One other month, one other nice excuse to observe some horror motion pictures.
Horror motion pictures are a yearlong pursuit for us right here at Polygon. Certain, we’ve received our record of the perfect horror motion pictures you may watch now, or the perfect horror motion pictures of 2023 ranked by scariness. However every month, we additionally pull collectively a smaller record of 5 picks excellent for that point of yr.
This month, we’ve picked out 5 nice horror motion pictures so that you can watch on Netflix. Some have solid members or individuals working behind the scenes of this month’s most fun new launch, John Wick: Chapter 4. Others are from creatives who’ve newly introduced tasks. A few of them are seasonally acceptable. Others nonetheless simply rule, and are all the time a great watch.
With out additional ado, let’s dig into it.
The Mist
Yr: 2007
Run time: 2h 6m
Director: Frank Darabont
Forged: Thomas Jane, Marcia Homosexual Harden, Laurie Holden
The Mist is among the many greatest semi-recent Stephen King variations and options the most effective endings of any horror film this century to this point. The movie follows a gaggle of individuals trapped in a grocery store when a mysterious and seemingly lethal mist immediately envelops their small city. Leaning closely into the real-life terror of how totally different individuals cope with a disaster, the film lets the grocery store survivors devolve into their very own little Lord of the Flies scenario earlier than revealing that one thing is lurking contained in the mist that’s way more harmful and scary than their petty variations. —Austen Goslin
Pitch Black
Yr: 2000
Run time: 1h 49m
Director: David Twohy
Forged: Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser, Keith David
Pitch Black follows a gaggle of area vacationers when their ship crash-lands on an alien planet. Sadly for them, one in every of their passengers is a infamous prisoner: a particularly harmful alien referred to as Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel). And he isn’t thrilled that he was captured within the first place.
Riddick is among the many strangest franchises we have now, due in no small half to this neat little film that launched the character to the world. Vin Diesel’s half slasher-movie monster, half space-opera antihero has humble beginnings in Pitch Black, the place he’s primarily a Xenomorph disguised as a human. The primary half of the film includes him taking out essentially the most harmful of his captors, however the second is about him surviving on the inhospitable alien planet, as a result of it seems, there are extra harmful issues on this planet than even Riddick. — AG
Resident Evil
Yr: 2002
Run time: 1h 40m
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Forged: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius
The primary Resident Evil film follows Alice, an elite soldier tasked with defending the Hive, a genetic analysis facility. However when the Hive is damaged into and contaminated, and the employees inside turned to zombies, Alice and a gaggle of particular ops commandos have to interrupt in and make things better.
It’s been years because the Resident Evil motion pictures received the reevaluation they deserve and the popularity because the enjoyable and sometimes glorious motion pictures they’re — no matter how carefully they observe the video games they’re named after. However even when the complete sequence is nice, Paul W.S. Anderson’s first Resident Evil film earns an extra-special point out for its slick type and horror-heist combo — although it isn’t the one a type of on this record. —AG
Day Shift
Yr: 2022
Run time: 1h 53m
Director: J.J. Perry
Forged: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Natasha Liu Bordizzo
Day Shift is a pleasant motion/horror/comedy hybrid and a throwback to a bygone period of medium-budget moviemaking. In it, Jamie Foxx performs a vampire hunter on the outs with the vampire hunter union, and he’s on the lookout for an enormous rating… however is paired with a hapless workplace employee (Dave Franco).
The comedy, to be frank, is hit and miss in Day Shift, however the motion beats whip and the film brings some new freaky actions to vampires because of contortionists and ingenious digicam tips. Director J.J. Perry, making his characteristic debut, is a legendary stuntman and struggle choreographer. Amongst his many glorious credit, he did stunts on John Wick and was a supervising stunt coordinator for the sequel. He brings that talent and expertise behind the digicam to create one in every of Netflix’s greatest motion motion pictures thus far. Throw in a enjoyable visitor position from Snoop Dogg, and you’ve got a great, genre-mashing time. And with the brand new John Wick out this weekend, there’s no higher time for a J.J. Perry action-horror mashup than now. —Pete Volk
Military of the Useless
Yr: 2021
Run time: 2h 28m
Director: Zack Snyder
Forged: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera
Yeah, you’re getting two action-horror suggestions from me, however what can I say? I like motion motion pictures.
Two months after the long-awaited launch of his Justice League lower, Snyder’s first post-DC Universe undertaking got here out on Netflix. The style mashup on this one goes deeper than simply “motion/horror” — it’s a zombie flick blended with a on line casino heist film. Anchored by an incredible efficiency from Dave Bautista, Military of the Useless is a enjoyable popcorn film with a sprawling solid (together with John Wick: Chapter 4 co-star Hiroyuki Sanada and Yellowjackets star Ella Purnell), thrilling set items, and a robust father-daughter relationship that offers the film an emotional core. It additionally spawned a by-product, Military of Thieves, which is much less good (and under no circumstances horror) but additionally fairly enjoyable.
Snyder just lately let slip that he’s making a “ridiculous scale” online game RPG based mostly on his upcoming Netflix sci-fi epic Insurgent Moon. But one more reason to observe Military of the Useless this weekend. —PV