Author: Brian Truitt, USA TODAY

In a lengthy and taxing year where we really needed the escapism of the movies, these were USA TODAY’s 10 favorite films of 2018.

Santa’s brought the gifts but ‘Get Out’ director Jordan Peele is gifting us all on Christmas with the terrifying trailer for his new horror film ‘Us.’

From the super ‘Black Panther’ to the scary ‘Hereditary’ and everything in between, here are the 10 best movies of 2018 so far.

Nicole Kidman gets a hard-boiled makeover as a weathered L.A. detective in Karyn Kusama’s intriguing, unnecessarily twisty noir thriller ‘Destroyer.’

James Wan couldn’t use everything in “Aquaman,” but an end-credits scene and one archvillain set up a potential sequel for Jason Momoa. (Spoilers!)

‘Shazam!’ is flying into theaters, so let’s rank all the DC universe films featuring Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman and their superfriends.

Emily Blunt does Julie Andrews justice as the iconic nanny of ‘Mary Poppins Returns,’ a comforting sequel that isn’t quite the original 1964 classic.

Stan Lee’s cameo in “Spider-Man: Into the Super-Verse” has gone from fun scene to moving tribute after his recent death last month. (Spoilers.)

Played by Hera Hilmar, ‘Mortal Engines’ heroine Hester Shaw reveals a disfiguring and essential scar that has been the cause of some fan uproar.