With just six weeks to go before Halloween, it’s high time you started integrating tricks and treats into your movie viewing. Your annual favourites are a given, but why not branch out beyond Hocus Pocus and Beetlejuice this year? We’ve assembled a list of 10 new or slightly less-well-known horror movies, including several international picks, that are all available for streaming.
The Eyes of My Mother
Rendered in rich black and white — a stylistic decision that not only looks gorgeous but makes its freaky tale feel even more off-kilter — the 2016 debut film from writer-director Nicolas Pesce (2020’s The Grudge) introduces us to Francesca (Kika Magalhães), who endures her mother’s murder as a child then grows up to create an atmosphere of horror on her family’s isolated farm.
Gaia
There’s no shortage of movies that warn about the dangers of disrespecting Mother Nature, but this eco-horror film about park rangers who get lost deep within a particularly alive forest in South Africa spins a dreadfully compelling mystery all its own. Read Gizmodo’s review here.
Incantation
An absolute smash hit when it was released in Taiwan earlier in 2022, this found-footage chiller (with shades of The Ring) starts with an ill-advised stunt performed for YouTube views — and spirals into a supremely malevolent spiritual disaster.
The Innocents
Norwegian filmmaker Eskil Vogt (co-writer of The Worst Person in the World) wrote and directed this bright and sunny shocker, about a group of kids who meet while drifting around their apartment complex during a particularly boring summer. As it turns out, some of them have superpowers — and some of them also have evil tendencies. Read Gizmodo’s review here.
Let the Right One In
Granted, 2008’s Let the Right One In is neither recent nor in any way under the radar, but Showtime’s new series adaptation is coming soon, so there’s no better time to revisit the original film and remind yourself why it gave you frozen nightmares in the first place.
The Ritual
David Bruckner (The Night House) has the Hellraiser reboot out next month, so why not school yourself on this rising horror talent with his 2017 solo directorial debut? After a robbery gone wrong cuts their friend group from five to four, a group of guys gather for a memorial hike in remote Northern Sweden — only to run afoul of some ancient evils.
Saloum
This Senegal-set feature draws on eerie African folklore for its tale of mercenaries who’ve just scored the greatest prize of their criminal careers but are forced to hide out in a remote village, a place with a very unsettling history, until it’s safe to make their escape. Read Gizmodo’s review here.
Speak No Evil
Newly arrived on Shudder is the most disturbing, distressing, and jaw-droppingly shocking movie you’ll see this year, and possibly any year ever. Read Gizmodo’s review here, and an interview with writer-director Christian Tafdrup here.
The Strange House
For anyone seeking slightly gentler fare, this Austrian import is about a family — the appealing kids are the main characters — who’re forced to relocate to the countryside, only to realise their new house is haunted and it’s up to them to solve the murder mystery lurking within its walls. Note: While the trailer above features a frightful English dub, you can watch it on Netflix in German with English subtitles.
Watcher
After an American woman (It Follows’ Maika Monroe) moves with her Romanian husband to Bucharest, her Lost in Translation-style expat blues morph into something far more alarming when a serial killer starts prowling the city and she becomes convinced her weird neighbour is peeping on her. Read Gizmodo’s review here.
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