Nothing gets your heart thumping than a good horror movie. There are the ones which are all-out gory, a few that scare you with heightened suspense and a handful that inject comedy to reach out to a wider audience.
Whatever the sub-genre is, CATCHPLAY+ has all the horror movies you need to watch right now. We recommend you a handful from the different horror sub-categories.
Psychological Horror Thrillers
No one does horror thrillers as well as Jordan Peele, who in a span of two years, gave us a pair of thrilling horror movies that send chills down our spine.
In 2017, Peele delivered Get Out, a ground-breaking horror movie that plays more on us psychologically than visually. A young man accompanies his girlfriend to visit her parents, and during his stay, experiences some strange encounters that leave him reeling, and in grave danger. Peele manages to inject social issues into this horror movie that does not have supernatural beings or a murderer with a chainsaw or knife. What it has is clever storytelling that plays out a horror story in your mind. And for that, Get Out won Peele a Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
You would think that it’s hard to top Get Out, but Peele did exactly that with his sophomore horror movie- Us. Like its predecessor, Us is also a psychological horror that once again, plays on social issues, but with a wildly different angle from Get Out. A family goes on vacation by the beach, only to have their home invaded by a family of doppelgangers, who are hell-bent on killing them. For the better half of the movie, we were mystified by the intentions of the doppelgangers and creeped out by their mannerisms. Sure there is some gore, but it's the mind-bending nightmare that plays in our head that is truly horrific.
Horror Comedies
When the first Happy Death Day came out, it was something new yet something familiar- a blend of Scream and Groundhog Day. College girl Tree wakes up on her birthday all confident of herself, only to be killed that night in a gruesome death. That would have been a really short horror movie, but of course, it didn’t end there. She repeats the day over and over again until she finds out her killer. Mixing plenty of comedy in between, such as Tree killing herself in various ways to restart the day, Happy Death Day was a surprise hit when it came out in 2017.
Naturally, a sequel is a must. This year, Happy Day 2U reunites the cast in yet another Scream meets Groundhog Day type movie, with a dash of Back to the Future. This time, Tree has moved past her birthday but gets stuck on the day after. She meets even more outrageous deaths in order to solve the mystery of how she gets stuck on this day and must stop a killer from killing again before it gets too late. Although it applies the same concept as the first movie, just the sheer comedy of Tree’s multiple deaths this time around is enough to keep us entertained.
Extended reading- If You Like Happy Death Day 2U, You’d Like These Movies Too
Violence and Gore
This genre is perfect for those not really looking for a storyline but is all out for violence and gore. Overlord fits the bill, complete with Nazi zombies.
It’s the eve of D-Day and a paratrooper squad is sent behind enemy lines in a small French village to destroy a German radio tower, thwarting their communication efforts. When the troops reached the village, they realise to their horror that the villagers are test subjects of a horrifying experiment conducted by the Nazis. This discovery results in a spectacular fight between the living and the dead, the good and the evil, with plenty of gore and violence in between.
If zombies are your thing, then Dawn of the Dead is right up your alley. This remake of horror maestro George A. Romero’s 1978 film, Dawn of the Day, is updated to contemporary times. A group of survivors from an unexplained zombie apocalypse take refuge at a shopping mall. But when something threatens the sanctuary, all hell breaks loose, with plenty of blood and gore to go with it. You’ll need a strong stomach for this.
Suspenseful Horror
This has got to be the most silent horror movie ever. We don’t quite see the monster in this movie about monsters, but we don’t have to see the monster to be terrified. John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place is intense, suspenseful and utterly satisfying. We follow a family in the wake of an attack by sightless creatures who hunt by sound. With most of the human population gone, the family, one of the few survivors left, navigates through the world in silence, to avoid being heard by the creatures. If you think a movie without much dialogue is going to be boring, you’ll be in for a treat. There has never been a more gripping and suspenseful horror movie than this. And we can’t wait for the sequel.
Extended reading- A Quiet Place 2- Every Rumour About the Sequel So Far
Classic Horror
It’s not easy to do a horror movie that has suspense, psychological terror, supernatural and religion all rolled into one, but Roman Polanski pulled it off 51 years ago in a movie that still is horrifying today. Rosemary's Baby is considered one of the greatest horror movies made, and with good reason. It tells the story of a young, pregnant woman who moves into a new apartment with her husband. Except that their apartment building is no ordinary block, with even odder neighbours. Soon the pregnant Rosemary starts to experience strange occurrences and becomes increasingly withdrawn, and fearful for her unborn baby. It doesn’t matter if you watched it 50 years ago, or now, Rosemary’s baby is still easily the scariest horror movie around.
