It’s October, and that means three things: 1) Pumpkin Spice Everything. 2) Candy in abundance. 3) Horror becomes the genre of choice.
Yes, much like how everyone becomes a heavy drinker in March, so too does horror become not just an accepted genre once we all find our proverbial Billie Joe Armstrong and are woken up when September ends, but also a somewhat expected one. In keeping with this month’s festivities, I’ve compiled a list of the best horror options out there in the Wild West that is America’s domestic streaming services.
The thing is, everybody and their blog have been serving up lists of “The Best Horror on Netflix” and so forth, and there’s been lots of overlap, because while aesthetics are not universal, there are some movies that lots of people respond to. So I’ve eschewed titles that were found in more than one of the myriad current posts on this subject to be found on the Internet. It meant having to leave off otherwise worthy films like Pontypool, The House of The Devil, Jaws,The Invitation, John Dies at The End, and Hellbound: Hellraiser II, but they don’t need this particular article’s love right now.
You may notice quite a few titles that are streaming on Shudder. Well, truth be told, if streaming services are how you watch your movies, and you really do care about and enjoy horror, you’re well served by giving them a try; they will not let you down. They’ve got psychedelic freak-outs like Beyond The Black Rainbow, Toad Road, and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, flesh-flingers like Society and Fulci’s Gates of Hell, locally made cathartic ritual Septien, the truly singular Witch Who Came From the Sea, and even the beloved baboon on a rampage epic Shakma. Those films speak for themselves, really, and any one of them could have ended up on this list.
1. They Look Like People (Netflix)
Suspecting that those around him are actually malevolent shape-shifters, a troubled man questions whether to protect his only friend from an impending war, or from himself. A genre-bending story about love, loyalty and living nightmares.
Two friends who haven’t seen each other in ages meet up, hang out, get drunk and talk about their respective lady troubles. Oh, and the inexorable rise of shape-changing monsters determined to destroy everything. Is it gory? No. It’s arty, but that is never a bad thing. The performances are staggering, and it rewards multiple viewings. It’s the best horror film about male friendships since Shaun of The Dead, though its women characters are just as stringly drawn.
2. See the Sea (Hulu)
A new mom finds herself in a weird dance of menace and intrigue with a hitchhiking camper. Also, she lives next door to a sex forest. Is it gory? Only once, but it will fuck you up — bad. In French with subtitles and just an hour long, in case you’ve not got time for a long film. You will never forget this one.
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (Netflix)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
Directed by: Jack Sholder
Starring: Marshall Bell, Clu Gulager, Hope Lange, Robert Englund, Robert Rusler, Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Christie Clark
Five years have passed since Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) was sent howling back to hell. But now, a new kid on Elm Street is being haunted every night by gruesome visions of the deadly dream stalker. And if his twisted soul takes possession of the boy's body, Freddy will return from the dead to wreak bloody-murder and mayhem upon the entire town. When A Nightmare on Elm Street made a killing, horror fans shrieked for more. Soon the diabolic Freddy was resurrected with a vengeance - along with some of the most terrifying special effects ever to spatter the screen.
Rated: R
Copyright: New Line Productions, Inc.
For more A Nightmare on Elm Street, visit: http://nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com
While not as consistent as its progenitor, this is an underrated gem that is actually more progressive than it gets credit for being. America’s preeminent barbecued child killer Freddy Krueger here incarnates the forces of heteronormative patriarchy, while our hero is a coded gay teen. There’s some gore (exploding pet, nonconsensual melting, slicing and dicing), and a lot to deconstruct. More than worthy of your time and respect.
4. Requiem (Shudder)
Trailer for Requiem, an award winning German film starring Sandra Huller that is a phsychological drama with an exorcist twist.
The best possession movie ever made. It’s German, it’s wrenching and beautiful, and it will pummel your soul. Sandra Huller (coming soon to screens in the festival sensation Toni Erdmann) delivers one of the greatest performances of the Aughts as a religious girl caught in an untenable situation. Several of my horror friends said it was too artsy and not menacing enough, but trust me — this kicks the ass of every other possession movie, and I include the original Exorcist in there. Yeah. Bring it. No gore, but plenty of emotional and institutional cruelty.
5. Last Shift (Netflix)
Watch Last Shit for free now: http://bit.ly/WatchLastShit
Rookie police officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy - “The Walking Dead”) has been assigned the last shift at a closing police station and must wait for a hazmat crew to collect biomedical evidence. Ordered not to leave the station under any circumstance, Jessica comes to learn that it’s more than just an outdated station, its home to the ultimate embodiment of evil and his devoted blood thirsty followers. Jessica is left to fend for herself in the Devil’s playground.
Available on BluRay, DVD and On Demand October 6th
A rookie policewoman’s first night on assignment gets stuck overseeing the old police station the night before it’s going to get torn down. But there’s something that’s just not right about the place. Something ancient. Something malign. And writer-director Anthony DiBlasi directs the hell out of this movie. I think there’s a little too much cult material, and I have no idea why the aspect ratio changes a few times, but this movie is damn scary. Some gore, some shaky-cam, some jump scares.
6. In a Glass Cage (Shudder)
This is the trailer for one of my favorite films of all time, In a Glass Cage.
This is the one that I guess you would call the Frat Dare film. It’s deliberate and somewhat reserved, but it’s one of the most polarizing and upsetting films ever made. After a botched suicide attempt, a Nazi war criminal pedophile is confined to an iron lung. His new nurse looks somewhat familiar, though, and things just get more and more unpleasant from there. This is the one you use to break your friend who claims to be unshockable — you know, the one who says that they’ve watched A Serbian Film, Flowers of Flesh and Blood, and Emanuelle in America without batting an eye. If you’re up to the challenge, it’s an intense and unequalled shocker. But if you have doubts, pass this one by this year.
7. The Awakening (Netflix)
A woman who’s made her living debunking spiritualist hoaxes, fortune tellers and hucksters throughout Europe finds herself in a situation that seems inescapably and unsettlingly real. Is it gory? No. This one you could watch with your Mom — it’s a classy ghost story with great performances and one surreal moment of surprise nudity.
8. I Can See You (Shudder)
http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?product_id=1211
One of the most intriguing horror films in recent memory (Fangoria) that heralds a splendid new filmmaker (The New York Times), I Can See You is a relentlessly menacing psychedelic kaleidoscope of sound and vision brimming with enigmatic, hallucinatory dread and uncompromising violence. Also included is Reznick's short film The Viewer, a chilling inward odyssey that uses 3D (glasses included) to burrow into the mind of an accused murderer undergoing telepathic interrogation.
Includes the all-new 3D short film THE VIEWER (3D glasses included).
The weirdest film on this list. A photo shoot in the woods slips out of what we perceive as the real and into new spaces of terror and incomparable madness. This needs to be watched loud. If you have a friend who can’t stay off their phone or keep from talking during the movie, do not even start this one. It casts a very specific spell, and it demands your undivided attention.
9. Sauna (Shudder)
A chilling baroque horror film set in 1595 about two brothers who commit a terrible sin and must live with the consequences.
Imagine a cross between Barry Lyndon and Class Reunion Massacre. No wait, how about Flesh + Blood mixed with The Keep. This is a Finnish film set in the Middle Ages, where a small regiment of soldiers and cartographers tasked with setting the Russian border encounter something unspeakable in a swamp where there should be no swamp. It’s gory, nihilistic, and a visual feast.
10. Baskin (Netflix)
Opening in theaters and VOD March 25th
Starring: Muharrem Bayrak, Gorkem Kasal, & Fatih Dokgöz
A five-man unit of cops on night patrol get more than they bargain for when they arrive at a creepy backwater town in the middle of nowhere after a call comes over the radio for backup. Entering a derelict building, the seasoned tough guys and their rookie junior, who’s still haunted by a traumatic childhood dream, do the one thing you should never do in this kind of movie: they split up. They soon realize they’ve stumbled into a monstrous charnel house and descend into an ever-more nightmarish netherworld where grotesque, mind-wrenching horrors await them at every turn. This is one baskin (that’s “police raid” to you non-Turkish speakers) that isn’t going to end well. But wait! Things aren’t what they seem in this truly disturbing, outrageously gory, and increasingly surreal film whose unpredictable narrative slippages pull the carpet from under your feet and keep you guessing right up to the final moment. A wildly original whatsit that reconfirms Turkey as the breakout national cinema of the moment.
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A Turkish film about cops who disturb an unspeakable rite and get Event Horizoned. Sort of. Is it gory? Yes. Considerably. Though subtitled, it delivers madness, blood and icky sensation in abundance, enough to silence even the most reading-averse of your friends. It also has a lot of sexualized violence and weird religious stuff, and those are red flags for some. But if you’re looking for a film that’s basically saying “I bet you’ve never seen this before,” only in Turkish, this is the one.
