10 Best 2021 Films You Probably Haven't Seen

No film on this list has had a more arduous journey to the big screen than David Prior's horror film The Empty Man.

Originally filmed in the summer of 2017, it ended up malingering in Fox's vault for three years due to cataclysmic test screenings, until it was dumped in U.S. cinemas with minimal marketing last October.

Though technically a 2020 film, The Empty Man really wasn't noticed by anyone but beleaguered critics until 2021, when it hit VOD platforms all over the world.

Despite mixed-to-negative initial reviews, the film quickly built up a head of steam as a cult classic with horror fans and more open-minded genre critics, who praised the supernatural detective story as a flawed gem.

Though it clocks in at an understandably questionable 137 minutes, Prior's film boasts the suffocating mood and atmosphere of a David Fincher joint - apt since Prior cut his teeth working as a behind-the-scenes videographer on Fincher's movies.

This is another film where you're better off knowing as little as possible going in, but if the masterful 20-minute opening pre-title sequence doesn't grab you, then nothing surely will.

You wouldn't be blamed for considering it a little too long, but it's so, so refreshing to watch a horror movie attempting to remix traditional genre elements through a more meditative, ambitious lens.

It doesn't always work, but there's absolutely no other movie like it released this past year.