USA TODAY International Edition
Netflix offers fodder for fright nights
Don’t look now, but Netflix has become a real house of horrors.❚ The subscription streaming service is best known as a haven for binge watchers, and those who dig the scary stuff have hours of “Stranger Things,” “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” to keep them up at night. Yet Netflix has also, rather surreptitiously, built up an impressive slate of original horror movies.
The most high-profile one so far is the social media sensation “Bird Box,” featuring a blindfolded Sandra Bullock trying to get kids to safety when the world has gone insane, thanks to a mysterious force that turns people suicidal when they see it (whatever it is). According to Nielsen, 26 million subscribers watched the movie within the first week.
And there’s more to come: “The Perfection” (out May 24) stars “Get Out” actress Allison Williams and centers on two cello prodigies with a sinister drive to be the best.
If you’ve seen “Bird Box,” made it out unscathed and might be wondering what to check out next (or at least test your fear-factor limits), here are 10 other Netflix options for every horror taste.
If you like killer husbands: ‘1922’
When his wife (Molly Parker) wants to sell their land, move to the city, open a dress shop and, oh, yeah, get a divorce, a Nebraska rancher (Thomas Jane) murders her and sticks the corpse in a well. It’s based on a Stephen King novella, so you can guess things get very bad for that dude.
If you like crazy cults: ‘Apostle’
In a turn-of-the-20th-century period piece, Dan Stevens is a former Christian missionary who travels to a Welsh island to rescue his sister from a goddess-worshiping cult and its wildeyed leader (Michael Sheen).
If you like devilish teens: ‘The Babysitter’
Cole (Judah Lewis) is enamored with his sitter Bee (Samara Weaving), who stands up to his bullies and is pretty much the coolest girl ever. That is, until Bee and her high school friends turn out to be a secret satanic cult, Cole sees them in action and he has to escape the house.
If you like weirdo little kids: ‘Before I Wake’
Jacob Tremblay completists need to peep this one: The youngster plays a foster child who moves in with a couple who lost their own boy. He’s not a big fan of sleeping, though, because his dreams have a habit of coming alive – totally cool when it’s butterflies but not so much when something nightmarish haunts his new fam.
If you like web creepers: ‘Cam’
While the world of online camgirls already is plenty icky, an ambitious upand-comer (Madeline Brewer) discovers something truly disturbing when a mysterious lookalike hijacks her account and starts hosting increasingly popular (and very bloody) video chats.
If you like survival thrills: ‘Gerald’s Game’
Another King adaptation casts Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood as a couple on a lakefront getaway who engage in a sex game where he handcuffs her to the bed and, unfortunately, falls dead of a heart attack. Stuck, she tries to figure out ways to escape as she’s taunted by visions of her dead love.
If you like home invasions: ‘Hush’
The tired slasher trope gets an interesting tweak here: Deaf writer Maddie (Kate Siegel) lost her hearing as a teen and lives in an isolated house in the woods. A masked psycho kills her neighbor and then stalks her, though finds out Maddie’s a pretty smart and capable woman.
If you like the walking undead: ‘Ravenous’
With shades of George Romero-style social commentary, the French-Canadian film follows a small group of survivors trying to deal with the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in rural Quebec. This smart take on an overdone theme is much more concerned with human feelings than creature decapitations.
If you like ancient deities: ‘The Ritual’
A group of British friends reconnects to honor a dead friend and embarks on a hike in Sweden. Flashbacks to their pal’s death haunt them, as well as strange events that occur on their excursion, and the guys stumble into a situation involving dark creatures and Norse mythology.
If you like possessed girls: ‘Veronica’
The freaktastic Spanish film stars Sandra Escacena as the title teen, who’s playing with a Ouija board with her friends during a solar eclipse. Paranormal stuff starts happening – odd marks on her skin, burns on her mattress – and Veronica has to protect her siblings from the unleashed demonic force.