The year 2022 is halfway through, bringing a slew of new horror films to keep our adrenaline pounding. So far this year, the scare factor has not let us down. Netflix not only has a sizeable rotating library of terrifying movies, but they also offer horror originals that you don’t want to miss!
Here’s the list of best Netflix horror movies to stream and scream this 7th month!
1. Incantation
Year: 2020
Director: Kevin Ko
Rating: NC16
Runtime: 111 minutes
Li Ronan is one of three videographers in the Taiwanese horror film Incantation who utilize film to debunk paranormal tales. However, when the party comes across a mystery cult guarding a secret tunnel, their discovery has severe repercussions for those close to Ronan, particularly her daughter, Dodo. What begins as a harmless film effort to document Ronan’s reunion with her daughter, whom she abandoned six years ago, quickly turns into a terrifying paranormal investigation.
Dodo is affected by something horrible. Ronan’s camera captures glimpses of awful incidents, but the film is often so brief that we don’t know what to be afraid of. But we know we’re scared. Even with its uncertain nature, this type of cinematography manages to be compelling. That’s not only because you’ll be straining your eyes to see every horrible detail. The way Ronan structures her videos gives it an engaging experience. We’re watching as she tells us to help save her daughter. “How” is a riddle that will be revealed during the film.
2. The Haunting of Hill House
Year: 2018
Director: Mike Flanagan
Rating: R21
Runtime: 10 episodes
The Haunting of Hill House’s aesthetic works not only as a horror TV but also as a deft adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s classic novel. Monsters, ghosts, and other things that bump in the night are either off-screen, scarcely visible, or covered by shadow. To create uneasiness and inconsistency, the series returns to elements of the initial film adaptation’s decisions, such as camera movement and shot design. But maybe “inconsistency” isn’t the right word. The only thing that feels genuinely contradictory while watching it in your mind: you’re constantly afraid of being duped, but the way its scenes are constructed frequently fools you.
The Haunting of Hill House is superb at establishing disturbing circumstances and even better at letting us marinade in them by embracing the squirm—and the time required to encourage us to squirm rather than jump.
3. Blair Witch
Year: 2016
Director: Adam Wingard
Rating: NC16
Runtime: 89 minutes
Blair Witch disregards the franchise’s first sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), and returns to its found-footage roots. The plot revolves around a group of characters, including James Donahue, Heather Donahue’s brother from The Blair Witch Project (1999). James and his buddies go into the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, to look into Heather’s disappearance, but they run into their own strange problems.
4. The Ritual
Year: 2017
Director: David Bruckner
Rating: M18
Runtime: 94 minutes
The Ritual’s characters are a gang of lifelong friends joined in mourning a comrade recently killed in a terrible liquor store robbery, making it a perfect example of the “bro horror” subgenre. Luke bears the most significant load of guilt because he was the only one in the store at the time, frozen with uncertainty and cowardice as he watched his friend die. The other members clearly blame Luke to varying degrees. One gets the impression that their decision to travel to Sweden for a hiking trip deep into the wilderness is more about determining whether their bond can ever be repaired or whether the recrimination stems from the death is insurmountable.
Technically, The Ritual shines in both visual and sound design. The crisp images and deep focus of cinematographer Andrew Shulkind are a welcome relief from the overly dark, muddy look of so many modern horror films with similar settings (such as Bryan Bertino’s The Monster) and the forested location shots, regardless of where they were shot, are uniformly stunning.
5. Ouija: Origin of Evil
Year: 2016
Director: Mike Flanagan
Rating: PG13
Runtime: 99 minutes
A young widow called Alice Zander works as a spiritual medium from her suburban house, accompanied by her children, 15-year-old Paulina “Lina” and 9-year-old Doris. Roger, Alice’s husband and the children’s father died recently, and the family is still in shock. Alice adds an Ouija board into her readings at Lina’s suggestion. While experimenting with the board, she unintentionally contacts a spirit named Marcus, who begins to possess Doris.
6. JU-ON: Origins
Year: 2020
Director: Sho Miyake
Rating: M18
Runtime: 6 episodes
The goal of the six-episode limited series JU-ON: Origins is to recount the narrative of how Takashi Shimizu’s house in the JU-ON movie franchise earned its reputation as a cursed home. The house is cursed due to a resentment that began when a mother, her kid, and his cat were murdered by her jealous husband. As a result, people are now haunted whenever they view her white-clad visage in the house. The series, however, is not about how the woman in white came to occupy the place but about how her reputation haunts anybody who has been in the house and seen the woman begin.
7. Insidious: Chapter 3
Year: 2015
Director: Leigh Whannell
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 97 minutes
A prologue to the Lambert family’s haunting explains how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly decides to use her ability to contact the dead to help a teenage girl targeted by a dangerous supernatural force. Quinn Brenner, a teenager, seeks psychic Elise Rainier to help her connect with her deceased mother, but she refuses due to childhood incidents. Then, Quinn begins to see ghostly occurrences in her home. Finally, following a terrible attack by a demon, her father returns and asks Elise Rainier to use her skills to contact the other side in the hope of stopping these attacks by this enraged demon with a body.
8. The Medium
Year: 2021
Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun
Rating: M18
Runtime: 130 minutes
The Medium is a masterfully accomplished film that blends occultism, otherworldly possessions, and extreme gore and violence to create a fascinating mix that is more bloodcurdling than jump-scare hair-raising. It chronicles the lives of Nim and her family in a peaceful village in rural Thailand. Nim serves as a shaman for the goddess Ba Yan, making yearly pilgrimages up the mountain where the deity resides and mending the spiritual ills of other communities. But, as we discover, Ba Yan is not entirely benevolent.
9. Annabelle Comes Home
Year: 2019
Director: Gary Dauberman
Rating: PG13
Runtime: 106 minutes
A girl and her friend unintentionally awaken an evil spirit locked in a doll while babysitting Ed and Lorraine Warren’s children. Desperate to protect Annabelle from unleashing more havoc, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren transport the possessed doll to their sealed relics room, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and obtaining a priest’s holy blessing. However, an awful night of terror awaits as Annabelle wakes the evil spirits in the room, all of whom set their eyes on a new target—the Warrens’ ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends.
10. Fear Street
Year: 2021
Director: Leigh Janiak
Rating: R21
Runtime: 1h 47m
Remember how much of the horror world this took over in the Summer of 2021? Based on R.L. Stine’s books, these three films presented the narrative of a curse that had come on a tiny village and unfurled over three movies set in different ages — 1994, 1978, and 1666. Fans debated which was the greatest in 1994, but it’s preferable to appreciate these today as a piece of well-written horror entertainment. Also contributing are two of Stranger Things’ most brilliant stars (Sadie Sink and Maya Hawke).
