The year is almost over, which means the time to reflect on 2021 Horror is here!
It’s been a busy year for the genre, so this week’s streaming picks are dedicated to great offerings you might have missed over the course of the past eleven 1/2 months.
From high intensity thrillers to spooky chillers and raucous horror-comedies, here’s what you should stream this week – and, as always, *where* you can stream them…
The Boy Behind the Door – Shudder
Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are inseparable best friends. They do everything together, including playing on the same baseball team. They’re attacked and kidnapped while out in a park tossing the ball. Bobby wakes up later, bound and gagged in a car trunk parked at a house in the middle of nowhere. He frees himself and starts to make a run for it until he hears Kevin’s screams. What then transpires is one nail-biting, edge of your seat thriller that’s unafraid to go to some dark places and put its young leads in peril. It’s claustrophobic, intense, and an impressive introduction to filmmakers David Charbonier and Justin Powell.
Coming Home in the Dark – Netflix
A husband (Erik Thomson) and wife (Miriama McDowell), and their two sons, are on a road trip together in scenic New Zealand. However, a family hike changes everything when they encounter a pair of bloodthirsty psychopaths. At first, it seems they’ve run into the vicious drifters, Mandrake (Daniel Gillies) and Tubs (Matthias Luafutu), by pure happenstance. As a night of terror unfolds, it becomes clear that the horror might be tied to the past. James Ashcroft’s feature directorial debut wastes no time at all cutting right to the dark heart of his grim, jaw-dropping morality thriller. It’s bleak, nihilistic, and with a contemplative moral center.
The Deep House – Epix
Urban explorer Ben (James Jagger) is a thrill seeker in perpetual pursuit of the next unique find that will draw big numbers on his social media channels. Ben’s latest goal is to find legendary village ruins submerged deep underwater fifty years ago during a dam’s construction. He drags his girlfriend Tina (Camille Rowe) along, constantly pushing her past her comfort zone and refusing to slow down. When they find what they’re searching for, it results in an eerie nightmare buried at the bottom of a lake. Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s atypical haunted house movie is an otherworldly feat of ambitious filmmaking. It’s more intent to let its horrors wash over you than provide a visceral onslaught, but its imagery sticks with you.
The Trip – Netflix
Spouses Lisa (Noomi Rapace) and Lars (Aksel Hennie) head to a remote family cabin to reconnect, neither aware that the other is plotting murder. Just as their murder plans begin, a more significant threat arrives in the form of escaped convicts. Directed and co-written by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow), it’s marriage counseling in its most violent, splatstick form. Rapace is having a blast as the murderous wife who constantly outsmarts many around her, and she takes as much of a beating as she doles out. In other words, The Trip is a blast.
The Vigil – Hulu
This spooky tale takes place over one frightful evening, with its lead confronting both his guilt and a demonic entity. That lead is Yakov (Dave Davis), a former Orthodox Jew attempting to adjust to the secular world after tragedy sucked away his faith. Yakov accepts a job to act as Shomer, where one guards a recently deceased body against evil spirits until they can be buried. But the body and the home are plagued by an evil entity that wants out. This chamber piece brings the scares and unsettling atmosphere in spades.