Netflix binge list: Horror movies for quarantine

By EMILY SEFF

Staff Writer

As the semester comes to an end and we’re faced with a quarantined summer, now is as good of a time as any to start ticking movies off of your watch list. If you’re anything like me, that list is full of horror movies: good ones, bad ones, funny ones, anything that can entertain you for roughly two hours. So, here are my horror recommendations on a bunch of platforms to help pass the time.

Netflix has a lot of really great movies, with a lot of horror and sub-genre movies. The Ring (2002) is a recently added must-watch. It’s about a cursed VCR tape that kills you seven days after you watch it. The dreary, blue toned mood of the movie makes it perfect for a rainy-day watch. Next up is the 2010 remake of a horror classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street. While I would recommend the originals as well, this remake conveys the original horror in a new way that is easier to take seriously because there’s no cheesy practical effects to laugh at. The movie follows a group of teenagers who are experiencing terrifying dreams that start to become a reality and their search to find the truth about their cause.

A Netflix original, The Ritual (2018), is a great film about a group of friends who go on a hiking trip after the death of another member of their group. The story is heartbreaking, and the mood throughout the movie is ominous and suspenseful as the group makes their way through the woods and the grieving process, with a crazy and unique ending. As Above So Below (2014) is one of my absolute favorite horror movies that follows a young woman on her journey to complete her late father’s work of uncovering an ancient treasure deep in the Parisian catacombs. The movie draws from Dante’s Inferno in its mythology and is great for its exploration of its characters’ humanity.

My favorite horror movie on Hulu is Cabin in the Woods (2012). It is a crazy spin on the classic cabin slasher movie, complete with all the character tropes you’ve seen before. The ending is so crazy; I have honestly never seen anything like it before, but it’s so wild that you either love it or hate it. Another good one is A Quiet Place (2018). It is centered around a family in a post-apocalyptic world trying to raise their children in silence. This monster movie is very suspenseful and uses its silence to its advantage to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Houses October Built (2014) actually started out as a documentary about haunted houses across the US but turned into a film following a group of friends after something from one of the houses starts following them. It is shot found-footage style but is creepy and unsettling as suspension builds and the characters realize what is happening to them. Oculus (2013) is more of a psychological horror centered around a woman trying to discover the truth about her family’s gruesome history and clear her brother of any criminal wrongdoing. Through flashbacks throughout the movie, you learn more about everything going on in the present day and the horror the family went through many years earlier.

HBO GO has a few great movies as well. It: Chapter 2 (2019) is an amazing follow up to its predecessor. We see the kids of Derry return as adults to once again fight the horrors of their childhood. This movie is filled with great actors that really flow well with each other and fit the story perfectly as flashbacks to their younger selves give more context to the movie. All of the Alien (1979) movies are also on HBO GO, giving you hours of amazing sci-fi/horror entertainment. Jordan Peele’s most recent movie, Us (2019), is a crazy unique story about doppelgängers attacking a family on vacation to Santa Cruz, a place where the mother had a traumatic experience as a child. The horrors of the woman’s childhood turn out to haunt much more than just her family, and the whole film leaves you feeling unsettled.

You can find great horror movies on pretty much any platform including the ones above and others like Amazon Prime and YouTube. There is so much great horror content all over the internet and it’s a great way to stay entertained during quarantine!