Netflix has leaned heavily on true crime lately, but as always, the streamer has plenty to offer beyond the Menendez brothers and their ilk. Take a detour into fictional horror with this list of 10 outstanding films that are ready to fill your eyeballs with horror.
The Bad Dead Rise
It’s always a risk when a new filmmaker puts their own spin on a beloved franchise, but Lee Cronin’s 2023 takes on Sam Raimi’s. Evil Dead world—not set in a cabin in the woods, but a building that lives in Los Angeles—proved that sometimes the risk is worth taking. Within that new setting, The Bad Dead Rise offers a satisfying combination of what made the original movies so terrifyingly fun (superheroes, Deadites, chainsaws) and new additions, including a memorably painful scene involving a cheese grater.
The watchman
Here’s another story about an apartment building—or, more specifically, a building on top of a hellmouth. This comes as a nasty surprise to the aspiring model who can’t believe how big her new location is until strange signs start to make themselves known; and indeed, the campier elements on this 1977 release actually help amplify the uneasy vibes throughout. Here’s a tip: if your strange new neighbors invite you to a cat birthday party, run.
Incantation
From Taiwan, this 2022 fantasy thriller uses the breaking of the fourth wall to plunge the viewer directly into its terrifying plot, which follows a mother who wants to remove a terrible curse from her young daughter. It’s a storytelling device, sure—but even if you can guess what’s coming, the result is still a fun night.
His House
Wunmi Mosaku (Deadpool and Wolverine)Sope Dirisu (Black Mirror)and Matt Smith (Dragon’s House) does very well in this story of a couple fleeing the horrors of the real world in South Sudan, only to discover that life as refugees in England has its own horrors—especially when it comes to the decaying home they’ve been assigned to live in. .
Under the Shadows
Babak Anvari’s 2016 film uses its dangerous setting—1980s Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War—to bring more terror to the story of a mother and daughter targeted by an evil djinn. That the mother is dealing with great personal frustrations involving her marriage and her medical studies being unceremoniously interrupted creates more supernatural tension and arrow-driven fear.
The Babadook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88DDAYYkvis
It’s another “tormented mother and child fairy tale,” but in Jennifer Kent’s delightful 2014 release, the titular creature appears in a picture book and is inspired by a combination of crippling grief and extreme parenting situations. Read io9’s interview with Kent during the The Babadook10 year test here.
May Satan take you
As it stars Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto (among his upcoming projects: Train to Busan reorganize The Last Train to New York) continues to rise, it’s worth revisiting this 2018 release, first as a solo director. It’s about a group of siblings who come together when their father falls ill with a mysterious illness; you’re a struggling parent, and the kids are just learning How which are problematic when they start digging into family history (surprisingly satanic!).
Children’s Game 2
Fix your sadness Chucky to find travel documents on air TV by rewatching what many fans consider to be their all-time favorite entry in the franchise: Children’s Game 2a direct 1990 sequel to the original film. We get to see what happens next for pint-sized survivor Andy—good news: he finds an older adoptive sister; the bad news: Chucky is still after him—while the film’s universe expands to show us Chucky’s plasticity, the origins of the assembly line, and the corporate geniuses trying to get their business back on track after his murderous rampage.
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Revisiting this 2016 prequel from Mike Flanagan—released before he became a household name in horror with Netflix’s. The Haunting of Hill House—only makes us even more excited for his next Ouija-based project: a reimagining of the The Exorcist. Here, we see what a ghost board causes chaos in 1960s Los Angeles with his young daughters, his racket of manipulation goes sideways when real evil spirits crash the party.
Psycho
You can’t go wrong with a classic, especially when it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece about mother issues, money issues, and why always close the bathroom door when showering. The star, of course, is Anthony Perkins, his son of film producer Oz Perkins (long legs) now he carries on a family tradition of scaring audiences.
Looking for more io9 news? Check out when you can expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe in film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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