Horror movies on the service. Unlike Jamie Kennedy in Scream, we have answers. But rather than wade through that ever-shifting glut of films pouring in and out of the service every month trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, we’ve got you covered with a list of our own, written and curated by Polygon’s own resident horror aficionados. (And if you’re looking for a list of the best horror movies to watch across multiple streaming platforms, we’ve got you covered there too.) Our latest update added Annihilation.
We’ve slashed our way through the horror offerings on Netflix to find you a heap of movies worth an evening... alone... with the lights off... and surely... no one watching you... through the window... right now...
Imagine a world marked by the absence of humanity. Or, rather, a world where humanity and nature have been entwined in a horrific symbiosis through the intervention of an alien meteor that crashes to Earth. Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 novel, Annihilation follows the story of Lena (Natalie Portman), a cellular biologist whose husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac), has been missing for over a year after being deployed on a top-secret mission.
When Kane mysteriously returns home one evening, now afflicted with a deadly virus, Lena learns he was sent on an expedition into the Shimmer — an anomalous zone that has been gradually growing out of Florida following the aforementioned meteor strike. Desperate for answers and a possible cure to her husband’s ailment, she agrees to embark on a reconnaissance mission into the Shimmer, only to be confronted by wonders and horrors beyond her wildest imagination.
Surreal and unsettling, Annihilation is a beautiful horror movie that explores the nature of grief and the human propensity for destroying our own environment. With a gorgeous ethereal score by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow of Portishead fame, not to mention an astounding cameo performance by frequent Alex Garland collaborator Sonora Mizuki in the film’s final act, Annihilation is a bracing and memorable odyssey into a perilous post human future. —Toussaint Elan
Madeline Brewer stars in Daniel Goldwater’s Cam as Alice, an ambitious cam girl trying desperately to reach the coveted number one spot of the site she streams for. After a particularly intense show, she wakes to find that her account has been taken over by a mysterious Koppel Danger, one who will seemingly go to any and all lengths to achieve what Alice herself could not. As Alice fights to regain control of her show and expose the identity of her impersonator, she’ll have to deal with the consequences of her offline and online identities blurring into one. Cam is a chilling psychological horror that leaves the audience wondering at every turn how, if at all, its heroine will manage to overcome and survive the horrors that assail her life.
His House turns the trials of immigration into a shock-filled ghost story. Gangs of London’s Some Doris and Lovecraft Country’s Sunni Osaka play a Sudanese couple seeking asylum in Britain, where they encounter supportive but not exactly friendly social workers (including House of the Dragon star Matt Smith) who can’t accept that the home they’ve been given is haunted. Caught between the ghosts at home and an inflexible system ready to send them back to a war-torn country, the couple struggle with their past and their highly questionable future.
Enjoyed this article? Stay informed by joining our newsletter!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Subscribe our newsletter to stay updated.
You must be logged in to post a comment.