With the changing of the leaves, the cooling of the weather and the overabundance of pumpkin spice options, Spooky Season is in full swing. There’s no better time than now to throw on a good horror flick to get the blood pumping (as if there’s ever a bad time for that) as the fall foliage overtakes the landscape. With films such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Silence of the Lambs and The Shining being obvious staples during the Halloween season, below is a list of five films that are currently streaming on a variety of platforms that are worthy of a watch to get into the full spirit of the season.
Green Room (2015)
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat
Platform: Netflix
Green Room is your typical “wrong place at the wrong time”-type horror flick, which finds a struggling punk band caught in the middle of a bout involving a group of right-wing white supremacists. The violence and tension escalates quickly, making a few of the details hard to follow during the cat and mouse sequence of events. However, the rushed escalation makes the tension in the silence much more satisfying, making viewers question how the beloved anarchists will get out of the predicament they stumbled into. The film relies heavily on tension and classic slasher film gore rather than character development and substance, which makes for a fun and satisfying 95-minute ride.
Hereditary (2018)
Director: Ari Aster
Cast: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro
Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Taking many unexpected twists and turns, Ari Aster beautifully captures dread in its pure form in his directorial debut. Like the title infers, Hereditary is centered around a family that slowly uncovers terrifying secrets about their ancestry after the passing of their matriarch. The performances are superb, with Toni Collette and Alex Wolff creating unnerving tension that’s truly hard to capture between two characters. Hereditary goes much deeper than jump scares to get the point across, focusing on very raw emotions and reactions to grief to really make you feel it. Certain scenes and moments will leave viewers with their jaws ajar trying to process the events, and like with grief, the feelings will be hard to shake even after the credits roll.
Summer of 84 (2018)
Director: Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Cast: Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery
Platform: Shudder
As the title implies, viewers can expect a heavy amount of 80s nostalgia from the notable fashion to the high-soaring synths in the score throughout Summer of 84. When a group of friends suspect their neighbor of being a serial killer, viewers are taken on a journey that feels like Rear Window meets Stranger Things as they try to understand what kind of person their neighbor is. The film has many other Easter eggs that pay homage to the era as well, such as “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama playing while the gang is riding their BMX bikes (a nod to The Karate Kid) and the use of MacReady’s Whiskey (a nod to The Thing) just to name a few. While the film certainly isn’t perfect, it’s a fun experience that pays tribute to the Reagan Decade.
Creep (2014)
Director: Patrick Brice
Cast: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice, Katie Aselton
Platform: Netflix
Consisting of a cast of only three people, the only lens viewers have during Creep is through the eyes of Josef and Aaron (played by Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice, respectively). Desperate for money, Aaron answers an online ad from Josef for $1,000 for a day of filming out in a remote mountain town. Josef makes the project seem straight-forward and sincere in the beginning. What starts as innocent freelance work slowly transcends into something much different as viewers get a better idea of exactly who Josef is. Almost all of the dialogue in the film was improvised, making the interactions truly feel authentic. The natural dialogue combined with the structure of being a found footage film create a very unnerving experience that's hard to look away from.
The Clovehitch Killer (2018)
Director: Duncan Skiles
Cast: Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis
Platform: Hulu
Similar to Creep and Summer of 84, viewers are forced to question if the person seen before them is truly who they seem to be in The Clovehitch Killer. After Tyler (played by Charlie Plummer) discovers disturbing images in his father’s possession, he begins to suspect that the very person he trusts the most is the same person who’s responsible for numerous disturbing acts that has shaken the small community over the past ten years. Religion plays a large role in this small community, which makes the occurrences feel much more shocking within the setting. This film will have viewers holding their breath, fully engaged into events as they unfold and reach their climax, as they get a better understanding of what this picture-perfect family is truly like.