The Scariest Things Podcast Episode 168: The 2023 Thingy Awards

The Envelope, Please!

There was a strong youth movement in the horror movie offerings of 2022. Breakout stars who received prominent roles in major studio productions factored significantly in the 2023 Thingy Awards. This was a great year for the big studios, who brought us multiple original stories bolstered by studio budgets and talented directors.

As usual, The Scariest Things had an open invitation to our fan base to participate in the voting, and we also recruited a number of jury members from our friends in the media whom we know have seen at least a majority of the horror films that were issued in 2022. Our only regret this year is that we didn’t have enough short films to respond to, and that is always a difficult film to select a winner from with a broad audience, and we will be looking for a way to re-integrate best Horror Short for the future Thingy Awards.

This year, we have a formal tie-break methodology. Every so often, The Scariest Things has an in-house competition to decide who the Mayor of Tropetown will be. This year the Mayor’s scepter was passed to Liz Williams in the recent Spooky Time 15 Episode because she made the better Tubi film recommendations. (The best way to select a mayor!) As such the Mayor is given the responsibility to break any ties that happen in the Thingy Award selections.

A quick note, if you are an avid Podcast listener and want to hear the winners announced by Eric and Liz, step away from this post, and load up your podcast feed, and then come back.

With that said, I think I see a limousine pulling up…

You can listen here if you don’t want the winners spoiled… or continue below to see all the winners.

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The 2023 Thingy Awards:

Best Actress in a Leading Horror Movie Role

It seems like it has to be said every year, but the best actress is the hardest and most jam-packed of the nominee groups.  It’s the same story for 2022. There were so many great performances by actresses in 2022 where these women simply owned the genre. This year, a definitive new wave of young actresses is on the scene. Rebecca Hall holds down the fort for the veteran actresses, but there is a generational push that has arrived, so much so that we couldn’t include everybody.

• Mia Goth as Maxine* in X
• Rebecca Hall as Margaret in Resurrection
• Sose Bacon as Rose Cotter in Smile
• Maika Monroe as Julia in Watcher
• Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in Wednesday
• Anya Taylor Joy as Margot in The Menu
• Taylor Russell as Maren in Bones and All

Mia Goth in 2022 became a top-of-the-call sheet actress, and she is now in the upper echelon of final girls with her performance in X, and her convincing portrayal of the elderly Pearl in the same movie. I had no idea that she was both women. (Also a testament to the makeup crew.) Her followup as the young Pearl also secured some write-in votes.

Best Actor in a Leading Horror Movie Role

These actors anchored their films in 2022.  The generational change in the male side of the horror genre is also going through a youth movement. Though a couple of veteran actors had a great showing (Tim Roth and Ralph Fiennes) this was largely a young man’s game in 2022.  It bodes well for the future, doesn’t it?

• Jacob Anderson as Louis de Point du Lac in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire
• Timothee Chalomet as Lee in Bones and All
• Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik in The Menu
• Daniel Kaluuya as OJ Hayward in Nope
• Ryan Kwanten as Wes in Glorious
• Tim Roth as David in Resurrection
• Mason Thames as Finney in The Black Phone
• Joseph Winter as Shawn Ruddy in Deadstream

Two actors with very different pedigrees came out on top for Best Actor this year. The highly accomplished thespian Ralph Fiennes, was at his regal intimidating best as chef Slowik in a role that oozed wit and menace. Ryan Kwanten, heretofore an actor known for his good looks, took the challenge of what is essentially a one-man stage play (along with J.K. Simmon’s vocal talents as a Cosmic Evil force in a roadside toilet stall.) Mayor Liz broke the tie, picking Kwanten’s one-man showcase over the ensemble lead of Fiennes.

Best Actress in a Supporting Horror Movie Role

Supporting actresses often get some of the best roles.  Roles where the actress can just unleash her inner method. Villains and colorful companions are often the domain of the supporting actresses and we got some great ones this year.  The nominees for best supporting actress in a Horror movie are:

• Gwendoline Christie as Jan Stevens in Flux Gourmet
• Madeline McGraw as Gwen Blake in The Black Phone
• Keke Palmer as Emerald Hawyood in Nope
• Noomi Rapace as Novena /Bosilka in You are Not Alone
• Katey Sagal as Harper Dutch in Torn Hearts
• Brittany Snow as Bobbie-Lynne in X
• Jena Malone as Alice in Swallowed
• Laura Donnelly as Elsa Bloodstone in Werewolf by Night

Every once in a while, a child actor provides a performance that is truly transformative. Madeline McGraw takes a supporting role and flushes it out with a tour-de-force of emotional power. She is clever, tough, and feisty. When she gets punished (abused) by her drunken father, it will break your heart. Truly powerful stuff, and she ran away with this vote.

Best Actor in a Supporting Horror Movie Role

Are you looking for comic relief?  Your antagonist?  Your foil?  The best friend who tells it like it is?  Look no further than the best supporting actor. These often scene-chewing performances may leave a lasting impression long after the film is done, even if the character was not the central figure of the film.  This year’s supporting actors are made up of veteran actors. These guys flesh out the movie and are the extra flavor needed to make the story work.  Our favorite supporting actors for 2022 are:

• Jose Colom as Dom in Swallowed
• Burn Gorman as Daniel Weber in Watcher
• Ethan Hawke as the Grabber in The Black Phone
• Nicholas Hoult as Tyler in The Menu
• Justin Long as AJ Gilbride in Barbarian
• Alastair Petrie as Seamus Laurant in The Cursed
• Jack Quaid as Richie Kirch in Scream
• Steven Yuen as Jupe Park in Nope

Ethan Hawke didn’t say much in The Black Phone, but his portrayal as The Grabber will go down as one of the most memorable horror movie villains of the last ten years. For a man in a mask for 75% of his time in the movie, it is his body language that sells the monster. Even sitting still in a chair, he is truly menacing.

The Fay Wray Award: The Breakout Rising Star

You don’t have to be a youngster to be a breakout rising star, but it helps.  Many of these performers are in their first dramatic roles in an independent feature film.  In 2022, most of these nominees are in are getting their first lead roles… or first movies ever.  These are actors who deserve to reap the rewards of bigger and better jobs due to their great performances in 2022 Horror:

• Madeline McGraw as Gwen in The Black Phone
• Mason Thames as Finney in The Black Phone
• Jenna Ortega in X, Wednesday, and Scream
• Georgina Campbell as Tess in Barbarian
• Laura Galán as Sara in Piggy
• Mary Glen Frederick as Jenny in Stag
• Aisha Dee as Cecile in Sissy
• Amber Midthunder as Naru in Prey

A Star was born in 2022. Perhaps even more than Mia Goth, this was the year of Jenna Ortega, and it was all in Horror. Her performance in Scream was not particularly memorable, but her turn as the at first curious and then traumatized Lorraine in X, and most significantly her pitch-perfect inhabitation of Wednesday Addams completely blew her up. She also had a quick cameo in Studio 666. Will she stay in Horror now that she is an icon of young girls everywhere? We hope so.

The Gateway Award: Best Horror Film for Young and/or New Horror Fans

We all have to start somewhere, and these nominees are your on-ramp to the horror genre.  Not as gory or as viscerally intense as much of horror, these movies still bring some scares, but often bring a lot of fun to the proceedings.  These films would be (mostly) kid-friendly, but would also be applicable for the scaredy cat adults out there who need a fun entry point when picking a horror film. Honestly, this year, not a lot of kid’s fare, but a bunch of films that would be “low impact” for horror Newbies, and per usual, it’s largely the big studios providing the more accessible fare.

• The Black Phone
• Nope
• Werewolf by Night
• Bones and All
• Smile
• Torn Hearts
• Prey
• Who Invited Them?

The Scariest Jury is sticking with the familiar. Prey is a CROWD PLEASER. The action is fantastic. It looks great. It is FUN. Now, this should not be a movie that you show a ten-year-old, but Amber Midthunder could prove to be a horror role model for teenage girls for years to come. It should also be said that there weren’t any notable horror movies for truly young audiences last year.

The Abbott and Costello Award: The Best Use of Humor in a Horror Film:

Horror and Comedy. Peanut Butter and Jelly.  These are compliments to each other and try to draw the two great and powerful emotions out of you in quick succession.  Humor and glee, with dread and terror.  When it doesn’t work, it’s almost palpably painful.  But when it works: pure gold!  Our favorites in horror comedies from 2022:

• Who Invited Them?
• When the Screaming Starts
• Deadstream
• Cult Hero
• Glorious
• Stag
• Violent Night
• Yule Log

Did anyone expect this movie to be this good? In hindsight, Violent Night probably should also have been nominated for best Wide Release feature. This gonzo-fun-violent film was so late to the party that it just squeezed into the end-of-year considerations, but it was SO WORTH IT. I think you can bet there will be a sequel. David Harbour, you earned your genre cred back after the disappointment that was Hellboy.

The Best Horror Movie Poster of the Year:

The art of the movie poster isn’t dead yet!  Horror films have always had some of the best movie posters.  In an era where movie marketers want to pitch the headshots of the big stars in their movies, horror movies rely upon the story and the feels of the films to draw you to them.  

• The Accursed
• Fall
• Prey
• Who Invited Them
• Prey for the Devil
• Smile
• Studio 666
• Terrifier 2

Perhaps no movie sells its plot to its audience better than Fall. Everything you want to know is right there. The acrophobia. The stunning visuals. The completely precarious and impossibly difficult situation at the top of that tower. The 1970s are calling and wish to congratulate the artist. This is a movie poster that absolutely nails its message.

Best Looking Horror Movie (Cinematography) of 2022:

Often known for cheap production values, the genre is capable of showing off the beauty of the scary. When horror brings quality Cinematography to the table the experience is much more powerful.  These 2022 films were able to show the beauty to juxtapose or heighten the sense of terror and dread in their films in 2022:

• Fall
• Watcher
• The Menu
• You Won’t Be Alone
• Nope
• X
• Flux Gourmet
• Prey

Jordan Peele and a THX camera setup, with a Western vibe. Say no more. Being the most in-demand horror director has its privileges, and Peele was able to capture this panoramic tale with epic sweeping wide shots, while still capturing the little details required for maintaining the mystery of this movie. The Chimp’s eye view shots of the B-story were particularly compelling. Perhaps only Guillermo Del Toro has as much trust from Hollywood’s big studios to produce a big-budget horror film, and to do it his way.

The Harryhausen Award: The Best Visual Effects of 2022:

And here is the other side of that visual experience.  In a Kaiju-less year, the nominees were quite varied in 2022.  The acrophobic and queasy situation in Fall, the bizarro world of Phil TIppet’s Mad God, a rejuvenated take on the Predator, the hypnotic angelic alien of Nope, an indestructible vengeful lion in Beast, and a couple of creepy lycanthrope films highlight last year’s offerings.

• Fall
• Prey
• Hellraiser
• Mad God
• Nope
• Werewolf by Night
• The Cursed
• Beast

The Best Sounding Horror Movie: (Including SFX, Mixing, Soundtrack)

Sound plays such an important role in horror movies.  From the snap of a branch to the nap of a neck, the right audio clue at the right moment makes all the difference in the world.  Sometimes you are looking for the jump scare, and other times you are setting up the ominous build-up, and you need the right audio score to hammer this home.  This category also recognizes movies that have strong original soundtrack ties or a great original score.

• The Black Phone
• Bones and All
• Flux Gourmet
• Nope
• Pearl
• Prey
• Werewolf by Night
• X

I credit our Scariest Jury for rewarding the subtleties of how sound makes a powerful impact on a horror movie. The Black Phone created a subtle yet dynamic sound environment. The jump scares were not merely presented as a loud and unexpected bang, they were expertly crafted… just add The Scariest Thing’s Mike Campbell (GOTCHA!). Also, the soundtrack brilliantly weaved in Pink Floyd’s haunting and propulsive “On The Run” to set the mood. Edgar Winter’s “Free Ride” date stamps the opening scene in the film, firmly establishing the ’70s vibe, and the carefree summer setting that quickly snaps to something sinister. Composer Mark Korven displays homage to that industrial track in his concussive original soundtrack.

The Best International Horror Film of 2022:

Where would the horror genre be without movies like Martyrs, Ju-On, Train to Busan, Suspiria, Nosferatu, or Pan’s Labyrinth?  Get to know other cultures by what scares them the most!  It’s the most fun you can have learning about another culture and getting your socks scared off. Get to know your social studies by learning what scares them! The nominees for this year’s best International Film are:

• Hatching (Finland)
• The Innocents (Norway)
• It Hatched (Iceland)
• Moloch (Netherlands)
• Mal de Ojo (Evil Eye) (Mexico)
• Saloum (Senegal)
• Speak No Evil (Denmark)
• You Won’t Be Alone (Montenegro)
• Zalava (Iran)

In what proved to be a banner year for Scandinavian Horror (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Finland all represented on the ballot), Speak No Evil is likely to be the one that stands the test of time. A cultural study of Danish and Dutch cultures, it goes from amusing to gut-punch brutality over the course of the story. We dare not spoil it, but the ending is a downer for the ages. This was Liz William’s favorite film of the year.

The Depends Award: What Movie Crapped its Pants and Disappointed the Most in 2022:

We are careful to point out here, that this isn’t the WORST movie of 2022, but the most DISAPPOINTING movie of 2022.  The Thing is, you have to have the semblance of expectations to begin with, in order to make this list. A movie that sounded like it was going to be entertaining, but ended up being a letdown.  That’s not to say that some of these moments don’t have some good moments (See below), but as a whole, not what we wanted from them. Then again, a couple of these movies do suck, and we’re here to point this out.  Your nominees for the 2022 Depends Award are:

• Firestarter (RT 10%)
• Halloween Ends (RT 40%)
• Jeepers Creepers Reborn (RT 8%)
• Morbius (RT 18%)
• The Munsters (RT 53%)
• Prey for the Devil (RT 17%)
• The Requin (RT 19%)
• Studio 666 (RT 56%)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (RT 32%)
• They/Them (38%)

Was it the WORST horror movie of 2022? No. Probably not. The RT scores alone can attest to that. But, when a diehard Halloween supporter/apologist like Mike Campbell gives up on a Jamie Lee Curtis-headed Halloween film, something is seriously off. All the promise of the rebooted 2018 Halloween that felt like a re-grounding of the franchise got eroded from a needless second act with Halloween Kills, and is further sullied by the regrettable misuse of Michael Myers and the substitution of a wanna-be serial Killer. To be fair, the production values were still good. Laurie Strode was fine, but not given enough to do. It all felt like the air went out of the balloon. This was a failure on a promise, undelivered.

The Bloodbath Award: The Best Use of Exploitation or Gore in a Horror Movie in 2022:

2022 for gore hounds will be forever known as the year of Terrifier 2. It is relentlessly gory and the violence stacks upon violence in a way that I have difficulty figuring out how it managed to show in theaters.  No doubt this is NC-17 material, and frankly, this appears to be Art’s party and everyone else is happy to be here.  But who knows?  The rest of these scenes were pretty intense.

• Prey – Predator tears up an entire fur trapper company
• Mad God – The pooping giants scene. Ohhhh yuck.
• Hellraiser – Vight gets skinned and turned into a Cenobite
• Nati Morti – Dealing with the Greedy Sister
• Swallowed – Digging out the “Packages” out of Dom
• Terrifier 2 – Art butchers Allie.
• Terrifier 2 – Art dismantles the coroner’s head.
• Terrifier 2 – Art butchers Ricky the Halloween shop clerk.

All hail the new King of Horror Gore, the Terrifier franchise. The kills in this movie are so egregiously over-the-top that it ALMOST becomes numbing. But it just keeps going and going, upping the level of depravity with each subsequent move of mutilation. If this is your bag, this franchise will be put on a pedestal. Be warned though, if senseless and horrific gore is not your favorite thing, this will likely throw you off of the Bridge too Far. EASILY a 🩸🩸🩸🩸 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 film, and the goriest film I have seen in over five years. Approach with caution.

The Best Screenplay in 2022 Horror:

Over the past decade, an encouraging trend in horror movies is the emphasis on strong storytelling and dialogue. A great script and story can be the difference in helping you remember a film or dismissing it as a fluff piece.  Horror can be smart.  Horror is better when it’s smart. Just don’t call quality horror scripting elevated horror! This year’s nominees are:

• Bones and All
• Barbarian
• Watcher
• See No Evil
• The Menu
• Resurrection
• Digging in the Dirt
• The Black Phone

The Menu is a pitch-black satire, that delivers its clever and insidious motivations course by course. The assembled specially invited guests to this exclusive feast are there for very specific reasons, and it is delicious to realize each layer of wickedness as it unfolds. The wit and bite of the movie is supported by each and every cast member, and most importantly by the finely assembled script of Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, veterans of the Onion writing team, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The social commentary is on point, but more than that, the pacing of this mystery thriller was really well-controlled and always compelling.

The Best Monster of 2022:

There’s something about a great inhuman monster. It brings out the little kid in you, as the monsters from your dreams come alive on screen.  Big and stompy or twisted and mutated, these beasties touched our imagination in 2022:

• The Monstrous Marsupial in Carnifex
• The Bird Creature from Hatching
• The Living Packages from Swallowed
• The Feral Predator in Prey
• Pinhead, in Hellraiser
• The Strange Wolf-Beasts in The Cursed
• The Man-Thing in Werewolf by Night
• The Subterranean Lab Experiments from The Lair

It’s the bravura return of an icon, so ably performed for decades by Doug Bradley, there is always a risk when recasting a horror legend. (See Krueger, Freddy) An even bigger risk gets taken when gender-swapping the character, with Jamie Clayton as the new lead. It WORKED. Clayton is regal and menacing, and it helps that she is 5′-10″, with a suitable stage presence to intimidate. HULU invested heavily into this reboot, and the franchise, long-suffering from diminishing funds and similarly declining quality suddenly felt like it had a new demonic life to live. Don’t be surprised to see Clayton return in this role for sequels on this variant. If the production values and acting hold up, this could be a completely reinvigorated property.

The Elvira Award: Best Horror TV Series

The trend of great Horror TV content continued in 2022, as long-format storytelling and horror make for great bedfellows. (As well as anthologies)  There are a few new groundbreaking shows that have entered the competition this year.  Sadly, one of the best, Archive 81, was canceled after only one season… so watch more Horror on TV!

• Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (AMC)
• Archive 81 (Netflix)
• Chucky Season 2 (Syfy)
• From (Epix)
• Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)
• Servant (Apple+)
• Wednesday (Netflix)
• Yellowjackets (Showtime)

Guillermo Del Toro may be the reigning giant of genre film. His artistry and storytelling skills are monumental, and he has taken these talents to curate an anthology for Netflix, that feels a lot like The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. Each story centers on an object MacGuffin. A cursed object, or a sentimental trinket. He wrote two of the episodes (“Pickman’s Model” and “Dreams in the Witch House”, both originally H.P. Lovecraft tales), but he curated all of the films. He used his status as a Master of Horror (Courtesy of Mick Garris) to bring luminary talents like Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), and Panos Cosmatos (Mandy) to direct episodes.

The Best Horror Moment of 2022

You might recognize something here.  You don’t have to be a great FILM to have a great horror MOMENT. (Halloween Ends, for example.)  Each of these moments leaves an indelible stamp on your memory of the movie in your brain. These are the proverbial “HOLY SHIT!” events that will have you talking about it to your friends later.  The nominated moments for 2022 are:

• The Destruction of Michael Myers, Halloween Ends
• The Jean Jacket consumes everyone at Jupiter’s Claim in Nope.
• The Feral Predator takes out a grizzly bear, in Prey.
• Finney’s final escape plan in The Black Phone.
• Tess and Keith run into The Mother while exploring the basement in Barbarian.
• Maxine is stuck under a bed while Frank and Pearl attempt to get it on (unsuccessfully) in X.
• Congratulations, it’s a boy! In Resurrection.
• Lee’s tragic parting gift to Maren in Bones and All.
• The final grueling scene in Speak No Evil.
• The Prom, in Wednesday.

If you watched Barbarian, you will know that the movie had the premise of a young woman, Tess (Georgina Campbell) attending a conference in Detroit, and making the unfortunate decision to book a room at an Air B n’ B home in an awful neighborhood, only to find that Keith (Bill Skarsgård) is already renting the place, and that he’s a bit odd in that Anthony Perkins sort of way. That’s the movie we thought we were getting. The roommate you can’t trust. It is NOT the movie, however, and this scene was the moment that blew the lid off the film. SURPRISE!

The Best Horror Director of 2022

The best director category has a few iconic horror directors this year.  Jordan Peele, Ti West, and Scott Derrickson continue to bolster their resumes as being among the best in the business in genre film.  Carter Smith has made a welcome return from film purgatory with the shocking and poignant Swallowed.  Luca Guadagnino proved that his version of Suspiria was not a fluke and that he is a name to be reckoned with in horror with the melancholy Bones and All.  Zach Cregger makes a successful leap from TV (The Whitest Kids U’ Know) to the big screen with Barbarian.  And Christian Tafdrup and Chloe Okuno were given golden opportunities to show off their talents to a broad audience in their breakout features. The nominees for 2022’s best horror director are:

• Jordan Peele, Nope
• Ti West, X
• Scott Derrickson, The Black Phone
• Zach Cregger, Barbarian
• Christian Tafdrup, Speak No Evil
• Chloe Okuno, Watcher
• Carter Smith, Swallowed
• Luca Guadagnino, Bones and All

We have another tie! Cregger and Peele are both comedian actors who have become directors. Peele already establishing himself as one of the greats in the genre, and Cregger proving with Barbarian that he may soon be joining that club. As the responsibilities of being the Mayor of Tropetown, Liz got to be the tie-breaker here, and she selected Zach Cregger and the brilliance that was Barbarian.

The Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Award: The Best Horror Adjacent Film of 2022.

One of The Scariest Thing’s favorite topics is “Horror movie… or not?”  We embrace horror-adjacent films and wanted to find a way to include them in our celebration of scary films. So in order to address the commentary of “That’s NOT Horror”, this is our rebuttal. We love these films and are willing to embrace their next-door-neighbor to horror credentials. Our nominees from 2022:

• Agatha (Experimental Art)
• Digging in the Dirt (Science Fiction)
• Flux Gourmey (Experimental Art)
• Living with Chucky (Documentary)
• Mad God (Animated, Experimental Art)
• Men (Thriller)
• The Menu (Thriller)
• Prey (Action, Western)
• Zero Budget Heroes (Documentary)

This also could be known as the Joseph Perry special! (Joseph being one of our in-house critics) The Menu is destined to be a classic. It has a bit of Agatha Christie, a little Hitchcock, and a bit of Shyamalan to it. Sumptuous visuals. Bolstered by a terrific and large cast, who each get their moments to shine. A brilliant script. Spit-take perfect comedy. And a theme that is consistent, precise, and allegorical. What’s more, the movie is a lot of fun, and has you constantly guessing what will happen next.

Best Horror Feature of 2022 – Independent/Limited Release

• Watcher
• Who Invited Them?
• Swallowed
• Deadstream
• Glorious
• Resurrection
• Speak No Evil
• A Wounded Fawn
• Terrifier 2

This is why we do film festival screenings. Speak no Evil was a film that Joseph watched as a screener, and gave us a head’s up that this was going to be a banger. Word got out to the rest of us, and Liz watched the Sundance Premiere of the film and was blown away, keeping it as her top film of the year all the way from February of 2022. This is another super dark satire of the relationships of two similar but rival cultures that pokes fun at the nature of both Danes and Dutch, but that acts as a mask for something really terrible just underneath. Often times foreign films get lost in the streaming world unless they do a big push on the festival circuit, and Speak No Evil made a huge impression at the biggest festival possible.

Best Horror Feature of 2022 – Wide Studio Release

• Barbarian
• Smile
• Nope
• The Black Phone
• X
• Bones and All
• The Menu
• Prey

Barbarian was not a film that arrived with much fanfare, despite it being widely released by 20th Century (Now a Disney company, oddly enough). On a budget of about $4.5 Million, it earned $45 Million, largely by word of mouth. The movie assembles its first act on one premise of trust between strangers, then morphs into what might be a ghost story, and then becomes a Hills Have Eyes level horror show with The Mother. It is one of the great movie flips in horror history, and unlike many who have tried to pivot like this, this time it works perfectly. Justin Long is a treasure as the greedy landlord, and the great character actor Richard Brake is suitably skeevy as the original sin of this story. Wildly original storytelling, wonderful characters, and real honest scares make Barbarian an excellent choice for the 2023 Thingy winner for Best Wide Release Horror Picture of the Year.