To put it lightly, the summer of 2016 wasn’t exactly one that most film executives will want to remember. The dog days of summer weren’t kind to the silver screen, as most of the major releases of the summer bombed both critically and financially. “Suicide Squad” was an expensive, bloated train wreck (but at least more fun than March’s certifiably disastrous “Batman V. Superman”), “Jason Bourne” made a revolutionary action franchise kind of boring and “Ghostbusters” couldn’t break free of the ridiculous and embarrassing controversy around it to make a mark. However, where there was success, there was greatness that floated under the droning of complaints about the failures of the season.

“Star Trek Beyond” was without a doubt the finest big-budget film of the summer, a fresh and fun take on the Trek universe that comes as close to recreating that original series magic as the reboots have ever come. The film’s improved character development, slick visuals and all-around sense of excitement for the most part snuff out many of the problems that troubled its messy predecessor “Into Darkness” and shook many fans’ faith in the new franchise–not to mention that it has one of the most memorable uses of soundtrack perhaps in blockbuster history, a fact that really elevates the film into the beyond.

On a much more modest budget, but still possessing all the characteristics of a summer tent pole, “The Shallows” is a delightful little shark movie that deftly blends the “127 Hours” type survival amongst beauty trope with everyone’s favorite sea predator. The film isn’t exactly groundbreaking, and it gets a bit hammy at times, but it features a committed performance from Blake Lively (“The Age of Adaline”) and some breathtaking camera work. Also on the small budget side, but far more complex, Nicolas Winding Refn’s (“Drive”) newest venture into the weird, “The Neon Demon,” is a downright gorgeous arthouse takedown of celebrity and model culture in America. It has some of the best imagery of the auteur’s career and some wonderfully creepy performances, though, like most Refn films, it can be indulgent and often confusing. However, it’s sleek and shocking indie fare and must-watch stuff if you can get past some of the grossest sex and murder scenes put to the screen in a while.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the best film this summer was the revelatory “Don’t Breathe,” an extremely well-crafted horror movie that takes the kind of hokey premise of burglars trapped in a house with a blind psycho and executes it with intelligence and awe. Fede Álvarez (“Evil Dead”) uses his quick but gorgeous visual skills to turn this house of horrors into a living, breathing environment, while deftly forcing the audience to question whether to place their sympathies with the predator (Stephen Lang, “Avatar,” in a fantastic performance), his prey (Jane Levy, “Evil Dead,” Dylan Minette, “Goosebumps” and Daniel Zovatto, “It Follows”) or neither. The end result is a horror jaw dropper that joins the recent trend of indie horror films that will become timeless. One spoiler-free warning: you will never look at turkey basters the same way again.