

 

 

 

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Tags: 2024, Bee Delores, Brett Gallman, Jon Abrams, Katey Nelson, Matt Konopka