So this list is partly a little cheat as we never saw many of the films frequenting the highest places on the majority of media driven worst films lists for 2016, so there’ll be no place for ‘Gods of Egypt‘, ‘Inferno‘ or a film that’s just came out (‘Collateral Beauty‘) that is well worth reading what happens in it, if you, like me, thought the trailer looked awful (this link contains a spoilerific dissection of the movie…). Of course, maybe they were actually good and were just misunderstood!

Regardless, here’s five films we did see this year that we’d recommended avoiding!

Here are our least favourite films of 2016…

5. The Neon Demon

‘The Neon Demon’ is another divisive film from Nicolas Winding Refn, and whilst I fell into the positive camp for his last film, ‘Only God Forgives’, I couldn’t take to ‘The Neon Demon’. An empty and vacuous attempt to satirise the fashion world, ‘The Neon Demon‘ is a classic example of style over substance and it’s ridiculous plotting and excessive use of violence really turned me away from it.

4. Chevalier

‘Chevalier‘ is an aimless Greek comedy about six men on a boating trip who decide to play a series of silly games to win a Chevalier signet ring. The ring is a symbol of masculinity, of which the film is attempting to skewer with it’s social commentary, but it’s rarely biting and more often comes off as lazy, barely moving beyond the surface level. It’s got good reviews generally and comedy is the most subjective of genres arguably, but I found it to be really dull and boring.

3. Queen of Earth

The best word I can use to describe ‘Queen of Earth‘ is insufferable. It’s a film comprised entirely of unpleasant characters and I found it to be a suffocating experience to watch, despite a game Elisabeth Moss in the central role.

2. Knight of Cups

Terence Malick’s films have often been tough to categorise, but his recent work has seen him going further and further down the rabbit hole, culminating with ‘Knight of Cups‘, a mundane naval-gazing drama about a depressed screenwriter played by Christian Bale. It barely even pays lip service to its narrative and the central story and style isn’t interesting enough to be entertaining or at least thought provoking, and he’s a director I’m fast running out of patience with.

1. The Witch

So this is a film that is more likely to be seen on ‘Best of’ lists than ‘Worst of’ lists this year, but this is a film I absolutely hated despite the best intentions! Ostensibly a religious horror movie, this is ridiculously plotted, unintentionally comedic with terrible dialogue and despite an eerie atmosphere at times, a film I really did not like, and it’s my least favourite film I saw this year.

Narrowly avoiding this list: The 33, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Suicide Squad