What’s up Octobocops, it’s Halloweason. Let’s get spooked. Here are some movies of the horror and horror-adjacent genres that you might watch by yourself or with a party of friends or with the spirit of a long-deceased duke who lives in inhabits your house. This is part five; you know the goddamn drill by now.
A couple of notes for those who are new to the list:
This is being posted on October 2, 2017. For humans of the future who find this, the links may not all be up to date. Some might even expire by November 2017. Click at your own risk.
I try to offer both breadth and depth of options on this list, but it is by no means exhaustive. I’m sorry if a favorite of yours got left off. There’s a chance I just haven’t seen it yet. Feel free to reblog and add some of your favorites, but please make sure a movie is actually currently available on Netflix before jumping my shit about some nonsense I “forgot,” please and thank you.
This list is based upon movies that are available on Netflix in the US. I have no idea what is streaming on Canadian Netflix or British Netflix or Slovenian Netflix. How would I know this. Why would I know this. Please do not expect me to know this. Feel free to be the Canadian/British/Slovenian Benito and make your own list applicable to your own countryhumans.
Horror movies, by their nature, have horrific things in them. Most of these movies are violent; lots of them deal with torture, abuse, and mental illness. If some element of this jumps out to me while I’m writing these up, I’ll mention them, but if you are sensitive to or have issues with certain types of content, you might look an individual movie up on Common Sense Media first to check for content warnings.
While there are always good horror movies to be found on Netflix, if you really like scary movies, you should just get a Shudder subscription (or even just the free trial!). It has an unbeatable, well-curated selection.
All right let’s get to the goddamn movies what say
Classics (this section seems to get smaller every year):
We Are Still Here (Barbara Crampton is in this; her name will be mentioned a few more times on this list because she is apparently a major selling point for some people)
At the Devil’s Door (from the maker of The Pact; not as good, still interesting)
The Void (Lovecraftian cult shit; very cool visuals and practical effects)
Baskin (subtitled; super gory; also, the protags are asshole cops who tell transphobic stories and say homophobic slurs and talk about bestiality at the beginning, so heads up; worth a watch if that doesn’t bother you)
Extraordinary Tales (animated anthology of Edgar Allan Poe stories narrated by famous people; a mixed bag, but cool)
Darling (okay, so: this is a really beautiful and atmospheric film that I, generally speaking, recommend; however, it is kind of “artsy,” there is not a lot of dialogue, it is in black and white, there are some light strobing effects, rape does not occur on screen but is implied to have happened in a character’s past)
Beyond the Gates (I actually did not like this very much, but some people might find it interesting, especially if you like–wait for it–Barbara Crampton)
Turbo Kid (this is not really horror, but if you like horror, especially splatter stuff, you will probably like it; it is good as shit)
Gerald’s Game (new shit from Mike Flanagan and it’s really great. Deals with lots of hard issues like abuse and such so maybe take a look at content issues if you are sensitive to that kind of stuff. Also definitely not for the squeamish, so head’s up. That said, it’s really really good)
80s/90s shit:
Hellraiser (not my style, but maybe you like this stuff, iunno)
“But, Benito!” I hear you cry. “I don’t have Netflix for some reason! What about some other streaming services?” Yeah, all right. Here are some quick hits that are definitely not exhaustive. Just a couple of party jams you might enjoy if you’ve burned through the Netflix list.
What’s on Hulu though
10 Cloverfield Lane
Monster Squad
Fright Night (the original; a must watch if you haven’t seen it)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
From Dusk Til Dawn
An American Werewolf in London
Hatchet
Pumpkinhead (check this one out if you haven’t seen it)
The Blob
I Saw the Devil (amazing)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (either version)
Shaun of the Dead
The Loved Ones
Wolfcop
The Thing
Rigor Mortis
Borgman
The Descent
Bloodsucking Bastards
Willow Creek
Berberian Sound Studio
Plus a bunch of shit that’s also on Netflix
What about Amazon Prime you idiot
The Girl with All the Gifts
Them (not Them!)
The Witch
Hell House LLC
Neon Demon
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Nosferatu
Green Room
Little Shop of Horrors (the Corman one, not the musical)
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
The Bay
Society
The Last Man on Earth
The Last Exorcism
What We Do in the Shadows
Amazon Prime is hard to navigate so that’s all. If I left off a favorite, it’s not because I don’t like it. It’s because it didn’t pop up in the first 20 pages of search results.
Tell me some good Shudder ones
The Innkeepers
A Tale of Two Sisters
The Gorgon
Lake Bodom
Prevenge
All the Phantasms (maybe not Ravager)
Shrew’s Nest
Noroi: The Curse
The House of the Devil
Black Sunday
Let the Right One In
Murder Party (highly recommended, esp for Halloween)
WNUF Halloween Special
Ghostwatch (play this at your party if you want to fucking win Halloween)
This list could be a million more entries long. Shudder rules.
What about Crackle/Vudu/YouTube/etc
Please shut up
As usual, please do me a solid and only circulate the current version of the list, so people aren’t clicking on dead links and thinking I’m an idiot. Again, this list is not and could not be completely exhaustive, and if I left off your favorite movie, I swear I was not targeting you personally. And, again, some of these movies are more interesting than they are good AND horror is a highly subjective experience, so your mileage may vary on some of these.
If you enjoyed this list, perhaps consider checking out some of my other Halloween-related posts:
Also maybe consider checking out my Letterboxd profile, where I rate and review movies of all types (but primarily horror) all year long and from all sorts of sources, in case you’re wondering what’s good on more than just Netflix. Also also, maybe take a look at some of my comics, several of which are appropriate for Halloween times.
If you find yourself suddenly needing a TON of money for an emergency vet bill, it can be very stressful! Luckily, there are some things you can do to help your situation.
I know from personal experience that this is THE WORST! Stay positive if you can, because things can work out. Personally, I applied for Care Credit and did a fundraiser through YouCaring. There are other options out there too!
(also a reminder that we only signal boost and donate to certified non-profits, so we can’t help individuals in those ways, but I hope this post helps out because I know how difficult this can be!)
SIGNAL BOOOOOST
Please don’t ever put off taking your pets to the vet when it’s necessary because you can’t afford it. There are options.
Care Credit is a life saver and is also accepted at many (human) dentists. So it’s well worth it.
Tom and I recently organized our DVD (and blu-ray, but we can all agree to say “DVD” to mean “disc with media on it,” right?) collection, including throwing out all the jewel cases so it takes up less room. This is a post about how we did it and what things to buy if you want to do it, too.
2. Put movies in em: Just go to town. Put the disc(s) in there, slide the paper cover out, fold it in half, and put that in there too. Each sleeve holds two discs, so for movies that have a special features disc, it can stay together. I also found that you can slide two disc-holder pieces into one plastic sleeve, fitting four discs in one sleeve. This helps TV show collections take up less space. Some DVD cases are built different and don’t have a cover you can slide out. You can either cut something off of it to use as a cover or leave it be. The cover isn’t super important, it just looks nice.
Look how much less room the notorious shelf-hog Lord of the Rings trilogy takes up:
3. Get rid of any duplicates. Did you know Tom and I have had two copies of Mr. Show seasons one through three for the entire 12 years we’ve lived together? Get rid of anything you don’t want anymore (still-shrinkwrapped well-meaning present from Christmas 2009? GET OUT OF HERE!).
3a. Laugh at how some of these cases have coupons in them for like, tickets to see a Batman movie in 2005. Can you believe this has been in your house for so long?
4. Throw those jewel cases away, baby. Breathe a sigh of relief. We had about five garbage bags full.
5. Put the newly-sleeved DVDs in boxes. We used these, and they’re nice, but make sure it will fit in whatever cabinet you want to put these in. There are shallower ones if you want to put them in a TV console. You can also use pretty wicker baskets or something if you’re a Pinterest person.
OPTIONAL STEPS if you have the librarian bug:
6. Make labels for each sleeve. I use Avery size 5167 labels (teeny tiny) and ran a mail merge on the list of titles we had (Tom typed it up after we got everything alphabetized).
7. Make alphabet dividers. I couldn’t find any that fit, so I made some myself. I bought this chipboard and cut it (using my industrial paper cutter and huge muscles) into pieces 5.5″ wide and 9″ tall. I used Avery 5162 labels, cut down to squares, to make letters to put on them. All the labels are in Futura and I think? it looks very nice.
This is our movie collection now:
Again, this was like five bags of jewel cases. The TV collection is in another box, but I haven’t made those dividers yet.
Thank you for reading! Let’s get organizized!
I did this a few years back and it was honestly one of the happiest days of my life. Nothing like clearing out a ton of room for new shit to occupy.
