One of the more vaguely defined subcategories of the genre is survival horror, a term that originated from video games. After all, survival is the central goal of any character unlucky enough to find themselves in a horror movie. Survival horror has more to do with the environment than the main antagonistic threat; it features hostile environments and scarce resources.
It’s not just a lethal killer or creature that protagonists must battle, but environmental risks like dehydration, starvation, or exposure. Sometimes, there’s no extraneous threat at all, and death comes in the form of nature itself. Those who want to survive will have to think on their feet, adapting quickly to stave off unforgiving elements.
This week’s streaming picks highlight survival horror movies that see their characters battling against multiple threats in intense bids to outlive, outlast, and of course, ultimately survive.
Here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Crawl – Prime Video
Crawl functions as a lean, mean thriller, delivering white-knuckle intensity and Alexandre Aja’s trademark brand of brutal suspense. Kaya Scodelario stars as Haley, a young woman who heads into a hurricane to retrieve her father, Dave (Barry Pepper). She barely has enough time to find him injured in the crawlspace underneath his house before the alligators trap them in place, and the hurricane’s rising floodwaters cause time to be of the essence. It’s a survival thriller heavy on intense action sequences, grounded by the affecting bond between a father and daughter.
Frozen – Hoopla, Prime Video, the Roku Channel, Tubi
Adam Green makes the weather the thing to fear most in his survival thriller Frozen. A weekend getaway at a ski resort in New England becomes a harrowing fight for survival for three skiers when they’re trapped on a chairlift high off the ground. Abandoned on a mountain resort now closed for the week, the friends face frostbite, hypothermia, starvation, and a pack of hungry wolves down below. With no help in sight, these characters must take drastic measures to survive. It’s the type of survival horror movie that’ll make you feel the icy chill and rethink breaking the rules.
Out of Darkness – Paramount+
Andrew Cumming’s feature directorial debut executes its high concept with impressive ambition. Not only does it travel back 45,000 years in time to tell the survival thriller, but Cumming and screenwriter Ruth Greenberg developed a fictional language for their characters. The film introduces six early human settlers in the midst of an arduous journey to find new land. They’ve traveled countless miles across desolate tundras, with food scarce and the elements harsh. As they approach a forest, it becomes clear that something is watching, stalking, and preying upon them one by one. Survival odds are harrowing in the Stone Age, long before this disparate group realizes they’re being hunted.
Rituals – Fandor, Prime Video, Tubi
Hal Holbrook stars in this wilderness set slasher. Five doctors set out for their isolated trek nestled deep in the Canadian wild. It’s meant to let off steam from their otherwise stressful lives, but the expedition runs afoul of lousy luck straightaway. Shoes go missing, and accidents occur. As they make their way upriver, the men discover a crazed hunter is stalking them. Borrowing from Deliverance, Rituals forges a distinct path rooted in the slasher movie. While the fivesome begins their trek prepared for the wilderness, lethal booby traps quickly throw all the rules out the window, leaving them vulnerable and on the run.
The Ruins – Pluto TV
A relaxing summer vacation lounging by the resort pool turns into a harrowing fight for survival when a group embarks on a trip to a remote archeological dig in the jungle. They get trapped atop the Mayan temple by the locals and think the harsh elements are the worst of their problems. That’s before they realize the site harbors a very deadly and cunning evil. Instead of a masked maniac picking off unlucky vacationers, it’s one demented killer plant instead. The seemingly sentient vines pick off the group one by one in often gruesome ways. That’s not to downplay the survival elements, though; the blistering sun and a lack of food or water means that death is inevitable the longer they remain.
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