2022 has been a very creative year. While many big film discussions have revolved around the MCU’s Phase 4 and other blockbuster phenomena, smaller films have showcased some great creative concepts that fire up discussion, interest and imagination. Also, with access to great tools such as VPN app, access to their movies online becomes much more secure. So with the end of the year on the horizon here are 5 films released in 2022 that focused on delivering genuinely creative ideas during their runtime.
Sci-Fi: Crimes Of The Future
In Crimes of the Future pain is mostly a thing of the past because of implied evolution. And some people are now able to grow extra organs. But others have evolved further, now being able to eat and digest plastics along with other undigestable materials. Something which the government wants to suppress. Featuring such intriguing concepts as theatrical live organ transplants, human bodily evolution to adapt to a decaying world and surgery being so commonplace it is considered “the new sex”, David Cronenberg’s return to body horror encourages much discussion thanks to the many thought-provoking ideas that populate this fascinating world.
Comedy Action: Everything Everywhere All At Once
When the year started everyone wanted to see how Doctor Strange’s sequel would showcase the creative possibilities of the multiverse. But Everything Everywhere All At Once managed to capture viewer adoration more. And it used the multiverse concept as an excuse to showcase a number of creative and hilarious ideas. Including using technology to access skills possessed by different versions of oneself in the multiverse, showcasing a diverse array of parallel worlds that feature such great ideas as humans having sausages for fingers, humans being controlled by raccoons, and the main characters becoming rocks and an apocalyptic doomsday device made from a snack. All of which was accomplished on a $25 million budget. 8 times less than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Showing that the multiverse has such big creative potential even smaller productions can use it to showcase fantastic ideas.
Thriller: Fall
Movies primarily based around one location are nothing new. Fall however bases its central plot around two friends scaling up and then trying to get down from a 2000-foot-high TV tower. This conceit not only provides a thrilling setting for most of its action but allows for a constantly high amount of tension to be present even during mundane scenes. This is thanks to the high winds at such heights and the small surface area not providing many opportunities for respite. Plus being up so high provides great explanations for common problems viewers have with many of these thrillers. Such as why don’t the protagonists just call for help? High-altitude thrillers are always a guaranteed source of tension. And the conceit to set one atop such a thin, high structure paid off.
Horror: Hatching
Hatching concerns a child facing incredible pressure from her mother. She subsequently takes care of an egg which eventually hatches into a monstrous creature. It then begins taking on more of the girl’s likeness and violently acting out. Hatching’s central idea is a perfect allegory for how abusive parental pressure negatively impacts and shapes children. The creature acts as a great metaphor for the child’s mental health. Demonstrating once again that horror is a perfect genre for using creative ideas to address bigger issues.
Action: Prey
How do you revive interest in the predator franchise when only the first one is universally considered a good film? You go back to the series’ roots, having the predator attack a group of people in a sparsely populated area while offering something new by setting the film in the 1700s. The era of colonial expansion. This conceit of placing the technologically futuristic predator during this era instantly stacks the odds against our main characters and provokes discussion of colonialism and power. Additionally, the film gives us diverse, fully-rounded indigenous protagonists, and centralizes their voices in depictions of their cultural history. Instead of having them act in service of someone else’s story.
These were just a small sampling of creative ideas that we got to see this year. So please make sure to let us know any creative movies you particularly gravitated towards. And let’s hope 2023 continues to provide us with more genius film ideas.
Also Read: The Impact: How Dozens of Filmmakers Around The World Crowd-Created A Film About The Apocalypse
