Summer is right around the corner. The most significant indicator of this for horror fans isn’t in the increasingly warmer weather and longer days but in the arrival of new shark horror.
This week brings megalodon terror in The Black Demon, kicking off a summer of aquatic terror that also includes Meg 2: The Trench and The Last Voyage of the Demeter. The latter of which proves that aquatic horror doesn’t solely belong to sharks.
This week’s streaming picks highlight the various terrors that lurk in various bodies of water, from ghosts to Lovecraftian nightmares. Here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Dagon – Plex, Tubi, Vudu
Loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s stories “Dagon” and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” this Stuart Gordon film induces ichthyophobia. While on a boating trip, Paul Marsh (Ezra Godden) and his girlfriend Barbara (Raquel Merono) are shipwrecked by a sudden storm. They go to a nearby fishing village for aid but find the residents unwelcoming and inhuman. These half-fish humans worship a monstrous sea god, Dagon, and intend to use their unwanted guests as sacrifices. It’s eerie, slimy, atmospheric, a little sleazy, and with a whole lot of gory creature work.
The Deep House – MGM+, Paramount+, Prime Video
Urban explorer Ben (James Jagger) drags his girlfriend Tina (Camille Rowe) along on his latest adventure seeking a legendary house preserved at the bottom of a lake. They find it with assistance from a local but also find themselves racing against the clock when trapped inside. Oxygen levels aren’t the only problem; the underwater house is haunted. Inside directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s latest may not get that deep in the narrative. Still, their commitment to going practical makes for one eerie, atmospheric, and exhilarating new twist to the haunted house. It’s spooky and otherworldly.
Deep Rising – Hoopla
Writer/director Stephen Sommers’ late ’90s action-horror movie follows a group of armed hijackers attempting to loot a luxurious cruise liner, only to find that a large, tentacled, man-eating sea creature has already devoured most of the people on board and is still hungry. It’s so much fun. There’s action, humor, and even a lot of surprising gore; the creature has rather grisly eating habits and gruesome table manners. The only downside for this one is that the late ’90s CG hasn’t aged well, and some of the big reveal scenes with the creature don’t hold up. Even still, it’s a complete blast.
Leviathan – Puto TV, Roku, Tubi
Deep-sea miners stumble upon a Soviet shipwreck, and the cargo they bring back to base unleashes a genetic mutation that threatens to destroy them all, one by one. With a hurricane battering the surface, these blue-collar workers are entirely trapped and abandoned by the corporation that employs them. It’s very much an Alien film set underwater, but oh, so much fun. Leviathan stars Peter Weller, Amanda Pays, Richard Crenna, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson, Meg Foster, and Hector Elizondo. Above all, the film offers fantastic creature design and gnarly body horror.
Underwater – Hulu
Underwater doesn’t bother with pretension and dives straight into the horror. There’s not even a first act. The inciting event that knocks out an entire underwater drilling station and leaves its handful of survivors scrambling across the ocean floor happens within the first few minutes. While director William Eubank (2014’s The Signal) does borrow from some obvious influences, it doesn’t make the film any less fun or nerve-fraying. And it indeed doesn’t prepare you for an epic third-act reveal. It’s the perfect popcorn movie, full of splendor and chills.
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