10. The Royal Hotel
Despite its grand name, the Royal Hotel is actually nothing but a grimy pub, deep in the Australian outback. While backpacking, two American women (Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick) take a summer job serving drinks to the lecherous customers, but the men’s leery, beery attention gets ever more threatening until the pub becomes the setting for an explosively violent feminist thriller. Its director, Kitty Green (The Assistant), “dials up the gut-churning tension with the kind of meticulously calibrated, unnerving discomfort she is a master of,” says Tomris Laffly at The Wrap. “It’s a wild ride start to finish, elevated by a healthy dose of Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes, a pinch of ’90s-style indie pulp, as well as a nod to the Australian cult flick, Wake in Fright.”
Released in the US on 6 October
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