When evaluating the Netflix horror library in 2022, it is instantly evident that the selection is a true mixed bag. It gets harder and harder for Netflix to convey any feeling of comprehensiveness as other services, especially genre-specific ones like Shudder, keep growing their horror movie libraries, while its library grows more static and dependent upon Netflix Originals on a monthly basis. Netflix, for instance, has recently released terrific independent films like The Witch, The Descent, and The Babadook in addition to classics like The Shining, Scream, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, and Young Frankenstein. All of those movies are no longer available; in their stead, low-budget direct-to-VOD movies with dubious similarities in their single-word titles, such as Demonic, Desolate.
1. Raw
If you're a proud owner of a dark sense of humour, you might con your friends into seeing Julia Ducournau's Raw by telling them it's a "coming of age movie." Yes, during the course of the movie's running length, Justine (Garance Marillier), a naive new college student, matures; she parties, comes out of her shell, and discovers her true identity as a person approaching adulthood. But the majority of young people who grow up watching movies are unaware that they have lived their entire lives unknowingly fighting a natural, even insatiable urge to eat raw meat. Hey, that's the title of the movie, you think. You are correct! It is! Permit Ducournau to be cheeky.
2. His House
Fear movies that hold back on horror are the worst for draining its energy. Of course, there are many other ways that films might frighten viewers, but the very least a horror film should do is to be frightful rather than silly. His House by Remi Weekes doesn't mess around. The movie starts out tragically, but within ten minutes it easily outdoes itself. In The Grudge, he causes his heroes to trip over spirits by scattering them across the stairs and on the floor.
3. The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House's aesthetic makes it effective as both a skillful adaptation of Shirley Jackson's iconic book and as horror television. The monsters, ghosts, and other phantoms on the wall are either barely visible, off-screen, or hidden by shadow. In order to create unease and inconsistency, the series even goes back to some of the camera movement and shot design choices from the original film version.
4. Midnight Mass
Every islander on Crockett Island in Midnight Mass feels beset by bad luck. The island's local fishing industry was devastated by the recent oil disaster, which nearly wiped off the fish supply. Their houses peel and disintegrate from neglecting the effects of the ocean. Due to lack of opportunities, the vast majority of islanders have left, leaving only a pitiful minority behind. They may only travel to the mainland on two ferries. A significant storm is brewing, and there is little hope left.
5. It Follows
It Follows is plagued by the spirit of Old Detroit. If you've never been, you wouldn't notice the stale, grey nostalgia seeping into every crevice of David Robert Mitchell's terrifying movie, whether it be in a dilapidated ice cream stand on 12 Mile, in the ranch-style homes of the 1960s in Ferndale or Berkley, or in a game of Parcheesi played by pale teenagers with nasally, nothing accents. However, it is present and feels like SE Michigan. The soundtrack, the subdued but oddly sumptuous colour scheme, and the constant anachronism: In terms of style alone, Mitchell is an auteur who seems to have emerged from Metro Detroit's unhealthful womb in full form.