2021 Year End Review: Best Viewings

Compared to my movie-watching totals from last year, I really was slacking off! In 2020, I clocked in 422 titles! Not sure how I did that, but that really set the bar high for me from then on. But in 2021, I only got through 278 titles, but at least 160 of those were new viewings. My goal for this year is to hit at least 300, but we’ll see how that goes!

Below are the 10 films that I thought stood out amongst the rest and are definitely worth seeking out. These are listed in alphabetical order, and as always, these are all new viewings to me, so it doesn’t matter what year they actually came out. Enjoy!

Movie Review: The Power (2021)

The Power (2021)
Directed by Corinna Faith
Starring Rose Williams, Diveen Henry, Shakira Rahman, Sarah Hoare, Charlie Carrick, Gbemisola Ikumelo

There is nothing better than searching through Prime or Shudder and deciding to take a chance on a title that you know nothing about, and just being completely blown away by what you picked. That happened with me with The Power. First of all, I’m a sucker for old fashion ghost stories, where there is a secret that needs to be discovered and the main character(s) have to fight their way through different terrors to bring something to light. The beauty here is that while this is a period piece, the “secret” is just as relevant today, even more so, than it is when the story takes place.

Set in the early ‘70s, Rose Williams stars as Val, a young nurse on her first day on the job at an old hospital where people are being relocated. Due to the labor strikes going on, there are forced blackouts throughout the city. For some reason, Val does not due to well in the dark. But when she is “asked” by the head Matron to work the night shift, she can’t say no and start her first day on a bad note. Starting out as a genuinely nice and friendly person, just wanting to help people, Val seems like the perfect person for this kind of career. As the surroundings start to get darker, not only do we start to see how it effects Val, but we also start to realize there is something else, hiding in the shadows. I don’t want to go too much into the storyline because I think it is better to go into a story, sort of walking into a darkened hallway, not knowing what you might run into.