We all love Netflix Instant, right? Every day the library of films that you can stream through your PC or Xbox is getting bigger and bigger.
What is universally accepted is the shittiness of the Netflix search engine. If you go to their website and search under their instant “horror” section, you’ll find a bunch of garbage…and nothing else. Stuff like A Nightmare on Elm Street isn’t even listed. You have to get lucky and have it pop up under a “recommendations” page. Sometimes, that’s just difficult to navigate.
I’ve decided to try my best to rectify that. Following the jump is a long list of horror films that are currently (as of this writing) available on Netflix Instant. The films range from classics to interesting oddities to genre stuff made by notables etc. Obviously, this is not a complete list. Netflix has thousands of movies and I probably missed some noteworthy genre stuff, but if you know of one that isn’t on the list, that’s what the comments section is for!
A couple things to note: A shitload of Alfred Hitchcock movies are available on Netflix Instant. Not all are horror, obviously, but he was integral in incorporating suspense into the genre and so his non-horror films are required viewing. Also, stuff like Masters of Horror episodes are all available. I recommend looking up stuff in the television section because they have a lot of genre stuff (The Munsters, for example). And keep an eye on the old Universal’s. They’ve been slowly popping up…
And lastly, the 3rd Annual Splatcademy Awards is full of great films that you should watch. Here’s the list of nominees that are currently available on Netflix Instant:
100 Feet (2008) d. Eric Red Antichrist (2009) d. Lars von Trier Cold Prey (2006) d. Roar Uthaug Dead Snow (2009) d. Tommy Wirkola Deadgirl (2008) d. Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel Donkey Punch (2008) d. Oliver Blackburn Harper’s Island: The Complete Series (2009) d. Various Laid to Rest (2009) d. Robert Hall Surveillance (2008) d. Jennifer Lynch
I’ve almost completed my research for the Splatcademy Awards! There are only four other films that I want to absolutely make sure I see before I fill out my nominations. One that was on the list was Eric Red’s 100 Feet starring Jean Grey. Red is a pretty well known genre writer who famously wrote horror favorites The Hitcher and Near Dark, and the disgustingly underrated Blue Steel. He had a suicidal meltdown after causing the deaths of a couple of people in a car crash and disappeared for awhile. 100 Feet is his return to horror and it plays out like a cinematic catharsis of everything that was probably going through his head for the past eight years.
The story is about a woman who has been released on house arrest after the murder of her cop husband. His partner’s not too happy that she is out. The ghost of her dead husband isn’t very happy, either. The hook of the story is that the woman has to wear an ankle bracelet. She can’t move past 100 feet, otherwise the cops will show up and she’ll go directly to jail. So she’s stuck inside her house with the angry ghost of her dead husband. It’s a very cool small scale ghost film and sort of serves as Red’s confessional, in a way. You’d have to see it to understand what I’m getting at.
Anyway, the film is on Netflix Instant right now. Don’t let the stupid cover art dissuade you from checking this out. I’d venture to guess that this would be a good horror flick you could watch with the wife/girlfriend. It’s not too bloody, but does have some brutal scenes in it (one in particular comes to mind), and it has a very pro-feminine angle that comes through. It’s tough not to get behind a battered woman in her struggle against a dick ghost of a husband
Australia is known for a few things. Kangaroos. Koala Bears. A big rock in the middle of nowhere. And Steve Irwin. That’s about it, I think (I kid, I kid…right?). What Australia is definitely not known for is their cinema. You have to really suspend your disbelief to find Australian films that anybody would, in sound mind and body, consider “good”. Even Mad Max sucks. Yeah, I said it.
But what Australia did have for cinema was wild exploitation, or “Ozploitation”. Currently available on Netflix Instant Viewing is a documentary called Not Quite Hollywood: The Untold Story of Ozploitation. It’s a pretty cool doc that focuses on three types of Australian film that was being produced in the 70′s and 80′s: Sex comedy, Horror, and Action. If you know absolutely nothing about Australian cinema then this is a fantastic introductory examination on some of the big names and films from that era. It’s slickly made and features just about every boob and gore shot that Australia had to offer in those days. If the doc has a main flaw it is that it goes too fast through the names and films it wants to tout. It’s a rapid fire doc that doesn’t really stop to expand on much, but again, it’s an introductory crash course in Ozploitation that is essentially a greatest hits of exploitation moments. And for those of you who just can’t keep up with the Australian film figures (and I mean it when I say this documentary just flies through introductions/history/stories, etc….it’s like they were trying to cram as much as possible into it), Quentin Tarantino looms as a large presence throughout the documentary telling you why certain films are awesome and serving as a good anchor (I was going to make a joke about having to have a prominent American talking about Australian cinema, but I’ll just let that one pass )
Then, when you’re done with that fun and fascinating documentary, you can check out one of the horror films that is featured prominently in the film, Patrick. This movie is also available via Netlfix Instant. The story centers around a comatose man who has developed telekinesis in place of his other senses. It’s a fun flick but it is definitely a slow burn. Maybe too slow for its own good. In fact, if you are interested, I would recommend watching this movie first because another negative aspect of the Not Quite Hollywood documentary is that it spoils practically every noteworthy moment of these Aussie films. In particular, they focus on one major moment in Patrick that is pretty much the money shot, so consider yourself warned. There isn’t much violence in the film and its more of a character driven piece. It reminded me a lot of the excellent Canadian film Pin.
Taken together, it’s a neat little double-feature that you can have from the privacy of your own home. And though it isn’t featured in the documentary, another Australian horror flick is on Netflix Instant: Body Melt.
Note: I’ve noticed that Netflix has a really shitty way of showing new movies that pop up on their instant viewing service. So I’ve decided to do a new segment that will spotlight and bring awareness to the horror movies that I find. People love this Netflix service so there’s no reason people shouldn’t know about cool films that are featured on it.
As we were running through some Top 10 lists from various websites on the latest Splattercast, one movie that popped up on a few was Surveillance, the new film by Jennifer Lynch. I just happened to notice that it is available on Netflix Instant and I checked it out last night.
I really liked it. The story centers around a couple of FBI agents that come to a small town to figure out the mystery of a bunch of deaths on a local highway. The movie interweaves stories from three different characters (a little girl, a drug addict, and a local police officer) as they replay the events that led up to some brutal murders. Bill Pullman plays this really out there authority figure. It’s a kooky performance but a memorable one. The movie is very Lynchian (as you’d expect) with weird characters that perform strange actions. The casting adds to the weird surreal quality of the film (Cheri Oteri and French Stewart?!). I was fully engaged in the weird shit this movie was throwing at me and really loved the bizarre freakshow of an ending. It’s like Jennifer Lynch took her daddy’s weirdness and streamlined it into an actual story that you could follow (well, fairly well, anyway). Good stuff all around and if I had seen it before yesterday, it definitely would have made my top 10 list.
