10 Best Recent Horror Movies You Need To See
8. Slapface
The juvenile title refers to a game played by protagonist Lucas and his older brother, the two of them having been left to care for themselves after the death of their parents. As Lucas struggles with bullying from both his brother and also his so-called friends, he comes to befriend a strange monstrous being hiding out in an abandoned building near home.
It’s a mix of horror and coming of age, with the monster at its heart serving more as a vehicle for very real horrors than as a cliched forest foe.
Grief, abuse and isolation are the themes threaded throughout this slow-burning piece, with stand-out performances from August Maturo as Lucas, and Libe Barer (who you may recognise from 2019’s home invasion horror I See You) as the one caring adult in his life: his older brother’s girlfriend, Anna.
The production values for sure aren’t the highest you’ve ever seen, but they are also by no means the lowest - and the filmmakers did well to create such an atmosphere with what tools they had available. What it lacks in the budget department, it makes up for in charm - it’s almost like E.T. if Andy was an orphan and E.T. killed local dogs.