It's Scary Movie Month, so let's check out the best horror movies Netflix Instant has to offer. After you watch all of these, add your seven word reviews to the
Scary Movie Challenge III!
Erich: Funny Games (1998; dir. Michael Haneke) If you'd like to inject a little foreign flavor into Scary Movie Month and don't mind your horror with a side of subtitles, try this unsettling German thriller. Haneke, who wrote and directed the film, doesn't actually show much violence in this story about two clean-cut young men who terrorize a German family on holiday. Instead, the tension builds as the sadistic pair -- who call themselves first Peter and Paul, then Tom and Jerry and Beavis and Butthead -- devise a series of silly games with brutal consequences. Haneke keeps the audience equally off-balance, breaking the fourth wall at key moments in (mostly) effective ways, and reminding us that watching scary movies is as much about feeling pain as being entertained.
JB: Hey! Scads of classic Universal Horror films are available on Netflix Instant Streaming:
Dracula,
Son of Frankenstein,
The Mummy,
The Invisible Man,
The Wolf Man,
The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the 1925 silent
Phantom of the Opera. If you cannot afford the new Blu-ray box released this week, here's your chance. Get crackin'. These films are perfect candidates for the F This Movie
Scary Movie Challenge.
Mike: The Host (2006; dir: Bong Joon-ho) I want to kick off Scary Movie Month with a great monster movie. Directed by Bong Joon-ho (
Memories of Murder,
Mother) ,
The Host is the highest grossing Korean film of all time, and a terrific entry into the giant monster sub-genre.
Patrick: Listen, we're only getting a couple shots at this during Scary Movie Month, so I'm going to take the opportunity to recommend multiple titles. You guys need stuff to watch for the
Scary Movie Challenge III anyway, right?
The Masque of the Red Death (1964; dir. Roger Corman) I love all of Roger Corman's Poe adaptations. They're perfect for this time of year. This one is his best.
The Woman (2011; dir. Lucky McKee) I have been singing the praises of this one since
I reviewed it a year ago. It's certainly not for everyone, but those willing to go along with it will get to see one of the best horror movies of the last 10 years.
Fido (2006; dir. Andrew Currie) Pretty good horror comedy reimagines the zombie movie as an idyllic 1950s episode of
Lassie in which Timmy's best friend is a flesh-eating ghoul. A clever spin on a sub-genre lacking in clever spins.
Great picks, gang. Those Corman Poe adaptations are a treat.
ReplyDeleteIs Let the Right One In a horror movie? If so, that.
ReplyDeleteIt absolutely is, and the best kind of horror (interesting premise, characters you care about, mood/atmosphere up the whazoo, violence/gore that's disturbing but also integral to the story, etc.) that we seldom or rarely get. It's in my list for later this month in the "Scary Movie Challenge."
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