Top horror movies on Netflix UK (2019)
Staff Reporter | On 28, Oct 2019
Reading time: 6 minsWe round up the scariest, the silliest and all-round best horror movies available to stream on Netflix UK.
Gerald’s Game
A woman (Carla Gugino) accidentally kills her husband during a kinky game that leaves her handcuffed to the bed. Stephen King’s unfilmable novel is filmed with panache, confidence and gripping intensity by Oculus and The Haunting of Hill House director Mike Flanagan.
Creep
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” says Josef, after leaping out at Aaron in the middle of the woods. It’s the kind of prank that friends often play, an act that comfortably crosses the boundary between silly and sinister. But Aaron and Josef are not friends. In fact, they don’t even know each other. That’s the central conceit behind Creep, a no-budget horror movie that delivers more scares than films with 10 times more money. Essentially a two-hander, it follows Aaron (director Patrick Brice), a videographer who responds to a Craigslist ad to film a guy for a single day. Subtle and smart, Creep repeatedly crosses the boundary between silly and sinister. It means to scare you. And it’s not sorry.
Creep 2
The return of Peachfuzz makes up for a lack of scares with fascinating drama, as Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice cement him as one of the most interesting horror villains in recent memory.
Victoria
REC director Paco Plaza conjures up fresh terror in familiar tropes with this fast, slick ouija horror.
Under the Shadow
One of 2016’s best horror movies, this superb debut for Iranian-born director Babak Anvari about a mother and daughter fighting to cope with the fallout of the Iran-Iraq war is an instant modern classic.
The Cabin in the Woods
Drew Goddard’s witty horror flick is a superbly self-aware comedy that is better the less you know about it.
Don’t Knock Twice
Hot on the heels of indie sci-fi thriller The Machine, director Caradog James returns with horror movie Don’t Knock Twice – and when it comes to crafting high-quality genre flicks on a low budget, he’s definitely two for two. Unafraid to back up scares with sentiment, this indie horror starring Lucy Boynton and Katee Sackhoff is a promising calling card for the up-and-coming British director.
The Wailing
This stunning South Korean horror film sees a policeman and a shaman team up to solve a mysterious sickness spreading through a village. Furiously weird and unsettlingly unpredictable. Read our full review.
The Babysitter
When Cole stays up past his bedtime, he discovers his babysitter is part of a Satanic cult that will stop at nothing to keep him quiet. This light, fun horror-comedy is McG’s best film in over a decade.
Hush
Hot on the heels of Oculus, Mike Flanagan’s home invasion thriller sees a deaf writer in the woods try to protect herself from a masked killer. The fight for survival is gripping, Kate Siegel’s performance as a deaf and mute woman overcoming physical limitations is stirring, and the inventive sound design is hugely effective.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
This animated outing from Aardman takes Wallace and Gromit from the small screen to the big without spilling a single bit of plasticine. Now running their own anti-pest business (anti-pesto), the duo find themselves facing a strange new beast, who is devouring the village’s carrots. With delightfully hammy turns from Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter, not to mention an endless array of genre nods, word play and slapstick, this is that rare thing: a perfect family film.
Extinction
Everything is not what it seems in Netflix’s surprising, thought-provoking sci-fi actioner, starring Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan.
Before I Wake
Mike Flanagan’s wonderfully involving and melancholic horror is a cousin to JA Bayona’s heartbreaking A Monster Calls or Hereditary, which has similar themes of children and parents trying to understand each other’s feelings when dealing with an overwhelming sense of loss.
Annihilation
Natalie Portman leads Alex Garland’s sci-fi horror, which sees a group of scientists and soldiers enter Area X, – a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline and contains a world of mutated landscape and creatures. The result is a study of humanity’s fear of mortality and change, served up with dizzying, shimmering visuals.
Warm Bodies
Zombies meet Romeo & Juliet in this fresh, entertaining and self-aware romantic comedy, starring Nicholas Hoult. The teen film appears to want to eat your brains but really just wants a cuddle – even if it does groan and dribble on your shoulder slightly.
1922
“I believe there’s another man inside every man – a stranger.” Netflix’s latest Stephen King adaptation is a first-rate scary story – claustrophobic, tense and creepy as all hell.
Apostle
The Raid director Gareth Evans combines the ultra-violence of his action thrillers with folk horror in this surprising, slow-burn horror movie about a priest determined to rescue his sister from a mysterious religious cult on a secluded island.
Hold the Dark
Jeremy Saulnier doesn’t hit the heights of Green Room with this psychological drama about a wolf expert venturing into the Alaskan wilderness to find a local boy and the animals that may have killed him, but there’s meat to chew over in this atmospheric, moody tale, with excellent turns from Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgard and Riley Keough.
Cargo
Martin Freeman is magnificent in this moving, low-key zombie drama about a dad trying to keep his daughter safe as they search for a safe haven before it’s too late.
Calibre
This nerve-shredding thriller, about two friends – Vaughn (Jack Lowden) and Marcus (Martin McCann) – on a weekend hunting trip in the Scottish Highlands, is a terrific calling card for writer-director Matt Palmer.
The Invitation
Karyn Kusama nails the slippery descent into something dark and disturbing in this psychological thriller that sees a man accept an invitation to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife.
The Ritual
After the violent death of one of their group, four old college friends – Luke (Rafe Spall), Hutch (Robert James-Collier), Phil (Arsher Ali) and Dom (Sam Troughton) – decide to take a hiking trip deep in the Swedish wilderness in order to bond and reminisce about old times. This low-budget British flick is a fantastic, creepy slice of indie horror.
The Perfection
Despite some dubious twists and turns, this trashy genre flick is enjoyably unpredictable.
The Endless
Moorhead and Benson tap into the creepiness of the everyday in this cult horror slice of stunningly ambitious cinema.
CAM
After a lookalike steals her account, a cam girl with a growing fan base sets out to identify the culprit and reclaim her identity in this thought-provoking, forward-thinking horror.
Related Posts
Trailer: Emma Watson’s The Circle goes straight to Netflix in the UK... May 30, 2017 | Staff Reporter
Gore cancelled as Netflix cuts ties with Kevin Spacey... November 4, 2017 | Staff Reporter
Mindhunter Season 2: Andrew Dominik and Carl Franklin join Fincher at the helm... April 20, 2018 | Staff Reporter
Netflix channels The Healing Powers of Dude for new family series... June 24, 2019 | Staff Reporter
