Coherence
Coherence is not a horror film per se, but is genuinely unsettling. Coherence is a thrilling story about a group of friends at a dinner party having unusual occurrences after a comet flies over them. At the beginning, someone’s phone cracks without being dropped, but that is only the start of the twisted night that lays ahead. What makes this a terrifying film is that the audience has no clue where it will lead.
That is where the horror element comes in. The circumstances these friends are put in are frightening because of how unknown the situation is. Every moment feels tense. This is not a horror film that is out to scare you. There are no jump scares, no supernatural elements, no gore or murder. There are only characters placed in a physics-bending, mind-melter of a situation that is clever and never patronising about it.
Writers James Ward Byrkit (also director) and Alex Manugian gave an outline to the actors on each day, making this film as surprising for them as it is for us that adds a palpable panic. Coherence is one of the most enjoyable, thrilling, terrifying, fun and clever films of the year, its only weaknesses coming at the bookends of the story, but even those are necessary sins.
